The Hairball Doublet and Other Knitting Fables

Lara thought her new winter dress was the perfect tribute to her recreational drug of choice. And all her design classmates and instructors could only be thankful that she was into magic mushrooms rather than crack.

Teddie was really glad she'd found a way to put the doilies her grandmother had made for her to good use, and scorned her mother's advice about making more to lengthen the dress a little. How could she possibly degrade the authenticity of her Grandma's work by adding doilies made by someone else now that Grandma would never make another doily? Really, it was most insensitive of her mother.

Opal was on a one-woman mission to show everyone that afghans were made for better things than to be left on the couch all the time.

Archer wasn't sure he agreed with his fiancé that med school was a place where he'd be expected to demonstrate his dedication and ambition through his clothes.

Kelly couldn't quite understand why none of her clothing design teachers liked her bedskirt and sheers outfit. Had they never heard of her design muse, Scarlett O'Hara?

It had taken design school to show Carolyn that her destiny as a designer was to do for the knife pleat what Kaffe Fassett had done for colour in knitwear.

Maud felt that with entrelac you had to go big or go home. She was pretty mad when her design teachers forced her to compromise the principle by only letting her put the sweater she'd made in the fall fashion show when it really needed the matching pants to work.

Despite all his design instructors said, Lucas was convinced that any silhouette could be made to work with the addition of a belt.

Shi-woo's grad project was a loving ode to his much loved and missed cat. He felt pairing the Hairball Doublet with sleek tights created a look that encompassed both the grace and animal nature of his dearly departed Kkulbbangi.

Moira was very disgruntled when no one at school got that what they called a "kicky spring look" was supposed to be political commentary on the dangers of the economic bubble and importance of the gold standard. Maybe she should have gone into political science after all.

A Puff for Hexapuffs

Stephanie Dosen, the designer and blogger from Tiny Owl Knits, has come up with a new concept in knitted blankets with her Beekeeper's Quilt. Over the course of a year, she made about 500 "hexipuffs", or little double-sided, poly-filled, hexagon-shaped pieces knitted in the round, and then fastened them all together with quilt ties to make a quilt, as seen above.

This is a very portable project (at least until one gets to the assembly stage), would be a great way to use up odd balls of sock yarn, the maker can get artistic as she or he likes and play with the colour scheme or add embroidery to the hexipuffs, and because of the way this quilt is assembled, any hexipuffs that become stained or damaged can easily be removed and replaced. It could be made machine washable and dryable if only easy care yarn is used; otherwise dry cleaning is an option. And damn, would the resulting Beekeeper's Quilt be warm. This pattern is available for $5.50(USD) via its Ravelry page and there's also a knit-a-long for this design.

I think the main appeal of the Beekeeper's Quilt pattern for me personally is that it reminds me of the English paper piecing my grandmother taught me to do when I was a little girl. I still do some occasionally. I think nearly all my friends and family who sew have pincushions I pieced, and in a couple of cases when there was a family wedding in the offing I've been able to make a pincushion from scraps of the wedding and bridesmaid gowns being sewn for the wedding, which made a useful and special keepsake to give the bride in question. There is something very gratifying about making and piecing together all those cute little hexagon shapes, but my tolerance limit for making pincushions is usually two or three at a time, which I suspect means I shouldn't undertake to knit a Beekeeper's Quilt myself.

Fun With Rubber Bands

Here's a video from Lion Brand Yarns on how to make a rubber band bracelet with a simple knitting loom. This looks like a great kid's craft project.

What to Wear When You're Doing the Monster Mash

I've done several Halloween posts over the last two weeks (which you can view here), and for actual day of Halloween post I've done a post of accessories that will help you have the perfect Halloween — if not this year, then next year.

These will probably be the only spiders you'll ever want creeping up your legs. This is the Itsy Bitsy Spider And A Big One design, by Lotta Groeger. This pattern is available for €3.00(EUR).

Some haunting gloves. These are the Hattifattener Mittens, by Soile Peltokangas. This pattern is a free download.

These gloves will cast a spell on you, or even better, on someone else. These are the Bewitching Halloween Gloves, by Nanette Blanchard. This pattern is available for $5.99(USD).

Love the clever concept employed here, of snowflakes turning into skulls, or vice versa. These are the Snowball's Chance in Hell gauntlets, by Renée Rigdon and Zabet Stewart. This pattern is available for free.

These are the Batsy Mittens, by Ziina. This pattern is available as a free Ravelry download.

The dance of the shades that you can wear with shades. The Round Dance design, by Thomas Pototschnig. This pattern is available for free.

The Cat Mittens design, by Jorid Linvik. This pattern is available for $6.50(USD).

The Wa na na na na na na na Bat Shawl design, by Emilee Mooney. This pattern is available for free.

I love how this design has used the skin tone showing through the openings to become the ghosts' mouths. This the Boo! Toe-Up Socks design, by Emily B. Miller. This pattern is available for free.

This pattern is for the more daring Halloween trick or treater. The Spiderweb Brassiere, by Brittany Wilson. This pattern is available for free.

A scarf that contains both spider and web. The October is for Spinners scarf, by Sharon Emery. This pattern is available for free.

For your cranium, the Cranio design, by Chloe Sparkle. This pattern is available for $4.50(USD).

The Frankensocks design, by Star Athena. This is Knitty pattern, and so is available for free.

The Witch Cats Hat, by Christine de Savoie. This pattern is available for free.

