KnitBits: Yarn Bombing, Using Scraps and Adorable Ducklings

If you’ve been around the knitting world long, you’ve probably heard the name Magda Sayeg, and if you haven’t, you’ve probably seen some of her work. She’s the person who made yarnbombing into a thing, and is known for her large-scale knit and crochet coverings from city buses, motorcycles and more. She gave a TED talk about how she got started in yarnbombing, the power of putting down your cell phone and making something, and the notion that “hidden power can be found in the most unassuming places.” It’s worth five minutes to watch.

We all have yarn scraps if our stashes, and it’s a great feeling to use up all those little bits. Yarnbombing is one way to do it, but there are lots of others that may or may not include knitting or crochet. This is an old list of 50 projects to make with yarn scraps, but it turned up on Facebook again recently and is definitely worth revisiting. I still want to wrap my office clock in yarn.

If you have any brown scrap yarn in your stash, you can knit yourself a bunch of Hot Cross Buns for Easter. This pattern from My Poppet is super easy and cute, and I missed putting it in my Easter knitting roundup the other day so I wanted to make sure you saw it.

And finally, the Boston Globe reports that the ducks in the Public Garden have been yarnbombed in the most adorable way. The ducks, which honor the story Make Way for Ducklings, have been decked out in tiny scarves and hats thanks to knitwear company STIK (aka S**t That I Knit). Make way for cuteness!

[Photo from STIK, via Instagram.]

Looking for more Easter themed Knitting patterns? Check out these Knitting patterns we found over on Etsy.

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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