Knitting

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If Knitters Ran the World…

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swants vogue knitting liveEveryone would know the difference between knitting and crochet. But in this world, we take what we can get, especially when it’s in the form of a photo homage to the wonders of Vogue Knitting Live, a knitting showcase and learning event that took place over the weekend in New York City.

If you didn’t know what you were missing, now you do: beautiful yarn, fantastical sculptures (some crocheted, of course), swants worn without irony (wait, I’m not sure that’s possible). Lots of learning, laughing, friendship and fiber love.

I really wanted to go to Chicago last year but it wasn’t in my budget. Maybe this year if there’s another event in the Windy City.

have you ever been to a Vogue Knitting Live? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo by Alanna Okum via BuzzFeed.]

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Knit a Hat with a Flock of Chickens

It’s well known (among knitters, anyway) that knitters seem to love chickens as a motif and a subject of our knitting projects. The Emotional Support Chicken and all the other chicken knitting patterns are just the beginning of our devotion to farmyard friends. 

For example, there’s Farmer Dennis’ Chicken Hat. This free pattern from Stacy Black is a simple worsted weight beanie sized for adults and decorate with a couple of little rounds of colorwork fences and a flock of chickens strutting around the body of the hat. 

You don’t need a lot of any of the colors for the chickens, their facial features or the fences, so this is a great project for using little leftover bits from other projects. The main color for the body of the hat is less than a skein using the yarn suggested, so you might just have everything you need in your house to start stitching up this hat right away. 

The colorwork is presented as a chart, with a 16 stitch section that repeats around the body of the hat. All the color changes are shown on the chart but I think it would be easier to knit the whole chicken in the chicken color and add the eye, beak and other features using duplicate stitch when the knitting is done. That way you don’t have to carry those yarns around the whole hat for just a few stitches. 

As the name suggests, the original hat was given to a farmer who shared their eggs, but anyone who raises chickens or just has a thing for the fowl is sure to love this cute hat. It wouldn’t be too difficult for someone new to stranded knitting or reading charts to make, either, so if that’s you, give it a try. 

The pattern is available for free on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Stacy Black]

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