hello pineapples: yarn stash

Showing posts with label yarn stash. Show all posts

Knitting Help Needed

Hey! I need a bit of help with a knitting project. Here are the deets:

Halifax Crafters want to cover a telephone pole outside of the Olympic Centre for our December Market (December 5 and 6!).

I've volunteered to cover this (pun completely intended), but that's a lot of knitting in three weeks - especially since I'm also trying to get ready for the show. So I'm looking for any knitters/crocheters who want to help cover a telephone pole - maybe even the stop sign pole if there is time. I'm looking to do something similar to the awesome folks of Knitta Please or The Ladies Fancywork Society (among many others). If the project is successful, it could be the start of other yarn graffiti around HRM (I have some other projects in mind).

What I need is a chunk of knitting or crochet (any style/any colour/any yarn - although you probably don't want to use your good stuff) as big as you feel like making it. Yarn Bombing's Universal Measurements say that I'll need 42.75" circumfrence and we'd like to see it about six feet tall. So if you or anyone you know feels like knitting, that'd be awesome. If you want in, I just need your piece by Friday, Dec. 4 (you can email me about a drop off - crafty [at] hellopineapples [dot] com). It'll be on the telephone pole first thing on the morning of Saturday, Dec.5 and you can go admire your handiwork. You can even help with the installation if you're so inclined.

If I end up with more knitting than is required to cover the telephone pole, it'll go towards another project - but that one is Top Secret and not for blogging about (not right now anyway).

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Sunday, November 08, 2009 0 comments

filed under: yarn stash

experiments in crochet and amigurumi.

I try to challenge myself with new crafts, but I'll always be a knitter at heart. This meant that I really didn't have much time for crochet. Why crochet when you can knit? At least, this was my thinking before I discovered amigurumi. Craft that exists solely to be damn cute? Sign me up!

Really, it all began when I found otamas and I became determined to learn crochet. I broke a plastic Susan Bates crochet hook trying to make my first otama (some crazy tight tension). My first otama were okay, but nothing to write home about:

Thanks to Debbie Stoller's Happy Hooker, I have finally learned crochet. Now I'm trying to master the amigurumi. Here are some recent attempts:

bird/duckie/baby chicken:

My plan is to write that guy up into a pattern. We'll see how it goes.

Next up, the Panda Ball, as inspired by a drawing by Blandy Snorhal (which you can buy at her etsy shop):

Since panda ball is an experiment based on someone else's idea/drawing, it is being made as a gift for a friend's baby (i hear babies like the black/white contrast thing) and not as something to sell or a pattern to share. I'll make the gift and then won't make any more. Somewhat ethically challenged, but when I saw the drawing, I knew had to see it as a 3D plush. I was going to make it just for myself...but I really don't need another one of my plush sitting around on my shelves. And homemade gifts = affordable gifts (especially with so many people i know having babies these days).

I'm not super happy with the final product. I think I unravelled it about a dozen times. It also needs a bit more stuffing - the shape isn't round enough. I also need to figure out how to change colours better when working in a spiral. Since the colour change always looked off, I tried making the little dude in "rows" and I think that affected the outcome. Anyway, it's a start. I've got a crazy long flight coming up this weekend, so maybe I'll attempt to work on it while on the plane.

Regardless of the outcome, both Panda Ball and duckie were great yarn stash busters. No idea where I got that yellow yarn or what I used it for (possibly a Dr. Who scarf), but I'm now out of it and that works for me (the "pattern" was created altered in order to accomodate how much yellow I had. there were a few tight moments while making the wings).

Posted byHello Pineapples! on Tuesday, April 01, 2008 1 comments

filed under: amigurumi, crochet, yarn stash

Guess that project...

I'm getting back into knitting these days. I'm messing around with some mittens for my mom (who lives in California. In the desert. No idea why she needs mittens), as well as plans to knit hat/mittens for myself. Actually, a friend recently bough a fabulous hat at Banana Republic, so with the help of Craft magazine, I plan on making my own version (although, it is technically crochet). The funny thing about that hat, that both my friend and I noticed, is that the crochet pattern looks an awful lot like an octopus I recently crocheted. Check it out:

hat:

octopus:

Should make coming up with a pattern much easier. I'll just knit a cephalopod, but without the legs. (I suppose I could put the legs on, but that would make for a really silly hat)

I hit the yarn store this afternoon and picked up yarn for my next big project:

What am I knitting? A Bastille day scarf? An American Flag? Guess again. It's going to be a Montreal Canadiens sweater. Since it is being knit for a friend who is about to give birth any minute now, you'd think it would be for the baby...but no! It's going to be a dog sweater for this little guy:

His owner isn't a fan of dog sweaters, but even she can get behind a Habs doggie sweater.