goodbye, 2025

I was pleased to have felt the creative spirit more consistently this year, and I enjoyed returning to this space somewhat regularly to share what I’ve been up to with my future self and others. It’s been healing to look back and catalog the projects I worked on during my writing hiatus, too, and realize that I had only just set down my voice. My hands kept going, albeit at a slower pace than usual. 

A quick glance back through 2025 made me realize just how much of my time was spent hand stitching more than anything else - embroidery, hand quilting, and a LOT of knitting. Those quiet, slow moments have been a nice balance with the more energetic and full aspects of my life in music, horsemanship, and work. I am feeling the pull back to my sewing machine and fabric stash as well, and I expect I will be leaning into the quilting and fabric play with which I started this year. May we continue to seek balance in all things moving ahead into the days to come. 

yarn chicken

It's the waning days of the year, the time warp post Christmas where days run together and vacation vibes are at their greatest. I'm spending a lot of time knitting on my couch playing yarn chicken. 

This was the second sweater I cast on this fall and it has come back to my hands now that the mossy green Rift is done. The body is done up to the sleeves and it's time to get the sleeves made and attached so I can get back to the relaxing stockinette in the round on my circulars instead of fussing with the DPNs. I knew when I bought the yarn that I bought less than I used the last time (and much less than the pattern called for for the size I am making) but it's only 80 yards less and that sweater ended up a bit big on me because I used the wrong needles (4 mm - US 6 instead of US 4 oooops). I continue to hope both that diving head first into this sweater without swatching is going to turn out ok in terms of size and that I will have enough of the dark blue yarn to make it up to the neck using the correct needle size this time. Doing ok so far, and still really enjoying the stripes. 

seed packets and pouches

It is Christmas Eve, and in true procrastination style (or: I had a sweater to finish before the 17th) I am a little late on getting friend gifts put together. I have been saving seeds from my garden all year and am going to share them with folks that I know are fellow green thumbs. They all also happen to be horse people - I wonder if the two are connected. 

I had my box of labels, bags, and bows out already so I took out the winter scrapbook paper deck I keep in there (for the occasional tag) and worked out how to make some seed packets using folding and a few pieces of scotch tape. I was pretty impressed with myself! 

I also decided they should be delivered in pretty fabric pouches. I used an easy drawstring bag tutorial and some larger fabric leftovers. In the future I will have to remember that a 5-inch wide piece of fabric ends up being kind of a pain to sew around the opening on my sewing machine. The purple print was 6-inches wide to start and much nicer to work with than the other three. Still, it was all improvising and scrap play so little snags are to be expected. 

In the end, each pouch held the seed packets just fine which is the most important part. The seeds included Chocolate Cherry Sunflowers, Grandpa Ott Morning Glory, Yellow Giant Sunflowers, and Black Knight Pincushion Flowers. It's great to be able to pass on seeds from my own garden, and I'm looking forward to seeing them thrive elsewhere. 

i didn’t even know i needed this

Check these out. Aren't they so useful? And fun? I didn't even know I needed this in my life. In fact, I can remember the first time I watched the tutorial I used on YouTube (Pin Cut Sew... she's a favorite) I thought it was kind of odd. I stand corrected. It's cool. 

In my quest for more small gifts this year, I reconsidered my opinion. I got a new phone case this year and it came with a rather sturdy plastic stand for holding the phone - it has been so useful for evening video conversations when I want to be doing something else with my hands. This is one step cuter, and I love that it's personalizable with different fabrics. I made both of these with some red mushroom flannel I had in my stash from when Joann's closed (so much of this fabric, more projects to come) because both the recipient and I enjoy some mushroom whimsy and I loved the first one so much I had to make myself one. I'm going to keep it by my sewing machine for watching tutorials as I sew. 

