Goth Cupcake Amigurumi - Crochet

This is not a knitting pattern, but seeing a Goth Crocheted cupcake is one of the most unique patterns I've ever seen!

Ana Clerc runs the Ocean of Stitches blog featuring "knitting, crochet, sewing, spinning, textiles, fiber technology, art experiments, textile history, stuff."

Does anyone want to adapt this cute guy to a knitting pattern? This is just one of many amazing free cupcake crochet patterns that I've come across.

Finishing your knitting

I was really surprised with the success of this video, as it started hitting way more traffic than I expected. It goes to show how many people learn how to knit something, but don't know how to finish the project once they get to the end. The following video shows the most common bind off:

Knitted Dissected Animals

If you are creeped out by high school biology dissection lessons, then the following project may not be for you. The writers at slightlywarped.com's Curiosities shared images of three different KNIT dissected animals. These include a frog, rat and even rabbit! I'm not sure how anatomically correct these knit sculptures are, but they sure do bring back memories from high school bio labs!

I am ChemKnits after all. I have to share science knitting projects every once in a while!

Bestilling til lille knert

I may not know what language this knitting post is in, but there is no denying that this little guy loves his owl hat with owl cables.

I love the buttons to make the owl eyes! Fregne in Norway, well done!

Sheeping Beauty

Today I am going to feature an Etsy seller (Sheeping Beauty), because her shop is full of products I wish I could create.

I've admired handspun skeins of yarn for a long time, not just because of the craft itself, but of the colorways that you can create with hand plyed yarn. Since I've started dyeing yarn, the effect of hand spun yarn is something I've been dyeing (haha) to acheive. I even researched custom spinners to see if I would be able to find someone to spin wool that I dyed for me.

Sheeping Beauty, I really admire your craft and the beautiful yarns you've created.

Knit the Royal Wedding

With the upcoming wedding of Prince William and Kate, so many souvenirs and commemorative items are popping up for sale. Well now you can knit your own souvenirs to celebrate this royal wedding!

The book Knit Your Own Royal Wedding by Fiona Goble sure has been making the news:

• This will have you in stitches: How to knit your own Royal wedding line-up (... including the Archbishop of Canterbury and a couple of corgis)
• Everett library staffers knit homage to royal wedding
• A Knitted Royal wedding tribute - although the following is not based on the book, but is another knit tribute to the royal wedding (without patterns you can access)
• Royal Wedding: Thanks for the memorabilia
• Knitters sew up royal wedding
  

I am more impressed by the likeness of Prince William to his knit doll than to Kate to hers...

I would like to thank my MIL-to-be for sharing this with me! There are many options for knitting for weddings that go beyond the royal wedding, if you're interested.

Free Easter Knitting Patterns

Happy Easter! I hope you're enjoying a fun day with your families.

I'm going to quickly share with you a fun Springtime knitting project, Easter Knitting Patterns. Now I'm not expecting that you'll spend today knitting, but maybe next year you'll make some fun little Easter knits to put in your Easter basket or to decorate your home.

Have a wonderful Easter!

Noel the Dog

Noel is a dog who lost her ears from being used as fight bait. (Her rescuer thinks that she was used as the bait to train other dogs to fight because of the extent of her injuries.) To help make tog feel pretty, designers rallied and created headbands for Noel.

Vickie Howell shares her floppy eared knitting pattern with us on her blog. This would work great for Noel, and help keep her head warm.

Read more about Noel's Story.

Do you know a knitting design that has an inspirational story behind it? I'd love to hear it!

A Knit Wedding

The authors of Cast Off decided to have a knit wedding in 2005. When I say knit wedding, I mean EVERYTHING is knit, from the flowers to the camera! I want to wear a knit garter at my wedding, but I cannot imagine having the entire wedding consist of knit items. Make sure you check out their wedding album for fantastic pictures of this unique event.

I wonder what the couple exchanges on anniversaries! I hope that you have enjoyed this particularly joyful Knitting Project of the Day.

Do you want to knit for your wedding? There are many free wedding knitting patterns available online.

Out of the Frying Pan

Amy E. Anderson designed the knitting pattern that I have knit more than any other: Out of the Frying Pan Oven Mitts. These felted oven mitts are a fast project and make fantastic housewarming gifts. I try to always keep a few in reserve in case I'm invited to a last minute party!

Some oven mitts that I knit with this pattern.

