The Journal

This is the writing side of the studio. Posts go up when there's something worth writing — a pattern that finally worked, a photography walk that produced something surprising, a crochet technique that took longer than it should have to figure out, occasionally a small observation about making things slowly. The posts are irregular. There's no publishing schedule, no newsletter cadence, no content calendar. When something comes up worth writing, there's a post.

The journal has been running in one form or another since well before this site existed. Some of it was on a platform that no longer exists. This is where it lives now.

Crochet and making

The most-read posts on this journal are the practical ones: technique explanations, notes on specific yarn choices, write-ups of how a particular pattern came together (or didn't, and what that revealed). The studio has been crocheting seriously for over a decade, and a lot of those years of working things out are scattered through the older posts.

Some of the best starting points if you're new here:

• Crochet Basics — a solid introduction to the fundamental stitches and how to read a pattern.
• Amigurumi for Beginners — a guide to the tiny stuffed animals that are some of the most technically interesting crochet work the studio does.
• Best Yarn for Beginners — the honest answer to the question the studio gets asked most often by new crocheters.
• Reading Crochet Patterns — how to decode abbreviations, understand diagram conventions, and follow a pattern without losing the thread.
• Weekend Crochet Projects — small, satisfying projects that can be finished in a couple of sessions.

Notes on the photography

The photography posts tend to be less instructional and more reflective. A walk along the river that produced a frame I'd been waiting for. The way morning light in February is different from morning light in May, and what that does to how the swans sit in the picture. Occasionally a post about the technical side — how I approach post-processing, what I look for when editing a wildlife shot, why I switched from one lens to another for the dog portraits.

The photography side of the studio works slowly and on its own terms. The journal posts match that rhythm.

The rest of it

Some posts don't fit neatly into a category. A few are about watercolour — the botanical studies and bird paintings, the particular challenge of capturing fur in paint when you've been photographing it for years. A few are just observations: a good piece of kit that turned out to be worth the price, a tool that didn't. The occasional longer piece about making things as a practice rather than a job, and what that distinction means after several years.

If you came here looking for something specific and can't find it, the projects page and gallery are good alternatives. Or email — [email protected] — and I'll try to find it.