We can’t forget about the dudes! Sometimes they’re a little harder to knit for, since they (typically) don’t go for fancy lace and pompoms and such. But, here I’ve dug up some pretty neat (and manly!) projects for the guys in your life:
Bus Hat by Kylie McDonnell-Wade
Handsome Scarf by Spilly Jane
Modified Army Gloves by Selyn Birnbaum
Socks With Pints On by Spilly Jane
Holy crap, Christmas is coming soon! (Even if you don’t do the whole Christmas thing, there’s always an excuse to do some gift knitting.) So, what to make? This week, I’m trolling Ravelry for ideas for gift knitting projects. Follow along if you’re looking for something, too.
Let’s start with knitting for the ladies in your life. Mothers, friends, sisters, aunts, daughters, mothers-in-law, coworkers, the lady down the street that waters your plants when you go out of town. I bet they’d all appreciate any one of these quick (and girly) projects:
Baktus Scarf, by Strikkelise
Toast, by leslie friend
Meret, by Wooly Wormhead
I don’t know how I missed these adorable little guys when they made the rounds last winter, but I just found them again. How adorable are they? Teeny tiny Shetland ponies wearing teeny tiny Shetland wool sweaters (or I suppose “jumpers,” since they’re in the UK). They totally made my day. Here’s more information about them, if you’re interested. (And, who am I kidding? Of course you’re interested.)
Want sweaters to match the ponies? Try one of these gorgeous fair isle creations:
Lissuin, by Ann Kingstone
Dogwood Blossoms Sweater, by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence
Bea Fair Isle Pullover, by Sharon Slarke
I don’t know about you, but it’s hot as bejesus out here in Seattle. (And I don’t mean “it’s hot for Seattlites who are used to putting on shorts when it breaks 50 degrees.”) It’s actually in the 90s, and there’s no air conditioning anywhere within the surrounding 50 miles. It’s kind of hellish. There’s been a run on window air conditioners and fans:
So, while we’re all sitting around stewing in our own sweat, why not knit a totally useful (and useable) swimsuit!
You could go oldschool with:
The Call of the Sea, by Susan Crawford
You could go scantily-clad with:
BVI Bikini by Joanne Yordanou
Or, you could go actually functional with this cute cover-up:
Balos by Laura Birek
And, word to the wise (although I’m sure you know this already because you are reasonable people…I assume), don’t actually go swimming with a knit swimsuit. It would only go all soggy and droopy the moment you stepped into the water. Gross.
As you guys know, I watch a stupid amount of TV. And with great amounts of TV comes great numbers of commercials. (I think Spiderman said that… right?) Here’s a silly commercial that they’ve been showing for Subway, which apparently has avocados now (or at least I think that’s what they’re saying).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDB5H1GSjUM
Want to show your love of avocados? Try one of these patterns:
Avocado Fruit, by Melbangel
Avocado Dish Cloth, by Carly Zimmerman
So, Netflix pretty much thinks I’m a family consisting of:
1. A 60 year old woman (documentaries-Jiro Dreams of Sushi is fantastic)
2. A guy in his 20s (sci-fi movies-anything Star Trek–related is great)
3. A 17 year old girl (romantic period dramas-Um, Pride and Prejudice? Obviously.)
4. A middle-aged man (procedural cop dramas-Any show that has “Law and Order” in the title is good by me. Also, I just discovered there is a “Law and Order: UK.” I think I know what I’m doing this weekend.)
5. A 12 year old boy (cartoons-It’s kind of embarrassing, but Adventure Time is actually really good.)
My “Recommended” queue is always a little multiple-personality-ish.
One show that appeals to the most of my personalities is a really hilarious cartoon called “Bob’s Burgers.” I think it airs on Fox, but I’m not sure. Anyway, the second season just showed up on Netflix about a month ago, and I couldn’t recommend it more. It’s a family-sitcom-type cartoon (like the Simpsons when they were good), about a family that runs a burger joint. They get into shenanigans, and are generally hilarious. It’s a really smart show, with really great writing.
But the most important part about “Bob’s Burgers” is the character of Mr. Frond (the kids’ guidance councilor) is a knitter! Here he’s making a pink scarf. (He even has a yarn bowl!)
He runs into Linda (the kids’ mom) at the art store, buying yarn:
And best of all, he has this fantastic sweater:
Be like Mr. Frond and make yourself an awesome sweater. You could use this pattern, a really simple stockinet turtleneck sweater. You could then add on the words with a duplicate stitch or a really careful fair isle.
Knittaz 4 Life!
Now, if you’ve read any of this blog, you know that I have a major thing for costume dramas. I don’t know why, but I think they’re just great. And “Call the Midwives” is one of my favorites. The stories are great, the costumes and sets are beautiful, and I want to be friends with all of the characters.