These socks were inspired by the folk art skeleton theme known as a calaca that is associated with the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead. The Las Calacas Danzantes Socks design is by Erssie Major and is available for free.

Maybe in this hat you can convince the zombies you're one of them. It's not like they're too swift, after all. The Awesome Zombie Hat design, by Jane Gracier. This pattern is available for free.

This is illusion knitting and the skulls seen here will disappear and reappear depending on which angle from which you view the scarf. This is the Mark's Skull Illusion Scarf design, by Cathy Munoz. This pattern is available for free.

The Toxic Socks design, by Camille Chang, is available for download for $1.99(USD).

The Scarrrrrf design, by Sharon Mooney, is available for $5.50(USD).

For Poe fans, the Nevermore socks, by yellowcosmo. This pattern is available for free.

What's Halloween without the sighte of a bare and looming tree against the night sky? The Bile Tree Double Knitting reversible bag, by Alexandra Wiedmayer. This pattern is available for $5.50(USD).

The Shelob's Lair design, by KYMaggie. This pattern is available for $2.50(USD).

Stitch Markers You'll Want to Snitch

Recently, after years of using improvised stitch markers, I decided to treat myself to some real ones while on a visit to Toronto's Romni Wools, and was disheartened by the limited selection and general unattractiveness of the stitch markers they had for sale. But I knew I'm not the only crafter who loves using beautiful and high quality tools. There had to be some awesome stitch markers out there, and even better, I could write a post about them. Well, as it happens, there are and I did and here's the resulting post.

If you've never used stitch markers, they are quite a simple and handy little knitting accessory to help you keep track of where you are in your knitting project by marking the beginning of a round or a lace pattern. One simply slips the stitch marker from the left needle to the right when one comes back to it. There are both closed loop and locking stitch markers. The latter are preferable because they have more uses in knitting and can also be used for crocheting. This Lion Brand blog post goes into some more detail about how to use stitch markers.

It's quite easy to make your own stitch markers with items you probably already have lying around your home. You can use earrings, paper clips, safety pins, bobby pins, twist ties, plastic drinking straws cut into small pieces and slipped onto the needle, or a contrasting strand of yarn or embroidery floss slip knotted over the needle. But if you'd like to indulge in some special stitch markers, I've picked out a selection of stitch markers from around the net that you can either buy or make for yourself with beading techniques. If you've never done any beading, Worm Spit has a primer on how to make beaded stitch markers.

The notation stitch markers above (which are the closed loop type of stitch marker) are available for sale at Stitch Culture.

Craftsy suggests you can make these yarn and bead markers with technical reminders on them. I don't think I could be bothered changing the beads as they propose doing, but it's workable idea if it suits you.

These number and pearl stitch markers from Seahorse Designs would be an easy way to keep track of your rounds.

If you don't want to use your yarn makers to keep track of technical requirements but still want them to reference your love of knitting, these yarn ball markers from Hiya Hiya North America are cute and colourful.

Make sure you don't lose these little sheep! From Caryll Designs.

These green bead markers from Yarn Tomato are ever so pretty. You could make something very similar yourself, and once you know how to make stitch markers, your ability to make them will be limited only by the kind of beads available to you.

Here are some pearl markers from Shade Tree Art. What else would one put with cashmere yarn but pearls?

How do you like these apples? From Creations Jacqueline.

Here are some adorable owl stitch markers from the Etsy shop Lavender Hill Knits. There are a number of lovely stitch markers in this shop, and for that matter the entire shop is well worth a look.

These are definitely the coolest stitch markers I came across while researching this post. From Etsy seller Lady Danio.

These disco stitch markers will add a little bling to your knitting projects. From Etsy seller rosyretro. There are a lot of stitch markers available on Etsy.

Some Frightfully Good Halloween Costumes

The photo above is of the Witchy Hands design, by Lion Brand Yarn. It's a free pattern.

If you want a witch's hat to go with your witchy hands, I suggest this knitted witch hat design, by Cathy Scott. This pattern is available for $4.30(USD).

If you feel evil witches who dress all in unrelieved black are old hat, you might like this Which Witch design, by Tonks. This pattern is available for $3(USD).

If witches aren't your thing, this Jackyll & Hide sack masque, by Saskia de Feijter, might work for you. This is a Knitty pattern, and so is available for free.

If you're feeling devilish, you might like to make the Bokaclava design by Anne-Marie Dunbar. It's a free pattern and is sized for both children and adults.

If you're a Cthulhu/Lovecraft enthusiast, perhaps you'll enjoy knitting the Cthulhuclava, by Anne-Marie Dunbar. This pattern is available for £3.00(GBP).

Feeling cerebral? How about this Brain Hat, by Alana Noritake. This pattern is available for $5(USD).

I hope none of my male readers turned to stone when they saw this Medusa wig. I have too few of you to lose! Unfortunately this particular pattern is not available, but the Medusa wig design by Grace Breyley, which is available for $2(USD), is similar and could be adapted by an experienced knitter.

What's that in the sky? It's a onesie! It's a sleeper! No, it's a Superbaby costume, by Jennifer Lori. This pattern is available for download for $4.99(USD).

Here's a costume for your little lamb, the Lammekostyme design, by Margot Stevens. This pattern is available for free.

If you think your baby is particularly merry, daring, and fair-minded, there's always The Legend of Baby Link design, by Joanna Rankin. This pattern is available for free.