Dear Ann, Yesterday I posted an instagram of my current LIP (lopapeysa in progress), as you do. Susan S piped up to request my tips on lopapeysa construction. Specifically, she wanted to know how the sleeves and body get joined up into a unified garment so that the colorwork yoke can be knitted on in the round. Someone else joined in, testifying that she had been deterred from knitting a lopapeysa when she saw some pithy pattern instructions on...

Dear Ann, Recently I got a little package in the mail from dear Annie Modesitt. Being an inventive knitwear architect and globe-trotting teacher, Annie is pretty much always up to something, but even so, this was news: Annie is in the yarn business. This was in the package: a luscious hank of ModeSock, a fingering weight wool blend that includes bamboo.  Like all of the ModeKnit yarns, ModeSock is hand-dyed. The collection will grow as Annie...

Dear Ann, Last night was a dark night of the knitting soul. As I was doing the final (500+-stitch) rounds of Quadrature, I had to consult the pattern again to read the bit about some increases required only in the final rows of the B cables. (The B cables are the ones on the sides; the A cables are the ones on the corners. They are the same. OR SO I THOUGHT.) This was when I discovered, with a kind of handheld-camera, horror-flick terror, that I...

Dear Kay, This will be a five-minute note today. I am going to type as fast as I can. How are we feeling about the Olympics? Why do they feel so polluted? Have you noticed the posture of elite athletes? It is kind of spectacular. I have concluded that pairs skating is one of the most dangerous activities in the world. And all weekend long, every time I looked at Bob Costas’s runny left eye, I immediately got itchy in my own left...

  Dear Ann, Remember this post from Karen at Fringe Association? It sent me around the bend. I wanted that thing. Bad. But not bad enough to crank up my rickety granny square skills. I just wanted the THING. For once in my life, without all that fussing. Then I remembered, I know people who crochet. In fact I know one knitter who crochets a lot, and likes it. One thing led to another, and before long a swap had been arranged and yarn was...

Dear Kay, January’s Get Rid of 50 Things a Day project was basically a success, in the sense that I feel better about 1,500 things not being inside my house anymore. It was not perfect, by any means–I never did go into the basement. I may never go into the basement. And the toy closet was a shattering reckoning I hope never to repeat. But I did discover that I have pretty much a lifetime supply of books I haven’t read. If we...

Dear Ann, I have been sitting here half the evening YouTubing up sad songs suggested in the comments. Whoa. There are a lot of sad songs out there. We may need to put together a Programme of Sad YouTubes and watch them together, while sipping absinthe and keening.  We will call this event, “Tuesday.” I have also activated the Random Drawer and can report that we have our 3 winners, and I have sent them all emails. (Congratulations,...

Dear Ann, Breaking news:  ROSANNE CASH IS A KNITTER. Oh and also:  she has a new record coming out today. (Photo: Gael Towey.) I know that Rosanne is a knitter, because I taught her.  We met a few years ago, at a book signing for her memoir, Composed.  She wanted to learn how to knit, and asked me if I gave lessons.  I said, not really, but I’d be glad to teach you to knit.  It was one of the nicest surprises ever. We met up a...

Dear Ann, All kinds of heck has been busting loose at Casa Kay.  Mostly good, or at least To Be Expected In The Arc of a Fulfilling Life. Right now I have the flu-like symptoms, which is more pleasant to think of as Extra Knitting Time. The final 2013 FO that I have to show is this striped shawl/full-body stole from the book Wear With All.  I’ve been knitting on this since last summer, off and on.  I picked it as my WIP date for our...

Dear Kay, I found this hat in Hubbo’s coat pocket last week. At first I thought, Good grief, what is this abomination in my husband’s pocket? And then I thought, Oh, I made this. I think this hat came into existence during a fairly low period last year when I was knitting hats in quantity. I apparently ran out of Cascade 220 up towards the top, though I can’t imagine how I could run out of Cascade 220 given that there are...