June 2020

Listening, learning, supporting • Time off • Tentative • Bluprint • Keeping busy • On my needles

Listening, learning, supporting

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you know that during the month of June I’m running a fundraiser for Campaign Zero. They’re dedicated to ending police violence through policy change based on solid research. Want to know more? Check out their #8CantWait program, or read this thoughtful interview.

The fundraiser is simple: buy a pattern from my Ravelry store and I’ll donate all the proceeds to Campaign Zero. I’ll also match all donations, up to $250. You get the pattern of your choice. They get the funding they need.

Update: Gwen Borter has announced she’s going to DOUBLE match my match! All the more reason to get a pattern now.

Don’t care for my patterns? Support the BIPOC community by buying from these BIPOC crafters instead.

On a more personal note, I’m saddened that a fundraiser like this is necessary. I’m also taking the time to listen and learn about racial injustice. I encourage you to do the same.

Time off

Just after I sent out my May newsletter, the Northern Isles Knitting Cruise was cancelled. This came as no surprise, really.

Shortly after that, I decided to back away from traveling to teach for the rest of 2020. It felt like the right decision to make, from the standpoint of not taking a chance on getting sick and – more to the point – not taking part in an event where many people might get sick.

And then I read this article. This bit resonated with me:

“Social distancing guidelines don’t hold in indoor spaces where you spend a lot of time […]. Social distancing rules are really to protect you with brief exposures or outdoor exposures.”

Am I succumbing to confirmation bias? Am I overreacting? It’s possible, I suppose. Maybe washing hands, sanitizing surfaces, and wearing face masks will be enough to keep people safe in airports, airplanes, hotels, and classrooms. But I don’t relish the idea of wearing a face mask while teaching, so I’m taking time off from teaching in person. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to do so.

Tentative

Bluprint

Keeping busy

• You’ll likely need to refresh your browser to see the smoother searching.
• If you notice any bugs, or even just general weirdness in how the site behaves, please let me know! I can’t fix bugs that I don’t know about.

On my needles

• I always block my swatches. You have to. Otherwise, you don’t really know what fabric you’re getting.
• I don’t weave in ends on my swatches. Life is too short for that.
• Sometimes it takes a lot of swatches to figure out what combination of yarn, needles, and stitch pattern want to play nice together.
• The blue/green yarn is Fleece Artist Saldanha Two, 100% merino, 800m per 100g. I love the subtle color variation – enough to be interesting, but not so much as to distract from the lace patterning.
• The ivory yarn is Juniper Moon Findley, 50% merino and 50% mulberry silk, 730m per 100g. This yarn is a dream; the silk simply makes it glow.