In this edition: UPPERCASE Magazine

Overview:

UPPERCASE describes itself as “a quarterly magazine for the creative and curious inspired by craft, design, typography and illustration.” It began publishing in 2009 and is published in Canada although it features artists from all over the world. The founding editor, Janine Vangool, is basically a one woman shop, although she does have regular contributors who help with writing, photography, and copyediting.

UPPERCASE issues are released four times a year. Issues run roughly 130 pages and have no ads. In this post I’m reviewing Issue 62 (July-Aug-Sept 2024).

What craft(s) are represented?

Visual arts of all types, primarily illustration and painting, although the issue I read included every type of medium you could imagine, including mosaic, ceramics, crochet, knitting, quilting, jewelry making, and often a mix of multiple mediums. 

There are also features on design (graphic and general product design), specific artists (past and present), and articles for people pursuing or interested in pursuing a creative career. For the issue I read, the theme was “domestic arts” so the articles focused on every day objects found in our homes, artists whose work dealt with domestic objects in some way and personal essays about the way changes in an artist’s home (a move or the birth of a child) impacted their creativity. 

Do you buy this magazine for the pictures or the articles? 

UPPERCASE is a visuals first magazine, with even the longer articles featuring a lot of photos, illustrations, and other artwork  that is relevant to the topic. The bulk of the magazine is various features that show submitted works of art with a short blurb from the artist.

The magazine really puts a premium on high quality print production – this is a beautiful magazine that is a pleasure to hold and flip through. 

UPPERCASE intends to be a magazine that celebrates finding inspiration in a variety of places, so by design, their articles cover a wide-range of topics. Some cover the history of a person (in this issue there was an essay about Margaret Burroughs, particularly interesting to me as newly adopted Chicagoan) or certain styles of art or designed objects (for the domestic arts issue this included a number of “everyday” objects like pasta shapes and shelf paper). Some are personal essays about creative life, some are about managing a particular aspect of a design career. 

That said, I found myself drawn to the visual inspiration in the magazine far more than the articles.

Can you make things from this magazine?

You can certainly use it for inspiration (I am now seriously thinking about using coffee bags as art material after seeing an example in this issue) but there are no patterns or tutorials in UPPERCASE. 

Artists can also participate ahead of each issue by submitting work that aligns with the issue's prompts, which means you can make things *for* the issue, just not from it. 

Can you learn new techniques or ideas from this magazine?

Only in a philosophical sense. In this issue I particularly enjoyed learning just how astonishingly creative “domestic arts” actually was as reflected in the featured artists’ work – including a fascinating vase with a ceramic bottom and a knitted opening, an artist who was recreating handpainted china with watercolor on paper plates, and an artist recreating old advertisements as quilts. Some of the longer artist features include a bit of discussion of their process, but, again, not as a step by step tutorial.

Does this magazine feature industry news and/or review new products and books?

UPPERCASE is aimed at people interested in creative careers and does have some practical articles (this issue included “how to charge what you're worth” and another on how to use your business revenue to support environmental causes). It also has a one page feature with book recommendations that provide further exploration of the issue theme. 

However there are no paid ads, no new product announcements or other nuts and bolts industry news, aside from how the artist features function as a way to see a variety of current art pieces.  

Does this magazine profile makers or discuss living a creative life?

Yes. this is the heart of UPPERCASE! There are several features profiling makers and artists, from the “Fresh Picks” which feature artists being published for the first time, to the careers section, where established artists discuss their career journey. 

Does this magazine have any unique features?

I particularly liked that UPPERCASE made artist profiles the focus of several features, each with multiple photos of the artist's work. It made the artists the true focus, rather than a few pages in the back as I have seen in other art focused magazines. UPPERCASE also issues prompts ahead of various issues, so artists can submit work following the prompt for the chance to have their work published in the magazine. 

It’s worth noting that at least in the issue I reviewed, the vast majority of featured artists appeared to be female-identifying. The editor has stated that one of her primary goals is to feature as many subscribers as possible*, so this is possibly a reflection of that goal.  However, it has been my experience that once you cross into mainstream visual art spaces it can be much harder for women to be taken seriously so I’m always happy to find any art-focused community that values women’s work, no matter the medium.

One unique feature isn't in the magazine at all, which is a maker community. A subscription to the community also gets you access to the archive of back issues. 

Additionally UPPERCASE has a children’s magazine, Little U, which donates 100% of its sales to UNICEF.

*-This info is in the welcome message you receive when you subscribe to the UPPERCASE newsletter, which I did after reading this issue.

Who would most enjoy this magazine?

If you miss the feeling of browsing Instagram or Pinterest and discovering new artists and craft inspiration without having to wonder if what you’re looking at is AI generated and/or an ad, UPPERCASE is a wealth of visual inspiration (and has a very strict no AI generated art or writing policy). Speaking from my own experience with this magazine, it was so relaxing and refreshing to just look at real human made art and not have to have my mental context filter up. 

If you are a creative professional or aspiring to a creative career, this magazine can provide both inspiration and opportunities to have your work featured.

Where I can I find this magazine?

You can purchase subscriptions and back issue bundles directly from https://uppercasemagazine.com/ . Though the magazine is produced in Canada, books and magazines are still falling under a tariff exemption for the US, so at the time this post is published (April 2026) purchasing directly is not an issue. However, you can also find individual issues at a number of US bookshops; I ordered mine from Red Hen Craft Books in Portland, OR.

This is such a beautiful magazine that you could easily purchase one or two issues with themes you find interesting to serve as coffee table books before deciding on a subscription.  I’ll also note that one of the upcoming 2026 issues has the theme “Texture” and from the teaser photo there may be a significant amount of featured yarn and textile art, so it may be worth checking that one out if you come to this blog for the knitting/crochet/sewing content.

Have you read UPPERCASE previously? Did this review make you interested in picking up an issue? Let me know in the comments!

Also, since this is a new series, let me know if there’s a maker magazine that you’d like me to review! I have a few magazines stockpiled but would love more recommendations!

I have about half a dozen T-shirts that meet this standard now, but I also have at least half a dozen more that I have dumped into the running drawer but only wear if all the “good” shirts are dirty. Most of these are just a bit tighter in one area than I would like, or maybe the fabric is a bit stiff (a LOT of these are cheap event staff shirts from a former employer). I don’t want to just toss them but right now they all mostly just take up space in my drawer.

However, the first summer after I started running again I treated myself to a running tank top from Senita Athletics that I absolutely adore – and which they seem to have discontinued.  My favorite part of this tank is its split back, which allows the fabric to hang loosely around my hips and stomach but also lets airflow in through the back (a very nice perk on hotter running days).  It doesn’t show anything I’m not comfortable showing in public but also helps me stay cooler.  And after looking at its construction carefully, I found myself wondering if I could cut one of my unloved running t-shirts into a similar shape. I was particularly interested in whether I could do so with minimal or no sewing.

I pulled one of my least loved running t-shirts out of the drawer – this one is a bit longer than an average t-shirt and is tighter on my hips then I would like for running. Also I don’t love the way the sleeve fabric feels on my arms.  An excellent candidate for a cut that should alleviate both those problems!

I started by laying out the pink tank on top of the T-shirt. One of the things you may have noticed about the tank is that it does have side panels to give a bit more width.  In laying out the two shirts together, it seemed like the T-shirt was the same width as the tank even without the side panels, so I thought I could get it to work without adding those in.  Using a water soluble fabric marker, I traced out the armholes of the tank on the T-shirt.  I did leave a little extra ease on the top straps; I knew the jersey fabric would curl in on itself so I needed a wider fabric to get a finished version closer to the tank.  I actually only needed to trace the armhole on one side of the shirt, then I folded the T-shirt in half so I could cut both armholes the exact same.

I then traced the neckline of the tank on both the front and back of the T-shirt and cut that out – the tank comes up pretty high at the back, so for a little extra stability on the back I only cut the neck ribbing down to where it is sewn on to the T-shirt.

Finally, I folded both the T-shirt and the tank in half lengthwise again, and marked where the back splits occurred, then cut those as well.

In my first try on after all the cutting, I realized that because the T-shirt is a little longer and lacks the side gores of the tank, the split at the bottom of the tank needed to come up a bit higher to give me a little more room on the hips. This was easy enough to fix by cutting up to the lowest of the back holes and letting it open fully.

In looking at the finished product, I did see a few places where sewing might add a little strength – the straps could be folded in on themselves and sewn down (which is how the tank is constructed), and adding some stitching at all the points on the back between each split could help as well.  But I wanted to see how well (or how long) this no-sew version would hold up when I actually wore it to run in.

And now a twist: I actually drafted and photographed this post over a year ago! I decided to hold off posting this project until the tank got some real-world wear, in case I needed to reinforce it with sewing after all. I wore it several times last summer, and while I still like my store-bought tank better (it’s softer material and a more fun color), my me-made tank has held up really well with no sewing reinforcement. I’m planning to convert a few more of my back-of-the-drawer T-shirts to running tanks this summer!

