KnitBits: Knitting Fails, What’s Your Knitting Worth and the Steven Show

Knitting fails happen to everyone. Just last night I was trying to knit what should have been, looked like, was, a relatively simple lace pattern and I could not for the life of me do it. I was supposed to have 39 stitches, then suddenly I had 38. Rip it out, try again. 40. Ugh.

A knit fail is not the end of the world — yarn can always be ripped out and tried again, after all — but it’s always great when people can share their knit fails with the world. It makes us all feel better. So take heart and check out these cringe-worthy knitting fails over at Love Knitting.

Once you’ve done that, go read the super sweet piece from the Globe and Mail that reminds us why we do what we do. It starts off as a regular learning to knit story and ends reminding us that knitting really is an act of love, all the time. It’d worth the read.

And speaking of worth, when people ask you to knit something for them, odds are good most of them don’t want to pay you. This knitting time calculator isn’t a real calculator, but it will give the person asking some idea of what your time might be worth. It offers estimates for the length of time a project might take, asks if the person wants to buy the yarn or have the knitter buy it, whether the person wants to compensate the knitter by cleaning her house and so on. It’s good for a laugh, anyway.

And for a final laugh, you probably know that Steven Be and Stephen West have been working and touring together, and recently they were teaching and putting on a ridiculous (in the best possible way) fashion show at Vogue Knitting Live. You can check out some of the fun with the first episode of the web series StevenBe. It will inspire you to knit something awesome, I’m sure.

[Photo via Love Knitting.]

Next Pattern:

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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