Inspiration: Hippies

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This weekend is the Freemont Solstice Fair.  It’s where all the hippies and weirdos in Seattle (and there are a lot of them) get together and put on a fantastical parade and street fair.  There’s music, dancing, crazy costumes, giant puppets, and naked people on bikes.  (I try to keep this blog PG, or at least PG-13, but if you want to see the naked bikers, do a quick search for “Freemont Parade.”  They all wear crazy body paint, which is actually pretty cool.)

The parade is super impressive.  Motorized floats and advertising are not allowed, so everyone who participates is doing so because they love the Solstice Festival, and they love making things.

There’s the giant Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Fremont_Solstice_Parade_2011_-_166[1]People make entire outfits, floats and puppets made out of recycled materials.

3648639306_d9c4e0fa64_z[1]And this person with his (her?) amazing sun mask.7391886998_7c14613abb_z[1]I’m planning on getting into the Solstice mood with a little hippie-inspired knitting.

Festival Shawl by Lyn Robinson

Green_Belle_of_the_Ball_2_medium2[1]Dharma Bum Cropped Festival Top by Mama Pacha

ewf2_medium2[1]Summer Girl – knitted headband by Monika Sirna

5-2_medium2[1]

Knitting In Public

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We almost missed it!  It’s World Wide Knit In Public Week!

Since 2005, knitters across the world have picked up their needles and yarn and taken to the streets (and cafes, and libraries, and yarn shops) to share their love of knitting with the world.

Search their website to find an event in your area, or to start your own.  Or, just take your project out into the local park and work a couple rows.

I’m heading out right now to celebrate WWKIP week!  Join me!

On the Road Again

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It’s summer, and that means it’s time for road trips! It’s time to get the heck out of Dodge and take to the open road with nothing but a couple bucks, your faithful hound dog, and a skein or two of your favorite yarn.

(Or, if your boring, like me, it’s time to walk over to your local park and sit in the grass with a can of coke and a skein or two of your favorite yarn.)

I usually have a travel kit set up, but I make a point to restock and update it at the beginning of the summer. That way, I can just grab my project bag and head out the door on a whim.

So what do I keep in my travel kit?

I keep a little tool kit at all times in a tiny zippered coin pouch. It includes scissors, a handful of stitch markers, a couple yarn needles, a couple cable needles, and a few tiny stitch holders.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThen, I can throw my tool kit in whatever project I’m working on. In the summertime, I favor lacy shawls, socks and other small projects (call me crazy, but I’m not into having a big old sweater or blanket on my lap in 80 degree weather.  And yes, I know, I’ve become a total hot-weather weenie when I think that 80 is hot).

I have a stash of several kinds of sock yarn, a bunch of sets of sock-sized dpns, and a couple favorite project bags. When I need an emergency project for the road, I’ll grab a bag, throw in my tool kit, a set of needles and a ball or two of sock yarn (an adult pair of socks takes up about 100 grams of wool), and I’m out the door!  If you like knitting from patterns, think about printing out copies of your favorites, so you can have them ready to tuck into your project bag at a moment’s notice.

How do you take your projects with you when traveling?

Inspiration: Father’s Day

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It’s Father’s Day this weekend, and that means it’s time for lame Father’s Day gifts.  Every year it’s the same old same old: ties, golf balls and barbecue tongs.  Does your dad really want that?  I don’t think so.

How about doing something epic?  Something awesome.  Something that I totally should have planned out months ago, instead of the Friday before Father’s Day.

A hand-knit sweater, that your dad would actually wear.

Here are a couple of my favorite men’s sweaters:

Cobblestone Pullover by Jared Flood

871051258_9bada4cb0f_z[1]Ranger by Jared Flood

Ranger1_medium2[1]Guston by Ann Budd

Guston2_medium2[1](By the way, Happy Father’s Day, Dad!)

Oh, the Humanity!

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There is nothing (NOTHING) worse in a knitter’s life than pulling out a sweater, or a scarf, or even a ball of yarn and finding that THE BUGS have gotten to it. Not yarn barf, not having to rip out an entire sweater, not even carpel tunnel. Nothing.

It doesn’t happen often, but it happens once in a while. A year ago, I pulled my winter hand-knits out of storage and found a big hole in my wool coat, and a chewed-through spot in my husband’s favorite hand-spun alpaca scarf. It still gives me the heebie-jeebies to think about. Ugh.

And, last week, I was digging through my yarn stash, and found a skein of yarn with little cobwebs and eggs on it!  (Needless to say, that skein went immediately in to the trashcan.  You gotta get rid of that business stat.)

There are a couple things you can do to avoid this terrible, terrible situation. (Although, be warned, I am no Orkin Man, or even someone who’s particularly good at cleaning.) Here’s what I do to protect my yarn, fiber and finished knitting:

First, if I am going to put something in storage, I’ll put them in plastic to keep out the bugs. Big plastic storage bins are perfect for coats and sweaters, and ziplock bags work well for accessories and skeins of yarn. (I did not do this with my coat last year or that skein of burgundy wool… which was probably part of my problem.)