Have you ever done a no-sew upcycle with an old T-shirt? What did you make?

In Chicago, it is *definitely* not spring yet but we are getting above freezing more days than we are not now so I’ll take it.

Best Thing in My Brain Non-Craft Edition:

It’s almost garden season! I started tomato and pepper seeds at the end of February in my Orta self-watering seed pot. Orta pots are terracotta pots made in the US, after being unimpressed with my results with plastic seed starting trays (especially with how much they fell apart after just one use) I decided to invest in something more durable and, hopefully, more effective.

I highly recommend joining the Orta mailing list if seed starting/gardening in general are topics you’re interested in – Anne has a lot of useful tips and you get a heads up for the big once a year clearance sale in the fall (which is when I got my pot).

This year I mixed my own seed starting mix following Anne’s guide (and including my own compost), and I’ve got grow lights and a heat mat, so it’s a bit more of a production than previous years, but the photo above is just 10 days after I planted, so it seems to be very effective thus far!

Best Things in my Brain Craft Edition

This was a lovely feature on Knitty City, a New York City yarn shop celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It was very briefly my LYS when I lived on the Upper West Side in 2016 – I had a chance to meet Pearl, the founding owner, on one visit and she was a truly warm and memorable person even in our short interaction.

I also wanted to highlight preorders for a forthcoming book Sashiko: The Untold Story. The author, Atsushi Futatsuya, is the same person behind Upcycle Stitches, the website I found super helpful when first dipping into sashiko last year, so I’m excited to explore more of this craft with his guidance.

*The preorder link is an affiliate link at Bookshop.org; if you order through that link I do get a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

What’s the best thing currently in your brain?

If you’ve read this blog long enough, you know I love stickers. So when I opened the stationery shop last year, I always intended to add stickers as a product at some point. I thought it would happen last summer, along with the birthday collection but as my parameters (and world events) kept shifting, I just couldn’t find the exact right sticker.

The main issue, of course, is that I intend every item in the stationery shop to be as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible and your standard vinyl sticker just doesn’t quite meet the level of sustainability for which I am striving. So even at the beginning of my supplier research, I was looking for sticker manufacturers who printed with environmentally friendly inks and didn’t use vinyl or paper with plastic coating as the backing.

I thought I had initially found one in Sticker It . In fact, if you’ve ordered from the shop in the last year, you’ve probably received one of the test batch of stickers I ordered. These were printed on paper, and while great for giveaways, they weren’t durable enough to be a shop product. I also tested Sticker It’s eco-friendly glitter and hologram stickers, which are truly amazing, and for a time I thought I might actually go with those. However, Sticker It is based in the UK and while initially I put a full order on pause due to the uncertainty of the tariff situation, that pause helped me realize that I either wanted to find a vendor much closer to home (like my magnet vendor, who does offer stickers but unfortunately only vinyl ones) or, if that wasn’t possible, find a small, environmentally focused business elsewhere the US (like my card printer).

This is absolutely no knock on Sticker It, by the way, I have been very impressed with their environmentally friendly line of stickers and would recommend them if your needs are not the same as mine!

This is also not a dig at any shops that do source items from overseas -- it actually turns out that a lot of the best sustainable products come from vendors based outside the US (to say nothing of items like yarn dye and yarn itself that are very hard to source bulk wholesale from US based vendors). If I had not put that restriction on myself, I would have had stickers in the shop months ago (and probably sustainable writing pens, which I’m still working on sourcing). But because my shop is supplementary to my editing work, I have the luxury to take my time sourcing new products, and if I can support other US based small businesses at a time when tariffs,  Amazon listing products without permission, and rising costs in general are threatening our survival, it seemed like the best thing to do.

And then in September, my husband and I took a vacation to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to visit the Yerkes Observatory (already featured on the blog). After our guided tour, I walked into the guest shop to find a display of bamboo stickers. The display case sign indicated they were produced in the US, that they were waterproof and flexible, and, being bamboo, environmentally friendly.  I bought a sample and tracked down the company. Turns out they are a small family business in Hawaii  offering both their own designs and custom printing. And while yes, Hawaii is a long distance for a product to travel, it’s still half the distance from the UK to Chicago and gives me the chance to support a fellow US based small business.

I had the Craft All sticker test printed as a proof so I could check that their printers could handle the detail and color in the design, and when they passed that test with flying colors, I placed a full order. And now they’re available for you to enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look at what goes into sourcing an environmentally friendly product for my stationery shop. It’s not easy with the parameters I’ve set for myself – and there are definitely days I question whether I could relax those parameters just a bit – but ultimately I think it’s worth the effort to source sustainable products from US based businesses so I can get the best quality items to you, however long it takes.

Or, you think you have plenty of stitch markers on hand for a new project, only to discover you really need removable markers and you mostly have ring markers.

Luckily stitch markers are one of the easier things to make on the fly. Below are a few ideas for both ring style and removable stitch markers when you’re in a pinch.

If you’re not sure about the difference between ring and removable stitch markers, I discussed that in my last stitch marker post.

Spare Yarn

Spare yarn in a contrast color to your working yarn is a particularly easy substitute.  If you need a ring-style marker, simply tie the yarn in a small loop and use like a standard marker. This is also a great way to make markers if you’re working with a really big needle size (US 10/ 6mm or larger) and don’t have large enough ring markers on hand.

But you can also use spare yarn for crochet/removable type markers in a pinch! Just cut some short lengths of yarn and slide the ends through the stitch you need to mark without tying it off (you may need to use your crochet hook to help guide it through). This works best with wooly or “sticky” yarns – with plant fibers or acrylic the yarn might be too slippery and slide out of place.

Jewelry

Rings, obviously, can work as a ring style marker.  Earrings, if they are the looped clasp kind of closure, make such good removable markers that some indy stitch marker makers use the same clasps.  In a pinch you might even be able to use a bracelet or necklace with a C-shape hook clasp as a removable marker (although I’d only recommend this for very lightweight jewelry).

Of course, with jewelry you should probably only use items you can stand to lose, just in case it falls off! I used a very cheap ring as a stitch marker for years because it wasn’t something I wanted to wear as jewelry and yes, I eventually lost it.

Safety Pins (but only the coil-less kind)

Safety pins are another commonly used fastener for stitch marker makers but there’s a catch – it has to be the “coil-less” type of safety pin, as the more common (at least in the US) coiled pins can easily get caught in your yarn.  

Rubberbands/Ponytail Holders

Rubberbands or ponytail holders can be ring style markers in a pinch, however unless the circumference is very small before being stretched (such as a child’s size pony tail holder), these work best for projects with very large needles (in fact before I owned larger stitch markers I would use rubberbands anytime I was working with a size 13/ 9mm needle or larger). You can double them up to make them smaller but make sure they aren’t too tight on the needle to slide around easily.

Bobby pins

If you’re a bobby pin user like me, you know there’s almost always one in the bottom of every bag you own. Although best with lighter weight yarns (since they don’t have a large opening), these make great removable stitch markers – as long as you are just marking a stitch in the knitting and not trying to fit it over a knitting needle.

Binder clips

Not recommended for really delicate or fuzzy yarns (the edge of the clip can snag), but binder clips can make decent ring markers – it’s also a good way to use binder clips where one of the metal brackets has broken off, as has the one in this photo.

Twist Ties

This is another item I have used to make extra large stitch markers when working with large needle sizes.  I will caution that twist ties don’t have a long shelf life as a stitch marker, as just moving it around on your project does seem to make it wear out fast. Plus if the paper has worn away on the ends, the wires can snag your yarn. But if you just need something for a few hours or days until you can get home and get a sturdier marker, this can work.

Have you used any of these for emergency markers? Have you used other items I didn’t suggest here? Let me know in the comments!

*Friendly reminder that there’s no “right” size of a yarn (or fabric) stash – stash size only becomes a problem if you constantly feel overwhelmed and stressed out by it, whether that’s at a dozen skeins of yarn, at 200 skeins, or more.

Where I have a problem is my pattern stash. You see, not only am I the type of person who sees a cute pattern online (or being made by a friend) and goes to grab it almost immediately, I also love pattern books and had a subscription to Vogue Knitting from 2005 to 2015. I own so many patterns that I can’t actually remember what I have any more – especially since much of it is on paper and not stored in Ravelry or the pattern PDF folder on my computer. I also find I can only really keep 3 to 4 projects in my actual “to make next” queue at any one time or I just forget about them completely, and that includes ALL my craft projects: knitting, crochet, sewing, embroidery and miscellaneous.

As you may have noticed if you read my 2026 craft goals post, I set a goal for myself of knitting at least 60% new WIPs from a pattern I already own, and after looking at my pattern library, I’m going to expand that to sewing as well.

