I’m honoring National Craft Month by posting something crafty that catches my eye every weekday. Share your favorite crafty finds in the comments!

I love Crochet By Faye’s idea for celebrating National Craft Month – adopt a designer!

You can read all the details in her post. The general idea is to pick a designer every day for the rest of the month and do something to help them succeed: blog about them, recommend them, buy a pattern!

I love this idea and will be incorporating here my already-planned National Craft Month blogging. I’m also going to spend the month looking for more designers to feature in my bricks+mortar shop, A Novel Yarn.

If you know of a designer (especially one that works with handspun or handdyed yarn), let me know in the comments!

As the summer heat (and humidity!) gets more oppressive, I find myself working more and more with organic cotton. It’s soft, it’s lightweight and it doesn’t make me all sticky when I spin on the porch. (Wondering why organic cotton? Read this.)

But as I stock the shop with a rainbow of handspun organic cotton yarns, I’ve been getting asked: “What can I make with it?”

The short answer: Anything.

What? You want more than that?

Ok, the long answer.

First, the details:

You can get Handspun Organic Cotton right here.

This yarn is handspun into a smooth worsted  to heavy worsted weight. I suggest using needles that are US 8-11. But of course, everyone’s knitting is different, so you may need a different size!

A few things to remember when working with cotton:
-It’s not as elastic as wool, so your fabric won’t “bounce back”. This means you’ll probably want to avoid knitting things that might sag (like skirts or shirts).
-Cotton is heavier than wool, which contributes to the “sag factor” if you make something big.
-Because of it’s inelasticity, it may be harder on your wrists. I combat this by using circular needles, so there’s not so much weight on one wrist at a time.
-Cotton can be machine washed! But if it gets caught up in your washing machine, it’ll be pulled out of shape, so I always handwash (if you have a front-loader that won’t happen).

Pattern Ideas:
I’m  making a shawl with the cotton and banana yarn. I’ll be releasing the pattern next week (but here’s a sneak peek).

Until then, here are a few other ideas:

• Le Slouch, a beret (on Ravelry)

• Bubby, a bear (on Ravelry)

• Simple Baby Bib (on Ravelry)

• knitCOWL (a cowl!), a Free Ravelry Download

What are you making?

See what everyone else is making by checking out the Handspun Organic Cotton Ravelry page here.

You can also share ideas, thoughts and your projects in the Blonde Chicken group on Ravelry.

What would you make with Handspun Organic Cotton?

Mother’s Day is nearly upon us but you still have time to knit or crochet a quick gift for your favorite mom! Grab a skein of bulky handspun and get knitting!

Here are some ideas that take just a skein or two handspun yarn:

1. Capelets! I particularly love the Anthropology-Inspired Capelet – for the stylish mom
2. Shawls! There’s nothing better than theSimple Yet Effective Shawl - a great project to use several different skeins of handspun yarn, like I did in mine.
3. Cowls! There are a thousand great patterns and most only use a single skein. Here are my favorites:

• Sherbrooke (PDF)
• Gloria
• Envy

Are you making anyting for Mother’s Day?

One of the most common questions I’ve recieved asks  about pattern suggestions for Bananiére. For example,  a customer recently wrote:

“Can you give me a few ideas on the banana yarn.. what have you made? What have others made with it? I’m trying to come up with something to do with it.. such an interesting yarn!”

Let’s start with what other customers have made:

Jenn made a lovely wrap:

LuluBean made a scarf (looks like a 1×1 rib to me):

Can I knit a sweater?

I’m often asked:

Is it suitable for a sweater?

Not so much. This yarn is heavy and dense (by virtue of being handspun) and doesn’t have the elasticity of wool. This means that it tends to stre-e-etch when knit in St st or garter stitch.

There are a few ways of working with the inelasticity:

• Crochet – while crochet will be denser (and heavier) it will create a stronger fabric (most stitches) and help it bounce back into shape
• Knit in a stretchy stitch and the yarn will stretch when necessary and bounce back.
• Knit a biased fabric. It will still stretch in width rather than length – perfect for a bag or scarf
  

Even with those solutions, I still wouldn’t use Bananiere for a sweater – the resulting garment would be very heavy without the natural warmth of wool or alpaca.

So let’s work with the natural traits of the Banana yarn.

Bananiére is

• Strong
• Cool (as it not-warm…although it is “cool”, like “groovy”, too!)
• Interesting

Because of this, I suggest making:

• Shawls
• Bags
• Accessories (belts, bookcovers, skinny scarves)

And here’s what you’ve been looking for, the free patterns!

Free Shawl patterns suitable for Bananiere

• Bloom Shawl
• Bob & Weave
• Sunday Market Shawl

Free Bag patterns suitable for Bananiere

• Unbiased
• Saturday Market Bag
• Nordstrom Crochet Hobo Bag

Free Accessory patterns suitable for Bananiere

• Bias Scarf
• Simon Belt (opens a pdf)
• Crochet Belt
• Book cover (my own pattern!)

These are just a few of the many possible patterns.  A quick search on Ravelry for “free” and “bulky” will pull up many more! You can usually substitute Bananiére for any pattern that calls for a bulky, cellulose fiber (cotton, hemp, linen) but remember the above characteristics.  The yarn is similar to Sari Silk in construction – it’s easy to substitute one for the other!

I’m always looking for new Bananiére patterns, if you’d like to design one, just let me know!
Did I miss your favorite pattern? Suggest it in the comments below!