They are partially filled with the same little plastic pellets I use at the bottom of my gnomes and then topped off with fiberfil making them satisfyingly like beanbags. The pattern I followed called these "kindle plops" which is an apt name for their behavior when lofted onto a surface. I like the way my phone behaves in it - haven't tried a kindle yet - so I highly recommend this as a fun gee whiz kind of gift. Perfect for a stocking. 

blue improv

I've been feeling a draw towards making small things rather than quilts which is quite unusual for me. It took me a while to get back to the sewing machine though because I knew that the "next thing" I wanted to make was the Firefly Tote and I was intimidated by the pattern! But now that I've gotten over that mental block and made an amazing first one, more holiday gifting presented the perfect opportunity for more small, quick makes. Enter coasters. While I often have trouble deciding what my sister in law will like, we've had success gifting each other things that we would like to receive. I think fabric coasters are so cute and she is a tea drinker so they are likely to be appreciated. 

This improv and scrap play was really fun. Quite a while ago I organized my scraps and trimmed many down into pre-cut square sizes. That stash was SO satisfying to pull from. Even the batting was from scraps trimmed off of quilts! My sister in law is a fan of blue, and I had some favorite prints still floating around. I used an ikat print for the "back" (these could indeed be reversible) and sort of intuited my way through the front making mistakes into design features. I was originally trying to do just one large half square triangle with two quarter square triangles but ask me about my cutting math.... In the end they turned out looking even better than intended. 

I could have just tied these up with a ribbon, but why not take the opportunity to make another cute small thing. I found a tiny basket tutorial (Fabric Mutt's Pixie Basket) and thought I'd use some wintery prints to give the whole thing some holiday flair. The outer fabric is a heavy canvas and the inner fabric is a flannel, so it's a bit more substantial than as written, and a bit of a pain to sew if I'm honest. That was totally down to the fabric choices though, not the pattern. If I were to make one again I wouldn't use such a heavy outer - it also made it weird to get the lining fabric to fold down inside over the bulky seam, so I just left it as is. It's cute to see it peek over the edge anyway - another happy accident!

To round out the theme of "enjoy a cup of cozy tea" I added a few bags of some of my favorite teas from Trader Joe's - Winter Warmup, Orange Rooibos, and Well Rested. This all got boxed up and wrapped, and shipped off just in time! Phew, I'm really cutting things close this year. 

rift sweater, finished

It is done! I am cutting it oh so close to the shipping deadline for pre-Christmas arrival, but I made it. And I think it turned out really great. I found these funny leather tags in my stash and put one in the neckline - I am sure my dad will get a chuckle out of it. (it's a little bulky, but I told mom that if it's distracting she can just snip it out) 

Pretty much everything about this project looks quite polished. The neckline is simple, the ribbing up the side and under the arms looks complex (but wasn't), and the sea of stockinette on the body blocked out so well. The color is difficult to photograph, but it's a really lovely green. I'd say the shades in the first and last photos are most accurate while the second and third photos are emphasizing the interesting mix of yellow and blues that are also in the yarn. So pretty. Would use again. 

This detail at the shoulder is what drew me to suggest this pattern in the first place (Rift by Jared Flood). It's a neat looking texture that gives the piece some interest while also, I suspect, helping with the fit/drape of the shoulders. I was quite intimidated by the seaming here and around the arms, but I decided to let go of the expectation of exactness and it all turned out ok in the end. 

I have not made many sweaters before (two?) and never one for someone else, so this is a pretty big knitting milestone for me. It was not without its adventures - ripping out the body more than halfway up was especially frustrating - but I will file them away as lessons learned for next time. I have also learned that I love the tubular bind on for a tidy ribbing edge and will try to use it whenever I can. 

According to my Ravelry notes, I cast on September 2, so about 3.5 months from start to finish. That's not quick, but considering I knit quite a lot of it twice I'll call that pretty good! Speed is not the point, after all. Unless you're trying to meet a deadline. Which means I have to go pack this up and get to the post office. I love that I am sending my parents a box of hand knit gifts for the holiday.  

well this is new

Finally finished the pieces to Dad's sweater! It's blocking right now in hopes that it will be dry enough to assemble and ship in the next day or so. 