So to keep myself on track, these are my self-imposed rules for my pattern stash challenge:

1. Knit at least 60% new WIPs from a pattern I already own as of Jan 1.

2. Sew at least two projects from patterns I already own before I purchase any new patterns. I sew a LOT less in a year than I knit and I make a much lower percentage of the sewing patterns I buy, so I made some modifications to account for the smaller sample size.

3. Crochet projects are exempt from this challenge for 2026 because as a newer crocheter, I don’t own many crochet patterns yet.

4. Patterns that are free (such as Knitty patterns) or that are given to me for free this calendar year (for example in a designer giveaway or as a present) do not count one way or the other. I’m using the walk rule from baseball, where a walk doesn’t count for or against your batting average; I will track the number of free patterns I start this year but, like walks, I’ll put them out to the side when calculating whether I’m hitting the 60%.

5. Patterns that I buy this calendar year but do not actually start making before Dec 31 do not count against me. I want to be able to buy patterns I like and support independent designers and small publishers particularly. I’m not doing this challenge to cut down on spending, I’m doing this because I want to refamiliarize myself with the patterns I own.

6. I intend to start logging my pattern stash in an Airtable database – I’m using this one from Jane of All Fibres that’s available for free, with some modifications for pattern pattern tracking (I may discuss Airtable in a future post if there’s interest, but Jane’s blog is a great overview). If I make a pattern out of stash, I must log it in the database; if it’s in a book or magazine issue, the entire book or issue must be logged. I am hoping to add at least 100 of my written patterns to the Airtable database, but I may adjust this goal as I see how long each one of these patterns takes to add.

Size Inclusiveness Guideline: A large number of my paper knitting patterns are more than 20 years old and were published with pretty small size ranges. If I do choose to knit one of these, I will be upfront about the size range; I will also do a little research to see if an updated, more size inclusive version was ever published and link to that if it’s available. If there isn’t a direct update available but I can find a size inclusive pattern with similar characteristics I will link to that instead. I don’t know how often it will come up but I wanted to make it clear up front how I was going to handle the size restrictions that come with older knitting patterns.

My sewing pattern collection is much younger and tends to run in larger size ranges but I will always state clearly what the size range for any given pattern is in any accounting I do for this project.

I’m a slow maker, so my plan is to do roughly quarterly check ins to keep track of my progress. I may also pop in a few extra posts here and there if I notice an interesting trend or side effect of doing this challenge, to explain how the Airtable database is going, etc.

If you’d like to try this yourself, I’d love it if you’d post a comment here and on any subsequent posts in the series, so we can all support each other!

If you read last month’s newsletter, you know I’m working my way through seaming 99 crochet squares for the next Vintage Afghan Project installment. That’s, um, going to be happening for a while.

Best Things in My Brain Craft Edition:

One of the things I love about knitting is that if there’s a particular method you struggle with, there’s probably an alternate method out there that will make more sense to your brain. Kitchener grafting and bind off seems to be a particular frustration for a lot of knitters, and a couple of alternate methods have recently come to my attention.

First, I recently tried Italian Bind off for the first time. I knew of it for years, but since it was explained to me as “like tubular/kitchener bind off” I figured it wouldn’t be that different in execution. But what I found was that, because all the stitches stay on the same needle, Italian bind off sidesteps my biggest problem with tubular – that if I’m not paying really close attention, I accidentally work two front stitches or two back stitches in a row and then my bind off gets warped. I want to try it a few more times, but I think this might be my new go to bind off!

Also a tech editor colleague recently shared this video on how to do Kitchener grafting without a wool needle – just your existing knitting needles and a crochet hook or DPN! I haven’t had a chance to try it yet but I’m very intrigued.

Best Things in My Brain Non-Craft Edition:

Have you ever noticed that, no matter what kind of organization system you try, there’s always some object that doesn’t quite fit in the system? For me this is true whether we’re talking about organizing data in a spreadsheet or yarn in my stash.  Turns out, computer scientists have been tackling this problem for years and have concluded that there truly is no one best way to store information. (This gets very science heavy, but it’s worth it!)

What’s the best thing currently in your brain?

In this series we do a deep dive into items I check for in every pattern I edit, the most common issues I see, and how to correct for them.

Scenario A: You’ve found a gorgeous stitch pattern in a stitch pattern glossary or another knitting pattern, and you want to use it in a pattern of your own design. But the pattern is written for a hat in the round and you want to make a blanket that would be worked flat.

Scenario B: You love this cowl pattern you’ve seen on social media but you notice it’s worked flat and seamed. That seems unnecessary to you – but it shouldn’t be too hard to convert the pattern to work it fully in the round, right?

These are just two examples of why a designer or a maker might want to convert a stitch pattern from being worked flat into the round or vice versa. As a tech editor, I’ve actually helped clients do this!  However, this isn’t always as easy as it seems. The tips I cover in this post will help you avoid common pitfalls when converting between these two knitting methods.

My Two-Step Conversion Testing Process

Yes, you can just start knitting away and see how it comes out, but when I’m converting a stitch pattern for a client or checking their conversion, I recommend these two things:

Write it out both ways. If I don’t already have a version of the stitch pattern written for the method I’m converting to, I write it out myself. If I do have both versions (some stitch glossaries do already include both flat and in the round instructions), I take a really close look at both sets of instructions.

Test swatch the full method. This is not a gauge swatch, it’s a method swatch – you need to test enough stitches and rows to get at least 3 to 5 repeats of the entire stitch pattern in your test with edges that resemble the exact edges in your pattern. And yes, this means if you’re converting a stitch pattern to work in the round you need to do a full in the round swatch WITH the join – see point two below! You absolutely can just start a full sample if you like, especially if it’s something relatively small, but if it looks wrong you might need to start over.

I usually don’t knit the method swatch myself (unless I’m working on a personal project), but if I spot things during the writing out stage that might cause problems I will recommend that the designer test swatch first so I don’t edit the entire pattern for a stitch pattern that ends up getting changed again later.

What to look for when converting patterns

While I’m doing the two steps above, I look for any place where the converted instructions might need to be tweaked so the stitch pattern looks the same, including:

• Do there need to be changes in how the pattern instructions read? Obviously, if the pattern has stockinette rows in it, then in the flat you will have knit rows on the RS and purl rows on the WS, and in the round these will all be knit RS rounds. For more elaborate patterns with increases and decreases, that happen on a WS row in the flat (for example a k2tog, YO), you will need to decide if the lean of the increase or decrease is important to the look of the pattern – if you need a right leaning decrease, on the WS you will need a SSP, not a p2tog.

  There may also be times when you need to alter the row certain stitches happen on. I recently worked on a pattern using a tuck stitch in the round. The key part of that pattern happened on the 6th round, where you knit the current stitch and a stitch four rows directly below it together to make the tuck. If that pattern had been knit flat as written, the 6th round would have been a WS row and the tuck would have happened on the wrong side, making it look very different. Translating that stitch pattern into the flat would have required making sure the tuck stitch happened on a RS row; this could have been fixed either by starting the knitting on a WS purl row but keeping the tuck stitch in row 6 or by altering the order (instead of working 5 rows stockinette and the 6th row tuck stitch, work 4 rows stockinette, the 5th row tuck stitch, and then one additional stockinette row as the repeat – the tuck stitches would remain 5 rows apart so the spacing would look the same).

• Are edge stitches needed? If you have a flat pattern with stockinette stitches at the edge, for example, it may start curling in on itself. If the edge of that piece won’t be seamed to something else or have an additional edging applied (such as applied i-cord on a shawl), you might need to add a small column of garter stitch to keep the edge flat. If you’re working in the round, the default is to remove any edge stitches to keep the pattern continuous — but that’s not always the case.

  I once helped a client convert an older cowl pattern that was knit flat and seamed into one knit in the round. However, the pattern was in herringbone stitch. Mathematically it worked to translate it into a seamless pattern in the round and it seemed to work in a very brief test swatch (without a join, just doing the usual “pass the yarn around the back” style of round swatch). However when a sample was being knit we discovered that the join threw the diagonal herringbone pattern out of alignment and made it look very messy. We then tried putting a knit stitch at the end of each round to accommodate the slight jog between rows – this was much neater and less noticeable than trying to make the pattern seamless in the round, but the designer didn’t love it and ended up writing a new pattern that didn’t even use herringbone stitch! That’s why I now advise to test these types of conversions in a full round – you can’t always tell what’s happening at that join without working the join!

• Brioche, double knit, and other “reversible” knitting can be extra tricky conversions because you have to think about how both sides of the fabric are affected. I’m currently knitting a pair of Synthesia socks (Ravelry link), which have double knitting across the top of the foot (they’re designed to be reversible). This is the first time I’ve worked double knitting in the round and it’s quite a bit more complicated than working it flat. Since double knitting has no “wrong side” but instead has two layers of knitting with the right sides facing outwards, when you work flat, you are simply knitting the front facing stitches and slipping the reverse facing stitches on both sides. But working in the round, you never have the reverse side facing you. Instead, you knit and slip the outward facing stitches, slip all the stitches back to the beginning of the double knit section (since on this sock the double knitting doesn’t happen on the sole) and then slip and purl the inward facing stitches. It’s a lovely effect but it adds enough extra steps that I see why we don’t have many double knitted sock patterns!

