Author: Magz

The Lizzie Halter Top

Happy October! I think this is the best time of the year. From August and beyond to December, it feels like a dance to the finish line. I’ve been busy, working to get my sewjo and knitjo back this year. One way I did that this spring and summer was to use new materials and techniques. This top I dubbed the Lizzie Halter Top, for my love of Lizzie McGuire, was an exploration of past muses.

The 2000s nostalgia is calling to me, as I have mentioned before, but there has been a pull for authenticity in these throwbacks. It’s becoming more than a trend for me, instead a way to explore style muses of the past, that felt like they passed me by as a kid, that with fiber arts. Making takes us out of that loop, if you like the thing, you can make it and then wear it. No fomo. No trends to chase. You’re free. This top is one of those throwback pieces for me.

I knit the front panel using 3.5 mm (US 4) needles using two new materials for me. And the best part? They were both purchased at local to me yarn stores. I had never used Knitting for Olive before, although the brand is quite popular. I hope they stay this way moving forward because I loved working with their Pure Silk. This Pure Silk is in the color Blood Orange. I used one skein for this top, which equals 273 yards of fingering weight yarn for 12 USD, which I think is fantastic value for silk yarn. To pad out this top, I used leftover Uneek Sock Yarn from Urth Yarn, another fingering weight yarn that is a mix of super wash merino and nylon.

Although, I was excited to work with such a bright color, I don’t wear a lot of orange though, so as I sat with this yarn, I began to worry that I made too bold of a choice. But there is something about the self-striping Uneek in the contrasting cool tones that balanced all my concerns. When I pair this piece with a cool tone tank underneath, this effect grows stronger.

My second concern, although wool is recommended for its breath-ablity, was the wool in this project. Was it insane to include wool in a summer top? To counteract any breath-ability issues in the finished fabric, I chose to crochet the back panel and chain the halter straps. I was very comfortable this summer, even on hot days, wearing this piece. With wool! It’s wild to me but it works. The silk does the heavy lifting though. I like working with cotton, but silk may be my new favorite warm weather fiber.

Lessons from Tailoring: The Shoulder

Over the summer, I went through my cool weather clothes and pulled pieces that I didn’t like to alter into garments I would wear more often. Two of these garments I chose to upcycle were a pair of men’s henley raglan long sleeve shirts from Bass Pro Shops. These were from a Black Friday sale last fall, to bring more henley style shirts and raglan baseball tees into my closet. They are great shirts. Soft and sturdy fabric, comfortable, but not the right fit for my body or style. Since this shirt was designed for masculine style, it was not as cute on as I hoped. The button placket is set higher on the chest, near the collar bone, instead of lower near the chest in feminine styles. The second issue was the shoulder, it had room for even broader shoulders than I have, accentuating my shoulders in all the wrong ways. Now, I could have re-homed these pieces but I’d like to keep the baseball tee shirts and enjoy wearing them. I bought them with the intention of keeping the a long time.

The neckline had to be fixed. That high collar was the biggest obstacle to styling the shirt for me, but how does one change a neckline from a from a crew neck button placket to a v-neck or scoop? I first removed the ribbed collar, and focused my efforts on the shape my open neckline would create. From previous alterations and pattern cutting, I knew that v-neck and scoop necklines can get you quick. The open shape can quickly shift from good to gaping, to sliding constantly off the shoulders. Once it is cut, you can’t go back – so you better have a plan.

I did have a plan this time. I would continue my cut in a key shape. I followed the line of the button placket, in a narrow scoop down until the end of the buttons. With those pieces removed it was time to taper and shape the final cuts. I matched each side for a tapered scoop, paying attention to the depth and at the bottom of the curve. Too low, and this shirt would be too revealing for casual wear. Too wide as we work our way up to the shoulder, and would slip off. I kept my line narrow, remembering to account for the rolled hem, that would eat up some width. I tried this on and was pleased with the scoop so I moved this project forward to hemming.

This is where my upcycling hit a snag. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to fitting garments, and my green tailoring skills showed when it came to finish the neckline. The neckline had excess at the bottom of the scoop, more gaping than I wanted, which left me with a fork in the road. Do I gather it? Do I add darts? Do I cut more? I decided to gather it at the bottom and live with it for a bit. I put it back in my closet and let it be until the cool weather returned.

