It's Turkey Day!

"Knitting" and "Turkeys" just go together. No, really, they do.

Original Turkey Hats (knitted version pattern available through Ravelry, here; crochet version pattern available through Ravelry, here)

knitted version

crochet version



Baby Turkey Hats (pattern through Ravelry for FREE here)



Turkeys (pattern available here)



Turkey Finger Puppets (pattern FREE here)



Turkey Dishcloths (pattern FREE here)



And, lastly, a Knitted Turkey, Knitting (for which I can't find any incriminating tracks; the photo is all over the 'net.)


Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!!

That Time of Year

This past weekend, during a spate of unusually beautiful November weather, we attacked the back yard. And I mean attacked. We took down two over-six-foot TREES that had grown up since the last time we cleaned out; there was ragweed taller than my unusually tall husband; there wasn't a brick back there that didn't have something growing up between the cracks. Our wooden back patio furniture? Mushrooms. (I'm not an outdoorsy type; sitting out in the sun for "fun" has always escaped me.) Anyway, a LOT of work had to be done. Three different sizes of loppers/clippers, a rake, two dustpans, a bow saw, a weed-whacker, hammer, nails, and many, many, many large clear rubbish bags (required by our trash company for Yard Waste) were employed. One of the first things we had to do, just to get in the back fence, was lop down several thousand yards of wisteria vine. Here's what's left, along with a dozen or so seed pods, just in case it has, in fact, been cut back too far:


None of the leaves pictured are actually part of the plant now.
So, this got me thinking about wisteria and knits. For example, Vicki crocheted this lovely shawl:


The pattern is for sale on her blog for just $1.99 here. (This is a pattern I could actually afford after my double-overindulgence at Fibre Space last week.) And there's the lovely way that wisteria goes all twisty:


I was able to save one small piece that was three vines twisted together. I'm going to strip off the bark this weekend, polish it up, and let it dry out really well, then carve & coat it. In a year or so, it should be very pretty. Speaking of very pretty, Angela Hahn got this lovely photo of actual wisteria:


... and used it as inspiration to create this adorable child's dress:


This, and lots of her other patterns - which, trust me, if you've been knitting a while, you've seen them around - are available on her website, knittitude.com, and there are tons of Ravelry links for many beautiful finished projects. Or you can find them in Interweave, Vogue Knitting, Twist Collective... you get the idea.

Now, along with all the green growing things, several of the neighborhood trees are coughing up their leaves. Like these - which are HUGE. Those are my little size-eight boots in the photo, for scale, because you can't see the quarter I put down!!


So, big leaves. I've seen some lovely knitted leaves, so I went hunting on the internet again, and found Lorraine McClean correspondence courses. She has several examples of knitted leaves. Hm. May have to look into this once I finish my Level I TKGA (if I ever do).

Good resource to have, there. Also, while we're on the subject of leaves, here's the way one of our local Old Towns is stopping skateboarders from using the fountains in the town center for tricks:


Permanently attached metal leaves!
And, because the whole point of finding pictures on the internet to share is to find the pretties, here's a spectacular silver leaf, and other lovely things. Sadly, everything's dated from 2007, so it's probably all gone, but oooooo.... the pretty....

Yarn on Thursday - Things That Look Like Yarn, but Aren't

Now that the chill of winter is creeping in upon us (our first frost was yesterday morning), it's time to start dreaming of summer vacation. While at the local elementary school on Tuesday morning to vote, I spent some time parked in front of a bulletin board full of photos from some of the teachers' summer vacations. The photos were grouped into categories of the Arts represented therein, and one of the Arts was "fiber":


Note the umbrella swift there! The picture of the big twine ball in Kansas reminded me of the giant twisted pile of metal from the construction project across the way from work - which, upon seeing it, I thought looked a lot like yarn:


This got me to thinking about things that look like yarn and knitted things, but aren't actually yarn OR knitted things. To wit: Wankette took this photo of some Christmas lights - it looks like yarn to me!


Bloomkitty captured a photo of this Rope Sculpture at the Sheraton Inner Harbor. It does look like fringe... but doesn't rope technically count as really, really BIG yarn? Sorta?


MARTHA STEWART (yes, THE) found this cool yarn-y light fixture at Youngblood in Sag Harbor, NY. I want one. (No, seriously. I need to have a light put in our front room eventually; I want this to be the cover!!)


Chiggers kinda look knitted. Creepy, but knitted. (This was pointed out over on the DemocraticUnderground.com board.)