  Oddly enough two-color brioche, which in the flat is knit similar to double knitting in the round (brk and slipyo the first color, slide the stitches back to the beginning, slipyo and brp the second color) actually gets a bit simpler in the round. You don’t have to remember whether you’re turning or not turning the row because you always come back to the beginning and you also don’t have to change the stitch pattern on the reverse side of the garment; where in the flat the main color is brk/slipyo on the right side but brp/slipyo on the wrong side, in the round the main color is always brk and the contrast color is always brp.  (This is why I often recommend that my knitting friends interested in trying brioche start with a hat; you can get familiar with the technique without having to keep track of which stitch gets worked on each side.)

Converting a stitch pattern from flat to in the round or vice versa is rarely completely impossible, but as I hope I’ve demonstrated here, sometimes you might have to make some tweaks or design compromises to make it both look the way you want and be feasible to knit.

Have you ever tried to convert a stitch pattern from knit flat to in the round or vice versa? Tell me about it in the comments?

A quick announcement in case you don’t follow me on my other social media – I’ll be at FIBRuary Indiana in Indianapolis on January 30 and 31, 2026! If you’ve been wanting to get a look at the stationery shop products in person, be sure to stop by (plus you can pick up a show exclusive postcard and some new products that won’t be in the shop until February)!

Best Things in my Brain, Non-Craft Edition:

I love cozy (and most often British) mysteries, but I have a hard time finding modern cozies that I truly love. So it was a delight to stumble upon Murder at Gull’s Nest by Jess Kidd (almost literally, I was browsing the mystery options in my library’s Libby app looking for anything immediately available to borrow). This novel very much has a Golden Era British mystery vibe but came out just last year. It’s not a fully light read -- everyone in the novel has a traumatic past, as you might expect from a novel set in the immediate aftermath of World War II -- but the writing is truly lovely and I’ve found myself thinking about its themes of embracing who you truly are and building a life for that person for days (for better and for worse) after finishing the novel.  It’s supposedly first in a series so I’m excited to see what the next installment brings.

*The link above is an affiliate link at Bookshop.org, I earn a small percentage of any sale at no extra cost to you.

Best Thing in my Brain, Craft Edition:

I’ve made a handful of fades and gradients in knitting projects but have not yet tried one in crochet, so I enjoyed this video from Daphne Frizzle about creating custom gradients in crochet projects. She gives a lot of useful (and not craft-specific) advice on the color theory of picking colors for gradients, but also includes some crochet specific advice as well. This is also apparently the first of a planned series on color theory and I’m looking forward to the next one!

What’s the best thing currently in your brain?

For most of my adult life I’ve had occasional eczema that is particularly acute on my hands in the winter. I have it more under control these days, but the one place I can’t get rid of it is on my right index finger, i.e., the finger that yarn slides across when I’m knitting. It’s not related to fiber content at all, it’s simply that the friction created by the yarn moving over my finger irritates the skin, and it gets much worse in the winter when my skin is just drier in general.

I suspect I’m not the only one who suffers from this problem, so I thought I’d share a few product recommendations for the things that actually work to both calm my skin when it’s at its most irritated and to keep it moisturized so it doesn’t get so bad in the first place. There are no affiliate links in this post and I am not sponsored in any way, these are legitimately products I use regularly.

Aveeno Eczema Therapy Lotion – I don’t have a photo of this, but you can find it at almost every drugstore and big box retailer in the US. It really does work and it generally lasts through at least a few rounds of handwashing. This is my go to when I attend conferences and I’m going to be washing my hands with super drying hotel soap frequently. (Plus it’s generally easy to find at a nearby drugstore if I forgot to pack it.) This is also a good product if you’re super sensitive to fragrances as it has basically no smell.

Lolo Body Solid Lotion Bar – I was actually put on to this brand by a knitter at a Vogue Knitting Live years ago, after I sat next to her in a class and she saw me putting lotion on my hands. They happened to have a booth at VKL that year, so I tried and was instantly hooked. Since it’s solid it’s also great for travel because you don’t have to relocate it to your TSA-approved liquids bag. It comes in teeny tiny travel sizes as well, which is actually what’s pictured above (you often get one as a sampler with your order). For the full size bar, you can order refill bars without having to buy a new storage tin — I didn’t take a photo of my full size tin because I’ve had it so long it has their old branding on it!

The lotion bar comes in a wide variety of light fragrances (my go to is Blackberry Sage), but their Plain Jane variety has no added scent. I tend to put this on my hands either right before I start knitting or any time my skin is starting to feel a little dry, but I’ve recently started using it as a “top coat” after putting other lotion on to help seal additional moisture in when the irritation is really bad.

I also want to throw in a recommendation for their lip balm which is the literal best and longest lasting I’ve ever used, and smells amazing (Vanilla Icing and Blackberry Pomengranate are my personal favorites).

Sallye Ander Heavy Duty Hand Therapy Cream – I’ve been a devotee of Sallye Ander’s soaps for years (they both smell amazing and make my skin feel great), and when I went to reorder recently I discovered this new product. I will say this one does have a pretty strong scent – it has a lot of essential oils in it – and it also has aloe vera, so if you’re allergic to that as my mother is, it won’t work for you. (I will say as someone who does have occasional bad reactions to “perfumy” and strong floral scents, this does not bother me at all.) I’ve been using it any time my skin gets so dry and irritated it actively hurts and it does a great job quickly soothing the irritation. You also don’t need much, so it should last me quite a while!

Caudalie Hand and Nail Cream – I’m linking to this at Sephora because that’s where I usually buy it. I usually wait until they have the gift set with three different small tubes in different scents because it’s a really good deal and I like being able to stash them in different places in the house or in my purse. This is really nice traditional lotion that I use as kind of a daily moisturizer for my hands – I just put it on once or twice daily in the winter even if my hands don’t feel that dry. It’s not as effective when my eczema is really flaring up but it does help keep it from spreading (left untreated my eczema will eventually spread all over my fingers and palms).

The rose variety (the pink tube pictured) has a little more of a noticeable scent than the others, but has never irritated me and I usually don’t respond well to floral scents. The other two varieties have very faint, lightly fruity scents but they are barely noticeable especially after the lotion absorbs. If you don’t have eczema and are just looking for some nice lotion for dry winter skin, this is a really nice product.

If you suffer from dry winter skin or knitting/crochet related irritation or eczema, I hope one of these recommendations is useful! If you’ve tried something else that works well for your skin, let me know in the comments!

As I noted last year, my concept of a “goal” is that it is a signpost you can move towards, but it can also be changed, delayed, or set aside as circumstances change. So this is not intended to be a prescriptive list of things I HAVE to do, but just projects I want to continue moving towards.

1. Try fabric dyeing. This is my one carryover from last year, as I never quite got around to attempting to dye my living room curtains. I’m definitely stuck on the research phase of this project – I keep looking up how to do it, but never fully committing. I really want to try to get this done as soon as it gets warm enough to work in my basement.

2. Knit my husband a sweater. I will be celebrating my 7th wedding anniversary this fall, and apparently that’s the “wool” anniversary. Sounds like the perfect time to knit my husband a sweater for the first time! (I’ve knit him hats and socks previously).

3. Start my wedding quilt. When we got married, we had our guests sign jelly roll strips of fabric, with the idea of making a quilt. Yeah, those strips are still hanging in my craft closet 7 years (and one interstate move) later. Now that I’m finally feeling more confident about tackling larger sewing projects, I feel like this is the year to at least start cutting and sewing some of those quilt blocks.

4. Knit more projects from my existing pattern stash. Knitters talk a lot about ways to use your *yarn* stash, but my larger stash by far is the library of patterns that I’ve purchased and never knit, including 10 years of Vogue Knitting magazines and a handful of Pom Pom issues. There’s a lot of great patterns in there! I’m not going to commit to not buying *any* new patterns this year (I know too many talented designers) but my goal is for at least 60% of the knit projects I start this year to be from patterns I already own.

5. Thrift an entire afghan’s worth of yarn. The Vintage Afghan Project is not a cheap endeavor, even when I’m waiting for sales and buying acrylic or acrylic blends. I’m going to try to thrift more of the yarn for this project in general this year, but I want to try to source enough majority wool blend yarn for one entire afghan, just to see how much patience it takes to source colors and yarns that will work together.

6. Crochet myself a garment. Last year I crocheted most of a blanket, a little pouch, and a witch’s hat (those last two are Ravelry links). This year I want to try some kind of top/cardigan/sweater for myself. I learn so much about crochet every time I attempt a new kind of pattern and I’m really curious how crochet garment construction compares to knit garment construction. The crochet patterns are exempt from the “work from stash” goal since I don’t actually own many crochet patterns.

