Textile Tripping through New Mexico

Written on December 2, 2009 at 9:54 am, by DIY on the Fly (Beth Eslinger)

I’m hot off a long Thanksgiving trip to northern New Mexico, and couldn’t wait to share my discoveries! This part of the county is known for unbelievable mountain scenery and amazing cuisine (did you know this is the only state with an official question: Red or Green (aka What’s your chili of preference?)). But it’s also a land of amazing artists—painters (Georgia O’Keeffe lived and worked in the region), potters and jewelers (the World Heritage Site Taos Pueblo and its resident artists are located here), and weavers (there’s a whole Fiber Arts Trail you can spend days touring).

This trip, with my new knitting obsession led to a particular focus on the region’s weaving and textile shops of Taos. Here are a few of my faves.

Weaving Southwest (www.weavingsouthwest.com)

This shop features hand-dyed yarns for both weaving and knitting. The store sells a few small-scale looms, needles, and finished goods. A beautiful spot to spend an hour. I picked up chunky variegated yarns that will look simply stunning as scarves and wraps. They sell product online for those who can’t make the trip.

La Lana Wools (www.lalanawools.com)

Down the street from Weaving Southwest, this shop also features plant-dyed yarns in amazing colors, real antler buttons and toggles for finishing your projects with major personality, and the most diverse selection of felted wools I’ve seen. This business also sells online.

Common Thread (info@commonthread.biz)

If you’re in the market for fabric, tablecloths, or art paper, swing by this store. It’s a mix of Mexican brights, modern graphics, Asian silks, and everything in-between in a well-packaged mix. This is the most dynamic, interesting fabric store I’ve seen (including the Garment District in New York City).

These are just a snippet of all the amazing shops. For more information on the trail, visit www.nmfiberarts.org.

Now, I’m thinking about starting a new obsession: Weaving. In fact, I’ve been watching this loom at Urban Outfitters. Could be the perfect holiday gift for the adventurous DIYer on your list. 

www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&navAction=jump&id=17124389&search=true&isProduct=true&parentid=SEARCH+RESULTS&color=000

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Must-Read Knitting Books

Written on December 1, 2009 at 2:41 pm, by Team DIY

Several members of Team DIY have decided this is the year to take up knitting. In our quest to learn all things yarn and needles, we’ve come across some invaluable resources. Yesterday, DIY Editor Beth Eslinger wrote about the You Tube videos that took her from beginner to neck-warmer-knitter in just a couple of weeks. Today, we’re sharing several books we’ve found super-helpful. Have any other suggestions? What books have helped you along your knitting path?

Lily Chin’s Knitting Tips & Tricks

This small but mighty guide has a permanent home in our tote bags. It contains everything the beginning and intermediate knitter needs to know, from buying materials (differences in needles, yarn weights and types) to specific stitches, to joining new yarn, to binding off and finishing. And everything in between. Knitting Tips & Tricks has helped us pick up a missed stitch (more than once…or twice). We can’t say enough about the book’s simple how-to instructions and clear illustrations — essential for beginners like us! If you’re into crocheting, check out a sister book, Lily Chin’s Crochet Tips & Tricks.

400 Knitting Stitches: A Complete Dictionary of Essential Stitch Patterns

When the subtitle promises “complete”, it means business. You’ll start with the simplest knit and purl stitches and work your way through crossed stitches and cables, cast-off stitches, slipped stitches, fancy stitches, lacy stitches, and more. We found ourselves gazing longingly at stitches that are just a wee bit out of our beginner league (lookin’ at you, rose bud, blackberry, and Moroccan screen stitches), but the straightforward directions and diagrams actually put them into doable (eventually) range. 400 Stitches is an ideal reference for demystifying the patterns we found online and in other books.

Vintage Knits for Modern Babies

by Hadley Fierlinger

Awww. It’s impossible not to page through Vintage Knits for Modern Babies without making cute noises. Because not only are the projects awww-inspiring, the photography of soft ‘n’ sweet babes is equally adorable. This beautiful book ranks projects by skill level — beginner, intermediate, and experienced — so those of all skill levels can take part in the fun. Talk about gift potential! These aren’t your typical baby sweaters. New Zealand-based author Hadley Fierlinger gives us baby-fied versions of an angola bolero, a matinee jacket, cabled booties, even a double-breasted car coat. We think her vintage pixie cap and organic heirloom blanket would make fabulous gifts for friends with wee ones. Check out Fierlinger’s online shop at shescraftyknits.com). She’s been creating knit duds for cool kiddies — including her own two sons — since 2002.

