The Best Things in my Brain, August 2026

I’ve always been a person who loves to learn and find new things and share them with others, but these things don’t always warrant a full blog or social media post. So I’m offering a once a month, short and sweet post on the best things I learned, read, heard, or saw recently.

Can you believe I’ve been posting this series regularly (aside from the occasional vacation break) for over a year? If you’re ever interested in flipping through past recommendations, you can always click on the “Best Things” tag above this post to see all past posts in this series.

Since I was on craftcation (it’s a staycation but you do all the crafts) last month, we’re doing an all crafts edition Best Things this month!

Best Thing in my Brain, All-Crafts Edition:

Up first, a couple of my yarny colleagues (designer Lauren Rad and yarn dyer Megan Granger) are teaming up on this very cool hat pattern and lovely pink yarn to help a friend pursue her Olympic dreams.

Ysolda Teague’s sizing charts for knit and crochet designers are one of the first things I recommend to my tech editing clients that are new to garment design. Last month she posted an extensive update to her women’s size chart, with an expanded size range over 2”/5 cm intervals and bust measurements for different cup sizes. You can download the spreadsheet for free at her website.

Purl Soho also posted a button sizing chart to help you convert between imperial, metric, and ligne (and older measurement you may see particularly when dealing with vintage patterns or buttons).

Adam Savage visits the National Parks Service archives and gets an up close look at the amazing graphic design of their historic posters and other ephemera. Not gonna lie, those hexagonal parking permits and some of those fonts are giving me design ideas for the shop!

And finally, I know it hasn’t been that long since I last featured Jane’s Dresses, but Jane recently did a project involving drawing with silkscreen paint on fabric and it’s such a cool idea. I also love that she leans into the idea of not extensively sketching out the design beforehand so that the spontaneous decisions she makes while drawing is part of the finished art.

What’s the best thing currently in your brain?