Tag: knitting

Maple Leaf Sweater

I love fall, and I wanted a sweater to celebrate that. But what makes this project even more personal to my taste, is the maple leaf motif at the neckline. Through my dad, I am half Canadian. They are from all over Canada from Saskatchewan to Alberta, and a lot from Ontario. Growing up, because of the nature of divorce and my dad’s messy relationships, I didn’t get to know this side until my twenties, and although it continues to be complicated, I wanted to knit a piece that spoke to my own heritage. Maple leaves seemed like a perfect motif to jump into. With the addition of the tonal yarn, this piece has a lovely fall gradient, that evokes the season, but doesn’t pigeon hole the garment into one season. I wear this in the winter and spring, without feeling out of place.

You may recognize the base of this sweater from my post, ‘Will I Wear a Knit T-shirt?’ and the answer for this project was yes, but, I’d love this even more as a full length sleeve! So as it goes, this project was cast back on to needles to make some sleeves, except, this time I tried a new to me technique – crochet – to create sleeves in the round. I wanted this piece to have a lot of texture, so I experimented with knit and crochet stitches to make this piece, which has a simple design, compared to my other projects feel a bit unique. In the end, I think I ended up with a lovely love letter to a part of me that I don’t always understand but are connected to even when they feel far away.

Glowing Clouds Sweater ft. Noro Yarn

When I first saw these dragon egg skeins, it was right in the wake of Joann’s closure, I felt a sense of wonder. Like, maybe there was more to see outside the cave, to paraphrase Plato. I began to look at niche and new to me yarn brands, and Noro stole my heart.

The yarn is effervescent, floating on the loveliness of its craftsmanship. The yarn looks hand spun, although it is made on a hybrid machine. It called to me, as a knitter who had stuck to the budget yarn and avoided wool for years because the scratchiness was all I could remember. I didn’t know that wool, in spite of the scratchiness, has unique properties that enhance your stitches and make caring for your sweaters easy. Wool is antimicrobial naturally, meaning you don’t have to wash them consistently like other garments in your closet. They can be spot cleaned and refreshed between wears. The other important thing I was missing out on was the way the wool grips onto itself, it has memory, and a squish that is unlike what I had experienced with my acrylic and cotton based fibers.

Now, the Noro had me from first sight, but how was this self striping yarn to work with? Great actually! I chose the colorway Kori, a cool toned blend of blues and purples, with occasional hints of green, red, and gray.

The pooling was well behaved and the transitions were gradual. The hand spun feel of the yarn did pose some issues for me, when it came to gauge. There were sections that were quite thick and disconcertingly thin. I did cut some of thread like sections out of my yarn, because one snapped on me as I was working with it. This led to some yarn chicken, unfortunately.

My lack of yardage was also my own fault. When I first ordered this yarn, from my local yarn shop, I had planned to make a vest. But once I felt the fabric the yarn created, I wanted a whole sweater. This was not going to be possible with 900 meters of yarn. I had to get crafty, and sourced some yarn from my stash that was a similar color and weight, and most importantly, was a non-super wash wool like the Noro. To mimic the color story of the Sauin, I was careful to splice in the other yarn where the colors made sense and I think it is hard to tell what is the Noro yarn and what is Knit Picks Palette.

So what is it like to wear? A dream honestly. It feels like a vintage sweater, like a wool sweater from the 80s or 90s, a find that would make you do a happy dance if you picked this up at a thrift store. It is minimally scratchy, warm, yet breathable. It’s made me a wool convert and a Noro stan. I want to make this over and over again. What will keep me in check is the price point and availability. Each skein of the Sauin was 35 USD. That is why I chose to add in yarn from my stash to keep this project at 70 USD, instead of 105 or 140 USD, since I am bad at guessing yardage. This yarn brand is incredibly popular, which has made it tricky to get my hands on, but I am seeing that is 2026 the yarn is becoming more common in the US. That makes me happy to see – every knitter and crocheter should give this fiber a try!

Tyra Banks, Gap Happy Stripe, and Project Runway 22

This post is a little bit of a mash up, I guess the connecting thread is Zac Posen, or maturity? I’m not sure. I’ve been mulling over two topics that have been in my head this week. The first is the premiere of Project Runway Season 22, the second, being a knitting “controversy” that I believe is not a controversy at all. So, maybe, the connection is drama fatigue?

