Celebrate the Offbeat Side of Yarncraft with Yarn

Have you heard about the documentary Yarn by Una Lorenzen? Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to see it already. I don’t live anywhere near any of the places where the film is being screened in the United States, but I was lucky enough to get a screener from the filmmaker and I really enjoyed it.

Now I am going to say up front that this movie is not about knitting. There’s actually not really any knitting in it at all, though there are people wearing handknits. The story it tells is more about the playful and political side of yarn craft rather than the purely practical, and I guess it’s easier to find crocheters in that world rather than knitters.

The movie profiles Olek, the Polish crochet artist who is known for covering people in crochet (as seen above); Tilde Björfors, the artistic director of Cirkus Cirkör, which has done a performance called Knitting Peace (yes, it involves knitting, and acrobatics on strings, and is really cool); Tinna Pórudóttir, an Icelandic yarn graffiti artist who takes her talents to Spain and Cuba in the film; and Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam, the designer and crocheter behind Net Play Works, which makes those awesome crocheted playgrounds.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC10LplOF0M]

Even without knitting, this is a film that knitters, and indeed anyone who likes yarn for any reason, will enjoy. The narration, if you can call it that, is by Barbara Kingsolver, reading a piece called “Where it Begins,” which is lovely.

I had a lot of fun watching it while doing a little crochet and knitting. It would be fun to take your knitting and head out to a screening if there’s one near you (it’s not currently available on DVD or for digital download, but maybe someday!).

Have you seen or heard about this movie? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Why should the fireplace get all the fun? Instead of knitting stockings this year, why not whip up a pair of Christmas themed socks? These Christmas sock knitting patterns are lots of fun to make and you can wear them to holiday gatherings for years to come.

For our friends in the southern part of the world, there are the Christmas in July socks from the Kiwi Lodge – Kylie (Ravelry link). These shorty socks are covered in Christmas trees and have bright pink heels and toes for a tropical feel. There’s also an option to make a longer sock if you celebrate somewhere it’s colder.

Twin Stitches Designs (Ravelry) has a fun pattern with mix and match colorwork motifs you can use to build your own cozy Christmas socks. From the sample socks I see Christmas puddings, trucks hauling trees, Santa belts, ornaments and a couple of different borders. There may be more patterns included but the listing doesn’t say. Make a pair that matches or use different motifs on each foot for extra holiday cheer.

If you want to stick to Christmas puddings on your holiday socks, check out this cute pattern from Stone Knits. These lovely socks feature a band of puddings around the leg and a bit of holly by the toes.

These vintage holiday light socks from Grey Owl Knits by Sarah are classic looking and lots of fun at the same time. I love this color combination but of course you can make your lights and stripes whatever colors you like or have on hand. They’re worked using stranded knitting.

And if you’d like even more of a mix of patterns for your socks, try Barbara Ceglédi’s Christmas Chaos socks, a free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern includes 25 little motifs you can choose from, ranging from snowflakes and Christmas trees to elf hats, reindeer and hearts.

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