About Red Heart Soft Essentials:Red Heart Soft Essentials is a new bulky (#5) weight yarn that is sold exclusively online and in Michael’s Craft Store. Soft Essentials is just like the Red Heart Soft yarn that you already love but now in a Bulky weight. In this post you will find a collection of eight wearable Soft Essential patterns. Be sure to show these designers some love on Ravelry by adding their patterns to your favorites list. [Read more…]
Easter is almost here, there is only a little over a week left. Many of us like to make little things for the people we are going to be sharing Easter with and I have pulled together some great little projects for you. Below you will find a list of FREE patterns from Red Heart that you can create quickly for your Easter festivities. These patterns will help you to create your Knit and Crochet Easter.
Red Heart has put all of these great patterns together on their website. Check them out below and then head over to Red Heart’s website to get your FREE patterns. [Read more…]
Vickie Howell and the Knit Show was today’s topic on the Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird.
Vickie Howell is a cultivator of craft and community. She’s an author, designer, instructor, and broadcast personality in the D.I.Y. world with a penchant for motivational speaking, and social media marketing. Vickie is most well-known as the Host and Creative Consultant of DIY Network’s Knitty Gritty, her best selling knitting, crochet, and craft books, and her accessible, inclusive approach to nurturing the creative community via print, video and social media. She’s continued to rally the crafty troops as an internationally recognized blogger & magazine columnist; a Spokesperson and Ambassador for major brands like Patons, Bernat, Caron, Land’s End, and Clover Needlecrafts; video campaigns for companies such as HGTV, JoAnn, Ragu, Cannon, and Inkjoy; and as the Host and Co-Executive Producer of PBS’ Knitting Daily TV with Vickie Howell.
Vickie has a HOT NEW project in the works, The Knit Show, and she’s doing a crowd-fund program to get it off the ground. She says: ‘Last week I joined thousands of other entrepreneurs — from inventors and authors, to artisans and filmmakers — by embarking on my own crowdfunding journey on Kickstarter for: “The Knit Show with Vickie Howell”. Although the campaign is going well so far, it bares mentioning that currently the biggest obstacle to getting people to crowd fund a project like mine, is the lack of knowledge — especially in the general population (I’m talking to you, nanas and pop-pops!) — about what crowdfunding actually is. In my experience, however if you’re willing to talk to the people about the things, then they’re usually open to listening to what you have to say. In that spirit, I jumped onto Facebook Live over the weekend to explain the whats, whys and who’s who of crowdfunding on Kickstarter, and why I’m using it (and you should, too!) to fund a really exciting project. Click HERE to watch, and share wherever it may be helpful.’
You can follow Vickie Howell through her website: www.VickieHowell.com, her Facebook page, Ravelry Designer page, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter. There is also a wonderful selection of online classes at CreativeLive.com.
It is almost time for another knit-along! This time we will be knitting the Textured Triangle Shawl designed by Diane Moyer, a FREE pattern on Red Heart’s website. The shawl is made using Soft Essentials yarn, available exclusively at Michaels stores and Red Heart’s website.
7 Months of Red Heart Scrubby:If you haven’t heard yet Red Heart is running a 7 Months of Scrubby campaign. Each month there is a new theme of FREE Scrubby patterns from Red Heart. April’s theme is fruit and today I will show you how to crochet the Sliced Apple Scrubby.
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Below you will find the YouTube tutorial that I created for the pattern. You will notice in the video that I used Red Heart with Love for the sample. I did this so that you could see the stitches better. You will notice that the Scrubby yarn does not have definition to the stitches. This is great to hide any small mistakes that you may make but it isn’t the best for showing you how to make the piece.
The Sliced Apple Scrubby is made from Scrubby yarn but you could change the yarn that you use to turn the pattern into an applique for another project. In my post about the Playful Penguin Baby Blanket we talked about changing out the applique to match the recipient of the blanket. The Playful Penguin Baby Blanket is another FREE pattern on Red Heart’s website.
Carson Demers and Knitting Comfortably is a Very Important Topic on our Yarn Thing podcast with Marly Bird.
By day Carson is a physical therapist who operates an award winning ergonomics program for a San Francisco medical center. Every other moment he’s knitting, spinning, designing, teaching, or otherwise up to some fiber fun – always with a watchful eye toward ergonomics. His passion and experience in fiber arts combine with his expertise in physical therapy and ergonomics to create a unique skill set that he eagerly shares with the fiber community to keep us all creating healthfully – and comfortably – ever after.
Carson teaches at knitting, spinning, and other fiber events throughout the US. He loves to teach at local yarn shops and guilds. He has written articles for TNNA and other publications, and is a regular contributor to Ply magazine.
Carson has a new book Knitting Comfortably, The Ergonomics of Handknitting.
Imagine being told you have to stop knitting because of discomfort in your hands, arms, neck, or back. Imagine the sense of frustration and the longing to get the needles back in your hands. Imagine the lingering doubt you might have when you can pick them up again: “What was I doing wrong after all these years of knitting?” “Will I get hurt again?” “Will I have to stop knitting forever to make this pain go away?” Maybe you’d like to be a faster, more efficient knitter, or a knitter who produces more projects, but you’re not sure what’s getting in the way.
This book will help you understand the ergonomics of knitting so you can improve your safety, efficiency, and productivity in knitting. You’ll learn to identify ergonomic risks that contribute to injury and reduce knitting efficiency. Throughout the book, you’ll be provided with activities and guidance to improve your knitting ergonomics so you can knit more confidently and comfortably. Through instruction in stretches, exercise, and self-care, you’ll also learn how to manage the discomfort common to knitters before it becomes an injury, and how to recognize when it’s time to seek help from a health-care professional.
Follow Carson Demers through his website: www.ErgoIKnit.com also, he can be found in Twitter and Instagram, and has a designer page in Ravelry.