Fast forward to this past weekend, and the first cool days of September. I wore the golden tan version with the gathered scoop, and it was not it. The shirt was close but no cigar, and I found myself tugging and adjusting this odd neckline. What I noticed as the day went on, is that the shoulder was fitting strange too. There was a bunching of fabric at the top of the neckline and back, not what I was looking for. Finally, last night I stood before my mirror and started adjusting. I tried the shirt on backwards, normal and off the shoulder. I folded the bottom hem to see if I needed to crop it. I thought about changing the neckline. Would a binding the neck opening in a collar solve the bunching? I took out the gathers and tried it on again, how do I make this sit flat?

The shoulders. I needed to take in the shoulders. I tried raising the neckline in the mirror by gathering some excess in the scoop, but then I pinched some fabric with my fingers at the shoulder and huzzah! We found our solution. (I also removed the cuffs to shorten the sleeve for a better fit for my arm length.)

My purpose in buying these shirts, was to bring a style back into my wardrobe that I used to own in college. My Gas Monkey Garage spark plug baseball tee and a v-neck baseball tee from Victoria’s Secret. I wore those pieces to death in the early 2010’s. By pinching away the excess at the shoulder line, the scoop rested flat and there was no bunching at the arm’s eye. It continues to amaze me how the most random parts of a garment change the entire fit.

Who knew a loose shoulder can make the neckline wonky? This novice tailor sure didn’t. I hope this little story of tailoring can help you if your stuck fitting a shirt. Or maybe this will inspire to take the plunge on a alteration in your closet.

After Thought Heel Socks

A special thanks to the pattern writing of Weichien Chan from Saskie & Co and Jamie Lomax from Pacific Knit Co, for explaining this process with such clarity, that I leveled up from a sock knitting dreamer to a sock knitter. Check out their patterns! I’m glad I did. 😃

The Sock Saga

How? And, why? Those were the questions burning at the back of mind as the sock process eluded me, again and again. For years, I couldn’t wrap my mind around the heel of the sock patterns I acquired. I tried a toe up approach. I tried to mess around with short rows. I even bought a sock pattern book from a used book store, for a bit of sock heritage. Heel flap, confused me. The mechanics of double pointed needles, challenged my hand eye coordination. Magic Loop tested my patience and exposed my tight tension, from my cluttered mind. But the Addi Sockenwunder 9″ cable in 3.5mm became the key to unlock knitting mechanics I was lacking.

If you’re familiar with this blog, you know my frustrations with knitting in the round. This came to a head in February, during the Melt the ICE hat knit along. I seriously messed up my tension, and initial attempt by twisting my work. My joined stitches became a helix, coiling around the cable. I frogged my work, and started again, this time waiting a few rows before joining. (I found this wisdom thanks to the advice of Reddit, I think? To the past comment thread that helped me, know that I am eternally grateful.) This time around, I was determined to keep my hands loose and my mind relaxed, and it worked. I did not feel the hand fatigue, I normally experience when knitting in the round. The short cable length of the Sockenwunder needles was the key, the stitches slid easily around in the exact space of a sock circumference. This is why Magic Loop and I, did not form a lasting relationship, the shifting of stitches was a hurdle I disliked. Same with DPNs, I don’t want to keep track of stitches on needles, I want to be in a flow state of stitching. That is the best part of knitting in the round, in my opinion, you just go and knit. It is incredibly relaxing, like crocheting a simple stitch across a project, you and the stitching implement become one with the yarn, looping and creating a fabric with a relaxed mind.

For this reason, the Sockenwunder socks came together quickly, despite the new techniques I was employing in this project. My first sock, I began at the end of the day on a Thursday, knit the body of the sock on Friday, and finished the toe and heel on Saturday. My second sock was began on Sunday, knit Monday, and wrapped up on Tuesday. Quick and easy, compared to a sweater! It’s what I want out of this knitting practice, something quick and relaxing, that is a pleasure to replicate over and over again. In the short term for my own feet for this coming winter, and in the long term for loved ones and beyond, hopefully charity knitting socks and possibly selling them at a market or online marketplace.

