Uber geek Joyce of Troutgirl has started up a place to be uber girly – meet Troutgirly. She is into some hard core knitting, I’ve seen her in action and it boggles my chunky rectangle knitting mind. She has up some great stuff on Shetland shawl construction, its tradition and changing construction techniques in the face of modern knitting tools. As she says it “might be helpful if you’re idly considering knitting something big enough to cover your entire upper body but fine enough to be drawn through a wedding ring.” Also take a look at her notes on the Spider Queen shawl and a Shetland Seas stole.

All that and she tells us how to make you own temporary micro vacuum, using duct tape and a bendy straw, to clean out your computer or sewing machine.