essays

Cathartic Ink

putting my own spin on things

One Tiny Gnome Army

Anyone who knows me knows that I have occasional compulsive tendencies. I go off on wild tears and do things like bake ten kinds of cookies for four people for Christmas Eve, collect all available cds from a band I decide I like or get wrapped up in a book so much that I stay read more

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Knit to Fit; Adjusting for a High Instep

I’m super excited to share a new pattern by my friend Kiersten, Rhetoric. I test knit the pattern and while I think we got most of the kinks worked out before its release, there were some moments of great consternation along the way. Because of the nature of the cables and the way that they read more

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Surprise, Surprise, Baby Surprise

In a crowd of knitters, if you mention Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket, you’re likely to be met with one of two reactions. Either they’ll have knit it, probably more than once, or they’re intimidated by the scant instructions and “trust the pattern” nature of the knitting. I hadn’t knit one, although I purchased the read more

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Power Washing

Surprisingly hard work. We’re about halfway done, then it dries for 48 hours and then we put on a new coat of stain/sealant. It needs it.

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The Eventual Sweater; A Long Haul Process

Just before my birthday I got an itch to spin and knit myself a sweater. I looked at patterns, picked several I like and then started researching fiber sources. I wanted it to be fairly soft, but also to have some sheen and to wear well so I turned to one of my favorite fibers read more

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Cribbage; or Finding Joy Under the Stresses

I learned how to play cribbage when I was fairly young. My parents were friends with a couple who had two boys about my age; they would bring the boys over, we’d have dinner and then the grownups would drink beer and play cribbage while the kids watched a movie or played together. The real read more

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An Instant Gratification Project; Knitting Punctuation.

I love a good semicolon; the way it transitions from one sentence into another without a hard, hard pause. When I saw this pattern for a comma, apostrophe or quotation marks I was smitten. As I was showing my husband the nearly finished item, he smiled and told me that I “should knit it a read more

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Spring is for Spinning Part 2

It’s been awhile since part one but I wanted to share the trio of 3ply handspun yarns that I finished on my last spinning kick. I wanted to get these up because I’ll be spinning a lot in July since Tour de Fleece starts in just a few days. I’ve been participating in Tour de read more

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Three.

Three years ago I married my best friend, my unwavering support, my biggest cheerleader. Each day I wake up to find that the impossible has happened and I love him even more today than yesterday, and know there’s no one on this earth that I would rather share my life with. Happy anniversary, my love. read more

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Spring is for Spinning, Part 1

Spring has sprung, bringing with it the ever changing rain-sun-rain-sun-hail-rain again cycle that is one of the things I love most about living in the Willamette Valley. My crafty desires have been following the path of the weather, changing on a whim. I have nine knitting projects in progress right now and as they all read more

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On Growth and Seedlings

It’s been raining fit to drown us all here lately, and my peas and my broccoli raab seem to be drinking it up quite happily. At the same time, I’m seeing some progress with my indoor seedlings. This is not the first time I’ve helped with indoor seedlings (we had a huge garden growing up), read more

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Thoughts On Change and Growth.

Cat grass. the BobCat likes to eat plants, so I planted some just for him, that are safe for him to eat. I’ve been doing a bit of navel gazing. About growing and changing and how that impacts friendships but also how that impacts how I understand myself. Earlier tonight I sent a text message read more

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