FO: Planetary Pillow

I finished something! Here it is:

This was a really mindless knit, which has been great relief while I work on my On The Grass sweater. I got the planet buttons from the TessaAnn Etsy shop (similar here), and they are just about the best quality polymer buttons I've seen. It goes from the sun all the way out to Pluto (you'll pry my Pluto from my cold, dead, dwarf planet hands!)

This is going in the nursery, although I should probably do a slipcase for it, since you can see the white of the form a little bit, thanks to an aggressive blocking.

I ran short on yarn- my knit group can attest to the fact that my VERY LAST button loop was quite literally the last usable piece of the skein, which never happens to me! Anyway, this is going in my son's space-themed room, and I am really pleased with how cute it is.

It's been awhile since my last post- how are you guys? What are you working on?
- YX

Wall decor: knitterly pride

Who hasn't seen the fifty billion renditions of the "Keep Calm (Something) On" posters over the past year or so? I was thinking about ways to add more yarn references to my house, and it seemed like the only option I had was one of these ubiquitous posters. Harumph. 

So I did some shopping. 

The first thing I found was this fabulous eye chart-inspired piece. I love the vintage feel of the chart, combined with the knitting references. At $20, it seems like a great art piece for a reasonable cost. 

Next is this great Red Cross poster. Also $20, I love the old-school war propaganda look, and the colors are fabulous. Not to mention, the yarn looks luscious. 

Or, you could go a little more three-dimesional. I've seen about fifteen million yarn-wrapped letters on Etsy and Pinterest, but I really love these yarn letters on Etsy, which are wild and interesting, and could make a great wall installation. 

I love yarny housewares! Do you have anything on your house/craft room walls that you want to share?

- YX

Moving and craft rooms

So I've been in the process of renovating a house, which I haven't talked about much... We're going to build a house, and we're renovating one to live in while we build... I like to think of this as an architectural version of doing a pair of fingerless gloves in the midst of a never-ending sweater.

Anyway, there is a huge bonus to renovating and eventually moving into this house: There's an extra room.

Right now, we live in a teeny house. It's smaller than the last apartment I rented. Anyway, it has three bedrooms: one for us, one for guests (and yarn storage), and one for the office. Now, there is this whole extra room, and it's all MINE! Mine mine mine.

Okay, that's not quite accurate. It's going to be my craft room. And I am so excited. It has a weird ceiling and is super long, but it's going to be home to my sewing cabinet, machines, a cutting table, small desk, and storage for all of my lovely craft adventures! So exciting!

The room is ready to move in- that floor? We installed it. Oh yeah! And um... The curtains will be hemmed, once my sewing machine comes back from magical Repairland.

I've always wanted a craft room, and although the furniture is a hodgepodge of miscellaneous pieces (including a desk of mine from childhood that is serving as sewing storage), I'm excited for the ability to work in a non-temporary way.

There was a floor model sale at The Container Store over the summer, and I got to grab some of these:

I have two doored cubes, two with shelves, and two with these diagonal wine storage dividers in them. I've stacked them in a 2w x 3h cube in an unused space. I'm thinking I can keep some books, notions, blocking supplies and spare needles in these. My yarn, as I've shown you before, resides in airtight containers to combat wool-eating insects, so no artful displays for me. In a perfect world, I'd love something like this for assorted notions and reference books:

I don't actually have a ton of knitting supplies to store- the glory of the craft, really, because you can have a ton of room for yarn, instead. I'll probably keep those large bins out, but find a nice way of making them presentable. My biggest issue now is the giant stack of Vogue Knitting magazines that are piling up - I'd like to keep them visible and accessible, without requiring an entirely different piece of furniture. Maybe more steel cubes are in my future...

Do any of you have a craft room? Show me photos in the comments!
- YX

Shopping! Winter 2012/13

I've gotten a ton of catalogs recently, and I wanted to share more cute knit and knit-inspired things with you guys!

West Elm has this awesome cable-print rug. I love this, and I'm thinking about getting two little ones for the sides of the bed in my guest room. The sizes go from 2x3 all the way up to 5x8. It could be wintery or fit in well with summery themes, too, since you could always interpret it as a New England beachy/boaty vibe.