Also (and possibly most importantly…just kidding) the characters are all involved in “handicrafts,” and are always making things. Chummy sews, the nuns knit toys for charity, etc. The makers of the show (the director? the producer? I don’t know about these things) are really good at making sure that the actors know what they’re doing. For example, when the character knits, the actor doesn’t just wave her needles around like someone in a cartoon.
I was very excited when the creation of an afghan was a major plot point of the Season 2 finale. Until I saw this:
And this:
Holy anachronism, Batman! If you’ve done any fiber arts, you can probably recognize that the blanket squares the ladies are making are Granny Squares. These are super-traditional, basic building blocks of many afghans. And the number 1 thing about them, is that they are CROCHETED. Not knitted.
You can’t just go to the store and buy Granny Squares. So, the props department for the show must have gone through the trouble of crocheting all the squares, then decided that it would look better on camera if they were stuck on knitting needles in the show. Blows my mind. (But maybe that’s why I’m not a props director.)
Anyway. I’ll get off my soap box now. *Deep breath*
Despite the clear issues with the knitting vs. crochet thing, the story that accompanied the blanket was just beautiful. (If you missed it, Chummy ends up in the hospital, and all the women of Nonatus House band together and put together the blanket for her.)
Jenny and Sister Juliene deliver the blanket, and through the magic of love (doesn’t that sound like something the narrator would say?), Chummy wakes up and everyone is happy and healthy again. Awww.
Have you seen this new miniseries on PBS? It’s pretty much made for me. It’s a crime procedural drama, costume drama, and (as Netflix is always suggesting for me) a Witty British Drama Featuring a Strong Female Lead.
Actually, it features several strong female leads. The main characters are a group of ex-code breakers that worked at Bletchley Park during World War II. Apparently I wasn’t paying attention in history class, because I had never heard of it. Apparently much/most of the codebreaking in WWII was done by women, which is pretty neat.
Anyway, the ladies of Bletchley Park have had to go back to civilian life after the war, and are made to sign a non-disclosure act, so they can’t even tell their husbands about their wartime efforts. They’re all sort of bored and unhappy with their civilian lives, after the excitement of being codebreakers. But, then they discover a serial killer and investigate him as they fight against the clock to prevent him from killing again. It’s all terribly exciting. The last episode ended with a huge cliffhanger, and I’m itching to figure out what happens!
But, when the ladies of Bletchley Circle aren’t fighting Nazis or hunting down serial killers, they’re knitting:
They even use yarn as a crime-fighting tool (see it on the map in the background?)
All the characters have fantastic hand-knit sweaters.
And even though the percentage of sweater vests is a little high for my taste, I won’t complain too loudly.
Want to get in the spirit of the Bletchley Circle? I wouldn’t recommend chasing after a serial killer, but maybe try one of these cardigans instead:
Vitruvia Vest and Cardigan by Marilyn King
Neon by Joji Locatelli
Anais by Kim Hargreaves
I’ll admit it, like most people who watch Castle, it took me a couple years before I really started to get into the show. The real reason I started watching it was because Firefly had been canceled (so sad), and I wanted to watch something with my favorite space-cowboy-pirate in it. Nathan Fillion doesn’t play the same character, but this did happen in season two, and it’s pretty delightful:
But, I suppose you came here for the knitwear, so here you go:
Super cute, right? It’s a pullover with set-in sleeves and a hood (I think, though it might be a sailor collar. Would you believe that she doesn’t turn around the whole episode? Seriously infuriating.), and a great chunky cable running up the front. The cable up the front is actually made of two smaller cables that mirror one another, then when it reaches the hood, the cables split and continue up the hood, which looks pretty cool. And, while this is clearly a store-bought sweater, you could make one yourself pretty easily. Here are a couple sweaters with similar shapes:
Mountain V-Neck Sweater by Kathy Cea (This is the right cable, but the sweater shape is perhaps better suited for a man)
Bitter End by Kayla Dyches
Granville by Fiona Ellis
Imagine you’re walking down the street, and you spot a little package hanging from a tree, or sitting on a bench. “How odd,” you think, going over to investigate. You pick up the package, and notice it’s a precious little hand-made stuffed animal. “Oh no!” you think, “Some little kid’s lost their toy!” But then you read the note attached to the package, and you realize that someone’s put this toy here so that it can be found and adopted into a loving home.
How cool is that? Very cool, in my opinion. The Toy Society is a loose association of crafters across the world that does just that. Visit their website and take a look at what they do. I’ve made several plushies and dolls for the Toy Society and left them around here and there for people to find them.
Want to try your hand at a random act of toy? Try one of these delightfully simple projects:
Gnome Baby by Tonya Gunn
Elefante by Susan B. Anderson
Anything Animals by Rachel Borello Carroll
On the Needles 