Sock Pattern

My sock pattern was loosely based on the patterns featured in the Arctic Knits book, which I will not go into detail for copyright reasons, but one thing I will talk about is my sizing mistake. I cast on an extra ten stitches from the Saskie & Co pattern, because of my usual tight tension knitting in the round. They fit a bit loose, and that’s okay. These first socks are a toile, for future socks, as I develop my preferences for socks. They are still usable, with a relaxed cabin socks fit for lounging around the house. I may layer other cotton socks underneath on cold days to pad the fit.

Another deviation from the sock patterns in the Arctic Knits book, was my choice to knit stripes, with scrap yarn from my Saskie Cardigan (another Saskie & Co project I will share soon). I didn’t know if these socks would turn out or be another failed attempt, so I used up my extras, in random stripes. This freed up my mind to concentrate on the mechanics of knitting the sock, and not the knitting charts. In the future, I plan to make the socks as written by Weichien Chan, they are stunning color work socks.

I used a combination of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, Knit Picks Stroll, and Kelbourne Woolens Germantown.

Now, what about that random raised row of brown yarn? That is the magic of the after thought sock! You make temporary arrangements for your heel and pick it up again after the sock body and toe are complete. This is where Pacific Knit Co’s tutorial had my back. Sometimes I need things rephrased, and many detailed pictures to make a new skill click. I’m a visual learner. Sometimes those patterns, although well written jumble in my mind. By using the combination of both pattern designers I successfully picked up the stitches above and below. I did this with a second set of circulars from Clover that were a bit longer, 16″ but the same gauge of 3.5 mm. The length difference was helpful during the knitting process, as the long needles hung down out of the way of my hands knitting on the Sockenwunder, and alleviated the stress of stitches falling off when unattended to.

Both Weichien and Jamie helped finally see the how and why of the heel shaping. With the heel flap techniques, I lost sight of the point. With the patterns that had me turn the heel while knitting the body, the complexity of this, overwhelmed me. But the after thought heel, eliminated both of these hiccups. I could see the sock body and the heel taking shape, it was intuitive. If you have experienced overwhelm by socks, I high recommend mixing up your tools and techniques. That is why we have so many to choose from, you must experiment to find the right fit like selecting a bowling ball.

Experimentation and repetition are my biggest takeaways from this multi-year sock saga. It’s not the finished project, as much as the process that defines the success. Knitting requires a patience and tenacity to frog and cast on again that has been hard for me, as a perfectionist with squirrel brain to stay the course with. Mistakes anger me. Frogging feels like a waste of time, but its not. Committing the skills to memory by practice is no different to volleyball practice drills or math homework. To be a skilled maker, you must put the time in, no short cuts. In this age of information and short cuts, it’s counter-cultural to slow down and fixate one skill until it is acquired, but it is the only way as humans we learn.

AI Overviews and Renaming the Things

I feel like my brain is getting stuck in a quagmire of stupidity in 2026, like wet concrete under the feet of my thoughts when I am writing a blog post or crafting a conversation. It’s not because of using AI that is melting my brain, instead I feel like my brain is constantly having to jump through hoops to navigate the day’s new nonsense. I’ll explain.

Okay, so you’re having a quick search, ideally Duck Duck Go but habits die hard, so I Google only to be bombarded by AI overviews. Now comes the first hoop to jump through, remember to scroll down and ignore the overview to find a reliable source, scroll, scroll…then find a source to reference. Remember how a few years ago you could get Google search results, indexed and organized? Remember how simple that was? The mental effort required to find what you were looking for was streamlined, and now it is not, unless you want the “AI overview” which is nothing more than Google ripping information from the sources and digesting it for you, no matter how inaccurate they are. Creating more chaos, and more barriers to understanding. To be honest, maybe we were idiotic to leave the physical sources in the first place. Microfilm and archives are time consuming, but at least they are organized and unchanging.

For an example of how flawed this new overview format is, I present Dejeon Love. I recommend you look it up, because it is complex. For a reliable overview, I’d recommend Ashley Viola’s commentary on this. In short, Dejeon Love is a scammer, who was able to pad his online persona with so many videos claiming he was a San Francisco player, that it tricked the Google AI Overview. Why does this matter? When his victims searched for him, AI Overview confirmed the lie, and therefore it gave him credit. How disgusting is that? I personally think Google should be held accountable for assisting Love scam 1.3 million USD from 26 women, but of course they won’t be, because this is “the future”.

