Lion Brand Notebook
News, Ideas and Information for Crafting with Yarn
Lion Brand Notebook
News, Ideas and Information for Crafting with Yarn
How far would you go to remember your beloved pets? Some people create elaborate memorials to best give tribute to their best companions. One married couple in England took it one step further, by knitting their pets’ fur into garments. The Cleveland Plain Dealer had readers email their local Dog Lady about the practice with comments. The English couple who had knit their two pets into jumpers had heard about the process through their dog breeders, and now have keepsakes of their best two companions.
Even Martha Stewart creates items out of her dog Paw Paw. In a segment of her February 14 show, she showed the care she takes of her dog, and how she is interested in knitting a keepsake using a skein of Paw Paw’s fur yarn. She personally uses a local company VIP Fibers to spin the fur.
What do you think about this process? Have any of you tried using your dogs’ or pets’ fur to create a keepsake?
Posted in Knitting, Yarniverse | Leave a comment »
We’re so excited that over 25,000 of you have read about our first knit-along of the Tree of Life Afghan and that over 200 of you have commented. Since many people have mentioned that they are new to knit-alongs, we wanted to go over some basics of the knit-along with you.
So how do I join the knit-along?
Just download the pattern (currently free!), pick up your supplies either at your local store or on our website, and start knitting! No need to sign up or anything. Just read the posts and share your thoughts with other participants.
How often will you update?
For this knit-along, Corinna will be updating the community every two weeks on her progress, but you can knit at your own pace! Knit-alongs are all about helping each other through a project, so we want to hear from you!
How do I share my thoughts or questions?
As you’re working, share your questions with other knitters by adding a comment (click on the “comments” button at the bottom of each post), and if you have an answer for someone else, a suggestion, or just an anecdote, share it with us too! If you’re responding to someone else’s comment, it’s helpful to include their name and/or comment number, so we know what you’re referring to.
Please read others’ comments! Someone might have already asked/answered the question you have, or maybe you can answer someone else’s question! It’s all about helping each other!
How do I share photos of my progress?
If you have a blog or an account on a photo service, feel free to store your pictures there and just include a link to your photos in a comment. If you are a Flickr user, tag your photos “lion brand,” “tree of life” and join our Flickr pool! Flickr has a great explanation of how to add your photo to a photo pool. (Note: all links appear in orange on the Lion Brand Notebook, so if something is orange, you can click on it!)
Can I invite my knitting group to join?
Absolutely! This knit-along is all about building community. Feel free to invite your friends. If you have a blog, pick up the badge above (Right-click the badge and “Save image as” to save it to your computer — Ctrl+click and “Save image as” on Macs) and add it to your blog, so that your friends can see it too.
Again, I just want to welcome everyone who’s participating! See you next Wednesday for Corinna’s next post!
Posted in Community, Knit-Along, Knitting, Tips & How To | Leave a comment »
In addition to our weekly e-newsletter, we also have a monthly newsletter for kids and those who craft with them. It’s a great source of inspiration for kids, teens, parents, girl- and boyscout leaders, camp counselors and more. BK4K (By Kids for Kids) features beginner and easy knit and crochet projects.
In this past month’s issue, our patterns were inspired by spring. We featured the daffodil pencil (shown above), an easy, breezy headband, and a charming flower coin purse. These projects are great ways to practice simple knit and crochet stitches, and they’re perfect for the warmer months.
For more great kid-friendly ideas, subscribe to BK4K. If you have a Lion Brand account, you can simply add it by visiting the “My Account” page, and selecting it under “Subscriptions.”
Posted in Crocheting, Knitting | Leave a comment »
In each episode of our podcast, YarnCraft, we feature a segment called “Stash This–Ideas for Your Crafting Life.” As I’ve mentioned before, it’s a chance for me and my co-host Liz from our Design Department to share with you some interesting tips about knitting, crocheting, and yarncrafting.
In this episode, our focus was on combining knit and crochet, but in Stash This, we discussed great projects for warm weather. Here is just a sampling of the projects we discussed:
Market Bag - We featured a few different carrier bag patterns in Lion Cotton and Cotton-Ease that are great for carrying your groceries, going to the beach, or just running errands.
For more ideas, check out the podcast every other Tuesday by visiting YarnCraft.LionBrand.com or search our Pattern Finder, and tell us about your current spring projects!
Posted in Crocheting, Knitting, Uncategorized, YarnCraft Podcast | Leave a comment »
Last weekend I attended Maker Faire at the San Mateo fairgrounds near San Francisco. Maker Faire is an amazing event for do-it-yourselfers. It’s a family oriented event where everyone from little children to grandparents can interact with and experiment with everything from circuit boards to crochet amigurumi. The atmosphere is fun and the energy is great.
We have been one of the sponsors of this event for the last couple of years. This year at our booth we taught about 200 people to knit and crochet. What a thrill it was for me to see the looks on peoples’ faces when they learned to craft with yarn!
The icing on the cake was that our booth won the Editor’s Choice blue ribbon. And. . . speaking of cake, we offered a workshop on making yarn cakes. It was great fun to see even young children walk out of the booth with smiles on their faces and a finished slice of cake in their hands after working on it for less than an hour. Keep an eye out next week for our newsletter where we announce the new patterns for these cakes.
