Tag: yarn

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Twisted Ear Warmer Knitting Pattern

If you live in a cold weather place (which I certainly do), you may be seeing an increase this year in fashionable headwear. Touques seem to be traded this year for ear warmers, and I’m here for it.

A few years back I found a pattern for a cable-knit headband and I absolutely loved it, but I will admit the band wasn’t quite wide enough.

Over the holidays I picked up my knitting needles for the first time in months. I had been looking for a pattern for a knit twisted ear warmer but I was mostly coming across crocheted ear warmers, and I am absolutely terrible at crochet.

I pulled out my measuring tape and began sizing things up. After just a couple of iterations I happily landed on a no-fail pattern. I’ve made this about 15 times now with slight variations in the yarn, and they have all turned out great.

For those who love the look but don’t love to knit, I do have a number of these for sale right now on my Etsy page.

I’ve used a variety of yarn from Michaels, but I tend to enjoy the color variety from Loops & Threads or Lion Brand.

Loops & Threads Super Bulky yarn in Teal

Materials needed for this project:

  • 9mm needles
  • Super bulky yarn
  • Darning needle
  • Measuring tape

To get started I cast on 18 stitches. Just two stitches form this pattern, the purl (P) and the knit (K). I followed the below pattern:

P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1 , P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1, P1, K1

Every row you start you will start with a Purl. This creates a ribbed look.

I followed this pattern until the knit fabric reached 20″ long, then I cast off, leaving the tail of yarn about 10″ long. Take your darning needle and thread it with the tail of yard from your cast off.

Next you will want to lay out flat the full rectangle you’ve knit. You are going to fold over the ends of each, with corners all facing up. Next you want to bring all of the corners together, layering them like this:

Ensure you have all corners aligned with the rest of the edges (as they have a tendency to curve away a bit), and knit through the stitches as close to the edge as you can.

Flip the ear warmer right-side-out, and it’s ready to wear!

I’ve been wearing these for the last few weeks on some pretty cold walks and days at the playground with my son, and they have kept me SO toasty warm! The knit is thick yet has lots of stretch.

Thanks for stopping by today and checking out this tutorial.

Heather

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DIY Boho Wall Hanging

In July I moved into a new-to-me home, which has brought on a lot of opportunities to get creative. I’ve been spending my time painting and making new decor like throw pillows and, now, a wall hanging!

I kept seeing these boho style wall hangings and, though they don’t fit my usual styling, they do certainly have a place in my home – my craft room!

This project is fun, easy, and can be done with older children for sure. It’s inexpensive and you can let your imagination really run wild. I’ve seen other additions of flowers, feathers and lace.

My version was quite simple, though I will say I have another in the works that may end up being a bit more elaborate.

Materials needed for this tutorial:

– A hoop (or two)
– Various colors of yarn
– Scissors
– Wooden beads

I picked up gold and silver hoops at Michaels for less than $5 each. They had several sizes to choose from, and I wanted to use two hoops for this hanging so I grabbed two different sizes in gold.

I have a stockpile of yarn at home, but I did grab some ivory and blush pink for this piece. I knew I wanted faded pink, purple and ivory, etc. Value yarn works as well as expensive yarn for a project like this. My sewing room is a lavender color so I felt it would match the decor.

I started by cutting pieces of yarn approximately 62″ in length. I knew this would be long and that the strands would need to be cut after assembly, so the exact measurement of each piece is not critical. Just a rough cut at that length.

Once the yarn was cut I hung the hoop on the back of a chair and started adding pieces. I put two strands of yarn together for each loop, but you could easy do 4-5 and it would take even less time.

To form the loops, just fold over your two pieces of yarn, holding the folded section at the top. Place over the hoop, pull the yarn through the loop and pull downward. Make sure that you loop the same way every time.

Throughout this project I did add some braided sections. I put about 10-12 pieces of yarn together, looped them as normal, and then proceeded to braid the sections. NOTE: Braiding will make the section shorter, so you may want to cut slightly longer pieces for the braids.

I hung the hoop up, smoothed down all of the pieces, and then decided where to add the beads. I used wooden beads from Wal-Mart , along with a darning needed (not necessary but surely helpful) for threading the yarn through the bead openings. I knotted below where each bead would sit. You could also do entire strings of beads or large pearls. If you don’t like it, take the individual section off and try again. You really can’t go wrong.

Finally I hung the wall hanging and decided how to cut the bottoms. Lots and lots of options but I went diagonal for one, and v-shaped for the other.

This piece sits on a wall with a lot of locally made artwork I’ve collected over the years, and some artwork I did myself. Simple but pretty, it adds a pop of texture to the wall. Next time I’ll add in lace, more beads and perhaps feathers. For now, I’m enjoying the way the lengths of yarn sway every time I walk past it.

Thanks for checking out my post today!

Heather