Faux-tographic Sweater Knits

Yesterday I dashed into Michaels craft store to pick up a few things. I'm not too much of a "big box" store shopper, but sometimes it's a necessity. While I was there, I perused the dollar bins and was delighted to find some really fun paper goods! To continue with my *twist on knitting* obsession, I thought I'd share a few of them with you here...

I fell in love with this cable knit wrapping paper! How fun would this be to wrap prezzies in? (dollar bin at Michaels!)

A Fair Isle notebook and pencil. Great for keeping in your knitting bag to jot down notes, etc. (dollar bin at Michaels)

Handy note cards (and more awesome pencils!) for the holidays, thank you notes, and other warm fuzzy sentiments. (say it with me now: dollar bin at Michaels!)

Wanna take the faux-knitting over the top? How 'bout a whole knitted room? This knit print wallpaper is from Couture Deco (via cafe cartolina).

And finally...drum roll please...my latest Kleenex box design! (read about some of my former designs) This image is a mock-up of what the printed box looks like. I knit the chevron pattern, and the design team at KCC photographed it, tweaked the colors and are printing it on boxes! I did several knit patterns (months and months ago!) but apparently this was the only one that made the cut. I still haven't seen it yet out in the world. Please let me know if you do!

Trunk Show

This weekend I had the honor of visiting with the members of the Maryland Chapter of the American Sewing Guild. As part of their one-day sewing retreat, they asked if I would come do a little trunk show, chat, and sign books. I gladly accepted their offer!

I brought along all of the projects from my first book, Warm Fuzzies and spread them out on one table. They barely fit! It was great to get them out of the box and let people see and enjoy them.

On another table I spread out all of the projects from my second book, Sewing Green. Not the most alluring presentation, but everyone got to come up close and check out the goods.

I also brought along books, Cup O' Joe Pincushion kits, my new sewing patterns and samples, etc! I find that grand pianos make the best displays, don't you? I always keep one handy. :)

After a full day of sewing, I think the ladies were happy to just sit and enjoy listening to me yammer on about felted wool, my love of repurposing second hand materials and behind-the-scenes stories of being on the Martha Stewart Show.

Here I am signing books and posing with Paula and Laura who were both super enthusiastic and helpful.

This is Bobbie, who watched me make my Cup O' Joe Pincushion on Martha way back in 2007 and has been making them for gifts ever since! I just had to get a photo of us and our pincushions. She is too sweet!

Thanks to the MD chapter of the ASG for inviting me to be a part of your day!

Some weeks are like this

by Aardman Animations

Have a great weekend!

eeek!

Is it too soon for a Halloween project? Didn't think so.

I've been wanting to make this since I thought of it about a year ago. I whipped it together last week when I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, preparing for my trip to TCCE. It seemed like a good idea to drop everything to sit on the floor of my closet and dig for doilies. (sometimes it's wise to abandon the tyranny of the urgent)

So: Doily. Embroidery hoop (spray paint black, if desired). Black ribbon. Spider (I like fake ones).

I hung mine with a thumbtack in our entryway. I love that it's beautiful yet creepy at the same time.

It's equally at home hanging in a dirty window. Spooky.

Do you remember Jack? He's my Halloween Hoop Project from last year.

I am so ready for fall!

creatively connected

Hello! I am back from the amazing Creative Connection Event! I am a bit travel-weary today, but I will try to give you a little glimpse into the adventure. I am not very quick with the camera at these sorts of events. I was a busy little workshop teacher most of the time, so I relied on all of the other people happily snapping away with their cameras. Please check out the Creative Connection Flickr Group photo pool for lots of eye candy!

Speaking of eye candy, this beautiful necklace was a gift from the talented (and generous!) Lisa Leonard to all attendees of the Opening Gala Dinner.


I flew into Minneapolis Wednesday night then hit the ground running Thursday morning with my Cup O' Joe Pincushion workshop! My buddies Jana, Carrie and Shasta (of Izzy and Ivy) sat front and center being silly, supportive and made me feel like a supah-stah! The workshop went really well and I had such a great time. Afterward we attended a luncheon with Key Note speaker Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman! My afternoon workshop, Felt Holiday Ornaments sold out and had 33 attendees. Wow. I don't think I sat down once. All the kit prep really paid off and the class flew by in a cloud of woolly linty goodness!

