Gift idea – Toys!

So how is your gift crafting coming along?  For myself, I’m a little over halfway on my handmade gifts – I have 4 nieces & nephews and each requested some sort of knitted item (yes, I’ve trained them well).  They run in ages from 5 to 12 and all of them love silly little toys – which is good because I love making them!  So I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite toy books & patterns if you need some gift ideas!

If you’ve been following the blog for awhile, you may remember that I’m a huge fan of Rebecca Danger and her monsters.

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Winter’s hottest knit trends that you can make!

I am what some people call a “fashion enthusiast”.  More accurately, I
am a fashion fiend. In my past life (before marriage, college and job),
I used to model for some really cool local designers, and even a couple
of high-fashion brands.  I stopped modeling professionally when I was
about 18 but those years in the industry have definitely left their
mark.  Every season since then, I have made a ritual of stocking up on
fashion mags and gummy bears and devoting a full day to sifting through
the pages of beautiful (and quite often crazy) fashion trends that will
soon be gracing the shelves of local stores.

Over the weekend, my husband and I were invited to attend a private shopping party at Nordstrom
where, while being fed an unreasonable amount of champagne and hors
d’oevures, we were allowed to browse some of the upcoming season’s
hottest fashion trends. While I am the world’s biggest sucker for a new
pair of jeans, this season’s shopping party was all about accessories
for me.  As I was calmly (ha!) sorting through the shelves of beautiful items,
I started to notice a trend.  Knits!

Most of the items that
I fell in love with were things that most knitters/crocheters could
make fairly easily! I thought that since so many of you are much more
talented than I, I would share some of the things that I saw flying out
the door last night in the arms of proud shoppers, like myself, in hopes
that you can gain inspiration for any last minute gifts. 

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Sweater Repair

sweater repair roving

Ice scrapers are a sure sign that it’s time to break out those “serious”
sweaters that I’ve had packed away since Vermont. Oh how those sweaters
kept me toasty! Unfortunately it looks like two of them have met with
the dreaded wool-nibbling moths! I was able to poke a finger through all
four holes. After frowning for a moment and pledging to make some
little sachets of cedar shavings, I brightened up a bit when I realized
that the new Full Circle Roving had the perfect colors to repair both sweaters without any fuss at all!

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Stripey Baby Blanket

When I found out that one of my close friends was pregnant, my mind instantly wondered off to all of the adorable baby knitting I would be able to enjoy in the next few months. Tiny booties. Cute hats. Little sweaters. And of course, the baby blanket. This would be the biggest project of all my baby knitting plans, so it was first on my list to start.

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Advanced Cabling Techniques: Closed Cables

Over the past month, we have posted all kinds of cabling technique tutorials – everything from a beginner’s guide to cabling to unique and unusual cable textures for more advanced knitters. Not only do cables keep your knitting interesting, but it adds so much classic texture to the finished piece. Cables are also a wonderful way to dress up simple patterns that you might have laying around. By choosing a cable panel that works with your stitch count, you can easily transform your favorite basic hat or scarf pattern into your very own cabled creation.

So to finish off our Advanced Cabling Techniques video series, we saved a very unique cable for last – the closed cable! This is a cable that creates a completely closed ring without pulling in your knitted fabric, unlike many other cables. Check out the video to see how you can create closed cables!

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Freebies

Wallpaper and background images

We have had requests from some of our customers for a
wallpaper/background image of our latest yarn visuals. Below you will
find links to images that are suitable to use as computer desktop
backgrounds, screen savers, or wallpaper. Simply click on your favorite
picture to get to the larger version of the image. Then, right click on
the image and choose “Set as Background”. Enjoy!

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