The other nonsense that is melting our brains day after day is the renaming game being facilitated by Google Maps, an 80 year toddler with a pen, and weak sauce government officials. First we had the Gulf of America in 2025, now we have the Lake of America, and now the state of New America, which I am sure Google Maps will bend over for that one. Aa long as the Kleptocracy of 2026 continues to line Google’s pockets, they will be whoring themselves out for it. I mean the scam worked for Elon, Meta, just give in for the money right? Who cares if it dilutes and corrupts your product, with legal and safety consequences. That seems to be of no concern, because they’ll just tell the machine to propagandize its safety. Case in point, the new Meta ads claiming its safety, while Meta in court over a lawsuit of the contrary.

My mind is so tired of critical thinking this much, over analyzing, factchecking things that used to be reliable, just to communicate the most basic things in 2026, because we have given into nonsense and the dissolution of standards. What are we doing to ourselves?! How will future generations view this time period? The regurgiation  of everything era? The Golden Age of AI Slop? Honestly, I hope the state of New Mexico, which is the only governing body that can name itself, uses this as an opportunity to rename itself Nuevo Mexico, and educate our nation of its longer history in North America. The capital city of Santa Fe was founded in 1610, that is 166 years before America was created by the Declaration of Independence.

There are so many things, lofty things, we could be doing instead of debating the names of things that can’t be changed. Or how about how all the things we are having to debate because one person is doing things that he can’t do, with powers he doesn’t have? Or how about the time wasted everyday getting around the AI tools that have been integrated into our lives, slowing things down and stealing our resources? It is a quagmire, draining our focus and mental energy to avoid these idiotic improvements. I mean, after the Lake Ontario incident, how many of downloaded Map Quest? It’s not easy to use! I’m tired of this. Must we leave technology behind to escape this farce of progress? I hope not, for all the resources extracted to create this system that was helpful, that has been made more difficult to use, over and over again.

I’m just a girl, who hates change, especially when it is useless change. Do you agree?

Why Not Fall Cleaning?

It’s that time of the year when I come alive the most, and that means I prepare like its a new year, before the frozen embrace of winter sets us in place. I feel a flurry of energy to take stock of my yarn and fabric, go through my wardrobe to declutter, up cycle, and repair. I organize, I dream, I plan home improvement projects for those slow, hunker down days. I don’t feel this way at all in the Spring, I feel worn down by the winter icy, and dry air. I feel the weight of the garden, on my shoulders, and the desire to be outside again and sketch on the porch. The last thing I want to do is re-organize my house and clean. So is it the cadence of the four seasons that brings this rhythm of preparation to fall? Is is our fixation on the academic calendar? I’m not sure. It has been a time tested fixture of human culture. Forever, we have been preparing for winter, harvesting, hunting, and making.

So why, is it called Spring Cleaning? Surely Fall Cleaning would make more sense. I found that it is an ancient and modern phenomenon. The earliest mentions of a “spring cleaning tradition” are found in two west Asian cultures – Persian and ancient Israel. Iranian culture celebrates Persian New Year, Nowruz, on the first day of Spring. To recognize the new year, Iranians prepare by “shaking the house” a thorough clean, or “redd up” as my Western Pennsylvania culture would say. This makes a ton of sense to me. Honestly, I wish our modern New Year wasn’t in January, for my climate dictates the New Year kicks off during the coldest month! Not a time to do anything really other than waiting for the snow storms and negative Fahrenheit temps to pass. It makes for quite a boring holiday. The latter should have been obvious to me, growing up in the church, but I did not connect the two that Passover preparation could be the origin. During Passover, all things made with leavening or fermentation were removed to remember the Israelite flight from Egypt.

For a more modern origin, coal based heating systems would prompt a cleaning ritual in North America, to open up the windows and clear the soot. Honestly, quite a lame origin story, but important. I think a house down the road is burning coal in an burner, and I absolutely despise the stench of it. The smoke is thick and dark, permeating the air in the cold pockets of January’s bitter wind.

