How to Stay on Knitting Message During a Heatwave

If you'd like to proclaim your love of or attitude toward knitting and it's too damn hot out right now to wear anything you've knitted, you can always do it by wearing a message t-shirt. This one's from Zazzle.

If you have a secondary interest, such as all things pirate, you can combine the two by wearing this t-shirt. From Zazzle.

If you're more rocker knitter than pirate knitter, this shirt might be more your style. From Kaboodle.

I love Art Nouveau, so this one from Zazzle is right up my alley. If you have a favourite knitting-themed artwork, you can always grab the image off the net and have a t-shirt made that will suit you to a... T.

Once the apocalypse comes, who do you think will be coming to us and begging for a stash-made garment? From Zazzle.

You may have been told that the devil has work for idle hands. What you weren't told was that you might actually be doing that work already. From Zazzle.

Sometimes, but not often, and even then only slightly. From Zazzle.

I've always liked this shirt from Craftster. Of course knitting takes balls, the more the better!

This is for the more stoic knitter. Because, at least in my experience, there is indeed crying in knitting. From Zazzle.

And this is for a knitter's non-knitting husband, who has more sweaters than he can ever wear and needs to know that there's a club for him too. From Zazzle.

"Future Knitter" onesies. Because it's never too early to begin on the brainwashing education of a knitter. From Craftster.

If none of these shirts appeal, there are probably hundreds more on the internet (Zazzle alone has 23 pages of knitting-themed t-shirts for sale) and there's nothing to stop you from having your own favourite slogan or knitting image custom-printed on a t-shirt. I find custom print t-shirts can be even better than pre-made, because you can find or create exactly the image or slogan you want and put it on a t-shirt in your preferred colour and cut. It may be a little more trouble, but it usually costs about the same. If you've made your own sassy knitter's t-shirt, feel free to link to it in the comments!

Coming up: My review of Interweave's The Unofficial Harry Potter Knits 2013 is scheduled to post tomorrow morning!

Not Your Grandma's Knitting Tattoo. Unless it is.

I keep running across a lot of knitting tattoos on the net, and even though I'm not considering getting any ink done (I've never even been able to tolerate a stick-on tattoo for more than a day), and would of course be getting an orange swan if I did, they are interesting and fun to look at. Here are some that I've come across.

The most common kind of knitting tattoo is the ball of yarn with a pair of knitting needles thrust through it, and there are loads of variations on this theme, like the one above.

Here we have the needles, the ball of yarn, and a cat. Cats seem to be a common addition to knitting tattoos. I suppose it's easier to add a cat than it is to add all the members of your book club.

The use of the "Keep Calm" meme is so going to date this person.

For a minute there, I thought "alpaca" was missing its "l". You definitely do not want your tramp stamp to have a spelling mistake in it. It gives off the wrong impression.

This one is a little more knitterrrr girrrrrrlllllll.

This is really quite the piece of artistry, but the idea of having an unfinished project permanently tattooed on my body makes me feel twitchy and OCD.

This one is actually Tunisian crochet (note the hooks on the ends of the needles), but could easily be altered to be knitting. It's another unfinished project, but one gets the sense that progress is being made.

Here's a knitted tattoo that's all finished.

The hands at work here have a few too many knuckles, but otherwise I love this one, which is a beautiful expression of the love of knitting and the love that goes into one's knitting.

I'd be afraid this one would cause my cat to attack my foot.

I don't think I can possibly can get knitting-themed ink when this woman has done it so definitively.

If you want to see some more knitting tattoos, there are some on Tumblr. Or you could just image google "knitting tattoos".