Speaking of felt, I can’t wait to get my hands on this book – Alterknits Felt. How gorgeous do these projects look?
I am of course the woman who has three little bowls all knitted up and ready to felt, but is entirely lacking in courage to do so. So the chances of me making a felt footstool are probably fairly remote.
I saw these crazy cool crocheted wire thingies on Shelterrific and had to share them with you (and also with anyone who fancies buying me the silver hoop earrings).
Yael is an industrial designer based in Israel who makes beautiful wire-crafted jewellery and homewares in her spare time, which she sells through her Etsy ship Yoola. (Her profile is inspiring. Go read.) The 27th is the last day of her buy two-get-one-free offer just in case anyone fancies buying me a little silver, pink or orange pomegranate to go with the earrings.
Aren’t these just utterly amazing? {All images from felt artist Hisano Takei}
Having said which I’m not entirely convinced by this stackable set, though it would be warm.
Miz Tula from Whorange also recently put together a fantastic felt round up full of fabulous felty ideas.
A few small announcements.
![CropperCapture[23]](/images/old/6a00d8341c7dce53ef010535f69959970b-pi.jpg)
Holly at Decor8 has excellent taste in blogs.
The next meeting of the Grassroots Business Association is this Thursday at 7pm at Vermillion in Seattle. Set up by Megan of Not Martha and The Organized Knitter and Kristen Rask from Schmancy among others, it’s for everyone currently owning or thinking of starting their own small business. I hope to see lots of you there.
The fourth annual Urban Craft Uprising is taking place in Seattle on December 6th and 7th at the Seattle Center. I last went two years ago and it was a typically Seattle mix of the homespun, the bizarre and the fabulous, so I’m much looking forward to going again.
I’m almost embarrassed to tell you about my newest knitting project. Inspired by this blog post I am knitting up a very quick scarf in garter stitch on big fat needles.
I’m using Twinkle Soft Chunky yarn which is 100% pure wool, incredibly soft and only gently spun, so it’s very er, woolly and fat. My local yarn shop carries a great range of yarn brands but never chooses the nicest colours so I’m not sure I would necessarily have chosen this pink if all the colours had been available. However, I’ve ordered some other colours online, as I think I’m going to be making more scarves.
If you want to make one too, I loosely cast on 20 stitches and am knitting it up in garter stitch on size 35 (20mm) needles. My original inspiration suggests size 50 needles, but my yarn shop doesn’t stock needles that big. The needles are very ugly and plastic (which does have the benefit of being lightweight) and they’re quite tricky to work with. Let’s just liken it to knitting candyfloss with telegraph poles. But it really does knit up quick so there is much satisfaction to be gained.
UPDATE: I’ve just undone everything and reduced the number of stitches to 16 as it was too wide. I’m determined to get one scarf out of one skein of wool. So just scrub the bit about it knitting up quickly…
OK, so I’ll move off the election very soon. (Is it my imagination or has everyone been a bit smilier this last week?)
First though, I thought you might like to see these fabulous images from artist Michael Murphy.
Do check out Michael Murphy’s website for more fabulous pics.
Well, we are already well aware that Pottery Barn is not averse to a bit of plagiarism, but this time they’ve really gone too far and plagiarised ME. And believe me, it hurts.
Remember the three chairs we painted back in April?
Well here are the Pottery Barn versions.
Any lawyers out there who fancy assisting me in my multi-billion dollar lawsuit?
It’s my birthday today and I’m feeling lazy (and old), so only a very small post.
First up fruit flies. I was sitting with my friend at the playground yesterday evening, watching our kids trying to kill themselves and discussing fruit flies (as you do), and she suggested using a solution of apple cider vinegar and washing up liquid in the trap, which apparently kills the flies stone dead. I will combine this with the cling film method and report back.
Next, one of Megan Not Martha’s lovely commenters has pointed out that there is a knitting pattern available HERE for yesterday’s ‘cappuccio‘. I would love to knit it, but don’t think it looks half as wonderful here as it does below. Do you think it’s just because they’ve used an acrylic yarn? I think I will give it a go, but in merino or cashmere. Can anyone recommend a fabulous merino or cashmere chunky weight yarn? (Is chunky the same as aran weight in the UK?)
Finally if you want to know what your name would be if Sarah Palin were your mother, then click here.
Aren’t these just insanely cool? I’d love to buy one for the Husband’s birthday, but I presume they’re also insanely expensive. By Danish artist Peter Callesen, via Tula’s fabulous Whorange.
Oh I’m way behind other blogs on this one, but I’m very excited by the development of Spoonflower, ‘the website that allows anyone and everyone to print their own fabric’.
It’s still in beta, but basically you upload your own textile design (full instructions on the site) and they’ll print off a length of fabric in that design. They will also ship to the UK.
This is such a ‘duh! I wish I’d thought of that’ business idea. It’s obviously going to be huge and the potential to print on all sorts of different fabrics (currently they only offer mercerized cotton) and possibly even use it for things like wallpapers and rugs is enormous.
Not to mention that in future they’re hoping to allow people to buy other people’s designs through the site, which will be one in the eye to all the ‘only to the trade’ fabric designers. I think there are going to be some interesting copyright issues going forward though. In the meantime some beautiful fabrics are starting to crop up on Etsy.
I’ve never designed a fabric pattern in my life, but I have received an invitation to use the site (while it’s in beta it’s by invitation only, but they don’t seem to be too difficult to get hold of) and the temptation to bring out my latent Tricia Guild is enormous. After all, it surely it can’t have been that difficult to design the Marimekko Unikko poppies?
I just wish they were doing canvas or upholstery weight fabrics as I want to make CUSHIONS.
The Spoonflower guys are also writing a great blog about setting up and developing their own business. I’m particularly enjoying their little podcasts.
