As my mom would say, “Can you stand it?!!” No I can not stand how cute these crochet Quahogs (pronounced ‘ko-hog’ for all of you that are not from ’round here) turned out. They are another part that will go into our Seed Stitch Sound:community art project celebrating New England Marine life.

Quahogs anyone?

I didn’t use a pattern for these, just free from single and double crochets where I increased to make the shells and then via single crochet increases and decreases to make the Quahog bellies. I almost want to eat them!

To keep your creative juices going, I’ll be posting projects a they are created and patterns for you. Stay tuned!

This is just wonderful. Don’t you think?

Well I’m finally getting around to posting the pattern for my NYE sparkle arm warmers.

Bit O’ Sparkle Mitts

By Courtney Heath

Materials:

Yarn: 2 skeins Tahki Stella

Size 6 32” circular needle for Magic Loop or set of size 6 double pointed needles

Pattern:

Co 44 sts, place marker, join for knitting in the round.

Knit in the round for approximately 8 inches. Make shorter or longer if you desire. Note if you make longer, you may need two skeins of yarn

Once you have knit 8 inches (or desired arm length) cease knitting in the round and purl back on the stitches just worked. Continue back and forth in stockinette purling one row and knitting one row, creating a opening along one edge, which will become the thumb hole. Continue back and forth, not knitting in the round for apx one inch.

Join once again for knitting in the round. Knit two rows. Bind off loosely or with a Russian Bind off.

Inspired by Eileen Fisher, I’ve decided to whip up some Glovelettes with a bit of sparkle.  The sun has been glistening off the newly fallen snow and I don’t want to be left out.

Sparkley mitts from Eileen Fisher: Inspiration #1

Sparkly mitts from Eileen Fisher: Inspiration #2

So inspired by these, I’m creating my own. I’ll post the pattern in the next day or so, but wanted to send a little festive sparkle your way today!

I have one done and one to work on tonight

Happy New Year and thanks for all the support, friends, laughs and fiber!

One of our favorite and best selling books this year has been 60 Quick Knits, which features some fabulous projects for the whole family using Cascade 220, another perennial favorite!  It’s so hard to pick a favorite project from this book and it’s even harder with Rhonda, one of our fab teachers, keeps bringing in projects from the book.

20 of the 60 projects

Rhonda is quickly working her way through this book.  She’s worked up 20 projects so far and at this rate she might make it through the whole book by year end!

We loved the new recycled yarn for Spring from Rowan and thought oh they can’t top this one, but Renew the new recycled wool from Rowan for Fall and Winter is just lovely!

See the beautiful color effect of the recycled

See the beautiful color effect of the recycled wool?

This wonderful yarn is made from recycled wool and results in a fabulous tweedy look.  It’s a quick knit with 3.5 stitches per inch knit on a U.S. size 10.  It’s also accompanied by a great pattern book, Purelife Autumn, but the possibilities for this yarn are so many.

Purelife Autumn

It would make great hats and mitts.  I was thinking our Thrummed mitts pattern by Helene Driesen would be great with a coordinating color roving.  Simply beautiful!

What a cozy sweater

Buy online at here

I wanted to share this great idea from one of our teachers at Seed Stitch, Margie.

Margie uses these little spiral bound notebooks to help make her pattern reading easier and more transportable and I thought you all might like to learn from her.  Such a great idea.

First she grabs one of these little spiral notebooks and then attaches a locking key ring.  A shower curtain ring or other ring that allows you to easily open and close it like a carabiner might also work.

Then she photocopies the pattern from her book (of course purchased so she’s not violating copywrite laws) and cuts it up into manageable steps or pieces, pasting each step on individual pages of the little notebook.

Here you can see one of the pattern rows easily accessible and in the bottom snip it of the photo (yes I know this is a kind of crappy photo) you can see that Margie ticks off the rows as she does them so you always know where you are in the pattern.

Margie has found this to be a great way to take a pattern on the road, especially on the plane. She can attach this little book to the seat in front of her and easily flip the pages as she goes, never having to worry that it will fall under the seat in front of you.

Thanks so much Margie for this great trick!

I was sooo excited to this fabulous idea posted on the Etsy blog this week from Nguyen otherwise known as KnitKnit.  If you’re not familiar with Etsy or its blog, you have to check it out.  It’s a fabulous craft marketplace.  If you haven’t yet seen Nquyen’s designs, please also look.  She has some beautiful needle felted cameo necklaces for sale.  Fabulous idea.

Anyway, on to the idea at hand.  KnitKnit has brought us the wonderful idea and pattern for knitted postcards.  Seriously why did I not think about this yet?

How about knitting a postcard?

Wouldn’t these make a wonderful gift idea or a great tag for a hand knit or crochet sweater that you are giving as a gift?  The possibilities here are endless.  It seems these could actually be sent as a postcard with appropriate postage too.  Definitely well worth the effort to send this to a friend or loved one.  I know I’d be excited to receive one! You can see a feature on these on the Martha Stewart show.

How about a little love note or words of inspiration on the back?

Download KnitKnit’s pattern here or use your creativity to explore the possibilities of your knitted or crocheted postcards.

Nquyen will be leading an Etsy Lab on this project as well Tonight, Monday at 5:00 PM EST You can read more about the virtual Etsy lab and the project here on the Etsy blog.

All photos courtesy of KnitKnit and Etsy

Well it FINALLY feels like Spring around here.  This means we’ll be outside more and more, many of us sitting out on our patios or back yards enjoying the sites and sounds of the season.  So in honor of that today we thought we’d celebrate the patio chair.  Yes you heard me right, the patio chair.  If you’re from New England or ever visited us you’ll now that although it might be beautiful and sunny you still might need a sweater for those chillier New England evenings.  Sometimes even your run of the mill plastic patio chairs need a sweater too.

Why not knit your plastic patio chair a cover?

Now you can make one courtesy of a pattern from The Knitted Chairs Blog.  What a great idea huh.  The possibilities are limitless.

This is one of my favorites from a MA knitter named Tabitha.

Isn't this beautiful?

How great would one of these looked tucked in the corner of a room or as a fantastic do it yourself set for an apartment when you’re on a budget?

What are the possibilities for you?

Note: All photos courtesy of The Knitted Chair blog

I was so excited to discover a little feature in the latest issue of Vogue Knitting about the release of Sciaparelli’s Bowknot sweater pattern for free by Schoolhouse press.  Although this recent pattern has been slightly updated by Lisa Stockebrand, Meg Swansen, and Joyce Williams, this is such a great example of how classic style is always classic.

(photo courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Vera White, 1952)

If you’re not familiar with Elsa Schiaparelli she was an Italian fashion designer who was regarded by many as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Her chief rival was Coco Chanel. She launched a her collection of knitwear in 1927 using a special double layered stitch created by Armenian refugees. It’s a neat stranded technique where the accent color is carried through the body fabric, woven in periodically, creating a tweed-like effect in the main color body section of the sweater.

Don’t you just want to knit this?  How about charcoal gray with a pale pink bow? How about a cream sweater with a blue bow? What about a grass green sweater with a khaki bow?  All of the beautiful updates on classic style.