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arm knitting

ok, I know this is not exactly news to most knitters on the internet, I'm a little late on this trend, but did you know you can knit with your arms? You totally can. See? My neice, Ariana was up visiting the other day. Ever since she was little, we've done crafty things together. But now she's all grown up and we don't see each other as often as we used to, (because she's at University and I'm currently doing my degree in Nose and Butt Wiping with a minor in Lego Sorting) but when we do, we can still find something crafty to do.

It was really fun to learn something new together. We used this tutorial, but you can also just go on pinterest and search "arm knitting" and you will find tons of options. Basically, your arms are the knitting needles, and you knit with three strands of bulky yarn held together to get a thick enough yarn. And after about an hour you end up with this: A beautiful hand knit (or should I say arm knit) infinity scarf. 

Gorgeous huh? And not just the scarf! (Can I just take a moment to gush and say that I remember when this smart beautiful woman was a newborn baby! Oh how the years fly!)

Speaking of adorable models, how 'bout this guy.  Yeah, maybe that's not the way your supposed ot wear it. Still, beautiful scarf, right?

I unravelled mine because I didn't love the colour combo I had chosen, but went out and got some new yarn the next day to make a cream coloured one. Because I'm feeling the light colours these days. Anyhow, I'll show you pictures of that one day when I get around to making it. But in the meantime, go try arm knitting! It is very satisfying and sort of meditative once you get the hang of it. You do't even need to be a knitter to do it. Give it a shot!

 

stocking cap egg cozy knitting pattern

Lookit these cute little guys!A couple of months ago a friend of mine found a picture of some long stocking-cap type egg cozies and hinted broadly that she would love it if some friend who knew how to knit could knit her some. 

I felt like that would be such an easy way to do something nice for a friend, so I volunteered. And then spent HOURS searching the internet for "stocking cap egg cozy pattern", like, a MILLION different ways and could not find a knittable version anywhere. Not one that I liked anyways. Or one that was free. 

So I decided to do it myself. I've never really designed a knitting pattern before, but come on, how hard could figuring out a tiny hat be?The answer was "not very hard at all". And so I did it. And I've got the pattern here for you to make some too!

Click here to download a copy of the Stocking Cap Egg Cozy Knitting Pattern. Its free!

These are super fast to knit. One evening's worth of reality TV and you'd have a finished one in your hand. And you can use any old worsted weight that you have kicking around in your stash. I went with good old acrylic Patons Canadiana because A: its cheap and B: you're probably going to want to wash these at some point, and I don't think cashmere is the most practical choice. This is a pretty easy pattern too, though if you've never ever knitted before I might not start with these as they are a bit fiddly due to the small number of stitches, the double pointed needles and the decreasing. But don't listen to me, just go look up some online knitting tutorials and give it a go!

The hardest part (for me) was getting the pom pom just right. Frankly, the pom pom makes it, so I really wanted that to look good. I found a good tutorial for that on Meyamo (scroll down and click on the Valentine's Day Pom Pom Creature's tutorial for a pdf with the template), so when you finish knitting my pattern, head on over there and make yourself a nice little pom pom to go on top. This has been my first successful experience in making pom poms (I have no idea why it took me so long to figure this out ) but I have learned that its all in the trimming. Make sure to trim your pom pom nicely. ("that's what he said." Sorry. I couldn't help myself.) Also, the book Pom Pom would have been helpful, but I did not find it till after I made these. 

Oh, and just in case you are wondering, the wooden egg-cup man is vintage, from Hubs' childhood days. I did a quick look around on the web and it was made by an Italian company called Sevi, and you could buy a similar one here on etsy. And the plain coloured egg cups are also from Hubs' childhood, passed on to my by his sweet mom, who knows how I love all things colourful and vintage. They even have little matching spoons (not pictured here) and get regular use around our house. And the little wooden toy eggs that I've used as props (yep, they are wood, not real) are German, and came in that cute little egg carton, and I believe were purchased for us from Citizen Kid in Hamilton, but I'm not sure who makes them. Oh, here they are!

