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Every year, organizers of the Atlantic Jazz Festival invite local retailers to decorate their windows in celebration of the event. The request came to us around the time of our WorldWide Knit in Public scavenger challenge, so I immediately thought it would be fun to make our display both a tribute to jazz and a skill-testing game!
Morgan and I have created a felt and fibre vignette that depicts the titles of classic jazz songs. There are ten titles so far (there are elements of four in the detail photo above!), but we’ll be adding a few more over the coming days.
Drop by and see how many you can find! Don’t know much about classic jazz? Here’s a great resource that may help you: Jazzstandards.com .
Revolution baby blanket in progress
My friend is having a baby this summer and I wanted to make a blanket that was quick and easy, without being too boring. Too much to ask? I was looking at the fun designs of British math geeks Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer (Woolly Thoughts). I had a hard time deciding which of their intriguing patterns to go with, but thanks in part to the projects posted on Ravelry, I chose “Revolution”.
A couple of dozen people had posted Revolution on Ravelry and many talked about how easy it is. Looking at the images I felt that it must be fairly simple, but my mind just couldn’t grasp how exactly the funky jagged spiral effect was created. I purchase and downloaded the detailed, colourful pattern booklet and began to study it. Indeed once you read the instructions and get started, it’s blessedly simple to do. This is a fun pattern, a way to make garter stitch interesting! I’m using Estelle’s organic Cloud Cotton, which itself is a delight to work with. This is going to be a lucky baby, if I may say so myself.
One of the things that is making this project so enjoyable for me is my Denise Interchangeable Needle set. It’s like the Denise kit was made for this kind of project. The blanket is a circle but you are only ever knitting one “wedge” at a time. Stitch holders are important, and as the segments of the blanket get bigger, you would need to use multiple circulars or lengths of yarn as stitch holders. With the Denise set, I just add lengths of cable and carry on. Most of the time the same needle I am knitting on is acting as a stitch holder for another part of the blanket.
We love the Denise Interchangeable company not just because of their products, but because they are a small company with a great customer service ethic. The product itself is made with a conscious effort to support local (to Denise) manufacturing. We are always delighted to chat with them and they are incredibly friendly and helpful. And how many big corporations would send a package in the mail looking like this? (Yes those are individual postage stamps.) We love Denise.
In The Loop 