2013 has been one crazy non-stop year! I love making these annual reports – it’s a way to take a step back and really see what I’ve achieved in the year. Until I started this post, I felt like I hadn’t accomplished much this year apart from the new book (which will unfairly count as […]

What an amazing year 2012 has been! Even though I’ve been exceedingly busy behind the scenes, when I look at all my 2012 patterns, I feel like I’ve made a lot of artistic progress in my designs this year too: PlanetJune 2012 crochet patterns In 2012… I created 25 new crochet patterns – a mix […]

I’m quite happy to bid farewell to 2011: although I’ve had some amazing experiences over the past year, it’s also been the most bizarre and difficult year of my life. Trying to keep my business going while moving halfway around the world and coping with 6 months of illness has been a tremendous struggle, but […]

Can it really be 2011 already?! The past year has just flown by. My second full year of self-employment, and I really didn’t know how things would go: could I build on my 2009 success and continue to grow my business? At the start of 2010, I was buried deep in writing (and illustrating, and […]

It’s hard to believe that 2009 has ended and I’ve been self-employed for a whole year already! My resolution from last year was “to give myself the chance to succeed, but to not beat myself up about it if things don’t go as well as I hope”, and I think that was a good resolution […]

I’ve been experimenting with various mask sewing patterns since April. With the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19 imminent as schools start up again, I decided to spend part of my Labour Day long weekend making a batch of masks I’ll really enjoy wearing, now I’ve settled on my favourite design. This is the […]

Did you know there are now two new additions to the Susan Bates hook line? I had to investigate, and got out all my SB hooks to compare the new styles with my classics: Susan Bates crochet hooks have always been my favourites, because I find their in-line shape makes it much easier to make […]

As always, I was not compensated for this review, and the following is based on my honest opinions! Overview Making Pipe Cleaner Pets by Takashi Morito was originally published in Japanese, and has now been translated into English. I’ve previously reviewed another translated-from-Japanese craft book (Crafting with Cat Hair) and, like that book, this is […]