Next up on the day's events: the Author Autograph Party! I'm guessing there were about 20 authors (myself included) ready with pen in hand to sign copies of their books. I slipped away from my table long enough to say hello to Vickie Howell (above, left) meet Kathy "Crafty Chica" Cano-Murillo, Kristin Nicholas, and Cathy Filian. I tried not to be star struck but it was such a trip to meet so many women I *see online* every day.

After the party we were treated to a lovely meal and more inspiring women. Key note speakers Amy Butler and Mary Jane Butters of Mary Jane's Farm had similar messages to aspiring entrepreneurial women: keep your books, be authentic, do what you love, make it happen, take calculated risks, reinvent yourself, delegate, carve out creative time...

The next two days were as equally filled with inspiration, business advice, beautiful artwork, warm, genuine women and lots of laughter. I'm sure there will be much much more to be found about the event as it is recapped by the many bloggers that attended. You can visit the TCCE site for links to other blog posts about the event. Meanwhile, take a peek into a few of the workshops in this video put together by the TCCE correspondence team:



Woosh! No wonder I am exhausted! Now I'm off to collect on all of those hugs I missed out on while I was away. Oh, and laundry. *sigh*

The Creative Connection

image by Leigh Stanley of curly girl design

Just popping in to say *see ya later* for a few days. I'm leaving tomorrow for The Creative Connection Event in Minneapolis! I'm so looking forward to socializing with a slew of creative individuals in 3-D! It will be such a wonderful opportunity to step out from behind the computer and meet people I've only known online face to face. I know, right?

I'll be back here behind the screen next week...but if you follow me on twitter, I'll keep you updated on events at TCCE as they happen!

funky chunky

My obsession continues with Big Fat Yarn. I've been collecting images of things made giant "yarn" for awhile now. I love how the ordinary becomes extraordinary just by a massive change of scale.

I'm enamored with this Mega Doily by Ladies and Gentlemen Studios, hand crocheted out of rope. (Check out Meg Mateo Ilasco's new book, Crafting a Meaningful Home for directions to make your own!)

I first saw these Urchin Poufs by Christien Meindertsma last year when I visited the Fashioning Felt exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt.

Then there's the Aran Rug, also by by Christien Meindertsma, so cool! This almost looks like a knitted swatch with a little tiny person standing on it.

Trend savvy Anthropolgie got in on the look last fall with the Colossal Knit Throw (above and below, for scale!)

The Company Store has a more mainstream version, the Chunky Knit Pillow Covers available this season. I may have to make a few of those myself with my Big Fat sweater yarn!

And I am dying to knit this Marian Cowl by Jane Richmond, This is knit with *real* yarn called Twinkle Soft Chunky.

For now though, I've finished my cashmere Big Fat Scarf. I decided to knit several colors together since I have a lot of sweater parts left over from other projects and not so many whole sweaters. I knotted the different colors together, which I don't mind. I did come across several tutorials on the web for making T-shirt yarn that were helpful. The next whole cashmere sweater I find thrifting is going to be subject to this fold and cut spiral technique that looks a lot faster than what I was doing. And for those of you that don't like knots, knitpicks has a video that shows a different solution to connecting lengths.

Get even more inspiration at the Flickr group for Hoooked Zpagetti which is all about things made with "T-shirt" yarn. Any of these ideas could be made with BFY made from sweaters, too!

big fat yarn

I've been experimenting with making big fat yarn out of old sweaters and re-knitting it on giant knitting needles...

See? Isn't it fun? I love it! (Click on the photos to get a better look at that delicious texture!) This light coral BFY (big fat yarn) is made from a fine gauge cashmere sweater that I spiral cut into long 1" wide strips. Since sweater knit naturally wants to curl, the strips roll up on themselves like a tube. Next I gave the strips a little tug to stretch them slightly, stuffed them into a lingerie bag and tossed it in with the wash, which further tube-ified it. Afterward I knotted all of my lengths together and wound it into a ball.