51erG3aACqL[1]Second, I make sure to keep my woolens out of dank, musty, moldy, or damp places in my house. If you have a newer house, or don’t live in somewhere as damp as Seattle, you probably don’t have to worry about this so much. Bugs and mold need a source of water, so if you keep your woolens dry, you prevent pests from setting up shop in their folds.

And, third, I now have cedar hangers in all of my closets. I’m 80% sure that it’s a placebo effect, but cedar has been used as a pest deterrant for hundreds of years (think about cedar chests). I don’t have a cedar chest, because all of my furniture comes from Ikea, but you can buy blocks of cedar, cedar hangers, cedar sachets and about a million other cedar-y things to hide in your closet and deter pests. (And, cedar smells good… bonus!)81866[1]What do you do to protect your handknits?

Ladies’ (and Gents’) Choice

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Question MarkThat’s right, Ladies and Gents.  It’s time, once again, for me to ask if you have any requests for topics for me to cover.  Want more patterns?  More tutorials?  More inspiration posts?  Is there a topic you’re curious about, or a technique you want to try?  Have you been struggling with a new stitch pattern, and need a hand?  Or are you curious about casting-on?

I’m more than happy bumbling along my way, chatting with you about whatever I happen to be thinking about, but I’d rather give you information you were actually interested in.

Feel free to send your requests to knittingontheneedles@gmail.com, or leave a comment at the bottom of this post!

Pattern: Phoenix Pouch

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAA perfect pouch to put things in, decorated with Professor Dumbledore’s familiar, Fawkes the phoenix. This little drawstring pouch is of a size to house a deck of cards, a small camera, or a handful of Bernie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. Originally designed for a Harry Potter-themed gift exchange, the Phoenix Pouch would be well received by Potterheads, or anyone else who loves a good fiery bird.

Knit from the top down, the construction of the Phoenix Pouch is very simple. A row of eyelets allow the addition of a drawstring. The suggested I-cord drawstring may be substituted for a ribbon, if you so choose. The Phoenix is created through Fair Isle knitting following the included chart.

Get the pattern here for free!

Phoenix Pouch

Inspiration: Wedding Blankets

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I’ve mentioned my tradition of making blankets for couples getting married.  Well, it’s come back to bite me in the butt again.  I’ve got two weddings coming up in the next couple months, and I haven’t even planned out a project yet, much less started knitting either one.

Here’s what I’m thinking:  Something quick and cozy, with a bulky yarn and gigantic needles.   Which of these do you like?

ASPEN Blanket by Tammy DeSanto

I like this one, it’s knit with bulky yarn held double.  But I think we could go bigger.

Cable_5_medium2[1]Eleventh Hour Blanket by Purl Soho

This one has a gauge of 3 stitches per 4 inches.  That would just about fly off the needles.  But what if we went Even BIGGER?6428266961_559dbe17e6_z[1]Giganto Blanket by Laura Birek

Instead of needles… PVC pipes.  Instead of Yarn… slightly felted roving.  This might be the one.  Can you imagine cuddling up on the couch with this blanket?  It would be like living in a little cocoon of fluff.  Heaven.

cabled2_medium2[2]Or, I suppose I could just get something off their registries… but where’s the fun in that?

Eleventh Hour Blanket by Purl Soho

It’s a Party!

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tumblr_n5u7t31xLD1rhtzjdo1_250[1]And I have 105 guests!

OK, actually I have 105 followers for On the Needles.  (Hi, followers!)  I somehow missed the 100th follower, which probably happened last week or so.  Whoops!

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I appreciate every one of you.  Each time I see the the little orange star pop up in the corner of my browser, I get a little squee of excitement.

Let’s keep the party going!

Techniques: Tubular Cast-On

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Nine times out of ten, when I cast on for a project, I use a basic long-tail cast on.  But sometimes, if the Knitting Gods so move me, and if the project is really special, I like to break out my Tubular Cast-On.

(I’m using it for my Stellar’s Jay Sweater.)

It’s absolutely gorgeous, especially paired with fine ribbing (it’s perfect with a 1×1 ribbing on sock cuffs).  Properly executed, it looks like the stitches on the front of the piece simply swoop around the edge and continue on the back.

tubular8[1]And (double bonus!), it is super stretchy, so you don’t have to worry about weird tension issues that sometimes happen at cast-on edges.

There are a couple ways to do it, which have all been written about online many, many (many) times.

The way I learned, is apparently the “Italian Way.” Who would have thought?  There’s a great tutorial for it here.

There’s another way to do a tubular cast on, that frankly, looks much easier, but I haven’t tried it, so you’ll have to give it a shot and let me know how it goes.  Here‘s a tutorial that looks pretty good.

What kinds of cast-ons do you like?