Ottawa Yarn Bombers Release Manifesto

Did you see the pictures of the yarn bombing that happened last weekend in Ottawa? Someone (four someones, as it turns out, but we’ll get to that) made scarves to wrap around the necks of 14 statues in the city’s Valiant’s Memorial, which commemorates some of Canada’s war heroes, as well as some other places around the city.

The temperature that day was -20 C (or about -4 F), and the scarves had unsigned notes directing people to take the scarves if they needed them.

The identity of the crafters has been revealed as four friends who call themselves Dropping Stitches to Make a Better World and whose manifesto is “peace, love, knitting.”

Michelyn St. Pierre, one of the knitters, said the group didn’t immediately reveal their identities because they weren’t sure what they were doing was legal. But word and pictures of their deeds spread across the Internet and they wanted to let people know who did it.

This is such a great idea that would be valued just about anywhere in the northern hemisphere right now. Here’s to more peace, love and knitting!

[Photo by Chris Mikula via the Ottawa Citizen.]

Next Pattern:

If you’re looking for a sweater knitting pattern that uses up some of your stash and allows you to make just the sweater you want, the Marlina Rib by Shay Johson might be just the thing.

It’s worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together to make a DK weight gauge, so you can use the same two yarns throughout or change one or both regularly for an even more colorful look.

The pattern has options to make it either a crewneck or a henley style with buttons, tapered or relaxed sleeves, and a straight hemline or a split hem with buttons (which sounds so cute if you do the henley with split hem and match the buttons on both parts).

It’s also knit from the top down so you can make the body and the sleeves as long as you want. There are 10 sizes available in the pattern, with a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 81.5 to 172.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 4-6 inches/10-15 cm of positive ease at the chest.

The pattern page on Ravelry includes tons of measurements and yardage estimates so you can make sure you’ll get a good fit for your body before you even buy the pattern. Shay also shows a few variations of the sweater so you can see how different options look before you decide how you want to put them together.

The stitch pattern is 1×2 ribbing, which is really easy to do and gives a look almost like fisherman’s rib that’s relaxed and easy to wear.

This sweater looks like a great option for people who are somewhat new to sweater knitting or those who love to have lots of customization options (because it’s like getting multiple sweater patterns in one!).

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself at Ravelry.

[Photo: Shay Johnson]

Next Pattern:

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