These are not the only projects I’ll be working on this year – there will definitely be more Mending Lab projects coming, as well as more general sewing, but if this *was* all I got done this year, I’d consider it a pretty fun year!

Do you have any crafting goals for 2026?

1. Try sashiko mending/embroidery.  DONE! I chronicled this for the blog (Part 1, Part 2), and I’m still at work on embroidering my upcycled linen pajamas, so there will be a part 3 in 2026!

However, if you go back to that original post, the two items I listed as wanting to mend ended up not being appropriate for sashiko.  I did do a different kind of visible mending on my knit jersey shift dress, but it wasn’t really interesting enough to blog (I literally just sewed the holes closed with a contrast thread). Fixing that sweater is still on my list.

2. Try fabric dyeing. This is the one goal I didn’t do at all, although I have done a lot more research on how best to tackle cold-water dyeing. I should probably do a smaller scale project first – I think the scale and stakes of dying 6 large curtains that will hang in my living room windows is what’s intimidating me.

3. Crochet my first non-arumigumi project. DONE – and then some! The first project, as noted in the original post, was the crochet vintage afghan, first post here. I’m about half a dozen squares away from being able to join them together so a wrap up post will be coming in early 2026! But in the meantime I also crocheted a small pouch (from the Summer Crochet book by Janine Myska that I illustrated the charts for), and the City Witch hat from KnotBadBritt ! There will definitely be some additional crochet goals on next year’s list.

4. Replace my Weekender. DONE! I may write this up for the FOlio soon, as I ended up having to do some major recalculations when I could not get the pattern gauge with my chosen yarn. I got this done in time to wear it for the very last chilly weekend of spring, and I’m looking forward to having it around this winter!

 5. Finish off some of my WIPs. This is about 90% DONE. I picked out three long-term WIPS to finish – the Kernel scarf recently discussed in the FOlio, the second mitten from my Skeindeer Midwintdeer mittens (Ravelry link), and I am very very close to finishing my Festive Yoke Cardigan (Ravelry link) — I only have the steek and button band left, so it may actually be done by the time this post goes up!

I also decided to frog a pair of thrummed mittens I started, a pair of socks where the yarn was too busy to show off the intricate cables, and a summer top knit in Tencel yarn where I wasn’t happy with how the color was pooling. I already have a new sock pattern identified for the sock yarn and I’m considering looking at crochet patterns for the Tencel yarn as I think a crochet stitch pattern might not pool in the same way.

6.  Sew at least one item of clothing. DONE and then some! The absolute key in getting this done was finally setting up a separate sewing station in my craft room/office – being able to work on a sewing project in small chunks instead of having to spend a weekend marathon sewing so I could have my computer desk back on Monday made a HUGE difference (and also dramatically reduced my “sewer’s rage” incidents, because I could just stop when I started to get frustrated instead of feeling pressured to keep going). I sewed not only a skirt (that I’ve even worn out of the house a few times), but a couple drawstring project bags, and started a wearable mockup of a tunic top with pockets.  I also did a lot of skills for the first time, including inserting a zipper, making bias tape, using bias tape as trim, and sewing tucks and pleats! I finally feel like I might be able to start sewing clothes for my everyday wear- so definitely look for that content in 2026.

 I think 5 out of 6 at least partially done is pretty good!  I learned a lot of new crafting skills this year, which was really fun. Crafting was definitely an escape for me in a year where there was a lot of external horror in the world; if you’ve been following along this year, thanks for coming along!

Did you have any crafting goals this year? How did they turn out?

I’ve got a couple potential last minute gift ideas in the craft section this month, but a friendly reminder that there’s still discounted shipping in the stationery shop through December 18!

Also if you’re curious about the stockings in the cover photo, you can revisit my blog post about making those here.

Best Things in my Brain, Craft Edition:

KnitHello Font for Knitters

This very cool type face uses slip stitches to allow knitters to form letters without a lot of long floats. I haven’t tried it out yet, but as a knitter AND a massive font nerd, it’s definitely on my list to try! You can purchase the font and an e-book on how to use it at the link above.

Hot Dang Press Iron-ons

Hot Dang Press makes some really cute iron ons, from tiny embellishments to massive, full t-shirt size. These would be really cute if you wanted to liven up a solid color project bag. These would also be a great gift as is for a crafter.

Best Thing in my Brain, Non-Craft Edition:

I’m old enough to remember the Jim Henson-era Muppets as peak childhood nostalgia; I love the newer versions, too, but Great Muppet Caper is my favorite Muppet movie. I’ve long wondered how they pulled off the scene where all the Muppets ride bikes in a real-life outdoor park  – the answer is surprisingly simple and pretty delightful.  This video covers that and a few other JH-era examples of how the Muppets were filmed in the “real world,” some of which I’d seen before and others that I hadn’t.

What’s the best thing currently in your brain?

In this series we do a deep dive into items I check for in every pattern I edit, the most common issues I see, and how to correct for them.

Although I consider myself an advanced beginner sewist overall, I’ve known the basics of sewing for longer than I’ve known the basics of knitting – having two grandmothers and a mother who sewed and growing up as a dancer with a lot of pointe shoe ribbons and recital costume straps to adjust has given me a pretty solid foundation on basic sewing skills. Which means I’m always excited to be asked to edit a knitting pattern that includes some sewing – usually that’s inserting a fabric lining into a bag, but it can include adding non-yarn embellishments on a toy or garment, or a special fastener (I’ve done a few patterns involving putting magnet closures inside a fabric pouch then attaching that to the knitting).

When a pattern comes across my desk that requires sewing fabric or trim, I know there are extra elements in the pattern that will need to be checked. If you’re designing (or have designed) a pattern like this, here are some things to keep in mind:

Give potential makers a heads up BEFORE they purchase. Always clearly describe what sewing materials are needed AND what sewing skills are required on the purchasing info page for the pattern. Even if the sewing in your pattern is beginner level, not everyone has needles, thread, or fabric scraps handy so it’s good to let potential makers know if they’ll need to get additional supplies. This goes double if you are going to recommend sewing with a machine!

Use general sewing terms or provide definitions of any techniques. If you want non-sewists to feel comfortable trying your pattern, avoid using technical sewing terms like seam allowance or naming certain types of stitches (backstitch, hem stitch, etc.) unless you are willing to define them in the pattern (or link to tutorials).

Proofreading your notions list is extra important. Double check that the amount of fabric, length of trim or zipper, or the number of fasteners called for in the pattern are truly the amount you need. If there are buttons, the size called for should fit the buttonhole in the pattern.

I’ve edited patterns where the buttons listed had the wrong unit of measurement (a 5 cm button and a 5 mm button are vastly different sizes!) and where a conversion error resulted in asking for 4 feet of ribbon for a tie around a knitted doll’s neck (the designer’s original measurement was 20 cm, they accidentally multiplied rather than divided when converting and got 48 inches instead of the correct 8 inches).

 If the pattern will use small amounts of fabric or trim it can be helpful to list both the exact amount needed and the smallest measurement that can be bought pre-cut (a fat quarter, a half yard, etc.) so people can determine if they have scraps big enough or need to buy something. Also make sure if a certain notion comes in different varieties that you specify the best one. For example, if you want people to make French knots to embellish a pattern, you’d want to specify “embroidery thread” rather than just “sewing thread.”

Check with a sewist. Ask a friend (or tech editor) with sewing experience to read through your making up instructions. Sometimes when you’re thinking about assembly from a knitting/crochet perspective it’s easy to forget some of the extra steps fabric sewing requires – particularly when it comes to hems and finished edges.

I recently edited a small knit bag that had both a fabric lining and a zipper sewn in. Securing the zipper’s edges behind the lining while also adding the fabric lining and closing the knit square that made up the bag required a very specific order of steps. In the original pattern draft, the knitted sides were closed first, which matched instructions for a smaller bag in the pattern that didn’t have the zipper. In their desire to make the finishing instructions as short as possible, the designer had inadvertently made attaching the zipper much more complicated.

I suggested a change to leave the knitted sides open until the end, which allowed a maker to easily turn the bag inside out, pin and sew the zipper in, and then turn it right side out before fully closing the sides. It did make the finishing instructions a bit longer since the larger bag had to be done in a different order, but the sewing technique needed was much simpler.

Model the assembly while writing. When pieces need to be folded or seamed, one of my go-to methods for checking the assembly instructions is to use pieces of paper to represent the different layers (one paper labeled “knitting RS” and “knitting WS”, one labeled “fabric RS” and “fabric WS”, for example). This allows me to follow the folding or seaming instructions and make sure the correct side of each piece winds up in the right place. This technique once helped me spot an error in the assembly instructions for a lined bag that had a layer of quilt batting between the knit outer shell and the fabric lining – the instructions as written would have resulted in the quilt batting being the innermost layer (the layer you would have seen when opening the bag), when it needed to be the middle layer, between the fabric and the knitting. But juggling my three sheets of paper, it was quickly clear that a couple of edits were needed to get things in the correct order.