My fall cleaning, I’d say has a lot more in common with Nowruz than Passover or cleaning away soot. I love the description of shaking the house, it reminds me of how my Papa would describe my Grandma’s penchant for order, “She’s mean on clean.” As a child, I had no appreciation of her passion for cleaning, now as adult with my own spaces to keep tidy, a good straight up of the house brings me joy. I’ve been tackling the ever-present chaos of my craft room. It began with a sort through of my inventory, organizing it all into banker boxes and a new drawer set from Amazon to keep the fabric folded and yarn skeins arranged by fiber and weight. I can actually find what I need, when I need it, for the first time in my sewing and knitting life! Who knew a few boxes could be life changing? Organizing my stuff the way my mind processes it, well it has cut down on distractions. My easily distracted Neurodivergent brain used to find everything in my tornado of a closet, but the project I was looking for. It made everything take longer than normal, a simple search, an odyssey of investigation and forgetfulness. I couldn’t take it anymore.

I rode this high into my closet, going through it all and organizing more, t-shirts by color family, mixing up my storage solutions from hangers, to zipper bins, to planning shelves to make there be a flow. Putting clothes away can turn into a series of doom piles, because the system was badly designed by me. I needed a way to keep the organization going, while I sorted and folded my clothes, yet again a bad plan led to me sorting through a random drawer for the third time that month, instead of putting the rest of the laundry away. It was a waste of time, leaving me frustrated once again at my squirrel brain. A flow to getting dressed, and a choreographed dance of freshly laundered clothes waltzing into their places once again. But why stop there? Less to organize would be ideal. Thus began a lovely fall purge of clothing into piles – donate, up cycle, repair, and trash/scraps. All the clothes, shoes too! I feel so empowered. I have struggled to part with anything since experiencing grief and trauma in the 2020’s, and it has been embarrassing. I will live with too much stuff, wanting to re-home it, yet being unable to part with it, in some guilt that I don’t understand. I think the burden of my mind is fading, with healthy clarity returning to my heart. I’m not saying goodbye, over and over again, I am being a good steward of things, and sometimes that means you have to let things go. Even my handmade items that may not serve me, but could make someone else happy.

With a clearer mind, I feel inspired to create. This comes ever fall, with a flurry of ideas for new sweaters, accessories, and clothing. This year is a special one as I have been making pants, from scratch and from up-cycled materials. I will be fine tuning my cold weather accessories too, with plans to make excellent hats, mittens, and socks. I’d also like to make a bag or two. My sweater plans are more focused this year. I understand how to make the thing now, so how can I make them better? I guess I shook the house of my creativity too, in this clean.

Do you feel motivated in fall to get things done? Are you a fall cleaner or a traditional spring cleaner?

NCT 127’s New Era

NCT blingy 7th album

On August 24, NCT 127 released their first album in 2 years, Blingy. After such a long time and a plethora of changes, I wondered if this band, whom I found at the beginning of introduction to KPop, would still feel the same?

I was introduced to NCT 127, one day listening to the KPop station of Sirius XM, while mowing the grass. This was back in the summer of 2022. The station served up Sticker and I was hooked. From that point, I fell down the rabbit hole that is the Neo Zone and became a NCT’zen. I experienced the 2 Baddies, 1 Porsche era, Baggy Jeans, and the beginning of their solo era to prepare for the military hiatus of their leader Taeyong. It was an interesting wave of music, and change ups.

But as life, the positive momentum turned into waves of chaos. NCT 127 gave me the first taste of a band managing  military service and staying active. It was weird, Taeyong and Jaehyun are two of my favorite performers in the band, the band without them felt a bit hollow, until I realized that new members fill in the void. One band, one sound. I began to notice the voices that had been the background all along – Yuta, Jungwoo, Haechan, Doyoung, and Johnny.

Another wave built beyond the breakers, waves of solo albums to pass the time with range beyond my expectation. Haechan’s melodies, Yuta’s J-Rock edge, and Taeyong’s vocal fry were the sounds I began to appreciate as colors of the NCT 127 rainbow. Neo’s got your back, even in the rain.

This band is resilient. Two scandals, two members down, and they seem sharper than ever. Even though they are still dancing the final number of the military hiatus shuffle, they are stronger than ever. For their 10th anniversary they have comeback and reclaimed their identity.

