The Artful Yarn … where every skein tells a story

#7: Pillows

What better project for using yarn from your collection! What better project for trying new stitches! What better project for exploring color, texture and just a teeny bit of seaming! What better project for a beginner! What better project for any weight yarn you want to use! What better project!!

We love pillows! Love them! They make great gifts – decorative pillows for just about anywhere! We can go utilitarian with big, plumpy versions for watching TV on the floor. We can make elegant pillows for presenting wedding rings at the ceremony. We can make little pillows that hang on the door knobs of baby rooms to remind folks that someone is sleeping. We can make pillows for gifts, giveaways and grandmas! What better project!

There are over 3800 pillow patterns to knit and/or crochet on Ravelry – and that’s not counting what you can design on your own! And the part I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE is that you can buy a pillow form! Whoever invented that should get a medal and a free meal anywhere she goes. Yes, I believe it is a woman who created the pillow form. No more batting or lumpy stuffing! And there are so many great shapes and sizes – not to mention that you can use your 50% off coupon from You-Know-Who’s store and get them pretty inexpensively.

The photo above is for the Savvy & Textured Pillows designed by Leigh Radford for the Imperial Stock Ranch yarn company. This may look familiar to you – The Artful Yarn provided this pattern to hundreds of yarn shoppers during last year’s Yarn Discovery Tour. If you have this pattern, pull it out! Or you can purchase the pattern right now on Ravelry. Pick one of these pillows and get knitting – they knit up quickly, look amazing and you can use any worsted weight yarn. Or make them smaller and use a sport weight yarn – - or fingering! It doesn’t matter what you use. Or . . . find a great pattern on Ravelry and try it out.

If you want a little more challenge, you can download this free Kaffe Fassett pattern, Madras Cushion, from Rowan’s website. It’s my new favorite idea for a future project – just LOVE all this color and geometric design!!!

Yarns We Love: Imperial Stock Ranch Columbia is one of my all-time favorite yarns. It’s soft yet textured. Feels real. Comes in beautiful nature-inspired colors. And it holds it’s shape wonderfully. We have color cards and some yarn in stock now. Shepherd’s Wool is also just so great for anything you want to knit. We also like the look of Classic Elite’s Majestic Tweed, which would be stunning as well!

What’s next? As we have shared with you in previous posts, this project gives you the chance to experiment with textured stitches, try some easier construction techniques, knit with colors that are different for you, try different fiber blends to learn about their characteristics. Also, here’s your chance to experiment with (drum roll!) embellishment! Buttons, tassels, ribbons, braids, embroidery! Ahh! The options are endless and gives that crazy art kid inside of you the chance to shine, breathe and thrill. Go for it!

After-the-Post Post: Received the latest issue of Creative Knitting mag this week. Guess what? The entire issue focuses on portable, easier, great-looking projects to knit all summer long. Hmmm . . . what a great idea!

#6: Washcloths

Sometimes the simplest thing is the most treasured. When my Grandma Steele died, there was no big estate to settle. She and my Grandpa Steele were part of that ‘Greatest Generation” that grew victory gardens, bartered for things during the War, and always seemed to be on a fiscal knife edge. Yet they lived a very rich life. A richness that I envy now. A richness full of backyard friends, family dinners for no special occasion, and working with their hands to make, fix or create anything. My Dad had that way about him too. When my Dad was clearing out his parents little retirement apartment 25+ years ago, he gave me a set of mixing bowls that belonged to my Grandma Steele. They are the Pyrex ones where each bowl is a different color. Yellow, blue, orange – we call them vintage now. I just call them Grandma’s. To complement my set of mixing bowls, is a pretty beat-up pie tin with fluted edges that had been my Grandma’s. My Aunt Martha (yes! THAT Aunt Martha – the one who taught me to knit!) gave that to me on a return trip from a visit to New Jersey with a lemon meringue pie in it. Probably worth 50-cents at a garage sale, but priceless to me. And by the way, every pie crust comes out crisp and perfect every time! Thanks, Grandma!

