The Best Things in my Brain, May 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.

I have started my very first crochet garment, the Fenix tank top from the Summer 2021 issue of Pom Pom (now available on Ravelry individually). I have of course made things harder on myself by knitting it with laceweight Tencel yarn held double instead of fingering weight yarn. I frogged and redid everything above the triangle on the bottom FOUR times – because it turned out the section I was struggling to figure out had a fairly significant error in it. Just a reminder to always check the publisher’s website/Ravelry listing for errata! (I am very thankful Pom Pom has kept their errata section up even though the magazine isn’t publishing any longer.)

(Also even though I said crochet patterns weren’t going to count in the Pattern Stash challenge, I want bonus credit for this one as it’s one of the very few crochet patterns I owned before this year.)

Best Thing in My Brain, Craft Edition:

I happened upon the YouTube channel Jane’s Dresses recently, and I’ve been really enjoying her videos – she focuses on sewing with repurposed and thrifted fabrics but the clothes she makes are just fabulous.  She recently did a round up of sewing books she has found particularly useful (both reference books and fashion history books) and I think I might try to track a few of these down for my own craft reference library.

Best Things in my Brain Craft Edition

I’ve been fascinated by the mystery of the vanishing colony of Roanoke since a very young age, so I of course watched this video with very compelling evidence of what actually happened to them. (Spoilers: often “local folklore” has some grain of truth in it).

What’s the best thing currently in your brain?