Our PM has just got back from a bit of schmoozing with our friends across the pond. Fancy showing your love for all things US by singing "Oh say can you seeeeeeeeee, this lovely American flag t-shirt I'm wearrrrring!" and wearing the Stars and Bars with pride?
Witness, if you will, the wonder of the Ruffled American Flag T-shirt on A Little of This, A Little of That.
It's an excellent tutorial on customising a t-shirt even if you're not up for a star-spangled garment, as you can turn the techniques to whatever end you like.
As most of us knitters know the humble acting of stitching is taking over the world person by person and soon everywhere will be covered in lovely wool and those who can't knit will be forced to learn or suffer hideous consequences. Don't believe me? I have found proof.
Virgin Media Shorts is a film competition that searches for undiscovered talent in the world of short films. There's some impressive stuff on there as wannabe film makers push the boundaries of the craft.
Knitting turns nasty and eerie-flavoured in my favourite on so far, 140 Seconds Mystery. The film starts with a body wrapped mysteriously in a scarf rife with yarn ends...
There's also Between the Lines, which looks at the fascinating art of a disabled artist and St George and the Dragon which is the work of Parracombe School Art & Craft Club.
Lose yourself in some short films. Go on.
The bean bag is a ubiquitous beast. You can find them lurking in all kinds of homes as squishy, mobile furniture that seems to fit in anywhere. Fancy crafting a bean bag that is big enough to slip into a snooze on? Of course you do.
The Bean Bag Sofa (which also serves as a bed) is an Instructables How To from Dan, one of the founders of the handy hands on website.
Grab bean bag beans, sturdy cloth, an impressive amount of velco and a sewing machine and get bagging some beans for the ultimate in bean-based home comfort.
Quite simply it's "the biggest baddest beanbag evah" and an offer of being shown how to create something with that kind of title is too hard to resist.
Some people eat to live and some people live to eat. I put myself in the happy second group who spend much of their online time being distracted by the food tweets and blogs that appear on various social media. The best thing to do with good food is to share it and that's exactly why I chose this summer salad.
The lovely Sarah of Fingers and Toes knows her nosh. She's a big fan of Yotam Ottolenghi and a champion of the organic veg box.
She shares a recipe from the first Ottolenghi book for Roast Butternut Squash with Burnt Aubergine and Pomegranate Molasses and her photographs of her triumphant results should have your mouth watering even before you check out the ingredients list.
Sarah also knits so if you're not up for making something tasty from her blog then you can still get your craft on quite happily.
Waves of wool-flavoured anticipation are sweeping through the fibre-flinging world as a brand-new shiny knitting show prepares to turn London knitwise.
Knit Nation is the knit-scented brainchild of Alice Yu and Cookie A. It promises to bring the finest in yarn, stitchmakers accessories, workshops and knitting mayhem to London in an all-bleating, all-knitting explosion.
From the 29th to the 31st of July Imperial College London will become Knit Nation central with classes on the Thursday and all manner of marketplace goodies for the other two days.
There's also an exclusive talk on Ravelry by Jess and Casey, the Posh and Becks of Knitting Social Networking.
With names like The Bothered Owl, Ysolda, Purlescence and Rohrspatz & Wollmeise it promises to be one hell of a knitting event.
Find out more on the website or read Stitch London's All About Knit Nation if you're still confused.
See you there.
It happens to us all. You are in dire need of a tune while squashed next to a sweaty besuited fellow bellowing into his mobile on a packed commuter train. You scrabble through bag or pockets for your headphones and when they appear one of the little earbuds is shamelessly naked. Showing off its smooth underbelly when it should be tucked neatly in a foam coat. Gah!
You can spend part of your morning trawling eBay for a replacement pair or try to find a minute to nip to the shops and buy a whole new set of headphones. Or you could make your own through the soothing powers of knitting.
Let the good folks over at Instructables tote you towards a place of brightly coated earbuds made by your own fair hands and a little light music, instead of listening to Gerald blather on to the team in West Bromich about profit margins.
Tiny knitted musical bliss.
For those of you who get bored with crochet patterns that seem to go without an end here's a nifty little one for you. A scarf made up of teeny tiny squares that you can churn out at your whim.
The Little Squares Scarf from Do You Mind If I Knit deals with that common complaint of startitis that many of us stitchers feel.
- If you fancy crocheting a little square or seven then go ahead.
- Then forget about it for a while and move on to something else.
- Once your antsiness has worn off you can return to your pile of squares and chain a few more.
It can take you a week. It can take you a year.
I like the idea of making a square or two in yarn leftover from other projects so your scarf becomes a record of all your other stitching triumphs. You can add to it as you move through your other stitching projects.
Just don't ask me to help you sew the tiny squares together.
digg this |
del.icio.us this
| 
Stumble It!