I can't say that I have ever made something that has required blocking as a mid-project step before. I can totally see why you'd want to do it. These pieces are squirrelly and oddly shaped where they have to join and I can imagine how wonky an arm would turn out if the pieces weren't tamed into shape beforehand. I used the pattern schematic, which was very clear, to get it laid out just right and inserted a few pins in key places plus blocking wires up the sides of the body.

Now we wait. 

 

fungus among us

Well these are painfully cute. I have been watching a bunch of knitting YouTube while working on my own knitting projects and tis the season for video compilations of cute quick gifts for the holidays. 

These little mushrooms are from a free pattern called Christmas Toadstools (my Ravelry page) that was featured on one of these videos. I'm not much of a "tiny thing" knitter, but given that I have been enjoying the gnomes this year, that may be changing. I made my first one to go with mom's Gnolan, and I wondered how I would like it if I tried a thicker yarn. They turned out so cute! I added some keychain findings to the tops with some embroidery thread (which I hope is sturdy enough) and these will be gifts for my nieces. 

mossy sweater progressing

 Today was a relaxing Saturday full of knitting. I woke up with the intention of finishing up the body of my dad's sweater and ended up spending the whole day knitting (with breaks here and there for domestic life).

It did not take me long to finish up the front of the sweater and bind off the neck and shoulders. I texted this photo to my parents joking that I was going to leave it as a vest ;) It actually looks pretty much like a garment! I'm so pleased. The armhole sections were worrisome as I was working through them since they stretch and hang funny off the needles. 

I popped out to my local yarn store around midday to see if I could get some tiny circumference needles for working up the sleeves because I am kind of tired of dealing with dpns right now. Alas, she did not have my size in stock, but she was very helpful and suggested knitting with two circulars and explained it enough that I could come home and give it a shot. I have never knitted anything this way before and I have to say, it's not too bad! It certainly beats magic loop for me and was a nice break from working on dpns (the gnomes....).

Once the circumference got big enough I switched to just using the short 16-inch circulars that I had in my stash. Not having to switch needles in middle of a round saves a lot of time, but interestingly was a little bit harder on my hands in terms of fatigue. 

It's the end of the day now and I have made it just past the elbow on this first sleeve. It will be interesting to see how my hands feel tomorrow in terms of whether or not another few marathon days are possible to get this sweater potentially finished in time to ship mid December. Hmmmmm.... 

holiday mystery gnome start

This will be my only post about this for the duration of the month (so I don't spoil the surprise), but I wanted to share the beginning of my next gnome... an advent mystery knit along! Sara Schira, the designer of these adorable beings, has had mystery gnomes at various times in the past and this is her latest installment of a holiday/winter gnome. It's my first mystery knit along (and perhaps my first knit along?). We know how much yarn we'll need, how many colors, and what "types" of colors (light, dark, etc) to use but other than that, it's a surprise! There will be daily clues this month to take us through the pattern and reveal, ultimately, a "Gnandad" gnome who has been off on worldly travels. 

I chose colors last night and of course by this morning had changed my mind. I swapped in a more muted navy instead of the brighter blue. We'll see if I stick with that or switch back. Depending how the clues work out, maybe I'll use both! This is a bit out of my comfort zone because I'm such a particular planner, but I am going to enjoy trusting the process and releasing some control here. I am positive that the finished gnome is going to be amazing. 

firefly tote prototype

This weekend I had a hankering to sew. And I wanted to sew a very particular thing - a project bag pattern I bought in March while enjoying the Bay Area Yarn Crawl. I had in mind that I would make this for a friend of mine, and if it didn't turn out I would keep it for myself because we share a love of the same colors and these fabrics are awesome together! (spoiler: it turned out great.)

