There’s a run on tulips this fall, and it’s not the Holland variety. It’s the Tulip Sweater pattern from Dream in Color yarn, which has become quite popular since the Yarn Harlot blogged about it last spring. I’ve gotten sucked in to tulip mania myself - the moment I saw it I knew I’d be knitting it for my niece, Phoebe, who is almost six months old. But my sister-in-law, and therefore my niece, are not “pink girls” and so the original colorway just won’t work for them.
So that’s where the power of the internet comes in. Through Ravelry I found a bunch of various color combos that others have knitted, as well as links to stores that sell little kits made up with exactly enough yarn of each color to make the sweater (otherwise you’d need seven full balls, something around $160 for a baby sweater- ugh!). And the person at the first store I called, Carri at Coldwater Collaborative, was amazing! She got all excited about helping me develop a deeper/stronger color palette that had browns and greens as a base, and it seems like the minute we got off the phone she wound up the balls and mailed it off - because I got it yesterday (and Monday was a mail holiday!).
I don’t have all the colors with me to show (will do that soon), and this is a terrible picture, but here’s the start of the Tulip Sweater ala Carri.
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offers dozens of patterns for items that evoke the mystique of Harry Potter—Wizard Robe, an Invisibility Shawl, a Quidditch Sweater, Ron’s Ragg Raglan, a Clock Blanket, Harry Christmas Ornaments, and more. Easy-to-follow patterns, color photos of the finished projects, and illustrations of special stitch patterns and design elements make it easy for all knitters—from beginners to those at Mrs.Weasley’s level—to work some knitting magic. Includes patterns for all four houses– Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, & Ravenclaw, so no matter who you are knitting for, there’s some knitting magic for everyone.
A provocative and timely exhibition of work by international artists that use knitting and traditional handcrafts in unexpected and unorthodox ways, Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting illuminates a field of creative practice that is fresh, surprising, and engaging. The exhibit features 27 artists from seven countries, and the work ranges from Althea Merback’s microknit garments (1:144 scale) to large-scale, site-specific installations. The artists employ a variety of media, from traditional yarns and laces, to found objects and video, and explore contemporary currents in art practice of socially engaged, participatory work.
The artists in this exhibition are experimenting with forms and techniques in the most novel and surprising ways, exploring new relationships between structure, design, color, and pattern. Yoshiki Hishinuma uses industrial knitting machines to create 3-dimensional free-form sculptures, some of which are also wearable. Industrial designer Niels van Eijk has used lace techniques to create a lamp out of optical fibers.
