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...

So today’s post doesn’t go back to the age of the dinosars, but it does go back to when I was teaching in New York. After our evacuation on  9/11, a few teachers and I taught a bunch of our students to knit and we donated what we made to Women in Need shelter and the Bowery Mission. Many yarn companies and publishers stepped in to support us with donations which meant the world to us (SoHo Publishing, Elizabeth Eakins,  and...

Last year on the Dickens blog hop we offered this over on the What Would Madame Defarge Knit? website. Now it’s here for you! Holiday Freebies for You! A gift from us to you—Christmas Cards from the Good Madame (who is only interested in righting wrongs and vanquishing injustice, after all…which is almost sort of in the spirit of the season…mostly…) Based on the art used in the Crachette Pattern from the Dickens of...

Cinnamon Sticky Rolls Oven or Crock Pot Method. If you’ve seen my gluten free posts before then you know I love (a) Jules Flour and (b) finding a good cinnamon roll recipe. Now I’ve got both. AND a really great blog-hop to boot! Remember last year when I participated in the Dickens of a Christmas Blog Hop? Well, this is similar, but with nifty prizes and great recipes. At the bottom of the intro text to the Sticky Roll recipe...

In honor of Charles Dickens birthday, we wrote a book! Perhaps—as his expression makes clear—he was hoping for a different type of book? Regardless, What Would Madame Defarge Knit? goes into pre-orders today and will soon be in your hands, on your Kindle, your Nook, your iPad, your iPhone… you get the idea. Twenty+ patterns from eleven designers—knit and crochet (because so many of us are multi-crafty)—await your...