Entrelac: The Essential Guide to Interlace Knitting

"One of today's hottest knitting trends is entrelac, a modular technique that results in striking basketwork designs of rows within rows and interlocking diamond patterns." - Official product Description, Entrelac: The Essential Guide to Interlace Knitting

Entrelac knitting can be a bit intimidating, until you actually start trying the technique. While there are many good online tutorials, this book is the bible of the entrelac technique. Very clear, large photographs illustrate the step by step instructions for this technique, answering any question you could possibly have.

Knitting an Afghan in 10 Hours

Who said that it takes forever to knit an afghan? Today I am featuring the time log of my 10 hour afghan knitting project. That's right, I said a 10 hour afghan! Using size 50 needles, this project was a fast knit. In the log that is featured today, you will see hour by hour how far along the project was. Through this log I named the pattern the "10 Hour Afghan."

Are you patriotic?

How do you feel about the country where you're from? Do you ever put your patriotic feelings into your knitting? If you are from the USA, now you can with these free Independence Day knitting patterns. This article is filled with free red, white and blue knitting patterns that will let you show your USA pride.

Some of these patterns will be really useful for the 4th of July, but they will also come in super handy when the next Olympic games come around! What do you knit to honor your country?

Largest Knitting Needles

"The largest knitting needles measured 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in) long and had a diameter of 8 cm (3.15 in). Ingrid Wagner (UK) used the needles to knit a tension square of ten stitches by ten rows at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on 10 March 2008." -Guinness World Records

And I thought it was hard to knit with size 50 knitting needles... Way to go Wagner! (See a photo of the completed swatch with the needles and the knitter at the Record page.)

Wacky Baby Knits

When thinking about knit baby hats that are costume related, the book "Wacky Baby Knits: 20 Knitted Designs for the Fashion-conscious Toddler" looks like it will help you complete the rest of the costume. Or else you can use it just to make some fantastic baby hats that will make your child the envy of every mother at the playground.

Ravelry - A Community for Knitters and Crocheters

Ravelry is a knitter's dream. It allows you to organize all of your knitting activities: your stash, your projects, a queue of projects you want to make, an easy way to search for knitting patterns and much more. As a knitting designer, it is a great way to feature my patterns AND see images of the people who knit them!

In the widget to the right, you should see a slide show of my completed projects. On each project page I can input the yarn I used, the needle size I used, how much yarn the project required and any notes I have about the construction. This data is then compiled so someone could, for example, search for projects done in a particular brand of yarn. The possibilities are endless!

It is free to sign up for Ravelry, and I highly recommend that you give it a try. Suddenly organizing your knitting life became so much easier!

I am glad that I started writing ChemKnits before I discovered Ravelry, or I may not be where I am today as a blogger!

Homes: Knit wit

"It's cold outside, so warm up your interior with chunky cable knits, now gracing everything from chairs to lampshades." My sister-in-law-to-be shared these knit decor items with me and they were so fun I had to make them Knitting Project of the Day!

Imagine knit lampshades, knit floor lamp covers and knit covered 1960's chairs. I highly recommend that you check out this photo gallery, you won't be sorry! (Of course, you'll look at some of these projects and think, I could make one of those for so much less. I see a wave of new free knitting patterns coming out!)

Knit One Below: One Stitch, Many Fabrics

Knit One Below: One Stitch, Many Fabrics is my favorite knitting book ever. It is no secret that I love colorwork, and the K1B technique is so simple but the results look very intricate.

This book has provided me with a lot of knitting inspiration. After reading this book, I have designed two knitting patterns that contain the K1B technique, reviewed the book on two websites, and created video tutorials to assist others with the technique.

Take a chance and learn a new knit stitch that will revolutionize your knitting!

Bzzzz

Today's Knitting Project of the Day comes to you from the blog House Full of Monkeys. The author has knit (and crocheted) two tiny knit bees. I am a fan of this post because the knit bee happens to be designed by me. I love seeing my knit amigurumi bee compared to a crocheted one. Bzzzzzzzz!

Didn't You Know I Could Knit?

Giclee Print
Buy at AllPosters.com

Knit-One-Below

This is a video I made to illustrate the technique found in one of my favorite knitting books, Knit One Below: One Stitch, Many Fabrics.