Ok, so enjoy the pattern. Its free. Because I like you. But please don't make them to sell them though. Unless you are going to send me a kick back on each one you sell. You know, to be fair.

All right, go knit a cozy or two. And then keep your boiled eggs safe and warm for that extra bit of time between when they come out of the pot and when you get to eat 'em. 

art and balacalvas

What a great weekend. I had the chance to see my working hanging in two seperate shows, one in Toronto and one in Hamilton. The Toronto one is in such a great venue, awesome work, fun people watching scene, and its always nice to go and spend an evening in Toronto. But I have to say, the Hamilton one was such a wonderful night because I had so, so many old friends come out to see the work. It was like a big ole' reunion night. So much talking, so much laughter, drinks and fun times afterwards too. We went early and stayed late and had a blast. By the time we got home we ended up paying the sitter half a months rent (I exaggerate, but you know what I mean). Anyhow, it was an awesome time, and having the chance to see all the happy familiar faces was good for the soul. 

Took some fun pictures too.  The work I showed was from the series Garments for Forced Intimacy which can be viewed on my website here, here, here and here. I showed the photographs of the knitted pieces I made being worn by Hubs and I, but had the actual balaclavas at the show with me, and some of my kind friends volunteered to be photographed in them too. Above are Jason and Rachel, being very good sports wearing my Balaclava for Looking in the Same Direction.

Shawn and Danny put their heads together for a little shut-eye. 

And my sister Cynthia and niece Ariana stay well connected, wearing my Balaclava for Gazing into Each Other's Eyes. 

Thanks to all who came out to both openings. It was so great to see you all. We should do that more often. 

 

a package!

In the mail! For the Little Dude! He was able to tell it was for him because he can read his own name on it. And I pointed out the return address on it and he knew the name started with an "O", and we figured out together that it was from "O for Oma!" He was very excited. "I think its a present!" he said. "I think you are right." I agreed. "I think its going to be a Thomas train!" he crowed. "Or, even better," I said "I think it might be a sweater!" "No, I think its going to be a Thomas." he declared resolutely. I had to get on this one fast, because when presented with the sweater that I knew to be in this box, I wanted him to like it, and wear it, but if he was expecting Thomas, no sweater, no matter how beautiful, would ever measure up to his disappointed hopes. "Buddy," I said, taking his hands, "Its definitely NOT going to be Thomas. I'm sure its a really, really nice sweater that Oma knitted especially for you." He still looked unsure. But with hopes more acurately aligned with reality we tore into the box.

It was indeed not a Thomas.

But Oma is a clever lady, and also included three lovely little cars in the box, which softened the lack of the imagined Thomas trains a great deal, and are the only reason he allowed us to put the sweater on him at all. The sweater is of course, very lovely. You know how I love anything with stripes. And this will look great with jeans. It will also look better on him when it actually fits. I'd say he's a good two years away from this being the right size for him. Which is also clever of Oma, as he has a TON of sweatshirts and sweaters right now (we got good hand-me-downs lately) and I'd rather have this for when he's bigger. I asked him to give me a good big smile to show Oma how happy he was to get her package in the mail, and for once he obliged me.

This picture cracks me up because its so hammy, which is not really his general demeanor. But we do get glimpses of it now and again, and its fun to capture it on film.

There was lots of other fun in the package, some hats, a letter, and a very cute bib for the Baby. Who would NOT stand still for the picture. All he wanted to do was hug his big brother. Probably because his new sweater was so cozy. Just begging to be hugged.

Yeah, the sleeves are just a titch long. But doesn't hamper his hugging abilities one little bit.