The Television Evolution from the 1990’s to the 2020’s

Social media is bad for us, we can agree on that. It compresses nuance, and that is exactly what is happening here. But, in the case of television and the fashion industry, it seems to be brain chemistry altering, to borrow an internet term, and the effects are getting strange. This is far from a comprehensive history, just a quick snippet for context.

Television has gone through several iterations in my lifetime – from the rise of cable, to the golden age of reality TV in the 2000’s, to streaming. In 2005, YouTube transformed who could occupy our attention, shortly following in 2007, the Iphone brought a new screen to our lives. In 2020, Tik Tok became the supreme ruler of culture, with the short-form content revolution. Now, in 2026, streaming platforms of shows and film, are self aware that they are the second or third screen vying for our goldfish-like attention spans. This is bad for business. What are networks supposed to do? I’d say they are letting this short form content culture lead.

Enter Project Runway Season 21 and its new, Tik Tok and YouTube editing style with quick cuts and comedy edits, that are self-aware to a level, that was a bit jarring to me. It was like internet culture was uploaded to an established show of 21 years, in order to modernize it. It did just that, it laid its cards on the table of what producers think a successful television show must have in the mid-2020’s – drama and internet-personas instead of contestants, in my opinion. It’s only gotten worse with the announcement of Season 22.

Why is it so loud here?

It’s noisy. I feel like everything about the show is shouting at me. I tried watching the first episode, and quit after the intro. Instead of letting the viewer sit back and engage with the show, the show demands shock, shade, and a level of seriousness that is simply undermined by how the contestants, presenters, and judges act. They are caricatures of humans. Like Zoolander or The Devil Wears Prada, it’s not an accurate representation of human behavior. The drama has been dialed up to a point of puppetry and theater, which would be fun if it was for say, in the pursuit of comedy like RuPaul’s Drag Race, which I am a fan of. This version of Project Runway is not about the clothing or the craft of sewing. It is for the purpose of creating internet buzz and translating that into streaming numbers. It feels so trite to say that. Project Runway is a business, what I miss is the illusion of the storytelling.

Tim Gunn, Zac Posen, Michael Kors, and Nina Garcia brought an industry seriousness to the show that provided context. With the elimination of all but Nina Garcia, and the death knell of losing the spot to show at NYFW, the legitimacy of the show is in shredded. What is all for? Internet fame. Even the challenges were different last year, with sponsorship themes shoe horned into a semblance of “design criteria” and it felt off. For example, the PNC “brilliantly boring” challenge to use boring fabric. There was the Eczema awareness challenge, that should have gone deeper, but instead gave us a concept and then quickly shooed it off screen.

In contrast, I have gained greater appreciation for Drag Race and its the commitment to staying on topic.The causes presented on the show seem genuine and it is refreshing! Like it is all in alignment with worldview.

Lack of Integrity in the Fashion Industry

I think this is because to have a clear worldview in the fashion industry right now, it has to be political, and they don’t want to do that at Disney, and so the political stances are muddled for the sake of saying nothing. Which is a political stance, indifference is infuriating with the amount of clout the show claims to have. This show is fashion “influencing” but make it a reality show.

The worst part of this muddled stance is the inclusion of Tyra Banks. The Netflix documentary from this winter makes sense now, it was a PR project to rebuild Tyra’s image. I grew up with America’s Next Top Model, created by Tyra Banks. I watched ANTM long before Project Runway, and it was a sh*tshow.

She let the cameras roll in Season 2, when a dangerously inebriated contestant, Shandy, experienced SA, and then Tyra had the gall to keep her from the hospital and police, to keep filming. She framed Shandy as an example of cheating, and publicly shamed her for a decade. She pressured contestants, Joanie and Danielle to undergo dangerous dental procedures. Tyra created photoshoots promoting blackface.

She fat shamed and encouraged ED on the show, ignoring the dangers of ED, all while shaming contestants who couldn’t “hide it” well enough. This is just a short list of the problematic behaviors on the ANTM show, a show that preyed on young women of color, and then made a mockery of them, reinforcing racism again and again for profit. I have no interest in watching a show that Tyra Banks is a part of, when she danced around an apologize in her documentary and, in my opinion, did not take any responsibility. Just have integrity, it’s all I ask for. Apologize. Truly make amends and rebuild your reputation through real change. This path is not fooling anyone.