These simple treasured items help me conjure memories of all my relatives who are gone now, but especially my Grandma and Grandpa Steele. I wish they had met my husband. I wish they had known our sons. They would have loved them. Especially because my husband and our sons love a good home-cooked meal and that’s where my grandparents excelled. Good food, faith and family! We all have treasures and memories like this, don’t we? The little something that reminds us of our moms or grandparents, a special friend or neighbor. These items aren’t going to bust the bank on The Antiques Roadshow, but they do make the best pie!

That’s why we like knitting or crocheting washcloths during the spring and summer. They are simple, useful, yet pretty projects. I always joke about the crocheted bath tissue cover in my Grandma Steele’s upstairs bathroom. But you know what? I remember it. And I know she created that to add a little cheer to the bathroom, probably from leftover yarn – because she never wasted anything. I’ve had customers who lower their voices or seem apologetic when they ask about yarn for washcloths. They shouldn’t feel embarrassed at all. Washcloths are that treasured project that folks will remember us by. And aren’t they great to have around?! Just like good friends, a nice cook-out and maybe a game of Parcheesi on the back porch.

Patterns We Like: Here’s your chance to be a pattern designer! Of course you can go on Ravelry and download patterns, but I love the Harmony Guide book series of which the Knit & Purl book is full of great stitch patterns made up of just knits and purls. Treat yourself to this one or all the Harmony Guides. They are a must for every knitter’s bookshelf.

Yarn We Like: Okay, we have a bunch of choices. (See? I told you we liked to knit/crochet washcloths!) BeSweet has two amazing yarns for washcloths: Bambino and Cotton Candy. Or try Provence from Classic Elite Yarns. And the Appalachian Baby yarn mentioned in an earlier post is beautiful for washcloths too.

What’s Next: Kick-it-up a notch and try practicing techniques that are more advanced. What about an Entrelac pattern, or try intarsia. Never attempted either of these? Set up a little workshop session with us for $15 and we’ll show you how. Or cast-on a few more stitches and work your pattern a little longer and make an awesome hand towel. I love to knit these. I have one in my laundry room which is the workhorse of that sink! And I have to admit it gives me a little pride to have something really useful as well as nice looking in that humble location. I think Grandma Steele would approve.

How do you like our series? We’d love to hear from you on ourFacebookor Ravelry sites. I know there’s a way to allow comments right here to the blog, but I have to ask my Web Friend to help me out with that. Early on when we did allow comments, there were some wildly inappropriate things coming through that portal so we shut the comments down. Thanks for reading! Thanks for shopping with us! And enjoy this Mother’s Day weekend!

#5: Little Area Rug        

One of the joys of my life is going to the beach for summer vacation. I also like going to lakes as long as there is running water and electricity. (I’ve done the primitive thing too, but now I like my creature comforts!) One of my longtime friends, Ellen, has a family home right on Lake Erie. It won an architectural award when it was built. I could get used to that kind of Lake House! I also just really like an entire day off, my house all to myself, with no one throwing clothes on the floor or leaving dishes in the sink!

There’s something freeing about getting away – from your house, chores, work, have-to’s of every shape and demand. Getting way means shopping at farmers’ markets, gathering a handful of zinnias for a pretty bouquet in the kitchen, smelling just-cut grass, a shrimp boil for dinner with blueberry cobbler and hearing the kids laugh and play while the first fireflies float in the early evening. Whatever your passion, beach or lake, wood or meadow, getting away is one of the greatest luxuries, don’t you agree? Whether it’s a beach, a lake or your own backyard.

Any little area rug you create – adds to that sense of getting away. Getting away means taking a break from what was or is for a little while, delighting in something new and different. And yes, a little area rug can do that! It lifts a space from the expected to the unique. Brings an unexpected joy where we don’t anticipate it.