I had such a fun time auditioning different fabric combinations and settled on the set above. The combination of earthy blues and greens will appeal to my friend, I think, and the gray canvas is a very sturdy option for the bag's main panels. 

The pattern is the Firefly Tote by Noodlehead Designs, and I've had it sitting around, as I said, since March. In a recent (habitual) YouTube binge, I found a video tutorial in three parts where the designer steps through the construction for a sew along she put together. This was a great find, because I was feeling intimidated by the pattern instructions which looked much more complex to me than it actually ended up being. I've said it before - I am a very visual learner. The videos really lowered the activation barrier for me to jump right in and get started. In a couple hours on Saturday night, I got all of the pieces cut and interfaced and the outside pieces assembled. Sunday morning I woke up enthusiastic to finish it up and it took just another couple of hours before breakfast. 

        

I think it turned out great. I really love the color combination, and the canvas was pretty bulky in a couple of seams but overall a great base to work with. For the handles instead of cotton webbing or leather as recommended, I used quilt batting and fabric strips. Webbing or leather would elevate the look a bit more, but I did like the option to add the lining print and colors to the outside. I am also very pleased that I had all of the materials in my stash. I think this is a really classy gift to give and all it cost me was time! (that's crafting math for you...) More of these in my future, for sure. 

mossy sweater reclaimed

I wandered off to work on some other projects, but I have also been making steady progress on this sweater for my dad. After having to frog back nearly the whole thing, the body re-knit pretty quickly and I have worked my way up the back yoke and armhole shaping all the way to the neckline. 

I think it's looking pretty weird at this point. I've taken measurements and all looks proportional and okay, but this is definitely a faith in knitting stage right now. Next up is the front, and then I have two sleeves to tackle. Onward!

Gnolan, finished

Well. This guy's a charmer. I have to say I am very pleased with how he turned out! The colors mom and I picked are bright and whimsical, and those little arms just make me smile. The slightly damp post-rain garden atmosphere felt just like home to him. I could see him puttering around deadheading flowers and getting seeds in the ground for the winter season. He's a fan of the pansies. 

And the mushroom!!! I was watching a bunch of seasonal "small things to knit" videos on YouTube last night and I just had to try out this little mushroom. Together they make SUCH a cute pair. I can't even believe how great they look together. Pretty soon it will be time to box him up and send him off to his new home. Until then I'm going to enjoy him in my kitchen. 

 

mom's gnome in progress

I started this guy in the bright days of August but set it aside until this week. I had just about half of the hat started and left it at the fussiest part. After wrangling an octopus of needles and yarn in ever smaller rounds, the hat was done and topped off with that cute little curlicue. 

The body went pretty quickly after that. There's nothing quite like stripes to keep me going! It's like Pringles. Or popcorn. Just one more.... I am so thankful I attended that workshop back in February where Sara went through the particulars of finishing up all the little details. I learn so much visually that having it done and discussed in person has made it all really stick with me. This is a fun picture of me trying to not drop any of the weighted stuffing as I'm closing up the bottom. 

 

He looks kind of funny without a face! I finished that up this evening, too. The arms have also been made and attached, I'm just hoping for better light tomorrow to take some great photos out in the garden. For now I leave you with a colorful bowling pin. 

so sad!

Oof. I got so far with this sweater and then last weekend when I was to the point where I was binding off to shape the back yoke, I realized I'd made a rather significant mistake. My side marker was placed wrong. Like 10 stitches wrong. Because I didn't read the right line of the pattern. O. M. G. This is the problem with a) multitasking, b) patterns that just go along and say "knit to marker" instead of giving a count, and c) not double checking marker placement. Darn. 