As the holiday season approaches, I’m beginning to ponder the inevitable Christmas Gift List. Despite my best efforts to avoid it, I always feel the pull of handknitting gifts for my very dearests. The trickiest people on that list are also the smallest.
I have two, sweet little brothers, ages 8 and 9. Although adorable and irresistible they have one ginormous flaw: they have extremely specific ideas of what constitutes “cool” handknits. They love knowing I knit something for them, but they are very particular about what they’ll wear.

Here are just a few things I know they’d love:

Stegosaurus Hat
Ok, this one is a cheat: I designed it two years ago as a Christmas gift. Actually, D helped me design it: he drew a picture of his ideal hat and this is how it turned out!

Fingerless gloves
Both the boys want a set of fingerless gloves for recess. Leafy would be perfect for a pair (shortened for the shorter hands, of course!)

The Batman Logo chart and the Transformers Logo chart can be added to a basic hat or made into a simple patch for their backpack. They’d look great on a full-fledged sweater, but these boys grow to fast for a handknit of that size!

Although, at 8 & 9, they’re a little too young for it, the Jayne Cobb Hat would be a great gift for your Firefly fan.

For the extremely particular amongst your boys, this is Ribbed Beanie is probably plain enough. Not so plain knit in a bright color, like Festival:

What do you knit for the boys in your life?
And if you’re afraid of what your boys might buy you, may I suggest pointing them towards a Blonde Chicken Boutique Gift Certificate?

1. Tea Scarf – a lovely scarf just perfect to chase the early morning chill. Perfect for Sno-Cone, which is 170 yards of fluffy bright wooliness:
   
2. Knit/Crochet Handwarmers So cute and simple, great for just the smallest amount of handspun yarn with the biggest impact. The fluffy 80 yards of Oceanic should be plenty for the crochet part (if you use another yarn for the knit cuffs)
3. 200 - This bulky scarf is HOT! Even my picky I-don’t-need-a-scarf husband would wear this one (in the appropriate colors). It takes 4 different colors of 100 yards each and I’d mix Deep Sea with Autumn Sky, Juice and Sunrise Bananaiere.
4. Inka Shawl: A beautiful shawl, this pattern calls for a self-striping yarn. It would be brilliant in a yarn like Summer Salad which is mostly green with little stripes of other colors.

Last night, I gave up on a sweater. My beautiful handspun sweater just isn’t working out. After completing the body and 1 sleeve, I realized I need more yarn. And the yoke isn’t right (too much fabric at the shoulders). And the whole thing is too stiff, not drapey enough. Most of these issues could have been solved by following a pattern (well, except for the drape, I just needed to use a bigger needle and knit it at a different gauge), but because I’m designing it myself, all these little things have to be figured out. If I had chosen a pattern suited for handspun, many of these mistakes might have been avoided.
But that’s only if I choose the right pattern! Here’s a few things to keep in mind when choosing a pattern for handspun yarn

• Gauge with handspun is variable. One skein might be heavy worsted, while the next is bulky. Knit for the bigger yarn, or else your work will be stiff in areas. Of course, it maybe be a little thin in some areas, but that’s usually preferable.
• Handspun yarn usually has a lot of texture. Play this up with a simple textured stitch or St st.
• Along with texture, handspun yarn can be quite colorful. Cables and pictoral lace are easilyobscured by all the color going on, so avoid “overkill”.

I had a time of mourning as I folded the sweater and put it away (I’m not ready to rip it out yet). But I’ll come back to it. I’ll probably cast on for a sweater using that same handspun in a few weeks. If I use a pattern next time, these are a few I’d consider:

1. Cathode (Rav link) – top downs are the easiest to adjust for gauge & Cathode is excellent since you can use just a bit of handspun for the body and trimm it in commercial yarn.
2. Cavern (Rav Link) – Tingel’s Cavern really won me over to this simple top down cardigan.
3. February Lady Sweater (Rav link) – this uber-popular sweater (over 2000 projects in Ravelry) is simple to adjust, especially if you want it big and roomy.
4. Incredible, Custom Fit Raglan – this is first customizable pattern I ever found. Not really a pattern, as much as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure.
5. Top-Down Calculator (Rav link)- Not even a pattern. Plug in your gauge and your measurements and out pops customized directions! Amazing!

“I just realized that I have developed kind of a collector style in my yarn buying. I don’t buy yarn for specific projects any more but more like “oh-how-beautiful-must-have-that”. This of course results me having several single skeins of this and that (and they are all soooo pretty). So what can I make with your yarn?”

That’s an actual email I got from a customer and it expresses how many of us buy yarn. We see something pretty and we snatch it up. But what to DO with it as it starts to overtake our living space?

Well, after answering this question for myself, I’ve started collecting patterns that will show off handspun. These patterns work with the special properties of handspun yarn, not requiring an exact guage (since handspun has natural inconsistencies).
Below are 5 free patterns that (can) use a single skein of handspun – the name links directly to the pattern (sometimes a pdf), followed by the Ravelry link. I’ve included a suggested yarn which is the right weight and length to make the pattern (click the name of the yarn to purchase it).

1. Sherbrooke (Ravelry) – a lovely textured cowl

Autumn Sky
2. Lace Ribbon Scarf (Ravelry) – a very pretty, lacey scarf


Fabulous!

3. One Skein Scarf (Ravelry) – a, uh, scarf!

Juice
4. Foliage (Ravelry) – a pretty leaf-y hat

Lettuce
5. Caliometry (Ravelry) – a headband
   
   Preppy

I’m still working on my handspun sweater. What have you made with handspun yarn?