Am I the only one who loves home dec knitting? I don’t think so! I like the idea that a little rug can go anywhere . . . beach house, lake house, powder room, laundry room, by my bed. Well, you get it! I like this pattern because it’s not difficult but has great, great eye-appeal. And I love the picot edge!

Pattern We Love: Muriwai Bath Mat. (It makes a great little area rug!) This pattern is published in one of my all-time-favorite books, Knit 2 Together, by Tracey Ullman ( Yes! THAT Tracey Ullman!) and Mel Clark.

Yarn We Love: O-Wool Balance Bulky. It’s a 50/50 organic cotton and organic wool blend that’s machine washable in fresh, vibrant colors that work anywhere! It is a joy to work with. We have a play-mat knit with this yarn in our shop.

What Else: Not into a book? Pick a few colors of this awesome yarn. Cast-on as many stitches as you like for the width of your new area rug and knit garter stitch stripes in varying widths to create your own composition. (And if you slip the first stitch at the beginning of each row, you have a nice polished edge!) You can’t go wrong!

What’s next: Use the same construction idea with O-Wool Balance and make a super-simple but fresh-look blanket!

#4: Baby Soft Blanket

There is no finer gift you can give a new mom than a precious baby blanket! We have met a number of new grandmas-to-be in the last couple of months. What a happy time! I know I came back to knitting when I was expecting our first son. It was some elemental, maternal upwelling in me that needed to knit something for our baby. A kindly woman at a little shop called “And Sew On” in South Euclid where we used to live, offered to teach me to knit if I would be willing to purchase my pattern and materials from her. It was an easy “yes!”

I had learned as young girl to knit during every Thanksgiving while hanging out on the old brown sofa at my Aunt Martha’s in New Jersey. My sister and I would knit yards of garter stitch somethings. We never had to cast-on or bind-off. I asked my aunt recently what she ever did with all that knitting and she thinks it just might be rolled up on some closet shelf somewhere in her house. Back as a mom-to-be, I wanted to learn how to knit. After showing me how to cast-on, away I went. I was just knitting and marveling where that knitting know-how came from. My new knitting mentor reflected that knitting is like riding a bike – what I had learned and practiced so long ago was still “in there.” So I learned how to read patterns, how to knit basic increases and decreases, etc. I knitted our older son a cute little blue sweater which our younger son also wore as a baby. It was deeply satisfying and brought me into my passion for all things fiber.

There are some moms-to-be that don’t have family to knit for them. It has always struck in me a deep sadness how many children and young women are in need in our communities. No matter where we live, my friends, there are folks who need basics. Food, shelter, medical attention, hope. I think a little hand-knitted baby blanket works on the side of hope and caring. Whether you have a little one coming into your life or not, there is someone who would be grateful that someone else thought enough of them to give them a sweet blanket for their precious new child. Knit or crochet a baby blanket this summer and give it to the local hospital in your area. Give it to your faith leader to share with someone in your church or temple. You could even ask other knitters and crocheters to you join in a summer project to create several blankets to donate all at once. Not sure where to donate your baby blanket? Bring it to the shop and I’ll make sure it gets to the right folks. It feels so good when we help other people – because in the gifting, we also help ourselves.

Pattern We Love: Baby Soft Blanket by Appalachian Baby Design. We have this pattern in stock right now.

Why We Love This Pattern: It has a great stitch that is fun to learn. It’s called the crab stitch, but I hate that name so I call it the butterfly stitch! More appropriate for a baby blanket, don’t you think?

Yarn We Love for This Project: Appalachian Baby yarn is 100% organic, US sport-weight cotton with no dyes. New moms today LOVE this yarn . It’s all-natural and gender-neutral. You could also use Berroco’s Weekend DK if you want color. Weekend DK is cotton & acrylic. Both yarns are machine washable.