Connecting the Two

Okay, so how are my two topics connected? Well first off, I wish they had brought a quality judge back like Zac Posen, but secondly, I think as much as people are not up in arms enough about Tyra coming back to television, I think the internet is always trying to drum up knitting controversies, that are not that serious.

I was definitely dragged into caring about The Game of Wool, by my corner of the internet, and proceeded to make a bingo card, as my farewell, once I realized I didn’t give a hoot even if this show was a let down. The most recent “controversy” I’ve seen is the Gap Happy Stripe collection for Summer 2026, promoted by the CCO, Zac Posen. The collection is not a knitwear focused throwback, instead it utilizes technology to make something “knitwear” centered. The image of the original knit has been printed on a mesh collection, that I believe has a decently high polyester content, because mesh.

As a fiber artist, if I want a happy stripe inspired piece, I’m just going to recreate it. Done. I don’t need to feel slighted by Gap, or be frustrated that they are not centering knitters with “fake knitwear” as I have seen touted on the internet. Gap is a fast fashion company, the knitwear would be machine knit, and the workers are not being compensated fairly. It’s the fashion industry, its problematic. They make poor choices and they create a ton of pollution. They also favor tech “innovations” so this is not radical, it seems inline with Project Runway to be honest.

I don’t think Zac Posen should “canceled” for this or for us to spam Gap, with anger that knitters have been slighted again. I don’t buy store bought knit anymore. I certainly don’t buy store bought crochet, because its either fake or created with slave labor. I try to buy thoughtfully, make what I can, mend, up cycle, and treat clothing as a permanent object. I think that is the best we can do right now. The problems with the fashion industry are not contained to Gap. It’s world wide. I have no reason to buy a mesh printed garment, so its a moot point for me. Protect your peace, the world is incredibly messy right now, this is a drop in the bucket.

Do you remember the Gap Happy Stripe collection? I don’t. I remember colorful knitwear from the early 2000’s and wearing one from Old Navy or Aeropostale. I’m getting tired of the internet shouting. I’m getting tired of endless knitting drama. I’m quite tired of dumb reboots of shows I liked. Whew, I think it I did it! Thank you, reader, hanging in with me on this random post. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. ❤

Night Sky Sweater

I’ve mentioned this before, but as a maker, I revisit a single project many times before it is done. Sometimes I will live with a finished object for a month, a few months, or even a year, and suddenly pick it back up again to adjust something that feels off. Honestly, taking a season or two away from that garment – such as, putting away a dress for the winter, or a sweater while you sweat it out for the summer, can give your mind the space to forget and re-acquaint yourself to the garment like you picked it up from the store. It is a whole new piece again, which can lead to me be less than thrilled with past me and her design choices.

Take this vest for example, I began this project in December 2024, wrapping it in February 2025. I wore it a few times, as it stands as a vest that winter and spring, then it was put away for the warm weather. When cool air returned in the fall, I pulled it out of its drawer and set it on my dress form. This vest did not feel complete, it had more to say, even though my hands were weary back in the winter, so I stopped and called this piece done. But its not done, it would be a gorgeous colorful sweater, and it was time to go back to this garment to make it whole.

Now, this was a self drafted piece. A complicated self drafted piece that helped me cut my color work chops in a garment. This was the first sweater I made with such a large color palette and the first time I decided to make a knitted piece with the motivation of telling a story. I wanted to evoke a winter sky, with a moon that was visible on the front and back. A moon with stars, and clouds, floating above a forest. This sweater would not only feature colorful forms across the fabric, it would have texture. I chose to use the ‘seersucker stitch’ as it was labeled from a Pinterest chart, to weave a diamond texture into the fabric for a 3-D plush effect. I chose large and miniature color work sections to create ebb and flow in the color story.

For the bind off, I had grown tired of the classic 1×1 rib, so I tried something a little different! I chose to create tight stripes, knit stitched together. Instead of stockinette which used knit (right side) and purl (wrong side) for it’s classic construction, I decided knit stitch, knitting the right side and wrong side, would stabilize the stitches for a lack of curling in the finished fabric. And it worked! The technique and color changes ground the color palette for a cohesive garment.

Keeping these previous choices in mind, when it came time to add sleeves and a new collar, I chose to employee a new to me technique, crochet. I wanted the sleeves to be made in the round, and be completed quickly so I could wear this piece for most of the winter. Crochet is much easier to do in the round, and to make progress quickly. The crochet stitches allowed me to work in new directions too, so the sweater had vertical texture to contrast with the horizontal lines of the original vest. With sleeves complete, this is one of my favorite pieces to date. It tells a story. The color palette reminds me of Stardew Valley. The cloud on the back reminds me of an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender when Appa is missing, and Aang thinks a cloud flying above is Appa floating above. I love the variety of colors – gold, navy, magenta, violet, and cream.

