Just checking in briefly to say that, while unfortunately I am not actively contributing to this year’s Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, I am definitely reading all the very cool posts! If you would like to do this as well, here is how – just google the codes for each day, as shown below:
And then prepare to not do anything else for the rest of the day… ;)
My awesome knitting group recently participated in some stitchin and bitchin for a good cause. At the incentive of one of our Italian members, we joined the “Urban Knitting for L’Aquila” event. In short, L’Aquila is a nice city in Italy whose historical centre was devasted by an earthquake three years ago and is still abandoned… Our role was to knit some coloured squares to send to L’Aquila, where squares received from all over the world would be sewn together and used to cover the city centre under a soft and coloured woolly layer, to make people aware of the fact that very little has been done to rebuild the city after the earthquake.
It was all a big win for everyone. Our group passed a wonderful evening stitching, as usual. We got a bunch of new members because some knitters who had not heard of us before discovered us through this event. And L’Aquila got a nice batch of squares.
The photo (taken by our member who initiated the whole thing!) shows all the squares the Brussels Stich’n’Bitch contributed, including two little ones from me. I love this photo, it shows our group just as it is: diverse, creative and warm-hearted. :) I love being part of it.
But what you should really go and look at are the photos from the final event – when the squares from all over Europe were sewn together and displayed in L’Aquila in the most wonderful yarn-bombing I’ve seen in a while.
I’m not a hyperactive test-knitter, but every once in a while a project comes along at the right time and then I go for it! It’s a very nice feeling, helping a designer sort out the kinks, and contributing to perfect a pattern that many will use later on. As a matter of principle, I volunteer to test-knit things that I would knit and wear under normal circumstances, i.e. I won’t waste anyone’s time test-knitting a design I don’t particularly like. I had no such qualms when I came across this one!
The designer, Bethany Hill, describes drips as a spunky, slightly slouchy colorwork hat made to mimic the appearance of paint drips running down the beanie and emphasizes that it is meant to be knit and worn playfully. To this I can add that it is an absolutely fun, easy and quick knit (it took me only two days to finish!). And I highly recommend making the pompom as large as you can! I loved the hat without it, but the pompom just added that something extra to it.
The pattern is free and available through Ravelry. Details on the yarn I used are on my project page.
Have a fun weekend, everyone! :)
This bad blogger has no good excuses for being late with announcing the winner of the giveaway, because no excuses are good enough for that. All this bad blogger has to say is that spring has hit Brussels, that friends have been to visit, and that the computer doesn’t stand a chance these days in the battle versus fresh air. Which is a good thing. Tonight this bad blogger is catching up on un-dealt-with mail, relaxing with some knitting, and cooking up all perishables in the fridge in preparation for a 10-day trip hooooooome :) Which is an even better thing. And not just for this bad blogger, but also for you, dear winner of giveaway, chosen by the Holy Random Number Generator, who went with the number 3 this time around.
So, congratulations, dozenoaks! Please get in touch via Ravelry (my username is fridica), let me know your username and which pattern you’d like to receive, and we’ll get this thing rolling! :)
Everyone else, thank you for stopping by and sharing your experiences of early knitting. I wish there were stories like these to be read every day! It’s so great to share this wonderful world with you, thank you for the companionship along the way :)
And before I shut down the computer again, here is a photo of my latest project… Most definitely in progress! ;)
fridica 