What’s Next: We have great little cardigan patterns from Appalachian Baby Design too. Or cast-on a few more stitches, knit a little longer and you have an awesome throw for cool summer nights on the porch watching fireflies.

#3: Placemats

As a girl, I grew up with two types of table linens – a tablecloth for the dining room and placemats for the kitchen table. I have fond memories of visiting my Grandmother and Grandfather Murphy – just me – for a weekend. My grandmother was a one-of-kind girl! She grew up during the Roaring Twenties. Her stories of speakeasies, bobbing her hair and more risque bathing suits were great fun! She and my grandfather ate breakfast and lunch in the kitchen, but dinner was always in the Dining Room. But those more casual meals in the kitchen always used placemats. Toast and corn flakes for breakfast with a cup of tea and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches with the crusts cut off for lunch.

We love home dec items! Placemats are fun for your picnic table, as a Bunko prize or a hostess gift! And, of course, your own table! Here’s your chance to try different stitches. We love the linen stitch for placemats. It looks great on both sides, has a wonderful woven-looking texture and really looks beautiful with any decor. This would be a great present for the bride-to-be also or if you visit your sister-in-law this summer and need a pretty thank-you gift.

Pattern We Like: Time Warp by Susan Pandorf uses a great stitch pattern that is a breeze to memorize. Take the project anywhere – it travels well to baseball practices, weekend trips or right in front of your own TV. We can print copies at the shop or you can download one directly from her website.

Yarns We Like: You can use any yarn really, but fingering works well or sport weights. We like Madelinetosh Sock and Classic Elite Yarns Soft Linen would be really pretty.

What’s Next: Linen stitch is amazing for cowls, scarves, totebags or other home dec items like pillow cases, table runners, etc. You get the idea. Linen stitch is just the bee’s knees!

So we’re a third of the way through our series, 10 Things We Love to Knit in the Spring & Summer. Hope you are enjoying this feature and hope you are feeling inspired to try one of the projects highlighted so far. We still have 7 items to share with you and a bonus item – because really! Who can stick to a list of just 10 things!

Come visit us soon! The Artful Yarn is open Monday – Saturday, 10-5 and Sundays 12 noon – 4:00 PM. We’re looking forward to seeing you!

#2: Basic Shell

In Northeast Ohio we have so many fun things to do on a weekend. Maybe you head to a baseball game – Little League or at Progressive Field. Maybe you have tickets to Blossom to enjoy a picnic on the Lawn and a great concert. Or maybe you’re enjoying your own backyard and a glass of wine. If you work all week, you can’t wait to shed the ol’ work clothes for something more “you.” We like this basic shell because it works in so many ways. Comfy for after work, great if you’re going out to dinner, elegant for something more posh. Depending on what yarn you use, you could be set for a performance at Severance Hall or a waterfront burger at Pickle Bill’s! We like that you can knit this shell in the round with just basic shaping around the neck and arms and 2 little seams at the shoulders. I’d bet you knit more than one!

If you are a relatively new knitter, this project moves you beyond scarves and afghans with some great new skills: establishing gauge, knitting in the round, basic shaping and seaming. Now the sky’s the limit on projects you can start after this one. If you’re a more experienced knitter, you can pick up the needles and get going right away. It’s nice to knit a piece that looks great without a ton of angst! You can have this classic look ready for the summer and anything you have planned – vacation, graduation parties, bridal showers, special occasions or running errands. We just love it!

Where to get the pattern: This is a classic Knitting Pure & Simple pattern. We have this pattern right here, right now, in the shop.

Yarns We Love for this Piece: O-Wool’s Balance is awesome for this shell. We have a sample in our shop knitted with this yarn. For a more dressy look try Berroco’s Captiva or Captiva Metallic with just a hint of glitz. Or try one of our other new yarns like Maya and Weekend DK from Berroco. Or Classic Elite Yarns Cricket. We have a ton of choices depending on the look you want.

