iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Jinkies, it’s Velma! One more miniature 1/12 sweater for the collection.

A soft, orange, rather shapeless sweater on a mannequin. Fingers nearby show that it’s only a couple of inches high.

The palm of a hand holds a miniature orange sweater with long sleeves, a rolled collar, and ribbed cuffs and hem.

Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

New favorite sentence: “but what does that mean?” (said with genuine quizzical tone, after anyone offers AI-generated slop.) People who think via LLM have trouble rephrasing text that they didn’t compose or think through in the first place. General curiosity is all it takes to unravel it.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Finally finished another in my series of #iconicknitsinminiature: this time a 1/12 scale rendition of a sweater from the Gap, popular in the late 1990’s. The “crazy stripes” sweater! Knit in silk thread from Au ver a soie, on size .8mm needles. 🧶 #knitting #microknitting

A tiny striped sweater measuring a couple of inches high, held flat in the palm of a hand.

A tiny striped sweater posed on a miniature mannequin. The sweater is only a couple of inches high and is made of many narrow bands of a wide variety of colors

An advertisement from the GAP clothing store showing a young white blond woman wearing a striped sweater of many colors, close together.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

The next Iconic Knit in miniature: this jacket, from an upcycled Hudson Bay point blanket, inspired by a variety of jackets in historical tradition but especially the modern iteration by @kittybadhands. Silk/mohair, 0.8 needles, this version is one I’ve been working on for months, off and on.

Miniature knitted sweater on a mannequin with green, red, yellow and blue stripes, patch pockets and a fuzzy collar.

A small knitted sweater held in an open hand.

Two young women wearing striped jackets with green, red, yellow and blue stripes.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

#ShowMeYourKnits baby stuff! Tiny baby sweaters in 1/12 scale (shown in front of a miniature yarn shop roombox, handy for showing off the tiny knitting in general.) #miniatures #dollhouses #knitting 🧶

A miniature pink sweater with a collar and buttons, held in a large hand, in a dollhouse-sized room with shelves of tiny yarn balls and other knit and crochet examples and accessories.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

For anyone needing a little emotional support…there’s a little Emotional Support Chicken. Made using an adapted version of Annette Corsino’s wonderful knitting pattern, adjusted for miniaturization. 🧶🐓♥️

A tiny knitted chicken made of thread, perched on a gold ruler to show it under 1” in length. Knitted in white thread with a red comb and wattle, and a yellow beak. A human hand is partially shown as well, to emphasize its size as no larger than a fingertip.

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Reposted by Julie

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Some things never change! A 2,000 year-old Roman souvenir pen with a joke inscription roughly equivalent to: “I went to Rome and all I got you was this cheap pen!" 😂 Dated to about 70 AD, this iron stylus pen was found in London during excavations by MOLA. 📷 MOLA #EpigraphyTuesday #Archaeology

The photo shows a Roman iron stylus pen used to write on wax-filled wooden writing tablets. It has an inscription which runs along its length on four sides. The image shows the four lines of inscribed text which read:

‘ab urbe v[e]n[i] munus tibi
gratum adf(e)ro acul[eat]um ut habe[a]s memor[ia]m nostra(m) rogo si fortuna dar[e]t quo possem largius ut longa via ceu sacculus est (v)acuus’

‘I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift
with a sharp point that you may remember me. I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give)
as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.’

Excavated in London by MOLA. Photo by Juan Jose Fuldain/MOLA

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Cable day on #showmeyourknits and I just so happen to be revising the cable pattern I wrote for the Taylor Swift “folklore” sweater. Doing the “1989” one next. 🧶

Small scraps of knitting shown laying on a pattern drawn on graph paper.

A small white cable-knit cardigan displayed on a miniature dress form. A human hand touches one sleeve, revealing it to be only a couple of inches high in size.

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Cats of Yore @catsofyore.bsky.social · 19/04/2024

Posting this again because a lot of people said they found it helpful! Guide to ALT text: www.perkins.org/resource/how...

ALT text copied and pasted from the linked website: An infographic titled “How To Write Alt Text” featuring a photo of a capybara. Parts of alt text are divided by color, including identify who, expression, description, colour, and interesting features. The finished description reads “A capybara looking relaxed in a hot spa. Yellow yuzu fruits are floating in the water, and one is balanced on the top of the capybara’s head.”

