Tuesday 10 February 2015

Easy as 1, 2, 3 Hat.

Last night I was in Michaels to pick up some safety eyes for the crocheted Rocket (from Guardians of the Galaxy) that I'm working on. Turns out they no longer carry them. What they do, however, carry, is wool. And lots of it.

A skein of Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick&Quick, in Toucan, caught my eye, and I had to have it. (I know I am a yarn addict, but it's in my blood, I swear!) I rushed it home and worked up this Easy as 1, 2, 3 Hat.


Well since I am calling my blog and my shop Yarn Lab, I figured I'd photograph my hat in the lab. Turns out my dissecting scope makes a perfect hat model.


The finished hat is super warm and cozy. Perfect for the kind of day when you want to stay curled up in bed all day but can't.


The pattern for this hat is available as a free download  on Ravelry.

Monday 9 February 2015

What does the fox say?

Taking a moment to share some more of my Christmas knitting. Today it's the gifts for my cousin's little girl Penelope.



And doesn't Penelope look adorable! She's a year and a half old, I knit the pattern in the size for 2 year olds, and left the shoulder seam open until she tried it on so we could make sure it fit perfect.

This is the knitting project which I am most proud of to date. Not only did it turn out perfect, but it required a lot more work than usual. Why? because I decided to knit it in Red Heart Super Saver, a worsted weight yarn, rather than the recommended Anne Geddes Baby, a DK weight yarn. Which means that I had to swatch and adjust stitch and row counts throughout. You can see some of my notes in the two images below.



In addition to all that work, I learned a hard lesson about assuming that even two worsted weight sized yarns are the same, when switching to the white for the face I thought I'd use up some stash yarn rather than go buy a new skein. The result? a horrible nose nipple that meant I had to rip up all the colour work and restart the face.


Ooof look at that, the white yarn turned out to be a lot larger than the orange.

At the end of the day, I couldn't be happier with how this project turned out, and I know Krista and Penelope were happy too. 


I plan to eventually knit this pattern a second time, and provide my notes so that anyone who wanted to knit it in the much less expensive Red Heart Super Saver could have a go at it without all the extra work.

Monday 2 February 2015

The Warmest Tim Hortons in Canada

If you haven't seen this commercial for Tims yet, you should watch it now.



As part of their #warmwishes campaign, Tim Hortons yarn bombed the town of Fort Frances in Northern Ontario on December 17th, 2014, topping it all off by wrapping an entire Tims in woolly goodness. You can watch a time-lapse of the process in the video below.



Some of my favourite pieces of yarn bombing from the video are the bench and the fire hydrant.



I can't wait to do some yarn bombing of my own here in Calgary this year.


But the thing I loved the most in the whole video absolutely had to be the cozy looking knit covered couches and cushions. I absolutely must do a project like this in my own home one day. (even if it would take a tonne of knitting).


So thank you Tims, for warming up Fort Frances a little, warming up my own winter and for the great inspiration.