What’s Next: Okay – so here it is – if you knit this basic shell, you’re just two sleeves away from a sweater. How cool is that?! This is also a great gift project for your sister, best friend or mom.

Once the weather turns warmer, some folks set aside their yarn crafts. I can’t do that! I have too many things I want to work on, too many things that have caught my eye – a new stitch pattern, a new technique, and of course, new yarns! I don’t want to set anything aside during the spring and summer. I have too many favorites queued up on Ravelry or bookmarked in magazines.

Over the next few days, I’ll be posting 10 Things We Like to Knit in the Spring & Summer. Betcha one of these will tug at your creative heart! Our aim is to share with you fun projects that are not scarves or shawlettes. Each piece might lead you to a potential gift in the future. Or something to keep for yourself! We’ll offer our yarn suggestions as well as “what’s next” with these projects. All of them are smaller projects (aka can you work on it at the baseball/cheerleading/swim practice or aka not hot to work with. See? We totally get it!)

#1: Beach Bag (aka swim tote, baseball/cheerleading/soccer/everything bag)

Wherever you go, the lake, the pool, the beach or ballgame, a meshy summer tote is fun and quick to knit! You can make it stripey or not, add different stitches or an i-cord bind-off. Or learn a little crochet and have fun with a whole new texture! We like Dorothy Dean’s Not a Sandy Bottom knitted beach bag.

As you can see from the photo, this bag has nice openwork to air out damp beach towels as well as be able to see just what you have in there. I’m always digging back into my beach bag to see if I have my sunglasses, sunscreen, cell phone . . . well, I have my problems, don’t I?!

The bag is worked in a worsted weight yarn on US 10 needles for the bag body and US 8 needles for the handles. There’s a fun stitch pattern so it’s not boring, but once you get the groove you can just whip through it. It’s knitted from the top down so you get to learn how to use double-points (don’t worry!) as you close up the bottom.

I can also see using this as a laundry bag for a college person. (Do they do laundry? Or just bring it home?) I will let you know. Our older son is a freshman this Fall. You could also use it as a market bag but it might be a little BIG aka gets heavy with all those veggies. Later in the list we do have a great market bag pattern that was designed for us by one of our past employees, Emily, and always our fiber BFF.

Where to get the pattern? Stop by the shop and we’ll give you a FREE copy.

Yarns We Love for This Project: From Classic Elite Yarns: Mesa (100% cotton), Provence ( 100% mercerized Egyptian cotton), or Cricket (60% cotton/45% linen). Or try Berroco’s Weekend DK or O-Wool’s Balance DK. It’s nice to have a lot of washable choices!

What’s Next: Folks will love you if you make and give them this tote! So you have a great gift project. Think card club or book club friends, your sister-in-law, you get the idea. PLUS . . . the pattern designer allows you to make up to 15 bags to sell as long as you give her credit as the pattern designer AND include her website URL on your sales tag. If you want to do more than 15 you just have to contact her for a licensing agreement. How cool is that?!

Told you this would be great! Watch for our next post soon for our #2 Project in our 10 Things We Love to Knit in the Spring and Summer!

Just received my latest copy of National Geographic. I love that magazine and like George Bailey, I wish that I could travel to exotic locations someday. But for now I just live vicariously through its pages. In this issue there’s an article about folks who climb K2. The triumphant photos of summiting that peak reminded me of a backpacking trip I took in my teens in West Virginia. We climbed a pretty big hill in the Mountaineer State and I remember sitting on top of that rocky crag marveling a) that I made it up there and 2) how quiet it was, looking down at all the other hilltops with just sun and clouds and sky above us. But most of all, the Quiet.

