The first time I witnessed a roll up was at Urban Glass in Brooklyn. It was absolutely amazing to watch. The piece being made was a very large, and would become the globe for a lamp. I never saw the finished piece but the process was forever stuck in my mind. I used to think I really wanted to do roll ups. Then I had a dose of reality. I am not going to be a glass blower. My interests are in lampwork and kiln forming. Ah, kiln forming. That’s how a roll up starts. I’ve watched more and more roll ups and realized I could make a cool piece of glass and someone else can roll it up. So finally I got one done. It’s lovely and it was blown by Ryan Staub from Washington. He comes into town regularly to do roll ups over at Pacific Art Glass. In fact, he’s there right now. Doing roll ups. Check out this video from Eugene Glass School. Also you can check out an explanation of the process at Bullseye’s web site. And the picture is of the piece Ryan blew for me…
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Tiny Knits in Team Colors
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]