Free People always has great knitwear, and I found a few things that look downright hand knitted.
The Cloud Pattern Pullover looks like a cozy scrap sweater:

and the Animal Cardigan looks like it could be made from a multi-colored hand dyed yarn. Anyone else kind of think it looks like Wollmeise's Rhabarbar?

And Crate and Barrel is killing me with these hilarious/adorable knitted penguin Christmas ornaments:

I'll be on the lookout for more stuff as the season goes on! Have you found anything fun yet? Show me in the comments!
- YX

(October giveaway!)

Knit patterns!

I love knitting- this should come as no surprise. I find it to be relaxing, fun, and a great creative outlet. I also really love seeing knitted items in stores- even something as simple as a basic pullover with good detailing deserves a second look.

I really geek out when I see other items with knit patterns on them. I stumbled across these mugs today, and started looking at fun knit-related items...

Knit Pattern Mug by Mochithings

How about Couture Deco's Knitted wallpaper? I hate wallpaper but holy crap I love this:

It'd be awesome with a really smooth wainscoting/panel on the bottom half of the room.

I love this knit print stamp from Etsy seller Hugfishandorange:

I love this incredible knit texture pen from Nakaya. Heh... Christmas, anyone?

Share other knit-related items in the comments!
- YX

(PS- you know the drill.)

FO: Blanket Square

One of the best things about Ravelry is that, despite being a huge community of over 2,000,000, people still connect on a personal level.

I belong to a group on the website that has a 10,000-person membership (although it's arguable that even 1/3 of these members are "active")... One of our members had posted a few times talking about her husband, who had been suffering from a few health ailments. As time went on, her stories became sadder, until she recently posted that his life has unfortunately and unexpectedly ended.

A bunch of us rallied together and decided to make her a blanket. The great thing about these kinds of knitted blankets is that they require the tiniest bit of material and effort, but allow many people to come together to make something beautiful. I joined forces with some friends on Twitter to buy a skein of Tosh Vintage and do some squares:

The great thing about this square is that I was able to knit it entirely patternless, since it was exactly the same as the other blanket I'm working on:

I love the miters, which are made by yarning over and then KTBL on the next round. It makes a nice square with no eyelets and no pulling.

Also, I freaking love my 50mm lens. Yum.

I did the EZ Sewn Bind off on the square, sewed up the hole in the middle, and blocked it out. I am NOT a fan of yellow as an apparel color. My olive skin tone means yellow makes me look positively green... So I am super happy to be able to play with the color. I meant to send it off in the mail today (along with some other packages, but my local PO at work is open for a whopping TWO HOURS each day, so tomorrow, it'll be.

I love blankets. I need to finish mine, even though the cold weather is basically over. I still get cold in the AC, so perhaps I can find a use for it, after all?

- YX

Queued: Mug and French Press Jacket

Alright, tomorrow I will probably talk a ton about film school again, but today I'm going to go back to fiber talk.

So this pattern is not obscure, but it's so darn cute and simple that it has everything I love in a houseware pattern.

MK Carroll's Mug and French Press Jacket is so simple in concept, but can make a huge difference in the look of a coffee cup. I love how the stitch pattern doesn't resort to the same old cables.

Even the closure is so intentional. Look at the button choice with yarn choice. Great pairing!

The pattern looks great in all kinds of colors and a variety of objects.

It'd even look great in a handpainted yarn! The best part: the pattern is free. 100%, absolutely free. Think about serving a guest some hot cider this fall, wrapped in a little sweater! Extra cozy! It adds color to your coffee, and would be so cute on an office mug. I have TONS of free mugs from vendors, and this would be awesome for obscuring logos, if needed. How cute would it be to pair four of them with some cute cocoa mix, some nice cups, peppermint sticks, and a few wintery napkins? LOVE.

The pattern is scalable, clearly written, and apparently popular: there are currently over 600 FO's on Ravelry, and they are all totally different and interesting. With 90-160 yards of yarn needed for the project, (worsted), it is a great scrap project, too!

Love it.
See you tomorrow!
- YX