Quiet is pretty unique these days. Even when we are home alone with no television, computers or phones “on,” our homes still aren’t quiet. I was recently reminded of this when the power went out one day. And boy, it was Quiet. I never realized what a hum goes on in our house until everything shut off. Even Kadee Dogger was unnerved by it. I thought the power would pop on quickly. But it didn’t. “What to do?” I thought. So much of my life is tied to electricity! Can’t watch a DVD. Can’t browse the internet. I could work on my laptop, but didn’t want to run down the battery. I could call someone, but I was sort of relishing the Quiet. Then I realized there was something delicious that I could do. Knit. Knitting requires no electricity. So I manually lit the pilot light on my gas stove to make a cup of tea, pulled out my project and started to knit. In the Quiet, I heard the soft “tip tip tip” of my needles. A comforting, rhythmic sound that I haven’t heard for a long, long time. I thought about women in ages past, who managed through their lives without electricity to raise children, run households and kept the faith. Women who were tuned into the Quiet . . . like I wanted to be.

I enjoyed my hour and a half in the Quiet. I calmed down, focused and felt each stitch in a way I don’t when I’m watching NCIS or the History Channel. I thought about relatives long gone. I thought about books I would like to read. I thought about spring garden plans. I thought about how tall our boys are getting and how I needed to organize the hundreds of photos I have of them. I thought about my dear husband and how hard he works. Then . . . boom! The electricity popped on. The Quiet escaped me and I started thinking about dinner plans, evening carpools and what I needed at the grocery store. My house was loud and I missed the Quiet.

Here’s hoping that you take the time in each day to seek the Quiet in your own life. If you have to pop a fuse to do it, so be it!

Wow! I felted my stash bag sample for our class this Saturday. I was expecting it to really felt, but if REALLY felted and you know what? It’s beautiful! For me, felting is a good metaphor for everything else that happens in life. You give something your best shot, follow the wisdom and then you have to step back and let the magic happen. You don’t always get exactly what you expected or wanted, sometimes you get something better but you always get something worth it.

Cheers!

Sending prayers to Doni R. today who had a tree fall on her house yesterday during that HUGE wind!! Doni – if you need anything, you know you can call on us! I will be in touch with her somehow today and will keep you posted via Ravelry.

Working on a couple of new projects right now (aren’t we always?!) Have been tinkering with a Fair Isle Cowl pattern.  I cruised around on Ravelry forever trying to find something that we thought would be a good beginner pattern. Nothing really jumped out at us. So we all looked at each other and said, “We’re smart women! We’ve knitted a little bit! Let’s create our own!” Like all knitting, math is involved. Some of us are great at math and some of us do not like it. We do not like it in a box. We do not like it with a fox! We do not like here or there. We do not like it anywhere! But . . . Fair Isle is a math project. Soooo . . . . a day later, I have something on paper that looks pretty good – did I say, “on paper?”  Have some beautiful sport weight alpaca burning a hole in my imagination. So armed with that, I set out.  Became enchanted with the idea of an i-cord cast-on. And so I did that! Now I have JUST started the cowl pattern. Three rows in and so far so good. But then my head was turned with another new project – a cute baby playmat in bold-colored nesting squares! It was like the call of The Sirens in Greek mythology. We have some new grandmas and grandmas-to-be at the shop and thought this project would be AWESOME! So armed with O-Wool Balance Bulky, I am knitting away on that!! LOVE IT! Didn’t like the way they started the playmat, so think we will teach a different cast-on for that – and left-leaning and right-leaning make-ones and then, yes, you guessed it, an i-cord bind-off! The little playmat is super easy once you get past the double-pointed needle phase. And I love the fun colors – January is a month that needs fun colors.

During all of this, we’re planning something like 8 classes for February. Our January classes are selling out and we are being approached by out-of-town groups to create fun experiences for them. How cool is that?! Meanwhile, the house is a trashy mess, we have cheese sticks, cereal and onions for food and let’s not even talk about laundry. But I don’t care! Having too much fun thinking about knitting, planning on knitting and actually knitting! And let’s not even talk about my newest attraction to crochet!