Whether you are frugal or frivolous with your money, a free knitting pattern offers an opportunity to create something with the expense being only the yarn and your time. If it fails miserably, you unravel (or frog it, as the slang is) and start something else. It is also nice to feel like you have…
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Category Archives: Knitting | Crochet
Reusing Jars for Storage, Organizing or Decorating
Do you love to organize your home while adding to the decor? Yes, me too! My current favorite is reusing glass Glenilen yogurt or mini jam jars to sort my stuff, separate my clutter and speckle my home. They work equally well for storing sweets and spices too since the jars are already proven to…
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Dyeing Roving Wool & Knitting Yarn with Kool-Aid
You may remember Kool-Aid as the happy-go-lucky red pitcher sloshing around commercials of your childhood – or you may not be familiar with the beverage at all, but did you know you can use Kool-Aid powder packets to dye wool? Yes, I know, it’s ok if you need to sit down to process this news. Then you…
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Resources for Learning to Knit
Two years ago, I moved to Ireland and five months after that, I learned to knit. I had tried before, but it wasn’t until food wasn’t present as a distraction that I could actually grasp the motions and practice of my stitches. Within 45 minutes, I was making loops through loops and could consider myself a beginning knitter. Within a year, I knew several stitches and could make things like hats. I still marvel at that as I work towards being a more accomplished knitter and, one day, crocheter. Enough about me, here are some of my favorite resources and tutorials for new knitters, including a link to a PDF I created with basic stitches for when our knitting group holds informal workshops.
Squishy Baby Blanket Knitting Pattern
A few months ago, I explained how hand knit simple squishy baby blankets for my friends in a post on Zulily.co.uk blog and on this blog, but I hadn’t put the directions into an easy to download Pattern PDF or on Ravelry…until now. With basic garter stitch rows and doubled up yarn, a squishy blanket is created. The result…
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One Size Fits Most Cupcake Tea Cosy
When I was looking for a handmade Knitmas gift for a friend who desired a tea cosy, I only encountered sized patterns for specific-shaped teapots. This was to be a surprise present though so I couldn’t ask her, “Could you please measure the circumference, height, and handle length of your teapot?” without raising suspicion. So, I…
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Interweave Knits Magazine Profile on Designer Carol Feller
The Spring 2013 issue of Interweave Knits was released last week and my profile of knitwear designer Carol Feller is featured in it! Here is a sneak peek: Very exciting!!! I feel fortunate to have been able to work with such a well-respected magazine and to interview my friend Carol for this glimpse into her…
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The Wind Up – What is a Hank, Skein, Ball or Cake of Yarn?
Yarn comes in many colors, thicknesses, shapes, and yardages. Most commonly, when you purchase yarn it will either be in the form of a skein, cone or hank. So, what do those mean? Skeins are common for commercial yarn manufacturers. It is squishy and often shaped like an egg or a short loaf of bread…
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Free Knitting Patterns for Premature Babies
There is nothing like showing up in this world tinier than your parents anticipated and being left wearing baggy baby clothes as a result. Let’s face it, when a baby is early or low birth weight, very often it is unexpected so you’re left running out to every baby store in town looking for something…
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My Zulily.co.uk Post: Knitting a Squishy Easy Baby Blanket
I wrote down my Squishy Baby Blanket pattern and shared it in an exclusive blog post on Zulily.co.uk. Tweet
Fibre Feis 2012
Community. It’s one of those things you don’t miss until you have a really amazing, supportive one then you reflect on how you didn’t always have that richness. It’s part social life, part therapy – especially for knitters. We spin, crochet, knit, and talk. Talk about everything from fibre choices to breast feeding to the…
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A Visit to the Hedgehog Fibres Studio
It’s not secret I love knitting with Cork-based hand-dyer Hedgehog Fibres and sometimes I just like looking at their colorways or petting a skein of their wool – or writing about it. So, when I had the chance recently to visit their new studio space, I was thrilled. With the official opening in late November or December…
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Create a Soak to Deodorize Smokey Knits
A couple of years ago, I was handed a big bag of acrylic hand knits that wreaked of cigarette smoke. Stunning stitch work and amazing dedication to her craft, but I needed to neutralize the odor without making it all fake smelling. Want to know how I did it? I wrote the ‘recipe’ in my…
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Where to Buy Knitting Yarn in Cork City
Vibes & Scribes Craft and Wool Shop 3 Bridge Street, Cork City, Co. Cork, Ireland +353 (0)21 450 5370 http://www.vibesandscribes.ie/ FourSquare (location on map) Cork Button Company 4 Popes Quay, Cork City Centre, Co. Cork, Ireland +353 (0)21 450 2730 Hours: 10:00 to 17:00, Monday through Friday http://www.corkbuttoncompany.ie/ or http://corkbuttoncompany.com FourSquare (location on map) Here is my blog post about it….
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Yarn Shopping at Knit + Stitch = Bliss in Bethesda, MD
I recently had a little mini shopping spree at a yarn shop in Bethesda, Maryland. The yarn selection felt rather exotic compared to what the yarn shops in Cork City carry and boy do they have a wide selection of notions, buttons (not like Cork Button Factory though), and accessories (markers, holders,…). After my purchase,…
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