I learned how to make this shawl so long ago, I don’t recall the when or the where. I made a lot of them. They were easy—and because of this pattern I never had a fear of short-rows. I was doing them without knowing they had a name. Students who had just learned to knit in the wake of the 9/11 attacks helped me knit one for our principal (see below). You can see how lovely the shawl can be with completely random (though related) colors...

Ah, the mythic Hair Clip Cap! The post that time forgot. Sorry, I’d had this scheduled as a draft and didn’t get to it in time.   So! I wrote a pattern for a hair clip hat. Why? Because I wear my hair up in a banana clip and I can’t fit a hat over the clip! What you need to know to knit it— Skills​  decreasing  seed stitch pattern  mid-row cast-on  crochet  picking up stitches (with or without crochet hook)...

Along with the “How to Crochet” page I put up a bit ago—with the best video tutorials I found—I wanted to add Continental and British knitting tutorial videos to the mix. Before I go any further, and because I know folks have opinions about these things, I want to put out there that I knit both British and Continental. My Grandmother taught me British when I was little, and later when I picked the craft back up as an adult I...

Sometimes you just want a scarf that won’t roll—EVER. Or sometimes you need the back of an item to look just like the front. The easiest way to do that is to double knit—and mirror your pattern in reverse. On this sample, you’ll see the red side facing you with white “flea” stitches. The reverse side of the fabric is EXACTLY the same, but white with red “flea” stitches. How do you do that? Double...

I worked on altering a pattern and am very happy with the results. I found the adorable Cora’s Cloche then adjusted to adult size (pattern from Knit Picks). I added a repeat and went up a needle size but used the same yarn. It’s a cotton, which I normally wouldn’t do, but I just might get a chance to wear a cotton cloche in Tucson. However, I did this for the UK trip since we’re heading over in the fall and not the...