This was a labor of love, but I would highly recommend trying a complex project such as this if you are interested in making your own garments. Not only does this piece express my identity, it taught me how to be a better fiber artist. I feel proud each time I wear it. Get inspired and start stitching something from your own imagination!

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Town Farm Cardigan

I wanted to make a cardigan that celebrated our garden, with a yarn inspired by Beatrix Potter, that was made from wool, and featured a fair isle design. To do this I used Pacific Knit Co’s farm doodle deck and Knit Picks’ Chroma Worsted Weight yarn in the colors Beatrix and New Leaf. The Chroma yarn has become a fast favorite of mine for its durability and delicious halo. The yarn is comprised of 70% super wash wool and 30% nylon. This was a bit of a stash busting project, and a splurge. I wished to use up three skeins of deadstock New Leaf, finding the pink-orange-white of Beatrix was the perfect spring-inspired color palette upon which to build. Using a gift card from Christmas, I purchased 6 skeins of Beatrix, although I had to repurchase more with this project using thirteen skeins in total. Not cheap! But worth the splurge to create a piece I plan to wear for the rest of my life that celebrates the garden we have created here at our new house. It’s our in-town farm, as our friend calls it.

The bulk of this project was done on US 8 straight needles, and seamed together using a 5.5 mm crochet hook. The bottom ribbing was created using a US 4 circular needle. The size reduction of 1.5 mm, changed the gauge to create this floral ruffle along the bottom edge. At complete accident! But I like it. In addition, I used mostly stockinette stitches, with 1×1 ribbing at the cuffs, collar, button band, and bottom hem, and the seersucker stitch for added texture, in between color work sections. Will I add buttons? I am uncertain. The original plan was to use buttons, and have purchased buttons, yet I like to wear my garments first beforehand, to see if I want to wear the garment closed. Since yesterday was the Summer Solstice, I have a while to wait!

This garment took approximately 4 months to complete, along side other sewing, crochet, and knitting projects.

Catch of the Day Sweater

In 2025, sardines and other tinned fish became more than just food; they appeared on beaded bags, shirts, and prints. They also made their way to the fiber arts community, which inspired me to make a fish print sweater for Kyle, who enjoys fishing IRL and in video games. I just like the video game version.

The Design Concept

When planning a garment with a colorwork motif, I always consider scale, placement, and repetition. To do this, I use what I learned in art class many years ago – the seven fundamentals of art. So I consider line, shape, color, value, form, texture, and scale. In the catch-of-the-day sweater, it was important to make the fish wearable and to ensure good form and function. How do I make the fish on this sweater make sense? I decided to hang freshly caught fish on the sweater to help with the scale of the art. I placed them in the center, on the front, only to keep the perspective of this in focus. I thought placing more fish would become overwhelming to the eye and become unwearable.

Adding more fish would have required adjusting the scale and the color, meaning I would have simplified the sweater down to two yarn colors only, with sections of fair isle colorwork, which is a smaller, more concentrated technique. But I like the color contrast of using two colors, representing two types of fish with slightly different scale patterns. How big is too big? How do you represent a fish, with their scales and texture? For this, I went to Pinterest to find cross-stitch or knitting colorwork charts for inspiration. I believe I settled on a cross-stitch pattern because it had the detailed lines and scale I was looking for. I wanted the fish to look realistic, although it could be in an imagined world like Animal Crossing New Horizons or Stardew Valley. Whimsical? I think that is the best way to sum it up.

To make my pattern, I used the cross stitch reference and transferred it to graph paper by hand, tweaking some areas to make the inspiration my own. I did this in the same application for my Red Velvet Cosmic Knit Tank project. Next, I needed to determine the scale of the fish within the sweater pattern. It’s important to plan out how many stitches you need to complete the colorwork section across your rows and keep it centered. To do this, subtract the number of stitches in your colorwork pattern from the number of stitches in your row. Divide the sum by two and adjust to keep the stitches on either side equal, to keep the pattern centered. It is also important to note how tall the color work pattern is compared to the garment you are knitting, to allow enough room above and below that the graphic motif makes sense and doesn’t look misplaced on the garment. I think I literally held my pattern up to Kyle’s chest to figure it out.

