We want to live here…

We think this little video is sooo cute!  We are sure many of you knitters and crocheters have already seen this from Mochimochi Land, but thought we would share in case you hadn’t.

It was a very busy 2012 for Brandy and I with our new company (www.crowdedcoop.com), but knitting and crocheting has been in full swing the last several months.  I have been a sweater making fool, with two down and another 1/2 done in the past two months (B.O.B., Nati, and the London Tunic) , and Brandy is now officially obsessed with socks, and she also has been plugging away on a Sock Yarn Blanket.  We are also both back to being addicted to Ravelry as well.

We hope you all had a very Happy New Year – do you have any craft related resolutions this year?  I am committed to either running or knitting for at least 30 minutes a day in 2013 and am tracking it here, and Brandy wants to master color work, double sided knitting and read 1 new craft book a month – and of course paint more, which she is incredibly talented at – and she is tracking her efforts here.

We look forward to sharing more knitting and crocheting inspirations on our Rewind site soon!

 

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FREE knitting pattern: Eternity Scarf

We’ve got a new free knitting pattern! This cozy eternity scarf is fast to knit using two worsted weight yarns in easy garter and seed stitches. Snuggly and super warm! Shown at left, in two lavender/blue shades of Knit Picks yarns. We’ve also knitted up some alternate colorways for your knitting pleasure. Download the pattern by right-clicking this link and selecting “save link as/save target as/save as” to save the PDF to your computer.

Alternate Colorways
Right to left below; all are Knit Picks worsted weight yarns. Many thanks to Knit Picks for the free samples!

Chroma “Impressionist” / Reverie “Gemstone”

Chroma “Forest Floor” / Reverie “Chocolate”

Chroma “Gossip” / Reverie “Melon”

Download the pattern by clicking this link and selecting “save link as/save target as/save as” to save the PDF to your computer.

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Halloween books to craft by

Need a project to work on in between handing out candy this Wednesday? Hit your local bookstore and pick up one of these books, each full of quick Halloween knitting and crochet patterns. We’re even throwing in a book on creepy cross stitch to show how well-rounded we are!

Knitmare on Elm Street Knit your very own Freddy Krueger, voodoo doll, or one of those monkeys with cymbals, you know, the kind that tends to roll along by itself in an empty room. . .	Twisted Stitches This ain’t your mama’s cross stitch. Bugs, skulls, and stab wounds are just some of the awesomely macabre motifs included in this book.
Creepy Cute Crochet Amigurumi gone bad! Patterns range from the traditionally creepy, such as skeletons and aliens, to tongue-in-cheek creatures such as our favorite, “Corporate Zombie.”	Super Scary Crochet All the classic Halloween ghouls are here: witches, zombies, vampires, and the Headless Horseman. Speaking of which, who’s in the mood for a Johnny Depp night, starting with Sleepy Hollow?

Stay tuned: free pattern coming soon! Subscribe now so you get an email the minute we release it.

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Knitted Halloween costumes

Hopefully you’ve already finished your costume for this Halloween, but just in case, here’s a best-of roundup of knitted Halloween costumes around the web.

Craft as art

Michigan-based artist Mark Newport has hand-knit Batman and Captain America costumes. He’s also created his own superheroes, Sweatermen, which have exhibited here in Seattle.

Artist Hine Mizushima creates thought-provoking felt figures and a knitted squid costume of the highest caliber.

Knitted Cuteness For the Kids

The book Wacky Baby Knits features whimsical children’s costume patterns like pointy shoes, a green monster suit, and a pirate.

Outfit your little one in a knitted mermaid tail or Santa costume courtesy of The Miniature Knit Shop.

Affordable Costume Patterns

Here’s a knitted Dr. Zoidberg costume pattern on Instructables.

Chris Wass offers up her knitted Wonder Woman costume pattern for a mere seven bucks on Etsy.

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We’d love to see your costumes and Halloween ideas on Pinterest! Have a safe, fun and candy-laden Halloween from Brandy and Mary at Rewind Knits!

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Pattern Roundup for Halloween

Have you decorated for Halloween yet? We like Halloween at its most kitschy, with swinging skeletons and moaning ghosts (soundtrack supplied by the old tape deck in the entryway). It’s such a great season to knit and crochet something bizarre, imaginative or just plain fun to spookify your home. Crochet cobwebs, decorate your coffee table with the perfect knitted pumpkin, or startle the kids with a cheerful bat hanging from their bedroom ceiling!

Here are some of our favorite knitted and crocheted Halloween patterns and decorations. (You may need to log into Ravelry to see some patterns).