I really like Blingy. The album has range and fighting spirit. We even get a track of all seven members reunited for a moment (recorded before Jungwoo and Doyoung began their service). The five members who carry the rest of Blingy’s sound, have weathered the road blocks, with sophistication and range. Each voice shines, the melodies are cleaner, and the chaotic noise music style of this experiemental band has been fine tuned by these limitations. I don’t miss Mark or Taeil for a second.

This gives me hope as the Stray Kids military era could begin at any time now. BTS had such a messy military era and their return has been, odd and featured a strange display of values. It’s the Chris Brown of it all, and a pinch of personal schedules that feels disjointed from the pre-military service BTS. With all that NCT has gone through, it would be understandable for the band to be unrecognizable, instead they remain familiar, and feel stronger. Instead of the change subtracting from their sound, it has intensified the flavor. My hope is that however SKZ navigates this upcoming change, they will take a page from NCT.

L to R: Taeyong, Johnny, Yuta, Haechan, and Jaehyun

A Sea Of Shifting Sand

The more I feel like I should suppress my feelings about something, the more I feel it pressing upon my heart to be bold and talk about it. Can you relate?

I feel like my world has been swirling around me since 2024. Change. Good or bad, I never feel prepared. Leveling up in life, it is rewarding yet sometimes it is more akin to biking up hill and shifting gears downward for the tough pedaling ahead. And I wonder if there are more people feeling this way?

My early thirties have been incredibly rewarding – buying a house, adopting a rabbit, building a garden, successfully sewing pants, etc. But they have also been a sea of shifting sand globally, professionally, and personally.

We all know the public, political bad – the orange fool that has put us all on blast for 2 years. The price of everything, including yarn & fabric has challenged my professional goals because it is so expensive. It zapped my creativity and threw me off my game. I mean, how can I feel inspired to create when neighbors are being kidnapped and put into concentration camps, and our tax dollars are going to fund a war and a genocide. It’s dark. Like where is the joy when that is happening and your “representatives” are trying to silence your right to vote?

I basically took a year off from sewing to regroup, picking up my thimble again this August. I threw my focus into yarn crafts – knitting and crochet, pondering what my plan is going to be to fight for what is right. It’s been humbling to understand that I can help and also this whole situation is systemic, and will be far more difficult to get to the bottom of then I realized. But game on.

AI and the poor economy has been discouraging to my professional goals of becoming a pattern designer. I would like to be a full time, fiber artist, that is bringing in money. But AI has been a one two punch of stealing work and stealing engagement of artists everywhere. It has made creativity feel hopeless, and sharing work online, like I am contributing to a malevolent overlord.

AI and data centers are like a curse dropped into our lives, disrupting what worked and what gave us joy. Now, we have to fight for our water, environment, and creative expression. I know we humans will win this one. I fully believe AI is a fad that will cause a bunch of damage and then collapse – like mining and steel, it is just going to be messy in the present and future. 

What I wasn’t prepared for was the personal complexities of marriage, healing from childhood trauma together, and the doom spiral of parents having health issues and also toxic parents dropping in to rock your world. I have felt some days like nothing feels familiar. Some days, this healing journey that Kyle and I are together has feel like a canyon, spreading between us, and we’ll never rejoin on the same road again. It has been so weird.

Why doesn’t anyone prepare you for how hard marriage is? Or how outside forces and generational cycles can seriously fight the strong bond you have with your spouse. I feel like he and I have been in the trenches on one of these outside problems for a decade now, and I just want us to be able to climb out of this together and walk home hand in hand, but people are complicated and so for now, we keep holding on together and waiting for the hard work to be over.

I have never tried so hard across so many different relationships, and tasks (gardening, house responsibilities, social media marketing) to grow and succeed just for things to unravel over and over again. I have felt like I am on a boat that cartoonishly keeps springing leaks, and I am out of limbs and props, to stop the leaks. Some days I wish the cartoon rapids would just appear already so I can sail over the waterfall and smash the boat to bits, because my best efforts feel so futile. I get burnt out and want a change. Because perseverance is exhausting. Choosing to be hopeful and keep going can feel like a cruel joke.

What has shaken me to the core though, and I’m nervous to talk about, is the way the church doesn’t feel like the church to me. My churching friends have become far too comfortable with Christian Nationalism and it is freaking me out. The blind eye to suffering, and the hyper fixation on “sins” that are not sins. I have always found it baffling that the concept of a person in the church getting a divorce, or seeing Catholic believers as “real” Christians is controversial to some people. It’s those kind of opinions that get canonized by the group, that are so destructive.

