Two weeks ago, Angela and I both saw the new craft documentary “Handmade Nation” at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in downtown Portland, OR. The movie explored the lives of indie crafters and the DIY movement, and there were tons of crafty-folk in attendance. They had a kiosk set up for people to take pictures of themselves showing off their handmade goods, and they later published all those photos to a Flickr stream.

That’s me! I had a two-fer, since I was wearing my Tempest sweater and a scarf I made out of my handspun (Ravelry link). The lighting isn’t the greatest, but I’m just tickled that they posted photographic proof of my attendance.

There’s Angela! Her lighting’s much better, so you can see her linen-stitch scarf (Ravelry link) in Imagination.
If you’d like to see more crafters sharing their …

Note: If you’re just in it to win it, scroll down and read the bold print.

I think it’s something that’s happened to every knitter. You put hours into knitting a present for someone- picking the right yarn, finding the perfect pattern, knitting, ripping back, knitting again (maybe that’s just me). In the end, you think you have the most perfect gift ever created. You just know they are going to LOVE it. And then they open it… and….nothing. No squeals of delight. No bear hugs of appreciation. All you get is, an “oh gee, thanks” and then the knitted item you toiled over ends up in a drawer or the bottom of a closet.
Despite the heartbreak, some of us just can’t seem to stop ourselves. We feel compelled to knit things to give away. The staff here at Knit Picks feels your pain, and …

This is the OpArt Baby Blanket from Fall 2008 Knitty. I immediately fell in love with it because not only is it not overly baby it appeals to the graphic design side of me. At the time I wasn’t pregnant but knew that was part of the upcoming plans so I kept it in the back of my mind. So when we did get pregnant and we finally found out it was going to be a boy, I knew this was the perfect blanket and seeing as my husband is a huge GA Bulldog fan I was able to make him happy by picking red and white, still high contrast and kind of like a candy. Anyway, the original pattern was knit up in Swish DK but being that this is a July baby and I know I won’t block it everytime …

Since Earth Day is coming up, this week we’ll be featuring some Reduce/Reuse/Recycle tips on the Knitting Community.

Here’s a video tutorial on how to recycle old, worn-out t-shirts into soft cotton ribbon yarn. All you need is a t-shirt that’s been through the laundry recently and a sharp pair of scissors. I’ve been thinking about making a bulky mat for the laundry area in our garage. I’ve been looking at patterns like Absorba (Ravelry link) from Mason Dixon Knitting. The sample swatch in the video was knitting up at about 3 stitches to the inch in garter stitch, which would work perfectly for the pattern and also let me put all of Dan’s ancient grubby white t-shirts to good use!
I also think this could be a good project for teaching a beginning knitter, since the t-shirt yarn is bulky and you remove the whole “Oh, but I’m not good at …

Our grand prize winner of the POW! contest is Kate Palmateer. Kate wins a copy of Handknit Heroes and 7 skeins of Wool of the Andes in the color of her choice.
The two runners up who will each receive a copy of Handknit Heroes are Marta and Darlene M. Thompson. Congratulations!!!!
All three winners have been notified by private message.
And thanks to everyone who entered, reading about your superhero powers was really fun! <

Just like we wish that peace on earth wasn’t only on Dec 25, we’ve decided to extend “Earth Day” to at least an “Earth Week.”
Katie made these awesome rear view mirror hang tags and/or a placard for your dashboard to help you remember your reusable grocery bags. By the way, that’s the first time I’ve ever used the word “placard” did I do it correctly?
I went digging through those dark, sad recesses of the cabinets around the printer and found a bunch of abandoned file folders. I literally had to wipe the dust off of them. I cut one side of the folder to 8 1/2 x 11 and stuffed it in the printer. It worked! Then, since I work for a knitting company, I threaded a tapestry needle with yarn and stuck it through the top and Viola, hang tag! I’ll keep one …

I took a quiz online this week to find out how green my diet is. It turns out that since I don’t eat meat, I’m going to prevent 165,000 lbs of CO2 from polluting the environment in my lifetime! Crazy!! Since I eat a lot of vegetables, I’ve also been trying to do my part by getting my veggies locally whenever I can. Christy and I went to the farmer’s market in downtown Vancouver last weekend, and it was tons of fun walking around and seeing what is in season.
Last year, I belonged to a CSA (community supported agriculture), but this year I’m going to try growing some fruits and vegetables myself. You can’t get much more local than your own backyard, can you?

Here is my little raised bed with my broccoli, kale, and spinach starts. I’m giving the square foot gardening method a …