These knitting needles are size #OMG, otherwise known as broomsticks. Seriously, they aren't marked and I can't remember the true size, but they are at least 1/2" in diameter. (And I am just now realizing that you probably can't tell how big they are in the photos because there's nothing to compare it to. I'll add a photo for scale when there's daylight.)

***Update: here's a comparison photo with a standard #2 pencil, below***

Spiral cutting a sweater is easy. First remove the hem/ribbing. Then start at a side seam and cut along the bottom, about 1" away from the edge. Cut the strip along the front, keep going cutting through the second side seam and cut along the back.

When you get to the first side seam (where you began) angle up a little to keep your 1" width and keep going! You can make one long strip cutting all the way up to the underarms. Then do the same technique with the sleeves. You should be able to spiral cut the remainder of the sweater shoulders and "yoke" part up to the neckline.

The darker pink BFY is a wool blend and you can see that it rolled and felted a little. It's less stretchy than the coral and just a bit bulky to knit with, but it is fuzzy and wonderful!

The blue sweater is a silk/cashmere blend. I haven't washed it yet to see how it will come out. I'm sure you have seen plenty of things knit with T-shirt strips, so of course you could spiral cut your old t-shirts as well.

So, I'm thinking of making BFY scarves! The cashmere knit up like this is so cushy and soft. For the coral scarf I am alternating rows of garter stitch and yarn wraps. (I'll have to figure out the proper knit-speak for that if anyone is interested!) The dark pink scarf uses the Veil stitch. I got the pattern idea from Slip Slip Knit who knit a scarf out of i-cord. (BTW, if you're interested in how I make my felted wool i-cord, you can revisit a former post I did about it.)

Ok, back to knitting. I'll let you know how they turn out!

:: contents ::

In our house
in our basement
on a shelf
in a box...

I found some things that I have had for a very long time. They were stuffed into this wonky little pot that I made in pottery class in 1977. I was 12.

My husband and I have been spending a few nights a week going through our belongings in our basement in preparation for an upcoming garage sale. As much as it is tedious, it's also a way to revisit our pasts, both as a couple and before we were together. Old notebooks, letters to each other, photos from college. We try to focus on the task at hand, getting rid of stuff we don't use or need any more. But some nights we find *the good stuff* and get caught up in a nostalgia vortex.

I thought I'd share the random little gems I found in a very old box from my childhood. (I'll spare you a photo of my retainer. Eww.)

1) Mickey Mouse hankie - I have no idea where this came from or why I kept it.

2) Barbie Sunglasses (sitting on the hankie) - Pink, mirrored. From my 1970's Malibu Barbie. Complete awesome.

3) Sealing Wax Stamp - with an embossed initial "B". Reserved for use on the most important of letters to prevent tampering.

4) Girl Scout Pocket knife - I loved getting this back when I was a Girl Scout and I'm so happy I still have it, even if it's just to look at on occasion.

5) Wonky clay pot - I believe this was my first time throwing on a potter's wheel.

6) Cassette Tape - One side is labeled "Billy Joel: 52nd Street" and the other, "Betsy, guitar". I tried to play the guitar side, hoping to hear my 8 year old self singing "How Much is the Doggy in the Window?". Instead I heard Foreigner singing Double Vision. Hmmm. Probably the work of my 12 year old self.

7) Lucky Rabbit's Foot - I cherished that thing. I showed my boys and they were totally disgusted. (Whaaa? C'mon you guys, it was LUCKY!)

8) Silver Dollar - c.1922

9) Silver Hair Barrette, engraved with my name.

10) Guitar picks - I loved my guitar picks.

I also found some comics I wrote for the college newspaper (so corny!) and letters from old friends, my brothers, my husband when we were dating. It's sad to me that no one writes letters anymore. I don't write letters any more. (Do you write letters any more?)

One of the best things I rediscovered was the journal of quotes I started when my kids first began to talk. It only has a few dozen entries because it was lost in a moving box for the past 3 years. We've been having a wonderful time reading it together. Now that they are 8 and 10, they can appreciate the funny things they said when they were 2 and 4. And maybe someday they'll rediscover it in an old box when they are 40 something, cleaning the basement and getting into a nostalgia vortex of their own.