That’s not even dipping our toes into the sexism, purity culture, and racism that has been alive for centuries. Seeing how normal this is, has been infuriating to me. It has made me feel like I don’t know where I belong anymore. And to be honest, has awoken real life pain of never feeling good enough to be a “good Christian” to some because my parents divorced.

To be clear, I 100% believe in God and that God is good, and that it is the church, the humans, that are taking things to a bad place. I’d like to elaborate more on these reflections in another post, because I don’t think I’m alone in feeling like I am at risk of being sucked into the corruption in these normally “safe” spaces.

It’s not what I thought the church and my christian friends would become. The corruption is running rampant here, and I hate it. But this is not the first, and won’t be the last, because constant sanctification is needed to continually keep our focus on what is important – loving others as God loves us.

I have a ton of stuff to work through, and I am so far from perfect. I just want to open up about things I have been too afraid to open up about because of the highly controlling religious school settings I have found myself in as a kid, and no I did not go to Catholic school, I went to very Calvinist leaning private schools.

So we’ll see if I am brave enough to keep unpacking. I think we all just need to air this stuff out to move forward as the body of Christ in a healthier place, that is not wrapped in a fake cloak of hidden sin and cyclical shame of those who want to talk about the sin being tolerated, because the church in America is fine with teaming up with the political machine and money chasing.

This was a rambling one, but if you stuck through, I appreciate you.

3 Ways To Upcycle Your Hoodies

The harvest season awakens something in me. I know it is the season that everything dies, but it does so beautifully. Humidity, also bids farewell for 6 months, and with it the best time of the year for getting dressed awakens from its slumber. But what are you to do when the itch to buy something new descends, as it did upon your mind last August? I’m determined to find new ways to scratch this itch, without over consuming and overspending. May I introduce you to my newest sewing obsession – applique?

Applique is like drawing on my clothes. I love it! Items from my wardrobe that I don’t like anymore can be erased and sketched upon once again with needle, thread, and scrap fabric. Or sometimes you get the double whammy of upcycling a garment with applique, from another garment you aren’t vibing with anymore. This is what did to re-imagine three hoodies from my existing wardrobe with patches and cut up scraps from projects that didn’t work out, to recycle and enjoy those projects in a new form.

1: Removing and Replacing a Portion of the Garment

Sometimes, try as you might, you have to cut out a portion of fabric from damage. This is what happened to this hoodie. It used to have block letters, embroidered by machine, that I had grown tired of. Even though I had good memories from the destination this hoodie used to spell out across the front, I had grown tired of being a billboard for this place. I tried to remove the embroidery, very carefully, but my stitch ripper did its thing too well and made holes. To remedy this, I cut a large section of fabric, bigger than the area I needed to replace to fix this problem. Next I secured this to the hoodie, by hand sewing, but you could sew this with your machine very easily. Just watch for pins! Finally, I cut out a moon and some birds, abstract style, from scrap fabric, sewing those to the newly repaired hoodie. It’s ready to wear once again!

2: Why Not Add a Separating Zipper and Patches?

Sometime it is not the graphic, but the overall function of the garment that needs an upgrade. I do wear this light blue hoodie, but not as much as I could, if the hoodie had a full zip, so I could wear it as a jacket. To make this upgrade, I purchased a separating zipper, usually labeled as a jacket/coat zipper. Before I began my cut, I marked where to cut, ensuring I would cut evenly in the middle of the garment. Next, I pinned the zipper in place, adjusting this several times, for perfect placement. I sewed this by hand, which I highly recommend, since a special sewing foot and some direction is needed to sew zippers without obliterating your needle.

I was quite pleased with its new functional form, but it was still missing some personality. It was time to cover the Nike logo. Once again, I tried to seam rip the logo, but those logo’s are quote stubborn. Instead, I changed it up to sew these Canadian Geese patches and a moon to this area of the hoodie, inspired by the film Fly Away Home.