Row one: Boo the Bat pattern and Pudgdageist pattern.
Row two: Hocus Pocus Cowl pattern and Zero the Ghost Dog pattern.
Row three: Pumpkin Head pattern and Ghost Octopus by Max Alexander.
Row four: Baby Monster Hat pattern and Ghost with Chains decoration.
Row five: Amigurumi Vampire Bat decoration.

Need a quick project to get in a spooky mood? Try Lion Brand Yarn’s free Halloween Ghost Ornament pattern.

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MARCH GIVEAWAY!! ‘JennieGee’ Handmade Project Bag

It’s that time again and this month we are excited to bring you a giveaway that truly embodies the knit and crochet community spirit. JennieGee’s designer hand dyed and screen printed ‘Keep Calm and Carry Yarn’ project bags are a must have for any fiber artist. Being product and graphic designers by trade, we were drawn to JennieGee’s story of how these clever craft bags came to be.

” I arrived in Brooklyn in September 2009 for the MFA Design program at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. Packed among the few possessions I brought with me were screens I’d made with a design idea: “Keep Calm and Carry Yarn.”

I came up with the idea while working at Home Ec Workshop, a yarn and fabric shop in Iowa City, Iowa. Based on one of my favorite posters, from WWII Britain, it expresses just how much knitting gets me through stressful situations. But with my preparations for graduate school, I didn’t have time to do anything with it.

My academic program discourages working while in school. Sounds financially irresponsible, right? That’s what I thought. But our course load was so heavy, I couldn’t find a job in New York City (especially in the terrible economy) that paid a living wage and was flexible around my class schedule. I hardly had time even to look. After the first semester, it became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to find a living wage job that was flexible around my schedule. So I listed a few of the posters I’d printed on Etsy. My friends spread the word, and the message caught on.

I progressed on to the project bags, which I had the idea for some time, but it proved difficult to find a source for colored cotton bags. In the end, I had to choose between sewing them myself or buying white bags and dyeing them. I chose dyeing them, and they’ve become my most popular item.

My master’s program had a strong entrepreneurial component, and my Etsy shop proved to be an object lesson in a lot of the topics we were learning about, like reaching your audience, marketing, and pricing. I ended up doing my thesis about knitting, and my professors were all amazed at how the knitting and crochet community connects online, supports good design, and cares about how things are made. Whether you knit, crochet, spin or do something else with fiber, I hope “Keep Calm and Carry Yarn” touches you, too.”

When chatting with JennieGee she spoke to how after each move since, it’s been the knitting groups she finds that have helped her re-establish her community.

“It’s been very heartening to be able to make a living making things for a community I feel so strongly about and identify with. My grandmother originally tried to teach me to knit when I was 12. It didn’t take at that point. And though she wasn’t around anymore when I was 22 and decided to try to teach myself, I think those original lessons made it easier to learn from a magazine article. “

1 Random Winners receive: 
1 large “Keep Calm and Carry Yarn” Project Bag – color of their choosing

To Enter:
Buzz over to JennieGee’s Etsy store, and then comment on this post “where this bag would come in handy”. This will enter you into the random drawing. Entries must be received  by March 31st. Simple as that!

SPECIAL DISCOUNT: 
JennieGee has been kind enough to give all Rewind readers a limited time discount. Simply type ‘REWIND’ in the coupon code at check out to receive 15% off anything in her Etsy store.

Spread the Word:
Pay it forward. Feel free to share this giveaway on other blogs, sites or social media!

Please also check out JennieGee’s talent on her graphic design website!

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DIY Ombre Dyed Yarn – Part 2

When we stumbled upon the DIY Ombre Dyed Yarn tutorial by Xandy Peters we were inspired! That weekend we went to our local craft store for yarn and grocery store for Kool-Aid to have a little dyeing party. We also experimented with yarns we had around that we knew were wool, the results were amazing. Not only was this project super easy, the combinations are endless!

We used black cherry, watermelon-cherry, pink lemon-aid, lemon-lime and ice blue punch to come up deep reds, corals, bright blues and minty greens. The first task was to wind the balls of yarn which was the most time consuming task. The yarns we ended up dying were 100% Fisherman’s Wool in Natural, Stitch Nation ‘Full O Sheep’ in Honeycomb and some other hand-me-down wool yarns.

We took Xandy’s tip and used spoons and tongs to maneuver the yarn balls in the dye bath. Once they had boiled the two rounds in their dye baths, the tongs were lifesavers as we rinsed the yarn balls in the cold water. These suckers get super hot!! Half way through dyeing the yarn we came up with the idea of creating a 2-tone ombre by dyeing the yarn – rinsing it / letting it cool, unwinding, rewinding with the new color in the center and re-dying. What we created was a Christmas-Italian-Watermelon inspired colored yarn. I can’t wait to see how this knits up.  Each one took the dye in a unique way, the most interesting was Stitch Nation yarn. Since it was already Honeycomb we weren’t sure if it would take color but it took the Black Cherry Kool-Aid wonderfully, creating a fiery color combo.

