This was sent to a local stitch-n-bitch e-mail list that I’m on here in DC. It’s on a hillside in Italy. What I love about the knitted sculpture (other than it was supposedly knit by local “grannies”) is that they expect people to climb on it.
So, how is it going to stay pink? And, as someone else commented–what’s it going to smell like after days (let alone years) in the elements?
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This is the pattern for the powerbook cozy I made while was in Wisconsin.
Special thanks to Megan who tested the pattern for me. You can see the one she made on her blog. Luckily we discovered through Megan’s testing that the pattern fits 12″ iBooks as well as powerbooks. If anyone wants to test the pattern on a 14″ iBook, just let me know!
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I created this bag for a class I’m teaching at Michael’s in Rockville, MD in October–I wanted an easy fall project, but I didn’t want to go the jack-o-lantern route.
Working with Caron’s Simply Soft Brites was so nice! The yarn is very soft and smooth as the name suggests. I used two strands held together to give the bag a little heft.
I imagine it would be used for handing out candy rather than trick-or-treating, but who knows? It has been popular at the two class sign-up events I’ve brought it to so far.
This is a shawl I originally made for my grandmother’s 89th birthday. I wrote about it last month, but didn’t post any pictures. It is a convertible shawl/wrap/shrug – you can see Grandma wearing all the different configurations on my flickr site
Special thanks to my technical editor and crochet tester Holly Miller, a crochetville member and an extraordinary stitcher. (You can see her shawl on her photo site.)
Google has a calculator and it speaks English! I was looking for an English to Metric conversion calculator this morning to try and figure out how much yarn I had in a small ball. My postal scale measures only in ounces, and I haven’t unpacked the digital kitchen scale yet after our move.
Well, I googled “ounces to grams” hoping I’d get a list of calculators, and Google came back with: 1 ounces = 28.3495231 grams… Wow! So just for fun I typed in “1.2 ounces in grams”, Google says “1.2 ounces = 34.0194277 grams.” This is really useful. OK, so I know I started with a 50 gram ball, so I tell google: “34/50,” Google says, “.68,” or 68% of the original ball.
Now because the original ball was 100 meters, I don’t need a calculator to tell me I have 68 meters left. But what if the ball was 100 yards? Well, now we find out Google has a preference for metric. If I type in “68% of 100 yards,” google says “68 percent of (100 yards) = 62.1792 meters.” So I have to say “62.1792 meters in yards” and Google returns “63.1792 meters = 69.0936133 yards.”
I like that this calculator accepts non-formulaic style questions. It’s intuitive. I didn’t have to “learn” how to use it and it’s right there in the web browser.
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I finally got my hands on Southwest Trading Company’s new single strand roving-style yarn, Karaoke, thanks to a sample I received last week. It’s 50% wool, 50% soy silk, (100 meter/50g ball) and it felts beautifully. It’s also a dream to work with, smooth and soft prior to felting and it creates a thick fabric that would work well for hats, rugs and anything sculptural. Felting almost completely obscures the stitches. (It would be great for a throw rug!) I washed it twice and it shrank to less than half its size, and it keeps a bit of the soysilk sheen.
These photos don’t really do the bowl justice–I may shoot some more tomorrow with better light.
Here’s a picture pre-felting. I love the shininess the soysilk adds.
Stay tuned, I’m creating a set of nested felted bowls and will have a pattern up here eventually.
I just finished watching the episode of the new Martha that I had TiVo’d today. I missed the first episodes, but luckily, this was the Poncho episode. So, I thought there would be a lot of talk about crochet. There wasn’t. But despite that–I really enjoyed the show. Martha has a great attitude. She jokes and shares stories about her time in prison. She had David Spade on and played a Saturday Night Live piece where he impersonates her. She makes fun of her ankle bracelet. She even showed how to make the microwave meals she developed while in the joint!
In the beginning of the show, they made it sound as if they would demonstrate how to crochet, but that didn’t happen. They did show a lot of ponchos and interviewed a family of crocheters, which was nice.
I was thrilled to see Martha start the show by driving The Yarn Bus, a custom designed van that Flying Fingers uses to bring New Yorkers to their enormous store in the suburbs. She was riding with Lily Chin who was crocheting a-mile-a-minute. I think Lily is great, but I was a little disconcerted to hear them talk about her being the world’s fastest crocheter, when that title is at least up for grabs and will probably go to Lisa Gentry who defeated Lily in a head-on battle at Chain Link, the Crochet Guild of America’s annual conference, this summer. (Lisa also won the title for the Guinness Book of World Records earlier in the summer.)
I’ll bet Lily was disappointed they didn’t mention her own poncho design (she has a version of the Martha poncho) or her new line of yarn. Also, Martha Stewart Omnimedia is selling off-the-rack completed version of her ponchos… The profits go to support “women and families in need,” but I wonder, who’s making them? The handmade poncho is selling for only $50.00, so how much are the crocheters who spend hours (given that they don’t work as fast as Lily Chin) on each one getting? Might they be women in need? The site doesn’t list a country of origin, so it’s hard to know more. I do worry whenever I see mass-produced crochet.
So, while it looked like the poncho craze was fading in the light of the shrug or bolero, it seems now like it’s probably here to stay, at least for another season.
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There are patterns and projects I see from time to time that make me want to pull out the knitting needles. When I’m at a Stitch and Bitch, and someone’s working on socks, I always think, “I’d like to make socks,” but I never do… 4 tiny needles, lightweight sock yarn–it looks like it would take forever, and I have a relatively short attention span. Along comes Crocheted Socks: 16 Fun-To-Stitch Patterns
These socks are not the bulky slipperish patterns you sometimes see called “crocheted socks.” The patterns are made using the same great sock yarns with stripes and patterns that knitters use. The book begins with a helpful section demystifying sock construction, measurements and special stitches and goes on to include 16 different patterns.
The patterns range in complexity from easy to advanced, some take advantage of crochet’s unique stitch patterns, some mimic knitting with ribbed cuffs, slip stitches and “split” single crochet techniques. There are even fun patterns for “thong” socks and colorful toe socks.
Who knows, maybe I’ll have some handmade socks of my own soon.
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