Thank you Oma!

treasure

To some this may just look like a cardboard box full of magazines. Destined for a garage sale or maybe to the recycling.  But oh, you'd be wrong if you thought so. How wrong you'd be! For this is a box full of treasure! Theresa, one of my blog readers and facebook friends of a friend (how I love the internet) knows from reading this blog that I collect old knitting patterns. And she contacted me and asked if I'd like this box of old handwork magazines and books that used to belong to her Oma. She had no plans to use them, but at the same time felt it wasn't quite right to drop them off at the Goodwill. She wanted to be sure they found a good home. And she need not worry any more, because I will keep them safe and sound, and maybe even knit something out of them (if I can find the time!). Here are some highlights. 

From 1970. So much fun. And look at that font!

You see people, this is how you convey childlike whimsey in a font. This kicks Comic Sans ass!

Needlepoint Animals. Stripey Cat! Owl! Racoon! I need say no more. 

A hooded shell stitch shawl. Now I know what my life has been missing!

Toddlers in Ponchos! Ahhh, so cute! Note that there is a girl poncho and a boy poncho. Sometimes I yearn for the 70's.

Um, is it wrong that I want this is my size? Wouldn't that look lovely on me in a nice soft grey?

I totally want to make that knitted one-piece romper for the Baby. Colour-combo possibilities are endless. 

And since Theresa's Oma was a Dutch Oma, there are also some nice Dutch handwork magazines. I don't do as much kruissteek as I used to, but you never know, these might come in handy someday. 

This makes me so happy. I thought I'd seen all the Patons books out there, but this one is new to me (and therefore, pretty old).

Love this illustration so much. The gorgeous colours, the fact that all those little Kewpies seem to be so surprised to find themselves knitting. Also, they have bunnies helping them to wind their yarn. Squeeee!

Also, one of my favourite things about old knitting patterns and magazines finding handwritten notations. And inside the "Steps to Knitting" I found this lovely little hand written sock pattern. I may have to try and knit a pair of these, just to see what they look like. 

Though I think this one is my favourite. The copyright says its from 1941 and printed in Toronto. Here's what it says inside the front cover:

I have to agree, I do love a 'generous assortment of colourful cardigans and pullovers'. Totally true. 

Gorgeous. Love the embroidered diamond detail.

I like the Tyrolean style jacket. Though what is up with the little over the shoulder pockets on the one in the upper left hand corner. They did weird things with pockets in the 40's.

The striped pullover, second from the right is absolutely perfect. I even love the styling, with a string of beads. I would totally wear it that way. 

Thanks again Theresa, for the lovely box of treasures!

 

 

big vintage book post

I've been sort of collecting up all my good recent book finds to do one big post about. I've been to garage sales, V.V's, a notable large high school rummage sale, and all of them usually provide me with a lovely book or six. So if you are not interested in awesome old kids books, crazy vintage knitting patterns and beautifully illustrated end papers, today's post is not for you. But I know a lot of you by now, and I'm thinking there are at least a couple of you who are going to find this right up your alley.  First, a lovely bunch of Little Golden Books. I was especially pleased to find the copy of "Mr. Bell's Fixit Shop" as one of you dear readers recommended it to me, and I've been on the look out for it ever since. I love it when I actually find something second-hand that I was looking for. That's the best. 

And then, a lovely trio of Richard Scarry books. You know what Richard Scarry fan I am. I was especially stoked to get the "Best Story Book Ever". It has such a great variety of stuff in it. We had a doctor's appointment, the Little Dude and I, and this was the only book we had to bring. It got us through the whole hour long wait quite easily. 

I actually had the "About Animals" book when I was little, I remember the cover quite well. Though now that I look at it as an adult, I feel like the illustrations are a little weird. Don't get me wrong, I still love the quality of them. I just think its... odd that the animals dressed as people are going to the zoo to look at animals who are not like people. You know what I mean. There is an odd sort of post modern quality about it that just always make me go "hunh".

"The Bunny Book" though, is just plain adorable.

Seriously, would you look at that! 

And its nice that Scarry acknowledges the paradox of clothed rabbits versus plain rabbit-rabbits here. That's helpful. 

I think that this might be one of my favourite Richard Scarry illustrations of all time. So lovely.