I thought for a hot second (or two, or three) about how I could add columns of knitting to one side and remove them from the other and hope blocking was kind to me, but I decided that it would end up bothering me if the fit was even slightly wonky. I also talked it over my friend Madison who is a more experienced sweater knitter than I. While she appreciated that the approach might work in theory, she advised against it. She also shared a story of a time she had to redo a substantial amount of a sweater recently which was a bit of a comfort (misery loves company). So I ripped it back. 14 inches of knitting. So. Sad. I did not rip back the ribbing, that was unnecessary and would have been awful to re-do given my feelings about knitting 1x1 rib. I had just started my fourth skein of yarn and by now I have finished re-knitting the body to the end of one skein with just an evening of effort, so it will come back quickly, but wow. That was painful. Count your stitches, people. And then count them again. 

stripes ahoy

I've been making great progress on both sweaters so far this fall. Right now I've found myself drawn to the stripey fingering weight project. There are so. many. short rows. As I worked I remembered that the first time I knit this pattern I couldn't wait to be done with the short rows. It's similar this time. I felt myself itching to get to the easy in-the-round part not because of the counting, but because of the purls!

At long last I did finally finish them (complaints aside, they really do make for quite a cool hemline) and I got to my first stripe! At this point it's potato chips - when can I get to the next stripe?! It's been going pretty quickly. I must thank my past self for taking such good notes in the pattern with respect to row counts, when stripes started, etc. There has been minimal thinking required this time because of that. 

I should probably return to the sweater that needs to be done by Christmas soon, but just look at those stripes!

 

improvisational squares

I like watching Pin, Cut, Sew on YouTube when she's working on quilt projects, and a recent video was about wonky four patches. It got me feeling like I wanted to play a bit with some color, and I happened to have some pre-cut stacks of scraps to use. 

Since they were already squares I declined the wonky direction and just went with four patches instead. It was a fun (late!) evening of improvisational piecing, serendipitous pairings, and I kind of like what I ended up with. I'm not sure yet what these will end up being, but it was quite fun to take a break from all the knitting. I'm currently considering a wall hanging for outside my sewing room. 

 

two weeks of moss

I have been making great progress on the mossy green sweater. It has been so wonderful knitting with worsted weight yarn that I have found all the nooks and crannies of time to work on it. I am especially enjoying that I have a colleague at work who also knits, so we've been comparing projects. I started my third ball of wool yesterday, and am already nearly done with it today. Fourth ball start by tomorrow, I am sure. 

This is about 10 inches worth of sweater done already, which is pretty great considering I feel like I just started! It's been easy going with just one row of increases so far and otherwise basically stockinette in the round with a few ribbing stitches at the side seams. I snapped this photo below to send to the parents (it's for my dad) joking that I am just about finished with my tube top.... how itchy that would be! 

second sweater start

Am I crazy? I started a second sweater last week. Granted, part of the intention is to get a few projects going past the fiddly cast on/first few rows stage, but still. Do I bite off more than I can chew? There may even be a third sweater coming. Such hubris! 

This will be my second go-round with this particular pattern so I have some great notes in my margins. I am being cavalier and not gauge swatching despite using a different yarn. Part of me feels like it's an awful lot of work to do without checking first, but I also feel like having made this before I have a decent intuition of how the finished garment will behave and it's pretty forgiving. I may be learning some hard lessons about gauge this fall, but I am going to take what the universe gives me and either declare victory or be grateful for the "now I know better" moment(s). 

I have already made my way through the bottom band and much of the front short row shaping. Once that's done, it is on to the back short row shaping. If I didn't like the hem on this so much I would complain more, but here's my little vent. It isn't the short rows themselves, and wraps are fun and magical. It's the PURLING. Nothing makes my hands hurt more than purling. Ok maybe 1x1 rib, but it's up there on my least favorite maneuvers to do with sticks and string. This pattern is a heartbreaker because the band is garter stitch in the round which means loooots of purls to start with. When you're done, ordinarily that would mean flying through a stockinette body knitting in the round. But with short rows, one must turn. And when one must turn, one must purl. I'm enjoying working on this, but it does have a time limit because my hands start to ache. That will change once I get done with this hem shaping though! May it be soon. 

