A stitch of whimsy

Invisible stranding, also known as ladderback jacquard 🧶 🧶 🧶

This is a technique for catching floats which is completely invisible from the right side. To work it, cast on an extra stitch behind the work and purl it on every round with the colour not in use. This creates an extra layer on the wrong side, like a spider’s web. When the pattern is completed, the extra stitch is eliminated by knitting it together with its corresponding front stitch.

This method is ideal for sweater yokes with isolated motifs and very long floats.

I once tried it on socks, but I wouldn’t recommend it for that purpose: the extra layer on the inside tends to catch when pulling them on…

You can practice this technique with square 28. The Invisible One of the Learn-to-Knit Blanket. Find the pattern in the book Learn to Knit in 50 Squares.

Here’s a simple bobble:

👉 kyok, turn, p3, turn, CDD.

But… I prefer to knit backwards instead of turning and purling. So this is how I do it 😉🙌🧶

Started stitching the Milky Way in. Slowly making progress on it as I am hiding the travelling thread so the back will look nice.

Progress on the constellation quilt has come along quite a lot now. Finished the binding on the quilt over the weekend. I prefer to machine stitch the binding to the front then hand stitch the back side. It gives such a nice finish to the quilt. Took the time to measure it also and it ended up being 72" by 72" (183cm by 183cm).

Behold the stars of the constellations of the northern sky! I love how this quilt has turned out. It was a lot of fun to work on and the effect is so cool in person. Overall I would estimate it took about 90-100 hours to complete. Give or take 10 hours if you want to count the time I spent custom dying the fabric.

I made sure to get a nice photo of it in daylight. For once I also remembered to get a quilt label on it. The back really shows the difference in readability of the quilting on the ice dyed fabric compared to the solid front. Thank you everyone that has followed this. I am glad you all found joy in it.

Working up this texture is soooo satisfying.

I made myself a sketchbook

Missed doing some embroidery

We’re living in very difficult times, and in the current circumstances, it’s easy to forget what we’re actually living for. Remember the day you first met your partner — how beautiful it was, how excited you were to see them. How you counted the hours and even the minutes until your next date, the moment when you could finally hug each other after such a long wait. These are some of the most wonderful moments of our lives — please remember them.

And if you haven’t found your partner yet, from the bottom of my heart, I wish you all the best in your search. There is definitely someone out there waiting for you, just as you are waiting for them.

Looking back at these terrible years of full-scale invasion, I’m sure that if I didn’t have my husband by my side, I would have lost my mind long ago. Hold on to each other. Hug and kiss often.

Happy Valentine’s Day, dear friends! 💛💙

And just a reminder — I have a FREE Kawaii Heart pattern! 💖

Experiment

Break all the rules (you'll learn a lot even in the cases where it turns out they were good rules)

Keep what works for you

Pay no mind to people who tell you it's wrong if you are happy with your results.

little tomato brooch, 2025