Picked this one up at a garage sale for the kitsch factor, assuming it would be of the slightly racist cowboys and indians genre, but it may actually be a reasonably good book. I haven't read it yet, so the jury is still out. 

Beautiful end papers though, I will say that. 

These 'Annuals', anthologies of stories and such, used to be extremely popular. I don't think anyone makes them anymore, but I find then from time to time. This one is in good condition, but more importantly...

...has awesome artwork.

Giant snakes and guns! Whew. 

I always like to pick up this kind of very specific cookbook. There is something so mid-century about a cook book devoted to the subject of meat. 

Also, the illustration captions are fantastic. 

I was pretty excited to pick this up for a dollar at a garage sale. 

Its got lots of great pictures, including these crazy squirrels...

and this terrifying wolverine. Its funny, I ran into one of my neighbors just after I picked this up. She's originally from Britain (though she's lived here for ages), and she said in her inimitable British way. "Oh that looks lovely. One does get rawther tired of all his birds." For some reason, it just killed me and I'm always going to think of that when I look at this book now. How tired I am of Audubon's birds.

Then of course, I've been picking up knitting patterns and such here there and everywhere. This lovely bunch are all from the high school rummage sale.

And this pile, as you can tell by the stickers, is from the Value Village. There is a lot I like about the V.V. but one thing I hate is these wretched stickers. They don't come off AT ALL. They tear, and then they rip the paper underneath and if by some miracle you can get them off (in many little pieces) they leave a sticky residue that makes the patterns stick to each other and rip some more. They are THE WORST!

I don't often bother with knitting patterns from the 80's (not quite vintage enough for me, plus, I was alive then, so they don't have the exotic waft of yesteryear that I'm so drawn to). But I had to pick this one up, just for the awesomeness of that cover model. She's workin' the hell out of that double breasted cable knit jacket! So much attitude.

And this is one of the patterns in that little Beehive for Kid's booklet. I'm totally making that little squirrel sweater for The Baby next fall. I'm thinking a nice beige/fawn colour with dark brown squirrels. It'd look so sweet on him. Plus also, squirrels!

And I want to make that boys pullover in a size big enough for me, and in different colours. Grey and yellow maybe. So cute. 

How awesome are these? Halters are indeed Tops (just like lamb chops apparently). I love how they show alternate styling/wardrobe options. Knitted halters; going from the Boardwalk to the Boardroom. Ah, seventies optimism, how I love you.

And I had to include these three shots from the Bernat knitting book (late sixties I'm thinking) just to illustrate the inequity in modeling from the time period. Beauty standards change a lot, and modeling for a home knitwear instructional guide is probably not the creme de la creme of modeling gigs. But still, in what world is this guy a model?  I'm sure his mother loves him, but seriously, that is a face for radio, as they say. 

And in what world is he married to this woman?

Honestly. Also, there are like, five or six different very attractive ladies featured throughout this book and just this one dude, and frankly he looks like he's suffered from one too many rugby related facial injuries. I'm guessing he was related to one of the photographers or something, and they just pulled him into the shoot in a pinch. Just sayin'.

crocheted cuteness

So I'm on day day six of my sewing withdrawl, as my machine is in the shop. I'm over the worst of the twitchieness, but man, I just don't know what to do with myself in the evenings. Anyhow, I'm finishing up a lot of little knitting and hand-sewing projects that have been lying around, so I've got one of those to show you today. Its a darling little sweater that I've been commissioned to make for a baby girl.
I'm so used to making things for little boys, that I just never get to do this sort of thing, you know, all pinky with flowers. This is, of course, the Baby Sophisticate again. Such a great pattern. In order to fancy it up I decided to add some crocheted flower appliques, but I haven't crocheted in ages, so I turned to the good ole' internet for some help and found, once again, the perfect little thing at Attic 24. Really, it is my go-to site for all things crochet, especially of the cute and colourful variety.This is the teeny tiny flower pattern.

