Giganto-blanket

Is it crazy that I kinda want to do this?

Yarn-spiration

One of the inevitabilities of living a crafty life is that is comes with a lot of baggage. (Literally, not emotionally). I have a healthy collection of yarn, fabric, sewing machines, knitting needles, books, and various tools that I can whip out at a moment's notice.

The trouble is, all of these wonderful things need to be stored somewhere. As someone who is currently settling in to a new apartment, it can be tough to figure out where to put all of this STUFF. (My silly husband actually suggested I pare down my fabric stash before the move. Ha!)

That's why I was super jazzed to come across this image this morning:

Photo from wise craft

I love this idea, found at the new-to-me blog wise craft. She originally found it via Living Etc and executed the idea with a big vase from Ikea.I love that it's a storage idea that leans more towards art than utility.

Practical, simple, and beautiful. Perfect.

I'm still alive

It's been awhile, gentle readers. But, I have an excellent excuse: my fella and I are moving back to our hometown in a little over 2 weeks. Our new place is way cheaper, closer to my work, and closer to most of our family and friends. It's also about half the rent of our current home in Toronto. 

We've been pretty lucky with our beloved Toronto apartment -- it's amazingly clean, well-cared for, and functional. However, our new place is...well, let's just say it's going to need a bit of spit and polish before we move in. My brain has been swirling with plans with how to make it a home.

My first idea: mismatched dining room chairs. I plan to replace my current matching set with a bunch of charmingly different chairs, all painted in neutral white. Something like this:

Second, I've been obsessed with this simple balsa wood sculpture thingy since I saw it on Design Sponge last week.

I'd like to use the same materials to make a big Finnish star that we can hang in our new bedroom. They look very complicated but are actually very easy to make.

I'm also working on knitting a pouf for our new living room. (I wrote about my obsession with these way back in September). I'm probably about halfway finished the knitting, then I have to assemble and stuff it. When it's finished, I hope to have something like this:

So, as you can see, even though I haven't been blogging up a storm, my creative juices are stewing. Stay tuned for the finished products!

Yarn bombed!

I was out for sushi dinner with friends on Sunday night and spotted this:



A yarn bomb!

There's been a movement in my hometown over the past few months to decorate a downtown street with yarn. The idea is to brighten up a sterile city space and make the landscape a little more friendly and colourful. I loved this tree so much that I made a special trip on my lunch break today to take a picture of it for my Project 365.

And how is Project 365 going, you ask? Well, it's been going swimmingly so far. I've been pretty obsessed with my camera over the past few days and have been trying to mentally document all of the pictures I can take over the next year. The real challenge will be to keep things going when my enthusiasm wanes three months down the road.

If you're interested, check out my 365 progress on Flickr!

The honeymoon sweater

After we got married in August 2009, my fella and I went on our honeymoon in Nova Scotia. It was a perfect place to relax after the wedding -- charming, interesting, and full of stunning views like this:

One of the most awesomely surprising things about our trip was when we stumbled across an amazing yarn store smack dab in the middle of rural Nova Scotia -- the Lismore Sheep Farm. It's actually a working farm where they take the wool from these guys:

An actual Lismore Sheep Farm sheep

And turn it into this:

My personal knitting nirvana

And, as if finding this treasure trove of yarn wasn't enough, each skein only cost $4.75. Yes, $4.75 for 100 per cent wool from sheep grazing about 100 feet away. Needless to say, I went a bit nuts. I got enough yarn to make a sweater for me, a sweater for my fella, and a couple skeins to bring home for my Mom and sister. Plus, we went back the next day to buy at 100% wool blanket. I broke the zipper of my suitcase trying to stuff in all the woolly goodness.

So, fast forward a year and a half to the present day. You would think that would have been ample time to finish at least one of the sweaters I intended to make with all of that honeymoon yarn. Well, my friends, I'm sorry to report that this is as far as I've got:

Kind of pathetic, no? I'm about three inches into making the Cobblestone Pullover for my fella. With any luck, it will eventually look like this:

Did I mention my husband is 6'6"? That's a LOT of torso to cover. Maybe that's why this is the first sweater I've ever knit for him. But I've decided to pick this up again and devote some serious time to this honeymoon sweater over the holidays. Who knows? With any luck, I'll have it finished by our second anniversary!

Watermelon Toothache

This hat is so sweet it's going to give me a toothache. I knitted it up over the past few weeks for my neice, Lia, for her second birthday.

I actually bought this yarn and pattern at Lettuce Knit here in Toronto when I was taking a crochet class over the summer (my first finished crochet project will be coming up in a post soon!). The store had put together a little kit with the pattern and all the necessary yarn, and as soon as I saw it I knew it would be perfect for Lia.  It's sweet, adorable, and totally girly -- just like her.

Even though I'm really happy with this hat, the interesting thing about making it was noticing how out of practice I am when it comes to knitting. I have been knitting for most of my life and it's always been my go-to craft. Lately, however, I have been drawn to other things -- like crochet and sewing -- so my knitting mojo has been a little low. Knitting skills that used to come so naturally took a bit of work this time around. It's made me determined to get back into it and beef up my skills again.

If you're looking to make a watermelon hat of your own for a special little lady in your life, you can find the pattern here.

Knitted Facelift

Look what's happening just down the road from my city! A local artist has  turned this:

Into this:

 ("After" images poached from one of my favourite blogs, Love it a Lot.)

This installation, on display until Monday in Cambridge, Ontario,  is punnily called "Knit camBridge." Hundreds and hundreds of people donated their knitting to turn this bridge into a cozy piece of art.

Here's a little snippet about the project from the Knit camBridge website:

This project was developed to include all levels of knitters, from novice to expert with the hope that it will stir creativity within seasoned knitters and be the foundation to attract a new generation of knitters. The contributions to this artistic community collaboration are key to its success. One person alone would struggle with a project of this magnitude but joined together we can create an amazing piece of art that will include a kaleidoscope of textures, colours and individually.  

This is so awesome for so many reasons. If you're in the area this weekend, you should definitely check it out.

On my wanty list

From Pickles

We've had a sudden shift from sticky summer weather to beautiful, cool, fall days - which means a return to cozy wools and knitting. I've decided I must (MUST) make myself one of these beautiful knitted stools in an oatmealy-coloured wool.

From India Annabelle

From India Annabelle

There are some great patterns available from Pickles, a Norwegian knitting blog. I think I may have to ignore my seventeen other unfinished knitting projects and start one of these bad boys.