Hat Heads: 1 Man + 2 Knitting Needles = 50 Fun Hat Designs

by Trond Anfinnsen (aka Knitkid)

Let’s just start by saying this is the funnest knitting book of the bunch. By the end of the book, you want to be BFFs with author Trond Anfinnsen and the cool cast of friends and family he recruited for Hat Heads. Here’s the concept: Anfinnsen created unique hat patterns for 50 people in his life, including his parents, his girlfriend, old band mates, friends’ kids, and other members of his community. Each spread in the book features a hat pattern, a lovely photo of the person for whom it was created, and a quick story about that individual. The result is absolutely delightful, even for non-knitters. (Did we mention the hat patterns themselves are totally hip? Any one of them would make an excellent gift.)

One More Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit

by Leigh Radford

Want to splurge on a skein or two of pricey yarn? Looking for a way to use up half a skein leftover from a different project? This is the book we’d turn to. The follow-up to One Skein, One More Skein features projects in four categories: wearables, baby stuff, bags/gift bags/totes, and home decor. The ideas are diverse in style and execution, from ribbed linen placemats to wool kitty toys to a swanky silk gelato clutch. This book would be an ideal gift for friends who pick up new projects but never seem to finish them. Each of these patterns is designed to create quickly.

This just in! We received a very early copy of Melissa Leapman’s book, Color Knitting: Essential Techniques, Perfect Palettes, and Fresh Designs Using Just One Color at a Time. The book is due out in March 2010, and from what we can tell, it’s gonna be a good one–particularly for knitters who crave gorgeous color. Leapman provides step-by-step instructions for lots of color knitting techniques, from two-color double-knitting to picture knitting.

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Learning to knit—from YouTube

Written on November 30, 2009 at 1:02 pm, by DIY on the Fly (Beth Eslinger)

I’ve been wanting to learn how to knit. But sitting through a night class, spending a weekend with mother-in-law instruction, or figuring out knitting code from a book was just not happening any time soon. So six weeks ago I decided to learn DIY-style: on the Web (and wearing my PJs).

First things first: I picked up a few balls of medium-weight yarn, some bamboo needles (which I now love and have several sizes), and a darning needle. After an hour of surfing YouTube videos, I landed on these easy-to-follow links, and by night one had finished a pair of fingerless gloves. The addiction had started. (By the way, if you’re looking to learn how to knit, start small like I did. Knitting is labor-intensive, so if you’re looking for instant gratification, do a quick project like gloves or a neck wrap. Heavyweight yarn speeds the process, too).

The Videos

I landed on a video series from Expert Village. Easy to follow and few distractions.

1. Learn an easy casting-on stitch.

2. To create a basic knit stitch.

3. To create a purl stitch.

So over the past six weeks, I’ve dabbled in a few patterns using these basic stitches and have made several scarves, fingerless gloves (they’re hot with all the little girls in my ‘hood), a wrap, and a pillow. I’ve figured out how to switch yarn colors, and bind off so I actually can finish projects (also from YouTube). Not everything’s perfect, but that’s part of the charm, right?

Now I’m crazily knitting up projects for holiday gifts. Fingerless gloves for the little girls (check), scarves and neck wraps for the big girls (check). And for me: I get the pink wrap with the flower pin. It took me a week of nights knitting, and is oh-so my color (check).

Next month, I’m thinking about digging into hats and maybe cableknit patterns. But that’s another whole round of videos. Stay tuned for the results.

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5 Questions with Patricia Hoskins of Crafty Planet

Written on October 21, 2009 at 10:26 am, by Team DIY

Good luck trying to leave Crafty Planet.