And this is from the Crochet Flower and Leaves pattern, but I decided to keep it simple and didn't do the second layer of petals. 

Really, these cute it up so much. And those teeny tiny flowers would be perfect attached to little barrettes as well. They were kind of addictive to make, and I could imagine all sorts of wonderful uses for them. They'd be really great done up in one colour and then hundreds of them joined together to make a scarf.... but my sewing machine will be back in three days, so I think I'll hold out instead of starting and insane, time intensive obsessive crochet project. I'll wait and do an insane, time intensive obsessive sewing project instead. Yeah, that sounds good.

down time

And unexpected bonus of my four days commuting into Toronto was... the commute!
Who knew how much I was going to enjoy getting on a train in the dark and riding for an hour or so. I'd be sitting there, all excited to be heading out into the early morning once again, and look around me to deduce that a) I was the only one who appeared to be excited, and b) I had a WHOLE HOUR to knit. Or read. Or write. Or just sit still and look out the window.  It is only when you have two small children under the age of four that you can finally realize how awesome that is. I also noted that c) I was the only one knitting. Which did kind of surprise me. And that just goes to show what sort of a fibre arts/crafting bubble I live in. It really, actually made me wonder that no one else had any other kind of handwork going on. No crochet, no needlepoint, nuthin'. Go figure.

Anyhow, with four morning rides and four evening rides, I was just about able to finish up a nice little project. And by 'just about', I mean this is what happened: 
I believe the technical knitting term for this is "a pisser". For those of you who don't know what you're looking at, this is an almost finished project, except with 18 stitches left to cast off I've run out of yarn. argh. Anyhow, I had to wait until I got home, and then dig around in my stash to find another close enough colour-wise bit of yarn so that I could finish it off. 

And here it is. Ah, my enthusiastic little knitwear model! Actually, contrary to what his face is saying, he genuinely likes his new hat. Its the same one I made for him when he was but a wee little boy, which he has outgrown and passed on to his little brother (though not without some reluctance:  "That's MY hat!") When it was half way done I tried it on his head for size and he said, "Is dat for ME?" and when I said, sure it could be for him if he wanted it, he quite sweetly declared, "I want a lovely purple hat like dat one! Will you make it for me?" But of course, my love, but of course. 

baby's new sweater

Here's what I was hinting about yesterday.  Its feels SO GOOD to do some knitting again. Its really been ages since I've knitted, as I've really had a quilting/sewing focus lately. But a couple of weeks ago I busted out the needles and got down to a project that I've been wanting to work on for awhile now.
The pattern that I used is the Baby Sophisticate. The poor Second Baby does not have as many mama-made knitted items as his big brother did. And he's been needing a really warm sweater to wear in the car when we go out. We often just put him in a hoodie because he has this car seat cover that keeps him cozy, but lately it's been really cold out, and so I wanted him to have something proper an wooly. So I hit the boxing day yarn sales at my local yarn shop, and here you have it.  And doesn't he look handsome in it? This green is so good on him. I'd always imagined doing it in grey, but the green (which was on sale) is just perfect. And it was so fun and quick and satisfying to knit (top down, no seaming up at the end) that I just might make another one. 
Now, to be fair, this was my second attempt at this sweater. This green version is knitted with an aran weight, as the pattern reccomended. But I gave it an initial shot with some worsted weight that I had in my stash, just to see how it turned out. And I'll tell you how, really, really small! Luckily, since it is top down, I just knit the body and part of one sleeve and then slipped it on him to see that yes, it was going to be way to small for him. So I put that one aside (I'll finish it later as a baby gift or something) and went on to this green one with yarn in the recommended guage. 

