We love inspiring people to make the world a sillier place. Last week we saw so many monster benches and monster feet on Instagram that we decided it’s time to bring a fun, new transformative concept to life. To brainstorm, we headed to an auspicious place to get our gears spinning: the park directly adjacent to the home of the original Maker Faire: Bay Meadows Park. A new park in a windy spot, all the trees are young with support poles. At first glance, this could pose a problem to the imagination, without any grand shapes in which to envision giant squid and palm trees. Instead of being deterred we embraced those skinny little trios of poles dotting the field. Within minutes, one cute, leafy tree top in particular sparked our make-believe session with visions of vegetables traipsing across the field. A few measurements later, and off to the studio we went to bring him to life. As always, here we post a bit of our process to inform your own yarn bombs. You’ll notice we’ve begun documenting the process with Snapchat. Follow our story to see what we get up to and show us your work too! (more…)
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Albino Burmese Python Yarnbomb
Project
How do you yarnbomb a gorgeous event without detracting from either the existing interior design or exhibited art… in one week? When Gensler Architecture and Design asked us to yarnbomb their San Francisco headquarters to accentuate a quarterly workplace art show, in this case a fiber art exhibition, this was our dilemma.
Old Navy Bumper Cars Yarnbomb
You’ve seen our epic yarnbomb of a 1950’s Chevy truck in Old Navy‘s San Francisco Flagship store (up til January 2015). Now get ready for the second epic yarnbomb: three yarnbombed bumper cars in Old Navy’s New York 34th St Flagship store.
How awesome is Old Navy to choose yarnbombing to celebrate #OldNavyStyle in a season full of fashionable knitwear for the people! We were so stoked that they asked us to do this second project on the same block with the Thanksgiving Day parade. It’s our little Miracle on 34th Street. Forget Santa’s lap–go snuggle your derrier into one of these vintage babies this Christmas. (And I know you want to but sorry, they don’t move around.) Be sure to tag us in your pics (@knitsforlife @thedappertoad @oldnavy) so we can see you!
For those of you who are interested in learning to step up your work to more ambitious yarnbombing projects, get your scroll on and I’ll tell you a bit about our process. It’s basically three steps: design, construction, and installation. But first, the pics! (more…)
New Knitting Pattern: Knit Snake Yarnbomb
Last month I told you about the new crochet pattern for our fun Snake Yarnbomb design. As fast as our little fingers could go, we’ve knitted and purled and sewn and photographed and typed to get you the knitting pattern version of the same popular design. With no further ado, I’d like to introduce you to the Knit Snake Yarnbomb! (more…)
Photo tour of our new fiber art studio
Earlier this summer my sister, Jill, and I moved into a new art studio space at the Claremont Art Studios in San Mateo, California. I’ve been meaning to share Jill’s great photos of our space for a while now, so here we go. If you still want more, we love studio visits! We have an open house every first friday of the month. Contact me to schedule a visit.
This is where the magic happens. (more…)
Another Window Display Made Entirely of Yarn
As soon as we met Sonia who owns the hip local yarn shop Stash earlier this year at VK Live Seattle, we knew we’d be taking over the world together. Our first challenge, dream up a window display made entirely of yarn to show off one of their products, Simplicity HiKoo, a luscious soft DK-weight merino/acrylic/nylon blend from Skacel.
Immediately our imaginations conjured a breezy Pacific Northwest fiber wonderland where alpacas and blackface sheep frolicked over every hill. What a surprise when few miles out of town on our drive up, the stately Cascades turned to rolling pastures of sheep with guard alpacas, just like our sketch!
Our jumbo crocheted alpacas and miniature flock of sheep bounded across the pasture and right into our hearts, so we had to share them with you. Both crochet patterns now await you as instant downloads in my pattern store. (more…)
New Buttmunches Yarnbomb: Monster Benches at the Ferry Building
Knit a Sweater for a Penguin in Need
Rena, an oil tanker that cracked a couple weeks ago when it ran into a coral reef off New Zealand’s coast is slowly leaking onto that island’s shores, which harbors some of Earth’s most unique biodiversity. And treehugger.com says it’s only getting worse as storms buffet the damaged ship. Awash in grief and futility as usual, this time there’s something we can do to help–knit a shivering oil-slicked penguin a sweater! The yarn store Skeinz is organizing efforts and posted this pattern.
Penguin Jumper in 8ply – Must be 100% Wool Yarn
1 pair 3.25mm , 1 pair of 3.75mm needles , 1 set of 3.25mm dpn’s or circular
Cast on 36 stitches using 3.25 needles.K1, P1 to end of row. Repeat this row 7 times. Change to 3.75mm needles and K2, P2 rib. Work 4 rows increasing at each end of every row. (44 sts)
Continue until work measures 15 cms.
Decrease 1 st at each end of every row until 28 sts remain.
Decrease 1 st. in middle of next row (27 sts.)
Leave on needle.
Make second side the same.
Transfer the 54 sts from both pieces to 3 of the set of 4 3.25mm needles.(18 sts on each.) and work a round neck in K1 P1 rib for 10 rows.
Cast off.
Stitch up sides to decreasing to 27sts (opening for flipper). Add elastic to the top and bottom to prevent the penguins getting out of them. Top: 15cm of elastic; bottom 17 cm (knots allowed). Flat elastic OK.
New line of certified organic baby hats
Get one for a cuddly baby you know here or simply read more about materials, sizes, and the accompanying tree donation.
New yarns have arrived!
Knits for Life is developing new products exclusively from organic and/or recycled yarns. Some new shipments arrived and we couldn’t wait to give you a preview! See all the fibers we offer in our fiber options photo set on flickr.
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