Disclaimers first: I loved Les Mis when I saw it in London in 1987. I have owned the soundtrack since then. Yes, I do think Colm Wilkinson is the yardstick by which every Jean Valjean should be measured. I’ve only just started reading the book (I’m up to where Valjean is running to get young Cosette–that would be about 70,000 pages in). I majored in theatre. I love theatre. I love theatre tricks. I love theatricality. I even...

Back a couple of years ago I recorded and posted here podcasts of A Christmas Carol and in the process I surprised myself. This phenomenon–which I have yet to name, feel free to take a stab in the comments–often happens to teachers. You know you like something, you decide to teach it, you suddenly start to discover WHY you liked it and how much more there is to it than you ever noticed before. That’s happened to me with every...

I haven’t knit all of the patterns in my first book. I meant to. I wanted to. I’d planned to. But… well… that’s a lot of patterns. I have knit a few (and am happy to report that I continue to be overwhelmed and hugely proud of the book, it’s essays, and its patterns) but I have to fess up and say that Jane’s Ubiquitous Shawl scared the bejujus out of me. I don’t know why. I designed and knit two...

What’s better than a Knit-a-Long? A Knit-a-Long where you can listen to the book the pattern is based on! That’s right! This Friday on CraftLit and Just the Books we begin Jane Eyre and how will we celebrate? By beginning the Jane’s Ubiquitous Shawl Knit-a-Long—the pattern by Erica Hernandez featured in What Would Madame Defarge Knit? (vol 1). We all know this season is—ahem—filled with craftiness, and so...

Well, I’m not releasing a new podcast—though I’m prepping Jane Eyre RIGHT NOW—so instead I’m releassing a new pattern! My husband recently sent me links to the three videos I’ve loaded below. He said “for the boys” in his email but, seriously, how could I not attack these? I did a quick “knitted flexagon” web search and found that no one had yet made a pattern for this (though you can find...