Bonnie Boy

We had our first thunderstorm of the season the other day, and everything is slowly waking up. I mean everything in this “on the way home” photo still looks dried and crusty, but the damp layered landscape really matched the yarn I’ve been using in a cardigan.

This cardigan specifically, the Bonnie cardigan. I making mine a Brown Bonnie Boy for my husband.

Yarn is a deep stash pull, from Cascade, called Rustic. It’s a 80% wool / 20% Linen blend in the colorway walnut.

..Not changing a whole lot from the pattern as written..

I’m adding around 8” to the body, for a length from underarm of 17”, before adding the hem. Also I’m not splitting the hem, but did add the decorative horizontal chain (the same one you see around the cuffs just before the ribbing). I stopped decreasing the sleeves after the first set, for a little more ease through the forearm, adding some extra length there too. As I’ve said before, sleeve island on a men’s cardigan is rough, yeah, I’m a slow knittter, but can we just say gorilla arms ..sheesh.

Oh as usual, I’m also flipping the button band so the buttons are on the right/ buttonholes left (traditional menswear), with the added body length my buttonhole total jumped to 9. I couldn’t get the one row buttoneholes described in the pattern to look nice or open up very much, so I ended up working a regular buttonhole instead.

..ok maybe I changed a fair bit..

I don’t do much extra when sewing on buttons, sometimes all you need is a smaller button or a little pad of wool felt on the reverse, to keep the button stable and secure, sometimes not even that. I always use sturdy thread and occasionally will sew over that with the matching yarn without any issue.

I made the size 7 (55″ chest), total yards used 1372. It wasn’t until I was completely done and blocking it that I noticed this yarn had subtle stripes in the nicest Freddy Krueger goes to college kind of way.

These are here because they too match that layered “on the way home” landscape.

Or in a more disgusting and again slightly disturbing Freddy Krueger-ey kind of way, carved bone, or a tooth, or beefy gristle with their dirty brown opalescent transparency.

It’s actually Jupiter (the planet) that’s what the color swirl was supposedly inspired by ..maybe it’s both..  a little bit cosmic and a little bit grandma’s Sunday pot roast.

known for

Maybe best know for my sewing? Maybe my photos, flatlays, collections or is it my chalklegs/amanda esthetics? I was once told by someone they can always spot which photos are mine without even looking for my name. A compliment for sure, right? I’m meticulous by nature and do love a quirky but cohesive look. Also I have been thinking would it be weird to be known as my actual name in these online realms and not chalklegs? Do people even know my name? Yeah it’s on every photo, but do ya know, would ya know, would I even want that?

Ok, most known for my bags? My charms, my cute stuffs? I sewed this tote bin for sitting on my dedicated project shelf, it’s perfect for lugging around. Both sides have a simple outter pocket while the inside has a more custom pocket layout with spaces for patterns, pens, pencils and all my notions. It’s roughly H=8″ x W=9½” x D=6″.

(Feeling microscopic ❤ but still trying to be human.)

Not at all known for blue, except maybe this grey/blue or possibly a dull navy.

Am I known having all the crochet hooks? Yes.

Shawls? Well yeah. Made another no pattern granny, only this time using 1400 yds worth of lace weight tencel and that E/3.5mm matte onyx hook.

Known for pickles, all sorts. Side note: I used to make homemade pickles, and at the time, when we brought them places or gave them as gifts, no one believed they were homemade simply because they were crinkle cut. But friends, I’ve had a industrial mandolin since before it was cool.

one last thing

This dresser is one of our top 3 things to decorate. A real Christmas wish would be for those Avon wax carolers to magically still smell like cinnamon.

P.S. I basically have to become a vampire to not be in the shot.

I originally made this way back in 2009, when I first taught myself to crochet. 16 years later (stumbling across the old crumply printed pattern while organizing my new craft space) it became my December 2025 favorite thing to make. I think I crocheted over a dozen!

Next year, every cane on the tree will have a frilly little sleeve to live in and I’m so excited, they are just so sweet. They are giving off that 1990’s version of victorian inspired crochet, and we love that. The pattern has a copyright of 1997, so yeah makes sense.

I added a top loop for easy displaying/hanging, skip the loop and they can of course still be hung like regular candycanes. I also slipped them under ribbon tied packages and they became the most adorable gift toppers ever.

I’ve had so many people tell me that their grandmas used to make something similar using strips of eyelet lace and weaving the candycanes through the openings. I love grandmas and semi-sad holiday nostalgia stories shared through teary eyes.

Pattern: Victorian Candy Cane Cover by Cylinda D. Mathews (Available on Ravelry)

Christmas 1987 I got a keyboard and it came with the song “Just The Way You Are” by Billy Joel preprogrammed on it. Turns out I was never going to be in a synth band, and it’s the only song (intro) I ever kinda learned to play. I also remember thinking what a weird song to have loaded on there.

It was a far more advanced keyboard than I was looking for, when all 12 year old me really wanted was to be able to record my voice and playback harmonic swears set to chopsticks.

I also became proficient at the knuckle song all thanks demo Billy Joel.

We recently came across that old keyboard in a closet during the great clear out/room move and it still worked!

I took 2025 slower than most years, not intentionally and in reality the time passed as quickly as it always had, this year it was me, I was slower. Less making, less buying, less stuff, less going, less here, less there, less interest in things that were once interesting enough. I might be entering the most chill/unchill point that I’ve ever been at in my entire life. Just ask around.

🤍

About to kiss 2026 on the cheek, may it be exactly what you want/need it to be.