Pine Street Inn's annual Knit-a-Thon

"Knitters and crocheters craft 9 x 9 inch squares, which will be collected, sorted and assembled into blankets on the day of the Knit-A-Thon. Knitters and crocheters from across the country and even the Atlantic, donate their time and stash to make a square that will be joined with 34 other squares, squares that could have come from Vermont or Texas, Switzerland or Ireland, squares made by kids or great grandmothers, men and women all for one cause. Over the four Knit-A-Thons we have made hundreds beautiful blankets that were presented as gifts from the community to tenants of the Pine Street Inn Residences and raised nearly $100,000 that directly aided the Supportive Housing and other incredible PSI programs. That is the power of knitting; a simple craft that can spark an idea, that can change a life."
-Farley N. Sullivan, Knit-A-Thon Creator and Pine Street Inn Council Member


I have participated in the 2009 and 2010 Pine Street Inn Knit-A-Thons, making a total of three afghans. Each November the organizers set up an event somewhere in Boston where you can bring your squares and sew them into afghans.

Never throw yarn away. Remnant scraps are great to incorporate into knit-a-thon projects such as this one, but many organizations will accept donations of yarn to provide the knitters.

Extreme Knitting - Knitting with 1000 Strands

I have done a lot of knitting with multiple strands... but the 8 strands used in my 10 hour afghan on size 50 needles does not compare to what you will see in the following video.

Sheldon Picture Gallery

Today's Knitting Project of the Day goes to all of the knitters who have submitted their images to the Sheldon Flickr Gallery.

Sheldon is a stuffed turtle who is taking over the knitting world. Designed by Ruth Homrighaus, over 2700 projects have been started on Ravelry alone (including mine, pictured here)! The gallery does not have quite this many photos, but it is wonderful that so many people who knit the turtle shared their images with the designer.

The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques

I love knitting projects that involve multiple colors. But beyond combining colors with black, I'm not the best at choosing contrasting and complementing color combinations.

The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques solves all of these problems. Seeing examples of different color combinations and explaining color theory are helpful, especially when you start designing your own knitting patterns. Every knitter needs SOME kind of color guide on their book shelf, and this is a great one to have.

The Fastest Knitter

How fast can you knit? Miriam Tegels can knit 118 stitches in a single minute! See her tips here:

Vintage Knitting Images from AllPosters

I love vintage knitting photos. AllPosters.com has many prints of old knitting photos and paintings. I plan to include some of these photos in the the knitting projects of the day posts when I do not have any other image to use. (Especially if the last few posts have been image-less.) I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do!

Woman Knitting Among Lunchtime Loungers Relaxing at Base of Statue at New York Public Library
Photographic Print; Eisenstaedt; Buy at AllPosters.com

Knitting with Food

http://veganyumyum.com

While doing research on edible knitting, I came across the most delightful cupcake decorations. The Author of VeganYumYum.com created delightful marzipan knitting decorations for cupcakes! I cannot imagine eating something I've worked so hard to create. This project absolutely deserves to be called "Knitting Project of the Day!"

SELBUVOTTER: Biography of a Knitting Tradition

The book SELBUVOTTER: Biography of a Knitting Tradition has been one of my favorite knitting books for years. To date, I have completed three different sets of mittens/gloves from this book.

With about 30 different patterns to adorn your hands, you can make mittens and gloves that will impress all of your friends. Keep them classic by knitting them in black and white, or modernize the look with vibrant colors.

Makeover of the Wall Street Bull

The following is not a knitting project, but it is too fantastic to NOT highlight as a project of the day. On Jan 4, 2011, NYC-based artist Crocheted Olek covered the Wall Street Bull in New York City with a complete crocheted cover! Now this is what I call a big project.

OLEK AND THE CHARGING BULL ON WALL STREET from olek on Vimeo.

Thank you Naomi C. for sharing this article with me!

The Daily Knitter

The Daily Knitter's Free Knitting Pattern of the Day is part of what inspired me to start this blog. I wanted there to be a platform to feature knitting projects that were more than just patterns. I am thrilled to "return the favor" to The Daily Knitter and feature them as the first ever knitting project of the day (KPOTD).

Welcome to the launch of KPOTD! I promise that this is not an April fools joke. Every day I will feature some kind of knitting project, whether it is a pattern, website, finished project, video or even just a photo. If you know of something knitting related that is pretty awesome, feel free to submit it for KPOTD consideration.

I hope you enjoy my latest project!