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.
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Picks of the Week
In addition to some super cute knitting and crochet projects, the yarn-obsessed corners of the internet gave us some interesting, stash-busting ideas this week! Such fun ideas! I want to try them all.
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.
Picks of the Week
This was a week of big and small knitting & crochet ideas, all over the internet apparently (or at least the parts of the internet I frequent). This blog was obviously no exception with my mini Harry Potter sweaters, but I love it when a lot of knitting and crochet bloggers are on a similar wavelength at the same time. It’s really inspiring to see the different creative ways two different designers approach a similar concept. Or at least I think so. :)
Weekly Reader
TGIF! I had a big work week, and we are still painting our lovely living room. I’m beat! We’ve got great high ceilings which are so fun in real life, but in painting life, are not my favorite thing ever. But I digress. :) The internet gave us some really elegant, Pottery Barn-lookin’ designs this week! Patterns that would knit or crochet up right quick and really class up your abode… and they’d probably do it much more efficiently than a big home DIY project. Like painting – just saying.
Weekly Reader
It’s been a quiet week here on the blog as I’ve taken some time out to visit family and paint my living room (which really cuts in to the ole knitting time). Never fear, though, I’ve got some fun ideas planned for the coming weeks here on the blog, I’ve just got to finish knitting and crocheting them up!
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!
Weekly Reader
Happy Fourth of July, American readers! And happy Friday, everyone everywhere else! :) I’m spending America’s birthday at home with family in North Dakota, where the fireworks over the prairie are amazing. I can’t wait to share a little bit next week about the HOT (you read that right!), summer side of Fargo you don’t get to see in the media and let you guys get to know me a little better. After all, the lovely folks who have responded to the currently-live reader survey so far are saying they want to get to know yours truly a little better.
Weekly Reader
You can tell that it’s officially summertime in the northern hemisphere this week – so many bright and colorful patterns came out of the blog woodwork! There were some really awesome home accessories, summery apparel, adorable amigurumi just for fun, travel accessories and more. Whoever said knitting and crochet were a wintertime activity? Give me my needles, yarn, hooks and the beach any day!