Ah and also the rest of the yarn for my dad's sweater came in the mail today. Just look at this pile! I will not consider how many stitches that represents.... oh boy. Here we go!

mossy green sweater start

Well, here I go on a sweater adventure! Just cast on Tuesday evening and have struggled my way through the first few inches. I quite dislike doing ribbing, especially when it is 1x1 ribbing, but in this case the magic of the tubular cast on looking so amazingly neat down there at the bottom was the consolation prize. It is wizardry, I tell you.

I have found a lovely new YouTube channel to watch with a very creative woman who makes beautiful quilts and things. Her voice, accent, and mannerisms are so relaxing and her aesthetic so charming that I find myself feeling quite cozy and peaceful. Between that and my favorite gardening channel, I have been feeling quite domestic in the little nook on this couch! I got a little over half way through the ribbing that first night and finished the final bit over lunch yesterday having decided that 2.5 inches was close enough instead of the 3 inches it called for. One more row and there would have been mutiny. My hands are a bit angry.

It was a delight to get to the stockinette rows, and I can tell this may go by pretty quickly if I can find the time for it. Worsted weight wool is so quick to work with! I'm a little nervous about gauge since I am using a needle size down. I did do a gauge swatch (well a few rows anyway), but did not block it so I am still guessing, but it seemed to be a good educated guess. I would hate for this to end up hilariously large, and this wool is so springy and tight right now I suspect it may grow in the blocking process. Though, of course as I am knitting in the round now I suspect my gauge is a bit tighter than the flat swatch I did... I may go for it and switch back to the recommended needle size. I don't think this first inch will end up looking weird if I do that, and given the finished measurements cited for the size I chose and the intended ease I may be overthinking this. Glad to have thought that out through my fingers here, good talk! 

I am enjoying the color very much and have already nearly finished one cake of yarn. I have another, but the rest is still on order so I may pause here until I can get the rest of the skeins to see if the dye lots are significantly different. In that case I'll figure out how to mix in this other ball with the rest so I don't end up with a weird color block at the bottom of the garment. I'll be calling the shop today or tomorrow to see if they've arrived. 

summer wall hanging, finished

Last night was a big night - I finished this wall hanging. I really love the colors I managed to pull together for this one and how they work perfectly with the beautiful print I used for the backing. It's a little bit late for summer, I had hoped to have it done by August 1, but it will look great on the wall for the remainder of what may be a steamy September before my pumpkin wall hanging appears in October. 

I had the top completed around the holidays, I sandwiched it up this spring, and it sat around for a while while I decided how I wanted to quilt it. The challenge I have many times is that when I have a lot of negative space I don't know what to do that will look good. This particular time I also paused because of thread color choices. I really did not want to use white thread on the saturated color but I didn't want anything to show on the white. And I was even more reticent to stitch over that amazing appliqué corner! In the end a simple crosshatch seemed like the way to go to just get it done, and I do like the way it works with the geometry of the blocks. I used a light gray on the front and had a bright magenta bobbin wound up near the machine, so I went with that for the back.

  

This was a Natalie design from a Missouri Star Quilt Co "triple play" day tutorial video, my favorites to watch. The theme of the episode was the rail fence block. The whole design has so much movement despite the simplicity and very traditional blocks, and I had a great time playing with the prints and choosing the motifs to feature in the appliqué. That zen pair of scissors just does it for me. I have just a small precious scrap of that print left. I ended up using every last square inch of the floral print for the back as well as the remainder of my ochre trees for the binding. I had just inches to spare! The thing that tickled me in particular about that print is that I have two projects where this unique color was the perfect thing to augment a stack of prints that I had assembled. Who would think? 

I hung it up in its spot this morning and it's going to make me smile every time I walk by! It's gorgeous.