My ears were cold, and my mood was, um, a bit silly.

Who wouldn’t want a hat that makes them look like an Emissary of the Elf People? The pattern is Sloochie (Ravelry link), the yarn is Gloss HW, and the pointy top is awesome. Well, at least in my mind!

The pattern is worked from the pointy tip down to the brim, and there’s also a not-pointy version you can knit (but why?). There are also a couple of cute cable options for the brim – you get to pick your favorite.

I used a sewn bind off for the hat brim, since I wanted it to be as stretchy as possible. Nobody wants a red line around their forehead from a too-tight bind off!

Pattern: Sloochie by …

I have been impatiently waiting for Abby’s book to come out and it is a treasure!!
The life changing lesson I learned from Respect the Spindle is that spindling is even more portable than a small knitting project! I had often heard spindlers say that they, “spindle every day rather than spinning at a wheel once a month”. It seemed to make sense but I had never had anyone explain it as clearly as Abby.
First, Abby has the most credibility of anyone I can imagine. As a child, she grew up in Peru. She explains that little girls in Peru take their spindles EVERYWHERE! It’s part of their social life and source of entertainment and competition. That’s why Abby is so comfortable having a spindle with her all of the time.
I decided to embrace the spindle on our trip to Mexico. Abby points out that …

We are painting and re-carpeting one entire floor of our building. One section each weekend spread over a month. On top of that, we are moving departments around as well. That means that nothing will settle back down until the middle of January. What chaos!

And then there is my “interesting” new office. Down near Marketing and Knit Picks. Lots of energy and enthusiasm! It was meant to be a conference room so I will need to pick out some furniture, etc.

Then I saw this and couldn’t resist snapping a photo!

Little knit creatures that aren’t quite “finished”. …

Actually it arrived on Monday but our office renovation has left me so exhausted at the end of the day that I couldn’t do anything other than read and rest every evening. This morning I not only woke up ready to bond with my new little friend but I was determined to learn how to “Navajo Ply on the Fly”! More about that later.
Let’s start with the comfortable feeling that came back amazingly quickly! Remember that my “crushed” spindle was a Golding Aromatherapy Spindle. I loved it but I decided that I wanted to replace it with a Golding Celtic Sheep spindle. The same size and pretty much the same weight so I shouldn’t have any trouble starting back up with my sock yarn spinning.
Love, love, love Golding Spindles!! And, I am so grateful to Abby Franquemont for my finally truly appreciating the joys of spindling. Look at me!! All …

Ready for Part 2 of the holiday radio play Miss Eiderdown’s Stocking? Here are the links to the files – you can right click and select “Save Link As” in order to download each part.
Part One (in case you missed it)
Part Two (available now!) <

Hi Everyone!
Have you all listened to parts 1 and 2 of Miss Eiderdown’s Stocking holiday story?
When I listened to the story, I was inspired to knit a special Christmas stocking of my own. We released a Miss Eiderdown’s Stocking pattern, knit with Gloss HW, and I designed duplicate stitch charts so you can add a design after you finish your stocking. There are charts for a snowman, a snowflake, and an evergreen tree (with falling snow). Can you tell I was inspired by the snowy Christmas we had in the Pacific Northwest last year? It’s also easy to add your own design. Write your name across the top. Or find a neat Fair Isle or cross stitch chart and duplicate stitch that onto your design. Or add duplicate stitch to any of your existing knitted projects.
Duplicate stitch is an easy was to add colorwork to your knitting without using stranded …

As modern knitters we are blessed with a potentially mind-boggling array of new methods for knitting.
For centuries knitters used Double Pointed Needles (DPNs) for knitting small circumference items like sleeves, sweater necks, mittens, etc. But, with the advent of circular needles, knitting with two circular needles became another method.
When Socks Soar on Circular Needles came out, we had quite the civil war in the building. I, for one, completely converted to knitting with two circulars.
Then, Bev Galeskas wrote The Magic Loop and I embraced that method. I prefer to think of myself as an early adopter rather than fickle.
Since then we (knitters) have seen dozens of new books focusing on using one, or all three methods to knit socks. Here is where the confusion begins.
“How do I convert a pattern that is written for DPNs so that I can knit using the Magic Loop Method.” Or, “I much prefer knitting …