Sharing my favourite spots where I learned about craft, creativity, and making things on my recent trip to London. The post My favourite spots for craft and creativity in London  appeared first on SweetGeorgia Yarns ..read more

We just released Module 2 in Fundamentals to Finishing Knits by Holli Yeoh in the School of SweetGeorgia. After listening to Holli talk about the nitty-gritty nuances of knitting, I decided to use the Little Basic Cardi Fingering Weight knitting pattern as a jumping board to try new things. Even though I knit six to 12 garments per year, I only knit a garment in pieces once per year, if at all. This month, I finished the back of my sweater and blocked it to size. Even though I knit a gauge swatch, this allowed me to double-check the sweater fabric. I knit the selv ..read more

The epic course, Fundamentals to Finishing Knits by Holli Yeoh, available for our School of SweetGeorgia members, includes the Little Basic Cardi knitting pattern in three different yarn weights. The samples are knit in SweetGeorgia Yarn’s Superwash Worsted, BFL Silk DK, and BFL Silk Fine. In 2014, I met Holli and Felicia. I was part of Holli and SweetGeorgia’s sample-knitting volunteer team for Tempest, a beautiful West Coast-inspired knitwear book. Holli gave the sample team a half-day-long Finishing class. After 5 years of knitting obsessively every day, I reme ..read more

Overshot weaving is a fascinating way to create a wide variety of patterns in your handwoven cloth. Historically used for coverlets, today you can find beautiful overshot patterning in a variety of pillow designs, upholstery, scarves, and much more. This “block weave” weave structure utilizes two different weft yarns — one creating the plain (tabby) cloth background, and the second creating a block design pattern floating above the plain cloth. At Felicia Lo’s new weaving course series, Weaving Overshot on 4-Shafts, you will learn the basics of overshot while weaving a small sampler project to ..read more

Sometimes, after knitting for a few hours, my hands begin to hurt. Did I take a break? No. Have I stretched at regular intervals? No. Have I taken care of the body that loves to knit today? I fed it potato chips; does that count? It should, but no. When our bodies hurt after crafting for extended periods, sometimes all we need is to stretch, put our project down for a while (a day or more), or work on something else that uses a different set of muscles. But what happens if you come back to the project and it still hurts? Does that mean that you can’t go back to the craft you love? Not necessar ..read more

Every day, we are making judgement calls about what is truly worth focusing on. Those judgement calls lead to trade-offs between the time and attention we place on work, health, relationships, and our personal pursuits. If you struggle to find the time to make all the things as a multicraftual maker, it is time to stop and ask yourself why am I doing this? Is how and when I craft working for me? Do I make time for crafting? Crafting for Self-Care Most of us aren’t knitting sweaters or weaving scarves for work. We are crafting as self-care. The act of mak ..read more

Have you ever had trouble with a messy long-tail cast-on? One end seems to be getting all kinked up while the other end is separating before your very eyes! What is going on here? Well, every time we make a wrapping motion, we change our yarn. Some projects are fine, but others… well, they just seem to be so difficult! Let’s have a look under the hood to see how and why the twist direction of our yarns can make or break a project. Alphabet Soup; or, Describing Twist Direction Yarn made from shorter fibres (as opposed to filaments) requires twist to hold it together and give it strength. Too li ..read more

Have you ever wished you knew exactly what yarn to get in a rush order or trip to an LYS, that you could predict the finished drape and feel of your project, or (gasp) could skip gauge swatching? I have some tips and tricks on creating a gauge library to help you with all three of the objectives above. (Okay, you might not be able to skip gauge swatching; Tabetha Hedrick, SweetGeorgia Yarn’s mastermind of gauge, is watching me! But having a gauge library will make that step go by just a little quicker!) Why Start a Gauge Library? First off, what is a gauge library? A gauge library is a record ..read more

You’ve got a sweater project on the needles. It has a round yoke and is knit top-down. Isn’t it great that you can try it on as you go… uh-oh… it doesn’t fit. But I did it all properly! I made a gauge swatch! Why is this happening to me? My swatch lied! And into time-out the project goes. Thrown into a bag in the corner, abandoned as another project gone wrong. Setback aside, I’m here to tell you a hard truth. Are you ready for it? Your swatch can’t lie. It is just a piece of fabric, after all. So, how do we make swatches that work for us, instead of against us? What is a swatch? A swatch is ..read more

What happens when a partnership is created from two opposites? What does that partnership look like in different lights? In different seasons? Our July 2024 Secret Stash Club colourway, Haystacks, is about exploring what happens when we combine opposite colours from the colour wheel. A study of mixing golden yellow and purple, two hues that are opposite from each other on the colour wheel, and seeing how they affect each other. What seems like an unlikely pairing can turn out to be a gorgeous, subtle, and nuanced interaction. A hazy golden colourway which gives a feeling of simplicity, home, a ..read more