having a great life in spite of everything

The latest free pattern, the Scrunchy Rib Scarf. I started out working garter rib, and figured I’d cut the work down by working it as a 2×2 instead of 1×1 rib; and then every other row is all knit, so it’s really easy, right? Well, then I realized it tends to roll up. I thought that meant failure at first, but it bunches up around your neck in a kinda nice way. So I made another, cast on a few more stitches to make it wider, and went up one needle size (keeping the stitches a bit loose helps reduce the rolling just a smidge). It makes for an easy, low-stress project, which can be really nice at this time of year.

Next up, I’m about to reveal the felted dollhouse pattern I’ve been working on for weeks now. I actually did the dollhouse purse in the middle of trying to figure out the felted version, it was sort of a compromise solution. I realize now why no one has done a felted dollhouse and there’s no existing patterns for one, because it’s a bitch of a project! In fact, if the idea is exciting you, please lower your expectations. It’s really very basic, the thing that makes it so tough is how much the felting process distorts knitting, so getting the proportions to come out the way I wanted took some effort. And even with the testing I did, you have to block the hell outta this thing to make it resemble a dollhouse, AND it requires plastic canvas to give it proper shape. So, not a beginner’s felting project, and not for anyone who hates adding a lining or dealing with plastic canvas (which would be me on both counts, actually). I put so much time into it I thought about making it a pattern for sale instead of free, but honestly I’m not sure it’s good enough for that. Blocking is really the key to the whole thing, the pattern itself is pretty basic, really. So to make this one successful is going to rely largely on the skill of the knitter/felter working on it.

Anyway, that should be done in the next couple days. I hope.