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

I love this profile, especially since it highlights the process pictures…and the process, the messy fragmented part of the whole, is where I personally spend the most time with each piece. 🧶

printmag.com

Miniature Knitter Julie Steiner Reimagines Iconic Sweaters in Itty Bitty Form – PRINT Magazine

We chat with Julie Steiner about her beloved niche art form, why miniatures are so compelling, and her unending urge to knit mini sweaters.

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Rebecca Stafford @rebeccahazelstaff.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

This is just to say I have eaten the democracy that was your America and which you were probably saving for your children Forget it it was delicate it was for sale so it sold

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

As I creak and wobble around the house following gallbladder surgery, taking an arsenal of medication, I am reminded that Andy Warhol died from complications of this same surgery. Sorry about that, Andy: here’s to you. #arthistory

Andy Warhol Self-Portrait, in which four different photographs of Warhol appear in an off-kilter grid, printed off-register in pink and black over a bright yellow background. His hair is wild, the distortion makes some of the renderings look like cartoons or aliens.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Thinking about the @gettymuseum.bsky.social today and all the staff and planning it takes to keep an art collection safe from wildfires. Preserving cultural patrimony isn’t for sissies. (Here, Gustave Caillebotte’s “Young Man at a Window.”)

A 19th-century painting in a gold frame showing a man standing with his back to the viewer, looking out an open window to a typically Parisian street, with buff-colored buildings in Haussmann-style architecture. The room in the foreground and his silhouette are darkened, leading the viewer’s attention to the sunlit street beyond him. The window’s baluster and opened pane of glass dissect the composition.

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Reposted by Julie

Melissa Nadia Viviana 🐸 @resistrebelrevolt.net · 12/12/2024

Sensationalism is an addiction akin to junk food. It floods your brain with dopamine––overstimulating it & training it to be less sensitive to natural sources of pleasure. Here’s a warning: if you want to be happy in 2029, DON'T let sensationalism hijack your neuropathways in 2025. (See alt txt)

An image from Yale Medicine that shows how the brain has more dopamine receptors before taking addictive substances. When an addictive substance maxes out our pleasure centers to unhealthy levels, it teaches the brain to reduce the dopamine receptors in order to become less sensitive. The problem is that with fewer dopamine receptors, we now begin to feel numb when exposed to ordinary sources of pleasure and happiness––we literally can’t feel happy with things we used to be able to feel happy about before.

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Alex Burchmore @alexburchmore.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Brilliant piece by Elena Kanagy-Loux for @hyperallergic.com back in April! 👇🏽 One of the most heartening aspects for me of teaching a course on craft and design, also earlier this year, was the opportunity to encourage students to look differently at family heirlooms and their own creations ✊🏽

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

My cat Mo is very interested in my latest book of knitting patterns (by Sara Elizabeth Kellner). I told him if he doesn’t behave himself, I’m going to knit myself a replacement cat. 😉

A dark brown and black tabby cat sitting next to a book with a pretty floral cover, titled “Victorian Housecats to Knit.”

A dark tabby cat sitting behind an open book, on whose pages are a knitting pattern for making a striped cat-shaped toy. The cat’s ears are up sharply and he has a rather astonished expression.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Art history is indeed a solace.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

“December staggered in like a weary mud-encrusted vagabond who had been on her way to someplace else but whose legs had buckled and now she was here.” This novel caught me from the first sentence and has not let go. One of several Kenyan authors whose books I picked up in Nairobi, for perspective.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

“If you outsource your writing, you are outsourcing your thinking.” 🔥🔥🔥

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

From the category of “things we knew, but it’s nice that someone nailed down the data on it”: looking at real art in museums stimulates our brain in important ways.” #arthistory #museums #vermeer

news.artnet.com

Just Why Is 'Girl With Pearl Earring' So Captivating?

The Mauritshuis Museum has teamed up with Dutch researchers to probe emotional responses to Vermeer's "Girl With Pearl Earring."