Fiber Content

For this sweater, I went in a different yarn direction to try something new. I chose a wool and acrylic blend from Knit Picks called Mighty Stitch. It was underwhelming. The yarn, while soft, pills something fierce. It is also a slim worsted weight, which was exaggerated by the large needle size I used – US 10 or 6 mm. This created a breathable, airy sweater, but dang, did it throw off my pattern and design. Eventually, I had to face my fate – I was running out of yarn, and my panel was too narrow. Not exactly the outcome you want after spending a week on the front panel with the intricate fish design. I would rather start over than frog the color work, always.

I had some decisions to make. I originally purchased the Mighty Stitch on sale, but when I ran out of yarn, it was not on sale, and I wasn’t interested in doubling the price of this already too expensive project that was in the process of failing. So like Miss Frizzle recommends, I got ready to “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!” I went to my closet of yarn and fabric and began to dig through the stash for something else I could introduce into the design. I found a warm-toned gray and neutral black yarn from Big Twist that was also worsted weight. Because the Mighty Stitch is a washable yarn, I felt comfortable combining the two yarns. I had already introduced acrylic yarn to the project through the mint and teal fish, using scrap Big Twist for those sections. Always check your fiber content, though, to avoid incompatible fibers that will make the project hard to care for over time.

Making a Change

The original design was changing from color palette to overall concept. This sweater would need to have color blocking sections now, to stretch the main green color. I decided to not only change up the design, but to change up my technique, opting for crochet on the sleeves to make the sleeves go faster. Knitting is a slow craft, and for some reason, knitted garments for Kyle have this curse of going horribly wrong and also knitting up slowly because of the hiccups. I wanted him to be able to wear this sweater for the bulk of the winter season of 2025-2026, and I was knitting this in August-October, so I took a shortcut. But in my defense, the texture of the sleeves, ironically, looks like fish scales to me. Especially with the gray and black colors!

The second change I made was adding width to the sides of the front panel to make the sweater a drop shoulder. I then knit the back panel wider from the start, and added a section of gray on the middle to upper back panel. It adds a nice contrast to the overall composition of the sweater, while making the sleeves feel cohesive.

Men vs Women Shoulder Shaping

The shoulders gave me such grief in this project! I’m used to making sweaters for myself and my female form. The bust makes the shoulders rest differently than I realized, and this came back to bite me. For a man’s sweater, the back needs to be longer. Especially the shoulder section on the back of the sweater is going to ride up the back, and be too long in the front. This happened, and I was bamboozled on how to fix it. Enter short row shaping and the principles of perspective and scale.

I learned that I needed to add short rows, meaning only working a section across a row to add length to a specific portion of the back panel, the back middle. To do this, you work back and forth on the section, evenually go back to working across the entire row. In addition, I made the back collar and back ribbing longer to compensate. These simple changes made the sweater appear the same length back and front, draping across the shoulders pleasantly, even if one side was technically longer. It doesn’t matter because of the role of perspective. Magic!

Final Thoughts

I learned a tremendous amount of knowledge from the Catch of the Day sweater, and I am grateful it all came together in the end to make a sweater that Kyle enjoys wearing. I have saved my patterns to attempt this again in the future with better yarn and proper dimensions to make the pattern fit well from the start, instead of scrambling to adjust at the end.

How I am Preparing to Leave Pinterest, if OpenAI Buys Them

I want to start off by pleading with Pinterest, please don’t work with OpenAI. (I know this is purely a rumor, but even so, I think using the internet to voice opinions is important.) I have been using your platform since 2012, and it is so useful! It has become less useful over time, with the “purely financial” decisions of peppering in a multitude of advertising pins and allowing AI-generated art to invade the platform. Even so, it is still a platform I use and love to escape into for inspiration.

Without Pinterest, creative writing projects like Udal Cuain, knitting colorwork projects, sewing projects, and home decor ideas would have been more difficult to source and may not have been on my radar – ever. I’ve even learned simplified versions of songs to play on the piano before I bought proper books, for free through Pinterest. Now what about fandoms? On really difficult days, my Stray Kids board is filled with memes, SKZ Code, captured moments from lives, silly edits, and STAY inside jokes that would not exist in one place to make me smile.

