Y'all. Last week I saw The Long Walk and I cannot stop thinking about it. It will ruin your life. Don't look away. youtu.be/vAtUHeMQ1F8?...

Dear @normwilner.bsky.social, I have an answer to how audiences might receive THE LONG WALK, as I naively suggested my friend and I go see it in a small BC town on the last evening of our road trip this week. 15 minutes in I leaned over and copped to having made a grave mistake...

It is a special kind of 2025 *chef's kiss* that as I was finalizing and sending a shipping update to around 4,000 people, I received the first email I recall seeing from Canada Post about the system they rolled out with NO INFO a few weeks ago, causing panic and confusion everywhere. Lolololol.

We all know ‘tragedy’ comes from Greek. ‘tragos’ = goat ‘aeidein’ = to sing So ‘tragedy’ originally meant “goat song.” Not to be confused with the GOAT song, which is probably “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman.

2025 has thus far been an absolute slog of best laid plans being torpedoed by any number of factors beyond my control but I am happy to say that at least for this one (1) day, I am waking up to a feeling that I've wrangled my corner of chaos into something I can work with. It is a marvellous feeling

A literal generation missed out on having a school in this gorgeous, dense neighborhood due to the province's failure to pay for building it and their commitment to playing ugly politics with the city and school board. Now (no doubt very few) people who live there are NIMBYing it??

Got an email at the end of the 2nd week of school that "due to the lower-than-expected enrollment across the Vancouver School Board, schools have been asked to reduce the number of classes currently running" and this might affect my kid. Email says this is "not typical" but also "not unusual"????

I wrote a book to help you navigate the strange and wonderful world of writing and publishing books. It covers everything from how to write a query letter to how to write your next book. Get it wherever books are sold! bookshop.org/p/books/writ...

We now have review copies of my Math for Knitters book available. Do you have a podcast and would like me to visit to chat about it? Or do you want to review the book? Give me a shout!

Despite what some adults seem to think, teenagers are fully human.

Yesterday I told my husband I was nervous about chairing a meeting today because it had been a long time since I'd done it. He didn't glance up from his book when he replied, "No it hasn't been that long and also you've been chairing meetings since you were 15." And I was like, "Oh, right."

9/11 2001 was my first half-day working as a substitute teacher in Delaware. My day started late and was to end early. The towers had already been hit when I left for work in a daze. They fell not long after the classroom filled with 9th graders. One called me over and asked in a terrified whisper—

It would be really lovely if the Vancouver School Board stopped posting there. (Also if they stopped sending PDFs instead of a format readable on a phone 🙄)

The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.

Our pals at @microcosm.bsky.social are highlighting their Canadian authors and celebrating the free exchange of ideas across borders ❤️📚💡 microcosmpublishing.com/top-lists/267

Any crafty US friends want to help a small press test their shipping options and get a free book? Lots of fibre-related books for #knitsky, #crochet, #weaving #felting and others!

A rabbi (@avtherav) and a Palestinian (@YafaSakkejha) walk into a podcast studio. The CJN welcomes a new limited series, debuting Fall 2025. Sponsored by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, with support from the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation. #Podcast #Interfaith

The major issue with the end of the de minimis exemption is brokerage. Small businesses who don't routinely send large shipments over the border may have no experience whatsoever with brokers and how they work, because orders under $800 USD used to enter the U.S. duty-free.

Instead of making books, I spent the last week sorting out how to send books to the U.S. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think I've done it! So I set up a giveaway over on Instagram – we'll send a book to 3 U.S. addresses to test it out. Head over there and enter! www.instagram.com/p/DOMBfb1jQQk/

thread delivers

Here's a callout: Do you drive your kid to school, but would you prefer to be able to put them on a school bus? If so, I'd love to chat with you.

Look I will laugh until I cry at most physical comedy and any grade-school level poop joke but I absolutely find nothing but annoyance in puns.

