Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Yarn Bombing 2013

International Yarn Bombing was on June 9, 2013, and my friends and I could not resist an opportunity to yarn bomb.  We did not want to have our creations taken down by school administrators, government officials, or police officers, so we yarn bombed a classroom in our school.  Even though we started late, we still managed to get 8 3" x 30" strips to cover 8 desk legs and a 3" x 48" strip to cover the horizontal bar on one desk.

One of the completed desks
The desk legs mainly consists of crochet strips, with the occasional knitted section.  Crocheting is generally faster than knitting, and because of time restraints, we relied mainly on crocheting to produce desk leg covers.  Each desk leg has a different crochet style.  For example, the leg closest to the camera, the blue and pink leg, is made up of crocodile stitches.  We also had popcorn stitches and regular crochet patterns.

The classroom also has a cardboard cutout of Elvis.  I, being the only knitter in my friend group, embarked on two projects: a scarf for Elvis and a knitted nameplate for the occupier of the classroom.  For the nameplate, I knitted a rectangle, and my friend embroidered the name on it.  For the scarf, I combined two strings, a pink and purple, to be one string and created a speckled pink and purple scarf for Elvis.  The scarf is five feet, the longest object I have ever knitted.

Elvis in his dashing new scarf
Yarn bombing is an activity that can never look bad.  Because of the ridiculousness of covering objects with sheets of yarn, any color combination and any style of knitting and crocheting look good together and bring spice to an otherwise boring classroom.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Crochet Hook Case

My friend, an avid crocheter, requested a crochet case for her various hooks.  A case would help her organize her hooks and make it easier to transport them in her backpack.  She picked out the colors, and I created her crochet hook case.

To make this case, my friend chose the electric blue, tranquil teal, and penguin duct tape.  To create the base of the case, I alternated between the electric blue and the penguin duct tape.

Alternating penguin and electric blue stripes
The case needed to be able to store two basic types of crochet needles: a Tunisian crochet hook and many regular length hooks.  I stored the longer Tunisian hook along the edge of the case and lined up the other regular hooks below and perpendicular to the Tunisian hook.  To keep the hooks in the case, I used tranquil teal duct tape.

The Tunisian hook lies along the top; three regular hooks are below
A pocket lies on the other side of the case and can be used to store design patterns, short pieces of yarn from crochet creations, and other necessary items.  I used the tranquil teal duct tape again.  The crochet hook case itself is an entire pocket also. I folded the big sheet of duct tape in fourths and taped the edges to create a big pocket for scissors in between the inside and the outside of the case.

Big storage pocket on the other side
This crochet hook case will serve my friend well; it will keep all of her hooks organized, clean, and all in the same spot.