I don’t want to leave Pinterest at all, but there comes a time when we must make a stand for what is right – if you integrate with OpenAI, as rumors have thrown around, many other like-minded individuals, and I will leave because, as artists, we will not stand for the theft being carried out by generative AI of our work. Art is human. Generative AI is regurgitation. Art is for an audience of many; AI-generated art is for an audience of one. Human-made art has emotion; AI-generated art is the result of algorithmic decisions. AI-generated things are not new; they are not groundbreaking. They are human effort and human creativity scraped by these computers and served up as “new” all while consuming vast amounts of electricity and clean water, for nothing but perceived “innovation” that makes these tech bros wealthier. It gives nothing to humanity; it feeds the greed of the few. Alright, that’s enough of looking into the abyss for me.

How do I plan to make this change if Pinterest is bought by OpenAI?

  • Crafting Books
  • Used Books, Magazines, and Catalogs
  • Respectful Fan Accounts on Instagram
  • Physical Notebooks
  • Migrating to Milanote
  • Blogs and Research
  • Building a Creative 3rd Place Elsewhere
  • Creating Your Own Charts
  • Physical Moodboards
  • Acknowledging Frustration
  • Diving into History
  • Utilizing Libraries

Yes, we’ll be going back to analog inspirations, like going back to the 1990s and 2000s. I’ll be crafting even slower, researching longer, and spending more time digging to learn how to do new techniques like fillet crochet or how to paint using gouache paints, but that’s okay. At least it will be honest inspiration. In time, we will all come back together through a new creative community platform, and it will be a bit of a waste of time. So, Pinterest, put these rumors to bed, please, because when it comes to AI, we artists mean business, and you will be left behind.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk ❤

#79 – Craftivism

This is a new term for me, but it is genius. Craftivism is activism through crafting. It is using your art and everyday things to show what you believe and to speak out against injustice. And to use an internet term, this has completely “changed my brain chemistry” to think of using my knitting to say what I believe, just like art.

What made this a tangible thing for me to get started in community was the Welcome Blanket collection at my local yarn shop. Together, sections of knit and crochet squares would be collected and seamed into blankets, like receiving blankets, to welcome immigrants to the United States. With all the ICE-y conditions out there, it’s swimming against the current in a way that aligns with my beliefs and what we are called to do as Christians – love your neighbor and take care of immigrants. Not to worship power, money, and excuse racism like some so-called “Christians” in my country are doing. Seeing my crochet square stitched together with other like minded indivduals’ fiber art was powerful. It reminded me of how we are stronger together and how doing small things, as a community, makes a difference. I also enjoyed reflecting on my own immigrant heritage and sharing my story of how my family came to the US and why immigration is necessary.

As an American who is not Indigenous, every part of my family tree came from somewhere else. Some of my family came from Germany, I believe, in the early 1900s, since my great-grandmother, who was born in 1912 in the US, spoke German as her first language at home. Some of my family from Ireland left County Cork’s farmland during the potato famine to escape certain death from the genocide of starvation by Great Britain. Some of my family from County Armagh immigrated in the late 1800s to the US, went back to Ireland in the early 1900s, and came back again to the US during the Troubles. The rest of my family came from Canada in the 1960s. If we are not members of Indigenous nations, then we are all here because of immigration. To act like immigration is dangerous, un-American, and unwelcome is not American to me. We all came from somewhere else. Let’s love our neighbors and support them in this new chapter of their lives, which came about because of a very difficult decision.

The second opportunity that brought Craftivism back on my radar was the Melt the Ice hat. This hat was used from protest by Norwegians in the 1940s during the Nazi occupation of Norway. Minnesotans, many of whom are descended from Norwegian immigrants, but now are a rich community of immigrants from all over the world, brought the hat pattern back to raise money for the Immigrant Rapid Response fund, which provides assistance for immediate needs – food, rent, etc. This fundraiser raised $650,000 with a $5 pattern during the Melt the Ice MAL in February 2026. If you are not aware of what has been going on in Minneapolis, there has been violence, there has been death, there has been kidnapping, and unlawful occupation of a city by federal forces in the name of corruption and power. Making the hat felt like there was a healthy place to channel my grief and anger over what is happening while bringing community together – Craftivism is powerful.

Have you ever heard of Craftivism? Would you participate in it?

DIY K-Pop Band Tees Using Embroidery and Knitting

In 2025, one of my goals was to try my hand at crafting my own K-Pop Merch. Some bands are easy to find Merch for, and others, well, you are left to your own ingenuity. The bands I selected to try for this are NCT 127 and NMIXX, which I have tried and failed to find band tees for that I liked. For this project, I used two different techniques – embroidery and stranded colorwork knitting.