In the last week I have purchased orthotic insoles, compression socks, and a shoe-lifter thing so my uninjured leg is the same length as the leg with the boot on it. I recommend this strategy for making all the mildly to wildly infuriating middle-age-lady ads just POOF go away.

Canada’s plant hardiness zones receive update vist.ly/45ck4 #cdnag #westcdnag

I’d rather get bad news from an honest man than lies from a flatterer.

Canadian small business folks: ChitChats is now offering CUSMA-compliance pre-clearance working with their customs brokers. Books are exempt from tariffs, but ours are also printed and bound in Canada on paper made in Canada or the U.S. I'm covering all my bases during this absolutely batshit time.

Meanwhile in Canada...

omg...of course the story goes this way: "While some callers would initially be frustrated and perhaps a bit short, the couple never hung up. 'It's just not who we are,' said Komljenovic, who manages a maple syrup company."

I can

Them: “Cities are all rotting hellscapes!” Cities:

I needed this today. You might, too.

I broke my foot and got a blood clot while running (heh) a Kickstarter and stick-handling two book pre-orders through our online shop, and during it all it was announced that de minimis has been 86-ed and anyway it will take so much time to sort this out. How are YOU sorting it for your business?

Y'all, hit me up with people and other accounts to follow for things like: joy, beauty, fun. I do not need more news, punditry, terribleness, American politics—all of which I can seek out when I want to feel bad. (I'm immune to cats, I'll just be up front about that.)

Or heck, wants to review the book for their publication?

If anyone has a podcast and would like to chat to me about my Math for Knitters book, LMK?

Callout here: Are your kids paying for school supplies that their school covered last year? If so, please get in touch.

Today is a celebration of an orthotic insole in my walking boot (demanded by the ortho who consulted when I was in emergency last week), a ridiculous thing clamped to my other shoe to lift it to the height of the boot, and the blood thinners that have already eased the pain in my leg. What a time.

Yes we already updated their bios to 'engaged.'

Does Not Rhyme -through -cough -though -rough -bough Does Rhyme -pony -bologna

Concurrent emails saying high schoolers will gain access to their schedules online on August 30th and also asking parents to check paperwork online in the same system but without saying the entire system won't be available until August 30th. Must be late August in Vancouver.

Just 3 hours left to back A USER'S GUIDE TO YARN, by @spindleprincess.bsky.social, and pre-order this game-changing book at the special campaign price! www.kickstarter.com/projects/nin...

Also? I spent Friday in emerg because my body is a drama queen and made a blood clot. They did all the radiology there (I had a CT scan, a full-leg ultrasound, and 3 x-rays), so in addition to leaving on blood thinners, I left with clear ortho instructions, which was a vast improvement over waiting.

Reader, my foot is broken 😭

The Kickstarter for A USER'S GUIDE TO YARN, by @spindleprincess.bsky.social, ends Monday! It's your last chance to back the book at the lowest price. Thank you for making the book possible! www.kickstarter.com/projects/nin...

I haven't read this yet, but I will say that for @ninetenpub.bsky.social I switched to Sync.com from Dropbox earlier this year. A drop in the bucket, no doubt.

#woodylove and PBSLOVE!

So, once more I'm home from our summer holiday a few days before the rest of my family. This time because I may have broken my foot 🙄 Hopefully a CT is in my near future to confirm or deny. I left rural BC in an air cast, with crutches. And my god are crutches the absolute worst. So...

Before my interview with her officially started, Terry Gross asked me about something in the _acknowledgments_ of my book. She read through the acknowledgments! I have never been interviewed by a better, more prepared person. She is a national treasure.

We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?

⏰ The 10% earlybird discount on pre-orders of MATH FOR KNITTING, by @kateatherley.bsky.social, ends this coming Thursday, August 21 ⏰ shop.ninetenpublications.ca/products/mat... The book is going into layout next week, and it will also be released in late October as an EPUB ebook.