hermit-home

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Lifted increases are a good alternative to “make one” increases, whenever you need neat symmetrical increases in stocking stitch.

For a right lifted increase, pick the right leg of the stitch below the stitch on your left needle.

For a left lifted increase, pick the the left leg of the stitch 2 stitches below the stitch on your right needle.

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getting back into knitting is great because then you can discover things like: knit this cool lacework! it won't cost your soul!

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[guy who hasnt drawn in a few weeks voice] yeah the world is horrible and life is agony

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the rest of my socks from before I started this blog

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Handspun and handwoven alpaca table runner!

This piece turned out so lovely and I can’t wait to make more of them. I love the rustic, chunky handspun yarn that really celebrates the texture of the fiber paired with the linen warp and a touch of gold for refinement. It’s a perfect match for the candlesticks and green tapers that I’ve been wanting to keep on the table to make meals more of a sit-down ritual.

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I picked up an Ashford Country Spinner recently for chunky yarns and decided she needed a personal touch!

I’ve named her Ava.

She currently has 15 warbler species and a Hermit Thrush completed, but I’ll be adding more on other surfaces little by little! I went with a heavily simplified, pretty stylized style and I’m loving how it’s turning out.

The next few I’m working on are all 4 species of North American nuthatches on each side corner

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My magnificent child is finished!! Took me all winter!! More pics soon once she is blocked.

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Tiny sweater complete! I’m so proud of how this turned out

Making a baby sweater for a dog nerd friend with her dog on it

Sweater body is 100% cotton because she lives in California and doesn’t need wool-level warmth, but it still gets chilly on the coast, so something cozy for winter will be nice. Plus cotton is machine-washable, helpful for tiny humans who make not-so-tiny messes.

Duplicate stitch embroidery is a new technique for me and I LOVE IT. Excuse me while I embroider stuff on all my knitwear because it is so much easier than trying to mess with intarsia or stranded colorwork for something simple like this.

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Progress! Embroidery finished and sleeve #1 done.

I’m kind of obsessed with baby sweaters and how quickly they knit up.

Fairly certain this is one of the first, if not THE first, Drentsche Patrijshond baby sweater, specially made for a friend of mine that is a preservation breeder of this wonderful rare breed.

Making a baby sweater for a dog nerd friend with her dog on it

Sweater body is 100% cotton because she lives in California and doesn’t need wool-level warmth, but it still gets chilly on the coast, so something cozy for winter will be nice. Plus cotton is machine-washable, helpful for tiny humans who make not-so-tiny messes.

Duplicate stitch embroidery is a new technique for me and I LOVE IT. Excuse me while I embroider stuff on all my knitwear because it is so much easier than trying to mess with intarsia or stranded colorwork for something simple like this.

[hermit-home]

Making a baby sweater for a dog nerd friend with her dog on it

Sweater body is 100% cotton because she lives in California and doesn’t need wool-level warmth, but it still gets chilly on the coast, so something cozy for winter will be nice. Plus cotton is machine-washable, helpful for tiny humans who make not-so-tiny messes.

Duplicate stitch embroidery is a new technique for me and I LOVE IT. Excuse me while I embroider stuff on all my knitwear because it is so much easier than trying to mess with intarsia or stranded colorwork for something simple like this.

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All done! Looks how sweet it turned out! It’s a different kind of satisfying to finish a project with handspun.

Working on my first real handspun project! A little striped baby sweater. All of these yarns were spun on my kick spindle except the cuffs, which is local millspun merino.

The blue/green/teal stripes are two different fractal spins of the same “Lost Coast” polworth braid from Wee Chickadee on Etsy

The white stripes are a shetland tweed with inclusions from the polworth singles that were left over after plying to tie the colors together, spun woolen from rolags that I hand carded myself. It’s extra fun to be knitting with the white shetland, as the wool was from my grandmother’s flock!

[hermit-home]

Working on my first real handspun project! A little striped baby sweater. All of these yarns were spun on my kick spindle except the cuffs, which is local millspun merino.

The blue/green/teal stripes are two different fractal spins of the same “Lost Coast” polworth braid from Wee Chickadee on Etsy

The white stripes are a shetland tweed with inclusions from the polworth singles that were left over after plying to tie the colors together, spun woolen from rolags that I hand carded myself. It’s extra fun to be knitting with the white shetland, as the wool was from my grandmother’s flock!

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Made this tiny fuzzy sweater

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May your demons slumber and your wine glass be full

The holiday stag is back!!

I did this design two years ago and every year it’s gone viral without crediting me. There’s another Tumblr account here that has 300000 notes on it and the original poster didn’t credit me meaning I’ve lost out in a ton of potential sales. Pleeeease, if you retweet or repost an artists work, credit them! It helps them so much! Every penny I make comes from my artwork!

Thank you darlings <3

Buy the card here https://www.redbubble.com/people/wolfskulljack/works/13137929-may-your-demons?asc=u&p=greeting-card&rel=carousel

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Do you like vintage scientific illustrations?

Do you like not spending huge amounts of money on them?

This website has a huge collection of high quality vintage illustrations that you can download FOR FREE

They got pretty much everything!! Vintage maps, mushrooms, flowers, trees, bugs, birds, corals, fish, palm trees, feathers, tropical fruits, you name it!!

They even got some works of my dude Ernst Haeckel on there!!!!

I could go on and on but I suggest you check it out yourself. Personally, I will be covering my entire apartment with these once copyshops are open again. But even if you don’t want to do that, just browsing all these beautiful illustrations is a great way to spend your time. 

Have fun and stay save!

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I'm knitting in the corner at a party

and guys my age stop by to tell me I remind them of their aunt, of their grandmother. This is a compliment and I take it as such. They confess to having tried crochet once, and I smile. They get back in line for the bathroom.

I'm knitting in the corner at a party and a queer woman sits on the floor next to me, arranges her skirt, and smiles up at me. (I try not to blush.) She asks me all the questions on her mind about my craft and I answer them, hands still moving. We swap yarn sources. She doesn't stay, but she knows where to find me.

I'm knitting in the corner at a party and everyone knows where to find me when they need a minute, when socializing is too much and the music is too loud and they need to catch their breath. They pretend to be checking in on me, which is sweet, but I can see the relief in their eyes the moment they stop performing for a house full of people. They sit down and tell me things and all the while they never take their eyes off my hands.

The party has wound down and I'm still knitting and the hosts, two guys in their twenties, thank me for "helping to curate the vibe." I had no idea that's what I was doing. I leave the party having forgotten to drink anything and without that woman's number but with many rows added to my top-down raglan sweater. I call it a night, and a good one.

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There is a lot of information out there about weaving, crocheting and knitting, but relatively little about spinning.

Which is a shame, since spinning is really where the "resource provided by the earth" tangibly becomes "object with a use."

Aspects of spinning, such as the amount of twist and the length of the fibers, are impactful upon the thread or yarn created, but lots of fiber crafters don't get to directly play with those variables...

It is so strange how textile production is so utterly dominated by very few fibers, when so many are possible. Industry keeps coming up with new ways to transform bamboo or something into fibers, which is all well and good, but we have yet to run out of easily usable natural fibers that have worked for thousands of years.

Dogbane—Apocyonum cannabinum—was called "Indian hemp" because it was used by Native Americans for ropes, cords and textiles. It's incredibly strong, soft, and easy to collect large amounts of it. But hardly anybody uses it.