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

I’m traveling this weekend to visit this piece, which I made earlier this year, and which is now in the collection of the KSB Miniatures Collection in Maysville, Kentucky. This is a “first” for me: the first time I’ll see something I made displayed in a museum. #fiberarts #knitting #miniatures 🧶🐑♥️

A tiny version of Princess Diana’s “black sheep sweater” —a red pullover with rows of white sheep, and a single black sheep—displayed on a minuscule dress form, with spools of white and red thread nearby. Fingers of a human hand encroach on the scene, revealing the sweater to be about only 2 inches in height.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

When a woman does it, it’s craft, but when a man does it, it’s art. Miniature knitting inspired by the designs of @crochetingmoonfairy fiber arts. #knitting done on 0.6mm steel needles, with silk sewing thread.

A light-skinned hand turned palm up, holding a scrap of knitting, with black letters on pink background reading “when a woman does it it’s craft but when a man does it it’s art.” The full piece of fabric measures only about 1 1/4 inch by a bit over 2 inches.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

Ready to go shopping: tomorrow is Museum Store Sunday, supporting our communities through supporting non-profits (and the missions they support in turn.) Find the best museum stores near you with this map: museumstoresunday.org/find-a-store/

museumstoresunday.org

Find a Store | Museum Store Sunday

Museum stores perform integral and multifaceted work for their institutions - from earning income and extending mission-related programs, to visitor engagem ...

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

This beautiful antique cat painting by some Russian great-great-grandfather of our Thanksgiving host looks a lot like my cat Mo. #catsinart 😸

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

From that time I perched a row of tiny sweaters on my bookshelf to appear in the background of my video meetings. (Nobody noticed them. They’re too small.) I love how tiny they look in the context of “the real world.” Also, I miss them! (These have since gone on to other collections.) 🧶 #knitting

A section of a bookshelf showing a row of five diminutive, miniature-scale dress forms placed between the books. on each one is a dollhouse-sized hand-knitted sweater in various complex and different patterns and colors. The sweaters are less than 3 inches high each.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

The Stettheimer dollhouse is back on display at the Museum of the City of New York, and with it a series of dolls made for the house in 1976, including this one which represents Carrie Stettheimer herself. www.nytimes.com/2024/10/17/a...

A stylized doll depicting a white woman in 1920’s fashion, with a painted face showing dramatic rouge and green eyeshadow. She wears a fabric hat with bits of real ostrich feathers, and scraps of lace make up her gown and decoration.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I read all these books so you don’t have to. This is the stack I built this summer working on my class “Size Does Matter: a History of Miniatures in Art.” If you love miniatures, dollhouses, art history, and the history of miniatures and dollhouses *in* art history, here is a reading list.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

“They” say this algorithm is more customizable to each user than other platforms. So I’m feeding it/the world all my default subjects of interest in hopes that it’s so. Next topic: travel. Pics from my recent trip to Nairobi, Amboseli park, Lake Nakuru (Kenya).

A herd of zebras viewed closeup to create a mishmash of black and white stripes

A lavender-breasted roller bird perched on the branch of a shrub, blue and purple feathers predominate

A closeup of an African elephant, showing forehead, eyes and ears, with crackled and wrinkled skin and long black eyelashes

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Reposted by Julie

Gre-Gory Weird @gdub1972.bsky.social · 07/11/2024

From Barbara Kingsolver:

Truth and love have been smacked down, so many more times in history before today. Truth, because it’s often inconvenient, and love because it is vulnerable.

But truth is like gravity, and carbon, and the sun behind an eclipse: it’s still there. And love stays alive if you tend it like a flame. If you feel crushed by unkindness today, it’s a time for grieving, reaching out to loved ones, noticing one bright color somewhere in the day. Remembering what there is to love. Starting with the immediate, the place and people we can tend ourselves, and make safe. We can’t save everything all at once, but it’s still worth saving something. Because there are so many of us to do it.

And we are all still here today, exactly as we were yesterday. Like gravity, and carbon, and the sun behind an eclipse.

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Next default subject: knitting! But in miniature. Make mine small…and with lots of math. #miniatureknitting #dollhouseminiatures

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Next default topic: radical, trans-inclusive, intersectional feminism. If my peeps aren’t welcome I don’t want to be there. #paradoxoftolerance #smashthepatriarchy illustration by Devon Blow

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Next default subject: #arthistory This Lavinia Fontana portrait of a noblewoman is on display at the Morgan Library, and shows a woman with both fabulous taste in jewelry and a very, very good dog

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Julie @rljulie.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

Default subject: cats. This one is not quite right, and it shows.

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