Bullseye’s on the Mark (Is that Cheesy?)

Most of my glass time is spent doing lampwork, making glass beads and for that I use 104 glass. The Italian stuff, Moretti or Effetre or Vetrofond with some American made Double Helix thrown in. When I fuse glass I use Bullseye glass. But Bullseye is more than a brand of glass. It’s a learning facility and studio and experience onto itself. They live for glass, with glass and are all about making it better for all the glass folk out there.

Every 2 years they throw a conference, BE Con, and 2009 was recently held. One of my glass buddies, Mickey Stuewe, attended this years conference and I plan to speak to her to find out what she learned and experienced there. I’ll post that conversation here. In the meantime, go to Bullseye web site and see all that they have to offer. They’re in Portland, Oregon and offer classes and put on exhibits regularly. You can also find really great information on the web site about glass and fusing as well as the other techniques they teach and know alot about.

And of course there is their selection of glass and other glass products…oh the colors. Yum! And the variety. Sheet, rods, frit in different grades, billet. What to do, what to do? I’m nuts for glass and if you are too you need to check out Bullseye.

For years now Berroco has been releasing a tiny set of Christmas ornament knitting patterns, often modeled on human-sized clothes, called Minutia. The ones for this year haven’t come out yet, but somehow I missed last year’s so I wanted to share them, as well as a fun little twist they offered.

The general 2025 Minutia patterns include a circular yoke sweater, a two-color stocking and a ribbed earflap hat. They’re super cute and perfect for using little (or should I say minute?) amounts of yarn left over from other projects. Make them in Christmas colors or whatever you have on hand. Even if you don’t have exactly the same yarn weight, you can still make these cute additions to your holiday decor.

But what really caught my eye while I was on the Berocco site was the Team Colors Minutia, which are actually different patterns so I’m not even sure when they were released, but they are definitely worth talking about.

These patterns include a little raglan sweater with stripes and a stocking cap with contrasting pom pom.

They call for sport weight yarn, but again you could use sock or DK if that’s what you have in the right colors. And here the right colors are important because you’re stitching your team colors.

Or anyone else’s team colors.

I immediately thought that this would be an amazing holiday gift for someone who you never know what to get but who also happens to like sports. Or has gone to a university that has colors.

Another option would be to leave off the stripes and add a number in duplicate stitch if you or the person you’re knitting for has a favorite player. Or stitch a letter or a tiny version of the team logo on the front. There are lots of options!

If you make these, I’d love to hear what you did with them!

[Photo: Berroco]

Have you read?