Mary and I highly recommend trying this out. As they say “if we can do it, so can you!” It was a lot of fun and we plan on sharing some finished projects soon!

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Easy Valentine’s Day Gifts

We love when a specific holiday gets closer, our inboxes become full of emails boasting free patterns! This Valentine’s Day is no exception. With the romantic holiday about a week away, you have more than enough time to complete one of these little goodies. Perfect for gifting to that special someone, friends, family OR better yet yourself.

Crochet tote from Lion Brand Yarns : you have to sign up but once you do you have access to a treasure trove of free pattern goodness! This tote could be customized with a bit of monogram color work or applique. Fun!

The clothing company ModCloth has a great blog featuring all kinds of indy inspired crafts including these “upcycled” sweater mittens!

Sweet crochet heart garland from Skip To My Lou, so perfect for decorating or gift wrap accents.

Knit up this Valentine measuring tape from Spud and Chloe for all your crafty friends. This pattern can easily be customized with duplicate stitch embroidery with your own candy heart message!

Another great “upcycle” idea from Thimbleanna, adding a delicate crochet edge to any vintage or funny postcard.

Heart lace work scarf from Knit Culture is definitely on my crafting to-do list!

Nothing warms the heart (we love our puns!) like this knit mug cosy. By Kristen TenDyke, this pattern features color work and a sweet little cable detail. Make it a complete gift by giving it with a coffee mug and either coffee or tea!

Lastly this oversized candy box filled with yarn would make any crafter or fiber artist squeal with delight. Leave it up to the folks at Craft: Zine to take a simple Martha Stewart paper craft and make it even more awesome!!

What ever you end up making, make it with love and you simply can’t go wrong. (okay you can but that’s content for another post!) 

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Handmade Holiday Gift Recap

We all do it.  Sometime in the summer we declare:  “I am going to make all my Christmas gifts this year!”

I think we all know how this sad story usually turns out.  However, Brandy and I did pull it together in the very end, and I am proud to present to you…

The Festival of Handmade and Somewhat Appreciated Gifts!  

I can tell you that the first item, a fantastic crocheted Hello Kitty scarf for my sister, wins, hands down.  Theresa, my sister, loves Hello Kitty.  She is also a FANATICAL University of Washington sports fan (hence the purple and gold).  I really thought she was going to cry when she opened this up.  Made by Brandy, with her mad crochet skillz, of course.  Hello Kitty diagram can be found here.

(She’s sporting some toasty fingerless gloves I made as well…)

Continuing on the University of Washington theme, I made my sis a striped phone cozy, and a warm and a toasty basket weave border hat.  I wrote the pattern down somewhere for the hat, if you are interested let me know.  I held two strands together for both the cuff and the body of the hat.

I slaved over this slouchy beanie concoction from Caron for Brandy.  I used Lion Brand Amazing yarn in Pink Sands.  This was a nail biter, down to the wire.  But it turned out really cute and she loves it! (at least she says she does!)

Brandy came up with a great idea for two of her male friends who are from Viking heritage.  She found this awesome pattern and knocked out these two crocheted Viking Hats.

Brandy made me the most beautiful ripple patterned crochet cowl!  I have worn it pretty much every day.  I have asked her to make me another one immediately!  🙂  I forgot to take a photo of it – my bad!

We also made a slew of other items – see the photo montage below – crocheted cowls, knit beanies, bow headbands, and more.

Now that the holidays are over, it’s back to knitting and crocheting for ourselves – Brandy is working on a bobble bunny hat.  She is now talking about bobbles non-stop.   I finally finished my Twinkle Printmaker’s Pullover, which I had mentioned awhile back.   It looks great on my dress form, but I haven’t gotten around to wearing it yet.  And I just started designing a dress/tunic inspired by the shape of this Pinterest find.  I am doing a top down, circular construction.

So for all you gift knitters and crocheters, our hats (no pun intented) are off to you!  Did you finish in time?  What is your next craft adventure?

Until next time!

M and B

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3 New Patterns… and… It’s Here! Crocheted Version of the Center Row Lace Headband / Neck Warmer! AKA PATTERN-PALOOZA!!

After many requests, we have finally perfected and patterned up a crochet version of our most popular pattern, the Center Row Lace Headband / Neck Warmer.  The dimensions of the finished product are very close to the knit version, and the look is almost identical.  I hope that you crocheters out there are happy with the results.  This pattern comes out just in time to stylishly fight off that winter weather!

We’ve also been hard at work creating the patterns featured in our last post!

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