Vogue Knitting Live is a huge knitting and crochet conference that happens in several cities throughout the United States, and later this month, it’s coming to my town, Chicago! What goes down at VKL? There is a big, booth-style marketplace where you can get your hands on some amazing yarn and knitting supplies. You can take skill-building workshops and hear lectures on knitting trends, designing better patterns, and more.
Knitting & Crochet
The Long Tail Tubular Cast On
In this year’s reader survey, you might remember I had a lot of questions about your thoughts on knitting and crochet video tutorials. An overwhelming number of you (77%) said you’d love to see them, so I’m happy to say I’ve got TWO videos to launch the renewed Hands Occupied YouTube channel. The videos show you how to make a long tail tubular cast on for a knitting project. The first video in this post shows how to do it right handed, and the second video shows the leftie version.
Red Hats for Newborns + A Free Pattern
The story of one of the most critical moments of loss in my life, how you can help raise awareness for this all-too-common issue, and a free knitting pattern to help you contribute to helping the cause.
Crochet T-shirt Yarn Tote
I’m loving how this new pattern turned out, you guys! It’s an easy crochet tote pattern, perfect for summer. Roughly 16x16x8 inches, it holds a ton of stuff for the perfect summer day hitting up the farmer’s market, the library or the beach. This chunky bag is an awesome & fun way to use fabric yarn if you’ve never tried it, and the pattern is great for beginners!
Chicago Yarn Crawl!
It’s the Chicago Yarn Crawl this week, dudes! This year, I only had a chance to Crawl for one day, hitting up 5 of the many stores participating. But I made sure to snap a few pics of their yarn and supplies to make you all jealous of the amazing yarn stores we’ve got here in Chicagoland. ;) The Yarn Crawl is divided into regions, and I focused on Region 1, the yarn shops within Chicago’s city limits.
Yarn Swatch Wall Art
Since I apparently can’t get yarn off my brain at any given time, today’s DIY wall art idea is inspired by the yarn swatches you’d knit to test the gauge of your yarn before casting on a new project. This would make a great gift for any knitting lover in your life – it’s back to school time, does your kid’s teacher have a yarn addiction? Or maybe their librarian… ;)
How to Make a Pom Pom
Pom poms are super fun. And DIY ones, where you can see the threads of yarn, are extra cute. You can do things like make them look like smiley faces or pieces of fruit if you know what you’re doing – you don’t even have to be a knitter or crocheter to become a master pom pom maker.
Mini Harry Potter Sweater Pattern
Try your hand at the most famous knitting in all of the Harry Potter universe, the Weasley Christmas sweater.
How to Make Fabric Yarn
A couple weeks ago, I shared how to make yarn from an old t-shirt, and based on the number of times I’ve seen it pinned, you guys were into it. The thing with t-shirt yarn is that one t-shirt doesn’t yield all that much yarn. I mean, the cross-body phone case pattern I shared took most of one t-shirt’s worth of yarn to make. But what about when you’re thinking about projects on a larger scale? That’s when I recommend you try your hands at making fabric (a.k.a. jersey) yarn. It’s super easy, and if you get your hands on a set of jersey sheets at the thrift store, you can upcycle that into yarn using the same technique I’m about to share. It’s so easy and the effect fabric yarn has on knit and crochet projects is something I’m LOVING right now!
