Friday Reads: Yarnbombing, Cryptic Knitting Notes and More

If you find yourself in San Francisco any time in the next year, you might want to pay a visit to the area around the Civic Center, where knitted octopuses and colorful garments have taken to the trees. The nonprofit Trust for Public Land teamed up with the knitters at Knits for Life to add sweaters to the trees and help tie together a three-block section of the city. Officials expect the exhibit to be up for 6 to 18 months, depending on how it fares in the weather.

In other wooly art, don’t miss the wool sewing machine made by Jessica Dance for John Lewis. The project is knit and felted, with details on the dials embroidered in, and is complete with spools of thread and tiny woolen scissors. Check out her website to see more of her amazing work.

Knit Like Granny recently made up a list of its top 100 knitting blogs. We’re not on it, but there’s lots of opportunities for great reading and inspiration there anyway. 😉

And finally, you’ll want to read this sweet knitting story from the Boston Globe, from a knitter who tried to decipher a knitting note her mother left behind. It’ll make you feel good about the legacy of crafting.

[Photo: Jessica Dance.]

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns!

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil.

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn.

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point.

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up.

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.

Have you read?