NCT 127 Embroidery

My first idea was to pick up a blank T-shirt from the craft section and get to work. The shirt I chose was a Gildan tee from Walmart, which I DO NOT recommend. This shirt is so freaking thin. Horrible quality compared to the blanks I have found at Michael’s, Dollar General, or even Hobby Lobby. But as I was dubious of my embroidery skills, I went ahead with the Walmart shirt as practice. That was the right call, because dang, embroidery is not as straightforward as it looks.

For this project, you will need: an embroidery hoop, embroidery floss bundles, a marker or pen to sketch your design on your shirt, and backing like embroidery interfacing or a fabric scrap that I used (because I forgot that the embroidery needed a backing).

For the design, I chose something simple. The song, the band, and a little imagery. I love their early album Cherrybomb (2017), but the song is almost 10 years old now, and it’s kinda hard to find any NCT Merch with it at this point. Seemed like the perfect option for a first try. I wasn’t expecting my stitches to be so tight; I felt like I was fighting myself across the whole piece. This was because I forgot about the backing for stability, and all this embroidery on this poor quality shirt, yeah, it wasn’t great. Afterwards, I added a backing to the embroidery with a scrap piece of another t-shirt.

Is it my best work? No. But is it a start for making better projects in the future? Yes! And I wear it anyway in the garden and as a sleep shirt.

Red Velvet Knitting

My desire for Red Velvet Merch was entirely motivated by the confusing announcement in April 2025 that members Yeri and Wendy did not renew their contracts with SM Entertainment, but Red Velvet was not disbanding. They have become one of my top girl groups after their release of Cosmic in 2024, so it seemed only appropriate to use the album Cosmic as my muse for a cotton knit tank with stranded colorwork. It’s a bit easier to find Red Velvet Merch on sites like Teepublic, from which I have bought a shirt. This project was more about expressing my love for this album, and I hope that Cosmic will not be their last release as a group.

You will need: a pencil, pen, graph paper, and stitch markers. (Along with your basic knitting supplies – needles, yarn, scissors, tapestry needle)

To start, I searched Pinterest for album artwork and a logo. I found a lot of options to use as a compass for the project, but decided the simplest option would be best. I opted for one color to keep the floats simple. To make my colorwork charts, I always use graph paper and a pencil to be able to adjust the marks that I transfer from the image. Once I am happy with my design, I trace over it in pen and use a pencil to cross out the lines of the pattern as I complete the project to mark my progress. To understand the dimensions of the image as I worked, I also marked the “canvas” with stitch markers. It is also important to note your garment construction and how that relates to your chart. I made this tank knitting bottom up, so I began working on my colorwork from the bottom of the chart.

I am thrilled with how this project turned out! As my first stranded colorwork project with this complex of a design, it was far easier than I thought to complete. You just have to plan out your image and be patient with your floats. Try not to hold too tightly and remember that blocking will help the tension relax.

The Search for Affordable Yarn – A Review

When my go-to yarn, Big Twist, was temporarily discontinued in 2025, I felt adrift in a sea of unfamiliar yarns with unfamiliar prices. Which raised an interesting question: what will be my new tried and yarn? I thought I would share this journey with short reviews of the yarn I explored in search of a new favorite.

Yarn Criteria:

What am I looking for in a yarn? Big Twist was my favorite for a few key reasons – affordability, quality, color range, and ease of accessibility. Big Twist had a large selection of colors in a worsted weight that did not split easily or snag in knotted tangles. The skeins contained 380 yards, selling for 4.49 USD, which made sweater projects affordable. It was easy to source in person. Now I am not looking for in-person yarn purchases like I used to. It’s just not possible at this time.

Wool of the Andes

Wool, worsted weight, has a large color range, and can also be purchased in a superwash variety. This yarn is a Knit Picks, made from Peruvian Highland Wool is sold for 4.99 USD per 110-yard skein. I like how sticky this yarn is. When it is stitched up, it stays in place and has great stitch definition. It’s not too itchy. I am sensitive to wool, and I find this yarn to be fine. I also used the superwash for a hat, so that could be where the extra scratchy feeling came from. I think this is a great yarn for budget wool, and for beginners, the best part is that it arrives in a skein, not a hank that you have to unwind. Yes, I would buy this again. I just purchased this for an upcoming rabbit-related project.