3: Cover and Forget the Old Screen Printing

Now for the easiest upcycle – covering a screen print graphic with applique. For this design, I layered pieces of the background fabric, which was cut to be mountains, into a night sky. When choosing an applique this sizable, I recommend trying this one before you sew the pieces into place. By doing this first, I noticed the graphic was extending into the armpit, not desirable for comfort or the image I was creating with this applique pieces. I trimmed from the sides and tried again, before I began to sew. I first sewed the sky and then placed the bats. These bats were also free hand cut on the fold.

By changing up the graphic from a business, to piece of artwork, I can share something I am interested in with the world. Bats. Bats are great pollinators and help us maintain the mosquito population. They are also ambassadors of spooky season. Through some sewing and a little imagination, I transformed an unworn hoodie into a favorite piece of art. I hope this inspires you to get creative with something you might toss in the donate pile, and give your garments a second chance with a dash of applique!

Thank You

I hope, dear reader, you know how much this WordPress community means to me. I have shared before how frustrating it is to share my designs on Instagram, how I have chased the algorithm and have been disappointed over and over by the shifting sands of Meta. The algorithm has felt even more desolate lately, not even showing my posts with my friends. It feels like yelling into a void. I feel like the rat in a cage from a Bullet with Butterfly Wings.

The reason why I started sharing my work on my Facebook and Instagram when I began sewing and picked up knitting again in the 2020, was to connect with others and find community. I’m tired of my feed drowning in advertisement, and feeling disconnected from others when they post and I post because we are not monetizing our every post. I don’t want to sell you anything. I want to inspire and learn together. I want to make art. I want to not feel alone, just like we all do.

WordPress has been the exception and your community makes me feel hopeful that in the AI Slop, short-form content, linked-below hellscape that is the internet right now, that we can still be there for each other. Thank you for every view, every like, every comment. You mean the world to me. Being an artist right now sucks, but you all make it magical.

I have been making a lot, organizing my work room, finding a lot of inspiration from like-minded folks on the internet and listening to good music. My favorites recently have been Haute & Freddy and rediscovering The Smashing Pumpkins after their amazing Lollapalooza performance. I wish you a lovely Friday! Until next time ❤

Using Doodle Decks for the First Time

The Doodle Decks from Pacific Knit Co had this aura, pulling me in from the first instance I saw online. Maybe it’s because of my 90s and 2000s childhood? It reminded me of the crafts we do as kids – the mini weaving looms, tie dye shirts, friendship bracelets, bedazzling etc. There was something about this deck cards.

If you are not familiar with the doodle decks, they are curated colorwork charts that are combined into a small deck of cards, with a design per card, and additional cards to teach you how to make the most from the themed deck of your choice. I love the approachable nature of this pattern! Instead of a paper pattern, with line by line instructions, you get miniature charts contained per card, that is far easier to keep track of when you are knitting.

I found this format incredibly easy to use! I could quickly flip through my options, and choose my pattern cards. You can compare options or brainstorm sections of your project by easily laying out the cards on a table. The small card, the size of a playing card, was easy to manage in my project bag. To pause my work, all I needed to do was slip my card on top of the deck, and slide the deck back into the box. No graph paper to fold or book to mark, easy peasy!

As a self-drafter, I am not the best at following patterns. I think some of this stems from neurodivergence, and some from the fierce individuality instilled from girlhood in the 90s-2000s. I remember, not wanting to be accused of “copying” someone’s style, or locker layout, or room decor. It was a major social faux pas. Even though knitting patterns are literally sold for this purpose, to share your design with the world, I can feel myself resisting. But with these doodle decks, even though I was not the one to draw these charts, I feel like it is a choose your adventure kind of pattern.

There are ideas for sure suggested in the deck, but you can follow your own heart. I like the customization of Pacific Knit Co’s format. I have learned a lot from them through this experience of using their color work doodle decks, including new perspective in regard to my own self-drafted color work charts. I always go big, with these large graphics, that span the front of a piece, when big is not the only way. Small designs, with repetition, in the fair isle tradition, are just as effective and a new way to tell the same story.

I would highly recommend giving these decks a try. I purchased the Farm Doodle Deck from my local yarn store, Moon and Yarn Craft Room to make the Town Farm Cardigan. For copyright reasons, I did not show the cards, aside from the front of the deck, but as you can see from these photos of my finished object, they contain lovely variety that will spark your imagination.

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