Teenie Tiny Hats are Popping Up EVERYWHERE!

Did you know that today, November 17th , is World Prematurity Day?

I think every day must be preemie day for my Aunt, who for the past 5+ years has challenged herself to make 50 teenie-tiny hats per month.

Here is just a few that she has donated this year to the Rochester Knitting Guild. I’ve already sent the October Pumpkin Hats and December Santa Hats to Strong’s Neonatal Unit.

So why not cast on a few stitches and knit up this quick act of kindness. Feedback from the Nurses: Hats with a rolled brim are best and an easy care acrylic yarn are preferred. Think tiny.

A hat to fit a lemon or small apple.

Here are a few links to knitting patterns:

The Preemie Project

Knitting Pattern Central

Bev’s Country Cottage

So when I first stumbled upon these other tiny hats from a UK juice company promotion, I thought it was probably connected to raising awareness and funds for premature babies.

 

The innocent big knit is actually a UK smoothie company campaign to raise funds to keep “older people warm and healthy through the chilly winter months” from proceeds from their special hat topped bottles.

 

Here is a promo video – that is a Riot!

They even have a few patterns posted HERE and I am sure if you search on the big knit patterns you will find even more like Jo’s Big Knit.

Yet another reason to keep saving my tiniest bits of yarnleftovers.

PHOTOTROPISM: Bending towards Enlightenment

Only Young girl who loves leggings YGWLL could pull this look off!
Her 5th grade Halloween assignment was to choose one of their Science vocabulary words and design a costume illustrating that term. What a GENIUS Teacher!

Well… YGWLL chose Phototropism! Now at first I panicked a little because I knew we had a VERY busy October full of fiber related travels but she drew me a sketch that was so beautiful my mind was quickly put at ease. Actually her sketch was so beautiful and Fashion Forward I could see her wearing it on a normal day if we could just figure out a way to paint or print the design. But alas I am not a painter so I naturally turned to what else, FIBER and YarnLeftovers.

She could have assistance on this school project but she had to do the majority of the work. Now I suppose she could have painted the flowers on but if she was going to get any help from me she was going to paint with Fiber.

The sunlight seeking Sunflowers are needle felted from a kit I bought at Rhinebeck probably at least 3 years ago. And yes she made them all by herself she’s much better at needle felting than me. She’s an old pro at ‘coloring with wool’ !

She embellished the sunflowers with goinggnome insects but insisted she make some herself too. She made an earthworm and a woolly bear caterpillar.

The long leaning stems are constructed from knitted I-cord using some of my green YarnLeftovers. Once she got going she made piles of Idiot-cord using Caron’s Embellish Knit I-cord Machine

She topped the whole look off with a sunny Styrofoam ball and pipe-cleaner headband.

Viola- Phototropism
A tropism is the growth of a plant as a response to a stimulus, and phototropism occurs when a plant responds to light by bending in the direction of the light.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of her classmates came up with.

She has always been my inspiration and designer, remember this is the same girl who asked me to knit her a spider web
.

Heirloom Reborn

Though I did not make this I had a small hand in it and I just had to share it with you knitters

This is a project more than ten years in the making. It all started on a trip to La Jolla, CA when my mom & I found a wonderful little knit shop. I’m sure we found some great yarns but what we both took away from this visit was that we just HAD to cover a chair in knitting. They had a lovely chair all decked out in its own knitwear!

Then my mom remembered a suitcase she found in my Great Aunt’s garage, it was full of unfinished cable work pieces and parts. In fact two long pieces and a 3rd piece was still on the needles! Though she inherited these gorgeous pieces she had no idea what to do with them nor had the heart to throw them out so there they sat for YEARS.

Then I bought her a plain Ikea TULLSTA chair –

after some upholstery staples, a lot of sewing, and even some duck tape…

I now have chair ENVY!

What a perfect addition to her knitting parlor.

Thank you Aunt Louise!!

For when you NEED to Knit a Spiderweb?

Who knew I would ever need to knit a

SPIDERWEB?

Young Girl Who Loves Leggings(YGWLL) decide she wanted to be a Spider Queen for Halloween.

I said, “Sure that sounds fine.” Then seconds later she asked, “Can you knit me a spiderweb?”