Just in case you are curious, the yarn I used is Cascade Eco+, which has a guage of 14 stitches to 4 inches and is 100% Peruvian Highland wool. And its not itchy at all.  I know a lot of people are reluctant to knit in wool for babies, but I put a long sleeve t-shirt on him underneath anyways, but it doesn't seem to bother him at the neck or anything. I'll just have to be careful when I wash it. And as you can see in this photo, it pretty much just fits him. The sleeves are just long enough, and same with the body. He'll probably outgrow it in a couple of months, so I vowed that he'd wear it at least once a day till then, just to make the knitting of it worthwhile. Also in this picture you can see the buttons quite nicely. I didn't have four the same that I liked in a nice wood/brown colour, so I mixed it up for fun. You can get away with that on a baby. And furthermore, this is a new face he's been making lately. He wrinkles up his nose, puts his tongue up against his bared teeth and does this funny fast little inhale/exhale though his nose. It makes him seem even more like a puppy than he usually does (which is alot). He seems to do it when he's excited, but also when he's annoyed. Either way, its very cute. 

Here again, with the back view you can see that its just long enough to cover his waistband. I'm tempted to extrapolate from the pattern and try to make it a little bigger even. I made the biggest size, but I'm sure I could figure out the math and go up another size. 

I think my favourite feature about this is the nice little shawl collar. I even learned something new as I made this project; Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn cast off, to make a nice flexible edge that lays very nicely when you're done. 

There's that face again. He's got sort of a Billy Idol/Elvis vibe going on. 

I'd forgotten how satisfying it is to knit for babies. So quick! And there's nothing better than finally putting that little sweater on your little one and seeing how nice and cute and warm they are. 

 

onetwothreefour!

Look who I finished making today:  Can you guess who he is? Does the post's title give you a hint?

Here's a shot that should give you a clue.
That's right, its Joey Ramone!

When I first saw this pattern in the Stitch and Bitch Nation book, I knew that one day I'd knit this doll. My very oldest childhood friend is a huge Ramones fan. At his wedding two years ago he even had the string quartet play covers of their hits as the pre-service music and as they signed the register. I'm telling you, you have not lived till you've heard "I Wanna be Sedated" played by a two violins, a viola and a cello. Anyhow, when I saw this pattern I knew that if he ever had a baby, I'd be knitting this doll for him. And now he and his wife are expecting their first child in September. So I had to bust out the knitting needles and get 'er done.

I don't make knitted toys that often. Don't get me wrong, I love the way they look but there are a lot of fiddley little details, and I find they are a lot of work. But I really wanted to make this one. The directions for the actual knitting pattern were quite good, but the description of how to put it together and do all the crucial finishing touches were really not very helpful. For example "Attach strands of yarn to head for hair.", doesn't really give you much to go on. Its about as helpful as a sack of hammers.
Luckily, my local library had just added Hilary Lang's Wee Wonderful book to their collection. (she also has a blog) And the timing could not be better. It is a great resource for all things related to making soft toys. As she so rightly puts it, most of good toy/doll making is in the stuffing and the final touches of face and hair. I really wanted this one to look, you know, Ramone-y, so I was happy for the good advice. (btw, its really hard to stuff a toy and still make it look skinny.)
And even though there are no knitted dolls, it still had great directions for how to make yarn hair and attach it to a dolls head. And there are some supercute patterns in that book too! I've put a couple of them on my someday to-do list.   Despite the fact that I didn't find the finishing instructions helpful, I did like all the details the designer incorporated into the doll. For example, these shoes are awesome. 

The Little Dude was pretty interested in the process of putting this together. As I showed the dolls finished hair to Hubs, L.D. inquired "is dat a girl or a woman doll?" "It's a boy doll," I replied, "sometimes boys have long hair too." He thought about it for a minute, and then got down on the floor and put himself into downward dog position, so his head was hanging down and said, "My hair can be long to, when I point down like this. See?" And he bounced he shook his head around to fell his curls bounce. 

Here he is, channeling his inner Ramone. I didn't even style him for this picture. He often requests his sunglasses after nap time, when everything in the world seems too bright. And he just happened to be wearing that stripey shirt. Even though I'd tried to steer him towards something short sleeved. He insisted that he had to wear this one, insisting urgently, "I need a stripey shirt because today is stripey t-shirt day!" Indeed.