Being Syrian has always been about welcome–about having something delicious to eat when someone arrived, about making room for friends, family, strangers, visitors. Sitto would joke, “If I knew you were coming I’d have baked a cake,” as she was pulling out homemade Syrian bread, tabouli, meat pies, along with midwestern corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, watermelon, cookies. Sitto didn’t speak a lot of Arabic around me and my brother, but “ahlan wa sahlan,” was definitely something we heard growing up. It means “welcome.”
Alpine Frost Cowl: Crochet Along with Me
We have had a looooong winter here in Alaska, and we’re really enjoying it. There is still snow on the ground, even here at sea level, and the skiers and ice skaters are very happy. After a couple of years
New Ripple Page
NOTE: Hi Friends–this is a re-publishing of an old post called “Rippling Along” from 2012 that was experiencing technical difficulties. “Like a blanket to wear around your neck,” we agreed. I’d been chatting with Melissa, who owns Seaside Yarns–the
Turning a #pussyhat on its ear…
The nation’s fiber community appears to have gotten a bee in its collective bonnet. Or, rather, we’ve been grabbed by the urge to make pussyhats for the Women’s March–on Washington and all over the country. So much so, that there’s
Asteroflora Cures Fear of Charts
One of the things I love most about teaching a Craftsy class is the interactions I get to have from crocheters all over the world. Students are engaged and excited, and they pose interesting questions, and share beautiful examples of
Diving Deeper into Mod Waterfall
A few weeks ago, I got to spend an afternoon with Meghan Garrison, a friend here in Juneau who works for the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council. I asked her to model because she seemed like a great fit for
Don’t worry, all your favorite things are good for you.
The health benefits of knitting are in the news again. Back before Christmas, Betsan Corkhill was on To the Best of Our Knowledge talking about the mental health–and pain relieving–benefits of knitting. She worked on a large study of over 3000
Instantly adjustable feet? A new slipper calculator.
No, not feet–but slippers. I’ve been playing with math so you don’t have to. Whenever you change something in knitting and crochet it involves a little math. But I’m excited because I found a WordPress plugin that will do the
Behind the scenes of Swink!
When the Knitty surprise came out last week with my newest pattern, Swink!, I was in the wilds of rural Alaska getting ready to go on a 4-day rafting trip with my daughter Selma. We had a little bit of
Modular Crochet Returns…
Astute commenter “ddkayton” tracked down an old post of mine today from 2006 (!) to let me know that Judith Copeland’s wonderful 1978 book “Modular Crochet” is back in print. When I started designing, I began to accumulate a small collection