If you’re a designer, you may have finished the original sample for your pattern some time before writing up the pattern. Using paper to model the assembly as you write can help you decipher any unclear parts of your notes and ensure that the instructions you write will result in the finished object you designed.

Combining sewing techniques with knit or crochet can result in extra special finished objects, but it’s important to check your sewing instructions just as carefully as you would the knit or crochet part of the pattern. If you’re planning to design a pattern with sewn elements, hopefully the above tips will help you create a pattern that’s clear for both sewists and non-sewists to understand!

In the FOlio, I reflect on a finished knitting object and what the process of knitting it taught me.

Pattern : Kernel (FREE Knitty pattern)
Designer: Bonnie Sennott/Blue Peninsula Knits (website link)
Yarn Used : Knit Picks Capretta in Elegant (discontinued – I’m linking to the new version of Capretta, which is superwash, but this was the older, non-superwash version)
Knit from : Late 2016 to February 2017 and then finished in October 2025

Lesson: You CAN finish that long-languishing WIP, you just might need a little creativity.

As I try to wind up my crafting goals for the year, I’ve been going through the WIPs that traveled with us in our last move and finally making some frog or finish decisions. I initially thought my Kernel Scarf was a definite frog. You see, the reason I never finished this scarf in the first place is that my last skein of yarn went missing after Knit Picks discontinued the colorway. Although *how* it went missing is quite a story.

I started this scarf in late 2016, I think; for some reason I never started a Ravelry project for it, but I remember knitting on it during a visit home that December. In February 2017, we had a fire in our apartment building. Although we were lucky and didn’t have any fire damage directly to our apartment, the building was declared structurally unsound and our belongings all had to be moved out and professionally cleaned due to smoke damage. This took almost three months, during which time we lived with a handful of items in our new apartment. By the time we got our stuff back and unpacked and I started looking for this scarf, the last ball of yarn I had purchased had disappeared. 

For years I thought I’d just lost the whole second ball somehow, but in looking at the WIP recently, there was clearly a set of loose ends only a few inches before the end of the work, indicating I’d already joined that second ball.  I now suspect that the business that cleaned our stuff cut the ball of yarn off so it wouldn’t tangle and then lost it. (They also lost an entire box of items from our living room and felted a couple of my handknit hats and gloves because they didn’t wash them properly so they weren’t the greatest.) But since that color of Capretta was now discontinued, and I’d only worked 15 repeats of the 23 called for in the pattern (not to mention the entire upper edge was missing), I wasn’t sure what to do next.

I tried both contacting Knit Picks (just in case they had one random ball somewhere) and messaging someone on Ravelry who had a ball in their stash, but nothing turned up. Because it was such a small amount of yarn there wasn’t a lot of urgency for me to frog it and turn it into something else, either. So it just sat and waited.

But we’re now in the era of the Sophie Scarf and other cute, shorter scarves. And when I pulled the WIP out this time for assessment, I realized that if I unraveled enough of the scarf to knit an upper edging, I could make a mini scarf version of Kernel.

First, I had to track down the pattern – as noted above I hadn’t made a Ravelry project for this and I didn’t initially remember the name of the pattern, but I knew it had been a Knitty pattern. A moment of praise for Knitty and their twenty plus years of free archives . All I did was filter for scarf patterns, start scrolling, and in five minutes I’d found Kernel.

Upon reviewing the pattern again, I realized Kernel was ideally suited to the alteration I wanted to make. Since the final edging of the scarf was knit separately and grafted on, all I needed to do was figure out how far I needed to unravel the scarf to get enough yarn for the edging and then I could cut the yarn and wash it to relax the kinks from the previous stitches before starting the edging.  (When reusing yarn, washing it, or at least getting it damp and winding it on a swift or niddy noddy to stretch it back straight will give you a much better result when you knit it again.)

The first edging (pictured above) was not quite 5 inches long, but I suspected it would take more yarn to knit than the lacy body pattern (especially to have enough yarn for grafting). So since the body chart was supposed to end on row 15 of a repeat and I had stopped knitting in the middle of a repeat, I decided to back up 2.5 repeats, which was roughly 6 inches, and hope that would do it.

My best tip for picking up live stitches in a situation like this is to pick up as many as you can on the tip of the needle and only let them slide further down when they won’t accidentally pull on the stitches that haven’t been picked up yet.

After I got everything picked up, I somehow had one too many stitches! I must have made a mistake immediately before I stopped knitting. I did need to knit that final row 15, and luckily the extra stitch was in the first few stitches of the row, so it was easy enough to throw an extra decrease in and keep everything aligned.

Once I finished knitting, I cut the yarn and got out my niddy noddy to wind the loose yarn onto, then I got the yarn nice and wet and left it to dry. 

I also had to go find the beads that I’d used on the first edge! A few years back I organized my craft supplies and put all my beads in a specific tea tin, so I knew that’s where they had to be. Because they were so tiny I was pretty sure I hadn’t used them up in other projects (I mostly use beads for my tea towel calendars  but those beads are about 4 times the size), and sure enough, there they were!

Once the yarn was dry, I got back to work.  The trickiest part was figuring out which size needles I had been using before – since this project had been sitting around for nine years I of course had swapped out the original needle because I needed it for another project. Usually when I’m knitting accessories I use the suggested needle size from the pattern so I went with that and hoped it would work.

The other tricky part was trying to remember how I put on the beads. The pattern suggests using the crochet hook method, but when I didn’t have a crochet hook tiny enough for my beads I looked closer at the beads on the other end and suddenly remembered that I had used Laura Nelkin’s bead stringing technique (I don’t have any dental floss as she uses in that video, but a loop of sewing thread on a needle small enough to fit through the beads was an effective replacement). This is a particularly great method for a small amount of tiny beads. Once that obstacle was figured out it was very easy to finish up the edging, graft it on, and then all that was left to do was block it!

I’m really happy with how this turned out, and it feels great to have found a solution to save a WIP that seemed like it would be unfinishable.

If you have any WIPs that have been languishing for lack of yarn, I hope this FOlio inspires you to take another look at it and see if there’s a way to finish it after all. Or, if you’ve done something like this yourself, tell me about it in the comments!

I’ve been reading a lot lately, so the November Best Things is all about book recommendations! Please note, the Bookshop.org link in this post is an affiliate links, and I do get a small amount if you purchase.

Also, I hope you’re enjoying the new sidebar (or footer if you’re reading on your phone)! Most of my blog traffic comes directly to a specific post from Pinterest, so the sidebar will hopefully encourage a few of those folks to explore a little further while they’re here. Plus, the aesthetic gets me closer to those early 2000s craft blogs that I’m trying to bring back!

Best Thing in my Brain, Craft Edition:

I have recommended Ysolda Teague’s size charts to my clients for years as one of the more comprehensive, size-inclusive charts available for garment design. Recently the tech editor book club I’m in read Little Red in the City, which I missed when it came out initially. This is a great companion to those size charts and an excellent resource for anyone (designer or maker) who wants to make handknits that fit well! It is primarily written for makers (I’d recommend it for advanced beginner knitters and up), but designers dipping into graded garments will find a lot of food for thought here as well. She self-published this book, and you can still purchase the e-book from her website here.

Best Thing in my Brain, Non-Craft Edition:

The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black (Bookshop.org link)

This is possibly the best science nonfiction book I’ve ever read – definitely the best I’ve read in decades. This book has a truly unique structure — the first half is a narrative of the massive asteroid collision with Earth billions of years ago that caused the dinosaurs (and a large chunk of all living species on earth at the time) to go extinct, while the second half explains how the author collected the facts on which the narrative was based from current paleontology studies. The first half is a gripping tale, and the second becomes a fascinating look at both how scientific understanding of the time before human existence has evolved and how fossils and other geologic markers are used to help scientists come to that understanding.

I enjoyed this book so much that when my library borrowing period expired when I was halfway through, I returned it but immediately placed a new hold so I could finish it – I basically NEVER do this, but rather than try to rush through the last half I knew I wanted to give myself time to really absorb it, even if I had to wait for about a month to get it back.

What’s the best thing currently in your brain?

I knew I wanted to do a printable download for my subscribers, something they could easily print on their home printer. After kicking around a few ideas, I hit on the idea of a snail mail planner – a chart with spaces for each individual month, where you write in any birthdays, anniversaries, or other dates you want to send people cards for. My mom had one of these when I was a kid hanging next to our calendar, and it was really useful to see at a glance what days were coming up and plan your card purchasing in batches (even now, with electronic calendar reminders, I like being able to see the entire list at once  rather than one calendar reminder at a time). But I wanted a fun little illustration to go on the calendar rather than just a bunch of boxes.