Ummm, well, I guess so. I have never actually finished a shawl. I’ve started a few and have the EZ July Simple Shawl almost done.

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I found some black lace weight yarn in my stash – honest to god I have no idea where it came from! I must have inherited it because I’m positive that I would have never purchased black lace weight from Sweden.  And then I remembered I had purchased some of that white glow-in-the-dark yarn years ago. It took some digging but I finally found it.

         

Now that I had the materials I needed to come up with a design. I took a few photos of spiderwebs and decided that much like snowflakes there are no 2 that look alike. After a year with EZ, I naturally turned to my lessons learned. Grabbed my white yarn and crochet hook and made that magic slip-knot cast-on EZ call’s Emily Ocker’s Cast-On. Off I went!

I decided to make nine white spokes on a black background so when YGWLL wore it with her black dress only the white web spokes would POP out.

After a clumsy start and awkward use of IKEA bag clips for bobbins, I was finally making some progress.

Then YGWLL must have sensed my tension and said, “It’s ok mommy if there are a few holes in your knitting, no spiderweb is perfect“

OH THANK GOD- all the pressure was off.  I was free to just wing it!

I worked on it at Letchworth, Rhinebeck and Stitches and today I blocked it. TaDaFiniDone!  Phew I made it just before Halloween. I guess I always need deadlines.

The finishing touches:

YGWLL added this lovely spider pin that we found at Rhinebeck and then she proceeded to insure her spider had a tasty snack.

She encased a fly in some of the glow in the dark yarn and attached it to one of the trigger spokes. I think she is please with the results!

     

Pin we purchased at Rhinebeck

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Oh Yeah and Did I mention it Glows in the Dark?

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I may have to learn to use that hookie thingy

I recently had to travel to DC BUT I managed to sneak in 2 Fiber related exhibits I just had to share with you.

 The Textile Museum

green-the color and the cause

Second Lives: the Age-Old Art of Recycling Textiles

Even if your travels do not bring you to DC soon they have excellent materials, photos and workshop ideas on their website.

I was disappointed that they did not allow photography within the museum but I did enjoy their garden setting.

They also had a very nice gift shop and learning center with library and hands-on exhibits on weaving, knitting, needlepoint…

It was a glorious Spring day so we walked through the neighborhoods around Dupont Circle until my GPS announced that we had reached our destination,

The Blue Duck Tavern.

We enjoyed a long late lunch and I have to say that I would go back just for their absolutely quintessential Spring dessert, Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble with Creme Fraiche.

Then we wandered down to the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History exhibit on

The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef

Please click on this image to see full resolution and crafty details

click here to see more photos from this exhibit

of course this project has it’s own Ravelry Group

Crochet (and some Knitting) was used to create this AMAZING Coral Reef.

I just could not stop taking photos of this HUGE exhibit. I kept finding new things, different materials and identifying specific yarns. You know you knit too much when you are looking at a coral reef and say,

“Hey, I have that yarn!”

How did I never hear about this ongoing project? Perhaps because it focuses on crochet but I saw plenty of knitted objects too.
This is a traveling exhibit and ongoing social project so check out The Institute For Figuring website to see where you might catch a glimpse.

Although attracted to this exhibit for it’s Fiber content, I was pleased to learn that it’s origins were geeky.

In 1997, Dr Daina Taimina, a mathematician, discovered how to make physical models of the geometry known as “hyperbolic space” using the art of crochet. Until that time many mathematicians believed it was impossible to construct such forms; yet nature had been doing just that for hundreds of millions of years. Many marine organisms embody hyperbolic geometry in their anatomies, including corals. This geometry maximizes surface area in a limited volume, thereby providing greater opportunity for filter feeding by stationary corals.   (excerpt from the Coral Reef display)

There were many different reefs displayed. Some alive and beautiful, others all made in whites showing that they had been bleached, others were made entirely from recycled objects like plastic bags, wire, and cassette tapes. I could have looked at each display case for hours but instead I quickly snapped photos so I could share a small portion with you all.

Flotsam & Jetsam Recycled Coral Reef

And then we were off to our dinner destination and I had to explain to our dinner companions why we were a little bit late 😉

Additional photos from the Coral Reef Exhibit may be viewed at

DC Fiber Related Travels April 2011 (public)