Once you’re inside, you don’t really want to go anywhere. Let’s begin with the latest Amy Butler fabrics. And entire walls of designer yarns. The campy-cool Sublime Stitching embroidery patterns. A well-edited selection of knitting, DIY, and crafts books. Tons of fun notions, embellishments, and hip sewing stuff. An entire back area for workshops, classes, and impromptu crafting. The shop itself is situated in Minneapolis’ hip Northeast neighborhood, with a vintage clothing store next door.

The store’s owner, Patricia Hoskins, is another reason to visit. She’s a one-woman wealth of crafty and creative knowledge. When we stopped by the shop, she had a brand-new baby nestled into a sling (constructed from super-cute fabric, of course), while she sorted mail, tracked sales, and paid invoices.

Not only does the new mom manage operations at Crafty Planet, work a separate day job, and organize the No Coast Craft-o-Rama, she is also co-author of a new book, out today. One-Yard Wonders: 101 Fabulous Fabric Projects is a nice, fat book packed with home décor, fashion, accessory, and other projects you can sew up using a yard or less of fabric.

Trish took a few moments to chat with Team DIY about her shop, her book, and what’s on the horizon.

Do It Yourself: When and why did you launch the store? How has it grown and changed?
Patricia Hoskins: We opened the store in October 2003 after some solid planning and prep. Our main motivation was to provide a warm, welcoming, fun place for new crafters to learn and to find those fabrics and supplies that were cool and hard to find locally. Emphasis being on the welcoming and friendly atmosphere; when I was learning to sew and knit myself, I would often find myself intimidated and overwhelmed in the specialty yarn and fabric shops, afraid to ask a stupid question.

Originally we envisioned carrying a little bit of everything crafty — cool stamps, papers, and more, plus consignment handmade goods, in addition to fabrics and yarns and other needlecrafts. Soon we realized we would do better to focus a bit more, so we stuck primarily to needlecrafts. We do still carry kids’ craft kits in a variety of areas, along with a few handmade consignment lines, but those are minimal.

As far as how we’ve changed, we started on a shoestring, so we now carry far more fabrics and yarns, and we’re much deeper in basic notions and supplies, as well.

DIY: What types of classes do you teach? What do you love about teaching?
PH: I’ve taught knitting, crochet, embroidery, and sewing — mostly beginning classes. I enjoy seeing people learn a new skill and gain that confidence in themselves. So many people say, “I’m not crafty at all!” or “I’m sure I will suck at this,” then they concoct awesome crafty goodness! I guess there’s a certain kind of crafty/creative “spark” that I enjoy seeing getting fired up for the first time.

DIY: Congratulations on the new book! How did you come up with 101 sewing projects? That’s a lot!
PH: One-Yard Wonders is a collaboration not just between Rebecca Yaker, my co-author, and me, but about 70 contributors as well. 101 is a lot of projects! We mostly solicited contributors through blogs, craft forums like Craftster, word-of-mouth, and Crafty Planet newsletters. We had so many great submissions we actually didn’t have room for them all. Rebecca and I contributed several projects of our own, of course. Some things we were already making anyway, or had been thinking of trying to make — then we just had to figure out how to do it with just one yard of fabric.

DIY: Who and what inspires you?

PH: I am a very big fan of retro and vintage design in everything from crafts and textiles, to architecture and furniture, and more. I particularly love the midcentury modern aesthetic, but not just mid-century; I appreciate design from a variety of eras and cultures. Also, our customers inspire me every day! Seeing what they’re putting together for colors and patterns and seeing their finished projects — this all gives me great inspiration.
DIY: What’s on the horizon for you and Crafty Planet?
PH: I’m working on a book called Crafty Planet Goes Green, which will feature sewing, knitting, and other needlecraft-y projects using all recycled materials. Of course I hope Rebecca and I can continue developing a One Yard Wonders series in the vein of the One-Skein Wonders series, though that’s all TBD.

On a personal note, my husband and I just had a baby in September, so a big part of everything in my life will be just figuring out how to juggle all my varying commitments! In addition to the shop and my writing endeavors, I also work more than 30 hours a week as a business librarian, so time management is top of my agenda right now.

Visit Crafty Planet’s online store here. Or stop by the real deal! Crafty Planet is located at 2833 Johnson St. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55418

Pick up a copy of One-Yard Wonders: 101 Fabulous Fabric Projects here. Or find it at your local crafts shop!

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