Step 1: The Initial Sketch

When I start sketching an idea, I’m also thinking about how I’m going to digitize it later. Depending on how complicated the drawing is I might draw the final version in pieces and assemble it in the computer, but this little guy worked better as one complete sketch.  Once the rough sketch is complete, I clean up some of the extra sketch lines and places I’m not as happy with (I decided to redo that left eyestalk to be a better match to the right one, for example).

I should note that I knew from the beginning I wanted to do a “snail mailman” but I didn’t just draw this straight from my brain, I did look at a few reference images of cartoon style snails to help me get a sense of the proportions and ideas for tackling certain details (like the spiral on the shell). I like to mention that because I find one thing that intimidates people about drawing is thinking they have to spontaneously sketch an idea without any reference points — lots of artists use reference images or models to help get proportions or angles correct! I like using either image search or Pinterest boards, because I find looking at multiple reference images helps me come up with an idea that isn’t a copy, it’s a mix of elements inspired by different drawings and elements I came up with completely on my own (none of the reference images I looked at had a scarf, for example).

Step 2: Outlining and Digital Conversion

I don’t always outline my drawings before I digitize them, but for this project I wanted the lines to be very clean (vectorizing pencil gives a rougher sketch effect).

Vectorizing a hand drawn image or photo is done with a tool called “image trace.” I generally use Adobe Capture for this – it comes with my Illustrator subscription, and really simplifies the image trace process, but there’s many tools out there that do the same thing* if you don’t have Adobe. I will sometimes use Illustrator’s in-program image trace tool when I want more granular control over how the image looks once digitized, as the settings are more customizable.

*-Between the time I wrote this and when the blog posted, Affinity actually announced a new, free version of its Creative Suite that does seem to include some kind of image trace for the first time, but I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet.

Step 3: Typography and Layout

In addition to my mail snail drawing, I decided to hand-letter part of the wording I had planned for this project, and also draw a few simple envelope shapes. So once that was all vectorized and cleaned up, I did a little experimenting to get a layout I wanted. I’ll also note that, though I use Adobe’s tools to convert my drawings into vectors, I do most of my artistic illustration in Affinity Designer these days (unless a client specifies otherwise), as their tools match my workflow better.

While I often use an existing font and just tweak the proportions to get different effects, I wanted the word “snail” to be reminiscent of a snail shell in a way that would be simpler to draw (if you’ve seen my Sheep to Sweater wall hanging on Spoonflower , I hand lettered that entire title for similar reasons).

Layout, as it often does when I need to fit a certain amount of info on one page, proved a little tricky. Since I needed to get twelve envelopes for the twelve months on an 8.5 by 11 page and stay inside the .5 inch margins most home printers can handle, trying to figure out where to fit the snail and the title lettering took some experimenting. I was okay with a little snail overlap on the envelopes, but the tail kept covering more space than I wanted. It finally clicked when I realized I could tuck him between two rows in a way that looked like he was moving out from between them.

Step 4. Coloring

I am very indecisive about color and so I prefer to do all my coloring in the computer where it’s easier to play around with options. This time I made it a little easier on myself by using a combination of my brand colors and the colors from my Purlworthy card design, which I think pops really nicely in print.

I also want both a black and white and full color version of this document so once the layout was set I duplicated it onto a separate layer before adding color, to make it easier to work back and forth.

One of the final things I do when designing is to convert any special fonts I’m using to curves, as even if you embed fonts there are some programs that just won’t read them correctly and will substitute a default font (*cough* Google Drive *cough*). Converting to curves also occasionally causes some odd artifacts to appear in the pdf that aren’t visible in the design program; I like to use fonts with a hand-lettered feel, which usually means shapes with more nodes and thus a higher chance that there will be a conversion problem in the PDF. That didn’t happen this time, thankfully.

Because I intend this to be a printable object I also tested both PDF versions by printing them on my home printer to make extra sure no part of the design got cut off and that everything prints correctly — obviously, every home color printer is a little different, but some colors print with more or less saturation than how they appear on screen so I’m making sure the color palette seems balanced on paper. Also, this particular time it was the black and white version that needed adjustment - it was printing the word “Planner” as white ink when it was supposed to be reading it as a transparent background (and thus whatever color the paper is). But after making that tweak, we were all finished!

This Snail Mail Planner is now a free newsletter exclusive; if you’re subscribed to the newsletter you can download and print either the black and white version or the color version, whichever you prefer! I’ll be releasing this in the November 2025 newsletter (which goes out on the 13th), but if you’re finding this post long after that you can still sign up for the newsletter at any point and get access to the newsletter exclusives section of my website.

If you enjoyed this look at my design process, don’t forget I’m available for commissioned merch, logos, and all kinds of graphic design for small craft businesses (including pattern layouts, charts, and schematics). My Graphic Design Services Page will tell you more about what I do, or contact me to discuss your project!

If you aren’t familiar with Poshmark, it’s a reseller marketplace (both a website and an app) where individual users list items they have for sale. Most items are secondhand, although some items are new with tags; like most online reseller marketplaces you have a mix of casual users just trying to clean out their closets and people who spend serious time reselling as a side gig or full-time gig. Poshmark started as a clothes-only reseller but has since expanded to all kinds of categories including electronics, housewares, books, and yes, craft supplies.

With that in mind, here’s what you need to know if you’re new to Poshmark and are thinking about thrifting yarn:

Finding yarn you want can take patience.

Poshmark’s system is optimized for clothing sales; when it comes to yarn you can filter by brand/color/price, but not any of the filters you’d see on a normal yarn retailer website (fiber type, weight, etc.).  Because Poshmark also puts a heavy emphasis on images/video above text in their listings, many yarn resellers just take photos of the yarn labels and don’t write any of the relevant details about the yarn in the text. This means a lack of keywords, so if you try to search “worsted weight” or “100% wool” you might miss a lot of listings.

Searching “hand dyed yarn” did get a nice selection of indie dyed brands, although it also pulled any Lion Brand and Knit Picks lines that were marketed as hand-dyed and was dependent on the seller noting that it was hand-dyed in the listing. (And of course if you’re not looking for hand-dyed yarn, this won’t be useful.)

However, since Poshmark does put an emphasis on brand names, you can look up specific brands, even for small indie dyers. I found this the best way to find the yarn I was actually interested in without having to sort through listings I didn’t care about.

Most of the yarn is being resold in sets of multiple skeins, so you may also need to do a little research and math to see how good the deal actually is compared to standard retail. Sweater quantities are not in abundance here; I did sometimes see larger quantities, but most offerings were between 1 and 3 skeins. However, I did see quite a lot of discontinued yarns, so if you’re trying to hunt down a yarn that is no longer available through retail, there’s a chance you may find it here.

 Understanding how Poshmark works can get you a better deal.

Poshmark’s primary difference from other online marketplaces is a big emphasis on networking/social media-like behavior. Sellers are encouraged to follow each other and share both their own and other’s listings with their followers. You can also join live shows where sellers will auction off pieces (similar to TikTok streams) — although it doesn’t seem like there are many of these for craft supplies right now. As a buyer, you don’t really have to engage in any of this, you can just find a listing you like and buy it. That said, because Poshmark is very social-media structured, there are some specific things you should be aware of when you’re browsing that can help you make the best purchase.

If you have a question about a listing, you can comment on it asking for more information – although try to be really clear what information you’re looking for (just asking “is this worsted weight?” might not be something the seller will know how to answer, but “what are the yards and grams listed on the label?” should work better).  You can also create a “bundle” of items from the same seller so you can combine them for lower shipping costs – some sellers will offer additional discounts if you do this.

Liking a listing (clicking on the heart) will often get you a special offer from the seller with an additional discount and/or discounted shipping. If you decide to purchase the item, you can accept this offer or make a counter offer. Be aware that if the seller accepts your counter offer, Poshmark will process the order immediately, so make sure you’re truly ready to purchase!

Lastly, it’s generally considered rude to lowball an offer (for example, offering $10 for something listed at $50) – and might result in sellers blocking you. If you feel a listing is way overpriced (at one point I saw a single skein of Patons sock yarn listed at $30 when standard retail is $5-7), just skip it. The seller will likely lower the price themselves if it doesn’t sell.

Look out for scammers!

Poshmark does have pretty good buyer protections if you purchase through their website or app – when you purchase something, Poshmark actually won’t release your money to the seller until you receive the item and confirm it is what you were expecting. Because of this, a common scam is to pose as the seller for an item you’ve liked and ask you to pay them outside Poshmark for a “better deal.” Don’t engage with anyone who asks for this!

Another common scam is to pose as Poshmark Support and send you messages about “mandatory verification” for your account. This may be comments on your account or an email with a “verification link” that will allow them to steal your log in and potentially your credit card info.  Poshmark actually does send you an email asking you to verify your own email when you first set up an account, but you just click on the link and do not have to enter any additional information. This scam targets new accounts, so if you’ve just set yours up you’ll probably see a few such messages (you can block and report any users who do this).