Mighty Stitch

Silky and soft. This yarn had great sheen for an 80% acrylic, 20% wool fiber. It was labeled as worsted, but I found it to be too thin compared to my other worsted yarns, which created some issues in my project. This Knit Picks yarn is 7.99 USD for 208 yards. When I purchased this yarn, it was on sale, but still more than I am used to paying for acrylic. Due to the thinness of the yarn, I failed to meet the gauge. I found myself using a lot more than I thought I would. The most disappointing thing was the way it slides out of knots, which was a problem for the colorwork and color blocking sections. The yarn also doesn’t respond well to my husband’s beard. I found this out because I knit him a sweater, and the top was falling apart where it caught on his beard. Would I buy again? No. I don’t trust it not to pull out of the weave, and I felt let down by the price for the experience.

Lion Brand Pound of Love

I found these oversized yarn skeins at Michael’s, and I was thrilled. Lion Brand is a fantastic budget yarn that I used before on a previous sweater project. At 1020 yards for 11.99 USD, this yarn has been a game-changer for experimentation. I can try new projects, have room to mess up, or be able to make gifts, blankets, etc, on a budget. It does not split. I can knit or crochet easily, and it meets the gauge. My only negative critiques are the color range and the composition of the fiber. I wish there were more colors; the range is small compared to Knit Picks or Big Twist. I also wish acrylic were not made from plastic. I wish this were wool, and was kinder to the environment. Yes, I will buy this again. It is the best budget acrylic yarn I have found that is easy to purchase and would be a great beginner yarn to learn with.

Loops and Threads Soft Classic

Before Big Twist fully came back in Fall 2025, I thought Loops and Threads may be Michael’s brand expression of Big Twist, after they acquired Joann’s IP and the yarn vendor contracts, so I gave it a shot, and I have some mixed feelings. The color range is large, which I like. Some of the shades are lovely, and some are a bit garish. Some of the yarn dyeing is odd. Some of the texture of the acrylic fiber is also odd. It can be a bit limp, almost too soft. I love the mushroom and curry color ways. The black yarn I purchased, however, smelled like a cheap pleather purse- a bit fishy and a bit like burnt hair. I still can’t get the smell out of the yarn with airing out, Febreeze, and laundering. Maybe it was the chemical dye? For this reason, I have some pause. But you can’t beat the 3.99 USD price and 354 yards per skein. Let the creativity reign! Yes, I will buy again.

Palette

Palette Fingering Weight yarn from Knit Picks is a 100% Peruvian Highland wool yarn that has become my go-to winter accessory yarn. With its lightweight ply, I combine it with other yarns to create marled and warm hats, mittens, and socks. The hat to the left is three strands of Palette held together on US 7 needles. The hat to the right is made with two strands of worsted-weight acrylic (Big Twist) and one strand of Palette. It’s a non-superwash and has a lovely squish to the skeins. This yarn is already skeined up, no Hanks to unravel, and contains 231 yards for 5.49 USD per ball of yarn. I will rebuy. I actually panicked on New Year’s Eve, that I had drained my whole stash, to find they were at the bottom of a tote bag.

Caron Cakes

I have worked with two Caron Cake varieties in 2025 – Blossom Cakes and Big Cakes. The Blossom Cakes are a blend of 61% cotton and 31% acrylic fibers. They are variegated, worsted-weight cakes of 481 yards that sell for 14.99 USD per cake. They tend to do a BOGO sale at Michael’s, so I get them on sale, or else I would be less enthused about this item. The Big Cakes are also worsted-weight acrylic yarn, which is self-striping. I love the quality of the yarn, but the striping is a bit tricky. I am currently using them for blankets, but I did consider separating the sections of color to make something different. The Big Cakes contain 603 yards, which are sold for 14.99 USD. On a sale, you can make a blanket for a great price. For this reason, I will try the cakes again, with the proper project. They are complicated, and without a plan, they feel like a waste of money. With a good plan, they are a great resource.

Final Thoughts:

I found more options than I expected last year, and this led me to actually be happy that I had to find a new option for my tried-and-true yarn. Moving forward, I don’t have a sole favorite; instead, I feel like a nuanced palette of tastes is the better way to describe it. If you are a new knitter or curious about trying some of these yarns, I hope my thoughts helped. These are all my opinions, and all the yarn was purchased with my own money.

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