Posted in Community, Crocheting, Knitting, Lion Staff, On The Road | Leave a comment »
This is for real! Brigitte Hawley, from Benenden, in Kent, England decided to care for gave the four chickens rescued from the Battery Hen Welfare Trust. She knit them sweaters to help them survive the cold winter and called her creations the “chux tux.” In the end, not only was her altruistic deed rewarded by healthy chickens, but she won a national knitting contest!
View the original article at BBC.
Posted in Knitting, Yarniverse | 3 Comments »
UPDATE: Thanks for your comments on this Knit-Along suggesting that the pattern be free. We are offering this pattern free for the next two weeks for anyone who would like to join the Knit-Along. Please click on the image above to get the pattern.
In need of a good spring project, I decided on the Tree of Life afghan designed by Nicky Epstein. The pattern was originally written for Lion Brand in Wool-Ease but I thought I’d give it a try in Fishermen’s Wool, in Natural, which is a great airy off-white. The Twin Trees and Flower Garden patterns that make up the design inspired me that by the time I’m finished, the weather will actually be perfect for a day in the park.
After doing a quick swatch, the gauge worked out perfectly, with 18sts to every 4 inches, so I’m off to a pretty good start. (For more information on gauge, listen to this week’s YarnCraft podcast episode.)
I hope you’ll join me for this group knit-along as we work on this classic pattern, a long-time favorite for over 10 years, together. I’ll be sharing my progress every two weeks, and I hope you’ll ask questions, comment, and share your progress too.
Feel free to use the knit-along badge above on your blog. (Right-click the image — or Ctrl+click on Macs — and select “Save As” to save it to your computer.)
Posted in Knit-Along, Knitting | 225 Comments »
To me, my grandfather was larger than life. He had been the sheriff of a small town in the Adirondacks and personified elegance, authority and grace — he rode a chestnut-colored horse and wore a shiny, star-shaped badge. He was always impeccably dressed and adhered closely to a “don’t buy a lot, but buy well” philosophy. I remember his uniforms and suits and how all of the things that hung in hiscloset were tailored and pressed.
One of the items my twin sister and I inherited from him was a beautiful, handmade extra-large gray wool cable knit sweater that he had gotten in Ireland. Every winter we would switch off and either she would wear it or I would. It got to the point where I would jokingly not want to give it back to her at the end of the season and I began to think to myself, what I need to do is make one of these and our problem would be solved. The idea was fun but seemed impossible — the only thing that I had ever knit was a few basic sweaters and blankets and I had no idea how to cable.
I went to my local yarn store and had the great fortune of meeting a wonderful teacher named Beth. During one of her classes, I shared my cable sweater dilemma with her and told her with a smile that I planned to make an exact copy of it. With a large smile back she said, “Well, then let’s do it!” For several weeks, we mined stitch pattern books to try and find the series of cables we needed. Many of the diagonals were too short or too tall and there was an endless back and forth. Then the long hours of learning the twist stitches and different sequences came. We fiddled and charted and tested and finally came up with the pattern. I searched high and low for wool that was just the right color gray (which took a few weeks — had to be 100% wool in just the right shade) and finally set out to make the sweater.
The biggest challenge along the way was the saddle shoulder. I remember Beth said, “Well, we’ll just do a regular shoulder and won’t get involved with that mess!” And I remember pleading with her to help me figure out the saddle shoulder. “It has to be exactly the same!” I told her - big, huge pain in the neck that I was. I even insisted that we recreate two mistakes that I found along the way and ended up stretching out the neck a bit when I was done (Grandpa had a big neck). In the end, it was as close a replica as I could manage and took just under two years to complete.
Since then, I’ve used small sections of the pattern many times for smaller projects - once for a baby vest and another time for a scarf. I laminated the original graph and love having it in my larder to use for future designs. In many ways, I feel that when I use the pattern, I’m giving my friends a piece of my history and love for my grandfather.
Posted in Knitting, Lion Staff | 10 Comments »
I don’t know about where you live, but spring seems to be a bit slow in fully coming out this year in New York City. It’s the beginning of May and it feels like the beginning of April right now with cool temps and lots of rain. In a recent newsletter, we featured a special comic-book style piece about hand-dying wool. It was written and illustrated by Michelle Edwards, a regular contributor to our newsletter. It’s sure to brighten your day and get you in the mood for spring, even if the day is cloudy.
Posted in Knitting | 3 Comments »
Our customer gallery is a spot on our site where you can see what other people are working on or upload your own images. Here’s one we loved, submitted by Jessica Basciano, of a picture that she takes annually of her children wearing sweaters knit by her grandmother. Here’s what she says: “My 84 year old Grandmother, Betty Harris, has made an annual event of making sweaters for 4 of her Great-Grandchildren, Cate, Julia, Colin & Aaron, and having their photo taken. She always uses Lion Brand Yarn and is thrilled to see her work displayed on your web-site. Thank You!
Posted in Community, Knitting | Leave a comment »
