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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The other day I saw a post from Pinterest about trends for summer and it said one of them was “cultivating whimsy.”

Well, I don’t know where Pinterest has been all this time, but we’ve been cultivating whimsy here at Craft Gossip for a long time. I love sharing projects that are a little different, things that make you smile when you see them, and will make you smile when you knit them and wear them or use them.

Such it is with the Tutti Frutti tee knitting pattern from Bea Creative Knits.

This cute little baby tee is worked top down in the round with contiguous shoulder construction to shape the sleeve caps. There are short rows for the neckline and folded hems with picot edging at the hemline, neckline and edges of the sleeves.

All of this would be great on its own, but then there’s the addition of a super cute fruit icon, which is added with duplicate stitch. There are a lot of options, including strawberry, banana, orange, cherries, watermelon, lemon, blueberries, kiwi, peach, dragon fruit, apple and pear, so it’s likely you can add on your favorite fruit.

It is offered in eight sizes, to fit a bust measurement ranging from 28-30 inches (71-76 cm) to 56-58 inches (142-147 cm). The design is meant to be worn with around 6.3 inches/16 cm of negative ease, but you can choose the fit you prefer. There’s also optional bust and waist shaping included in the pattern if you want to make it even curvier.

This is considered an advanced beginner or intermediate project because of all the skills involved, but it’s sure to be a lot of fun even if some of these techniques are new to you.

Grab a copy of the pattern for yourself form Bea Creative Knits on Etsy.

[Photo: Bea Creative Knits]

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