As with any online marketplace, exercise caution, particularly if someone asks you to communicate outside Poshmark and/or requests log in or credit card details.

My First Poshmark Yarn Purchases

In my first foray into Poshmark’s yarn marketplace, I purchased 3 Lion Brand Heartland skeins and a 3 skeins of Blacker Yarns. (You’ll notice there are only 2 Heartland skeins in the photo — that’s because I’m already making something with one of them.)

The Blacker Yarns is an example of the best-case scenario yarn find on Poshmark. It’s from their Cornish Tin II line – a limited edition line put out in celebration of their birthday in 2016. It’s a high-quality wool/mohair/alpaca blend that can no longer be bought retail, and I was able to get enough to make a nice shawl or a hat and mitts set. After liking the listing at $60 and getting offered a discount to $54, I countered down to $50, which was roughly 35% off standard retail.

The Lion Brand Heartland is an example of the standard type of yarn you’ll find on Poshmark – mass market acrylic or acrylic blend brands, albeit at a significant discount. I liked this particular listing at $15 for 3 skeins and took the special offer of $11 as is because it was an extremely fair price, even cheaper per skein than the current sale price at Michael’s.

Would I recommend Poshmark as a secondhand market for yarn? Probably not if you’re *only* going there to buy yarn – at least right now, Ebay offers a bigger selection and it’s easier to search yarn-specific keywords on Ebay listings. The learning curve for negotiating Ebay’s marketplace is also much lower than Poshmark. But if you’re already on Poshmark for other reasons (as I was), or you are hoping to track down a specific yarn that’s been discontinued and didn’t find it on Ebay, you can certainly give it a shot.

What are your favorite ways to shop for secondhand yarn? Let me know in the comments!

How is it October already? I better finish up the hat I’m knitting my husband for handing out candy (mine is already finished) and then finally try to finish up the Yule sweater I’ve been working on for three years. And of course I’ve added the witch hat I’m crocheting for the Stitch and Bewitch MAL, and the Christmas decorations I’m knitting ….

Best Thing in my Brain, Craft Edition:

As I work on expanding my understanding of crochet, I’ve started dabbling in granny squares (over in the shop you might have spotted a few serving as set dressing in the newest shop photos). I recently stumbled across a YouTube video from Meema Makes with some really intriguing tips for improving the look of your granny squares, some of which run counter to the usual instructions (she does NOT advise starting with a magic circle, for example).

You can view the video on YouTube here.

Best Thing in my Brain, Non-Craft Edition:

My husband and I took a long weekend vacation to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in mid-September and toured the Yerkes Observatory. Once a part of the University of Chicago and host to such famous students and faculty as Edwin Hubble, Carl Sagan, and Nancy Grace Roman (NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy), it is now run by a local foundation that is restoring the site and developing programming to not only celebrate its history but also connect artists to the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. The building itself is an incredible work of architecture and the next time we visit, we’re hoping to be able to book the special 12 person tour that actually looks through the world’s largest refracting telescope (we took the standard tour that got to see the telescope but not use it). Highly recommend a visit if you’re in that part of the world.

The photo above is actually the dome of their smaller telescope but it really shows off the amazing architecture of the building. Here’s the actual refracting telescope from the inside:

What’s the best thing currently in your brain?

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In the FOlio, I reflect on a finished knitting object and what the process of knitting it taught me.

Pattern : Fair Isle Cardigan from Vogue Knitting Winter 2004/05 (you can still buy it directly from the designer via Ravelry)
Designer: Veronica Manno (Ravelry portfolio)
Yarn Used : Bulky/heavy worsted weight alpaca in black and white (brand unknown), Lion Brand Incredible in Rainbow (now discontinued)
Knit from : Winter 2004-2005 ish

Lesson: Sometimes you just have to frog and pick a new pattern.

Come with me on a journey to pre-Ravelry and smart phones … if you dare.  I’m joking, but this FOlio is going to be missing a few details, as it was so early in my knitting days I hadn’t learned why it’s useful to keep records of your knitting projects and yarn stash (and there were no easy internet tools with which to do so anyway). I can’t even search back in photos easily because this was when I was still using a non-internet connected camera and only taking photos that I wanted to purchase as physical prints.  I guess the side lesson of this FOlio is just how much technology has changed the way I manage my knitting projects in the last 20 years.

We begin in the fall of 2004. In the spring, I finished grad school, got a job, and moved into my first real adult apartment in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. (Yes, 20 years ago on an entry level university admin salary you could actually afford a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn even if it was much closer to Coney Island than to Manhattan.) With my first regular full-time paycheck, I did allow myself a couple of fun purchases, one of which was a subscription to Vogue Knitting.  I had been knitting for a few years at that point, mostly hats, scarves, and a couple of easy blankets for wedding presents, but I wanted to explore more challenging patterns and learn some new techniques – and back then magazines were the best way to do that.

My first VK issue was the Winter 2004/2005 issue and I was instantly hooked (to be fair, it was a truly great issue – there’s a pair of mitered square pants knit in Koigu that I *still* have on my potential projects list). The first thing I knit from that issue was a pair of over the knee colorwork socks (only my third pair of socks ever), which I promptly wore under my pants during snowy winters for years.  And perhaps the success of that project made me a little too overconfident, because the next pattern I decided to tackle was this one:

This is a jacket designed by Anna Mishka. I was struggling to build a professional wardrobe (particularly for cold weather) and loved the idea of knitting myself a cozy work-appropriate jacket.  So one September evening after work, I hiked across the East Village to a yarn shop on Avenue A for the very first time (I don’t remember the name, but it didn’t last much longer in that location), and purchased black and white bulky weight alpaca for this jacket.

I knew just enough about knitting math to substitute one type of yarn for another (the pattern called for a Stacey Charles/Takhi yarn), but I was years away from learning about grist or the differences in substituting one fiber for another. I also didn’t yet do gauge swatches and hadn’t realized that I was a very tight knitter; my dumb luck thus far had always resulted in finished objects that fit just fine. Also if you looked closely at the photo you might realize that this was knit in linen stitch, which has much less stretch than a stockinette garment, something I also didn’t know at the time.

I think you can all guess what happened next: I diligently worked through the pattern for the next few months and even sewed it all together (minus the buttons and the pocket) and then discovered that it was far, far too small. What’s more, I knew that to knit a larger size I’d need more yarn, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to buy more (a sweater quantity was a real splurge in those days). But I also wasn’t about to waste my first purchase of “fancy” yarn shop yarn, so I set about frogging the entire project and started flipping through the VK magazine to see if there was anything else I could knit with that yarn. And I hit on this one:

This pattern is by Veronica Manno, and the fact that it was primarily two colors of about the same yardage as I had available was a big part of its appeal. I also discovered that my alpaca yarn was listed as “Heavy worsted/bulky” on the label, which made me hope that it would work okay as a substitute for the worsted yarn called for in the pattern. Yes, I very well could have been heading for disaster again, but this time, it worked – although it did result in a very very dense fabric (this is truly more of an outdoor jacket than an indoor sweater).

But what about that third color of yarn needed for the fair isle section? At the time I had recently impulse purchased some of Lion Brand’s then-new Incredible ribbon yarn. I would actually go on to make a summer top out of it later, but I found myself wondering how it would work as a contrast to the fluffy white and black alpaca. Incredible is listed as a bulky weight yarn itself so I didn’t run into any massive gauge differences.

I did run out of black alpaca *right* at the end of the sweater – if you look very closely you can tell that the very tip of the bottom band is a slightly different black. I also had a lot of trouble getting the zipper sewn in. But when I finished it, it actually fit and I could wear my very first adult sized sweater.

This sweater is very warm. Because I knew nothing about installing a zipper correctly on a handknit (it’s very wavy when closed and about an inch short of the top) it looks better unzipped, but it’s still so chunky that it’s only appropriate for below 20 degree temperatures or as an outside jacket. But to this day, I love the way the ribbon yarn makes the entire design pop. Unfortunately I am not even close to the size I was at 24, so I haven’t been able to wear it for years. A couple of the teenage girls in my family are considering colleges near Chicago though, so perhaps I’ll pass it along if they need some warm outerwear!

It would be a few more years before I understood gauge and yarn substitution well enough to realize what had gone wrong with that first jacket, and that I got pretty lucky that the replacement pattern worked as well as it did. But successfully switching gears when the first sweater was a total failure hooked me on knitting for life – there are so few crafts out there where you can attempt a project this major and be able to just try again with the same materials if it doesn’t work out.  This experience made me a knitter who wasn’t afraid to try new things and that meant that a few years later, when knitting patterns and information became more readily available online, I was ready and willing to tackle any interesting looking technique I could find.

What have you learned since knitting your first sweater? Have you ever had to completely frog a completed project and pick something else? Tell me about it in the comments!

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