So, remember the Knit Night Cupcakes over at VeganYumYum.com? There areHow To Knit Marzipan Instructions at VeganYumYum.com, tiny versions of which are here:

Cemedia took this cool photo of Tiny Flowers that Look Knitted:


She also took this photo of a moth - it looks like a shawl, doesn't it? (She's got lots of cool photos, go look!)


Orinda5 found this very cool light fixture at a store. I agree, it looks like knitted glass!





Then there's the Lace Fence by Demakersvan; it's part of a collection that's supposed to officially debut now, November 2009!



This last one has nothing to do with fiber, and a whole lot to do with art. This is Crazy Horse, which, when finished, will be the largest sculpture on earth. Korczak Ziolkowski, the artist, is responsible for Stone Mountain in Georgia, and Mount Rushmore. Korczak is gone, but his family (and a whole lot of other people) are continuing his work on the Crazy Horse Monument, carved out of the Black Hills. Sculpting (which, at this scale, means "explosions") has been going on for a really, really long time. I've been there several times years ago (if you can go over a long summer weekend, Memorial or Labor day, they do a Night Blast on Saturday evening. Very cool.). I got to see the space under the arm open up for the first time, and the last time I saw it, the blast had just happened so you could sort of see where the nose would be. The fact that the face is finished just amazes me - remember, they're carving up a MOUNTAIN. Anyway, it was on the school vacation board, so I just had to share.



Whee!!!

Yarn on Thursday - A good source for Knitting Magazines?

So, this past Saturday, while still in a histamine haze, I wandered into the Big Giant Used Book Sale at the local library. On the left, you'll see a box of Regency romances; on the right, a box containing a lovely full-color-plates book about the exhibits in the Hermitage, a book about Disney animation, a 1937 "American Guide to the Game of Chess", and a huge stack of knitting magazines. Mostly Pingouin, the English-language version of a French knitting magazine that seems to have vanished sometime in the 90s. I randomly tried typing "http://www.pingouinknitting.co.fr" into my URL bar since, well, if I had a company in France for that magazine, that's what I'd want the site to be, and actually GOT http://www.pingouinknitting.co.fr/default/htdocs/index.html - so maybe it's on its way back? I hope so! Anyway, got about twenty issues at $1.00 a pop - which beats the stuffing out of the $6-$14 asking price on eBay!!


There were many, many more magazines that didn't come home with me, though, including these two gems.


Trust me, the very best photos & patterns *are in fact* those on the front of the magazine. Wow. I wonder what it was like, back when an entire knitting/crochet magazine only cost $1.29? Then again, glad I'm in the age of Ravelry. I was almost tempted by the magazine that had this in it:


Yep, that's "Master Knitters of the 90's" at the top of the page... but I managed to let it go to a lady who wanted the mag for more than just the one article.

Anyway, lots and lots of knitting stuff abounded, most of it stuff I hope to make someday, and most of it stuff that will, in another forty years or so, find its way back to the library for another sale, I'm sure, to be loved by someone else. That's the magic of yarn, it extends its umbrella over all its little friends. And, while we're on the subject of magazines... I sure don't see either of these being around in 40 years, do you?

I dunno... what were *you* thinking?

Okay, everyone has one... that thing that you spend a lot of time lovingly knitting, possibly even designing, hours and hours getting it just right... to discover that it's very, VERY wrong. Here's mine:


Yeah, because I totally needed a short-sleeved bat-wing mock-turtleneck midriff-baring sweater made from eye-bleedingly odd acrylic. (Really, I thought I did. I even thought it looked cute, at one time, which it may have done - but not because of the sweater, that's for damnsure.) I'm not sure if anyone will want it, but I'm going to donate it just in case, as it's in very good condition, even if it is a mite ugly.

So, what's your "why did I knit this??" C'mon, you know you want to share.

(Does anyone know if a successor to You Knit What? has appeared?)

Still the Hot New Look

Knitting is the Hot New Thing Again This Year. FOR TRUE. I walked down the Big Mall on Saturday, and in the space of five minutes, took all of these pictures:

Ann Taylor	Coldwater Creek
Brooks Brothers	United Colors of Benneton
Wet Seal	American Eagle Outfitters

Over at the bargain outlets, it's selling as well. TJMaxx:

JCPenny Catalog Outlet Store:

Yes, that's Moonlight Mohair & Fun Fur. At JC Penny.

And good heavens, even the local newspaper has a knitted outfit on the cover (for the second time this year):


Nothing beats the Yarnball Sheep in the Diesel window from last year, though. Baaaa!