Virgil

Virgil

Despite his hefty physique, Virgil is quite a fine climber and he uses his suction cup hands to maneuver to great heights. These hands also help him to collect things and eat them. Most recently, his favorite foods are building blocks and green olives. His mouth is really a huge pocket! He's currently available for adoption and more information may be found in our shop.

Ugly Socks

I will admit here and only once that my first adult pair of socks took me about two and a half years to complete. It was all because of that second sock. Call it "second sock syndrome" or whatever you'd like. They traveled across The United States! The yarn used for these was Lion Brand's Sock-Ease Prints in "Lemon Drop" and perhaps I chose the wrong project for them but these are referred to as my "Ugly Socks" now. I started the second sock's ribbing incorrectly and had to redo the whole thing. It was traumatic and I felt defeated but I pushed on. Happy I finally finished them.

Here they are:

I guess they aren't so bad.

We Have Yarn!

We are proud to announce we have launched new one-of-a-kind batches of hand painted Merino yarns in many different weights and fiber combinations. We source and mill locally and all of our products are made in America.

Have a look here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/yesterdaydream

Each of our skeins is guaranteed to have NO knots! How wonderful is that? We knit and crochet and understand the value of a perfect skein of scrumptious, lush, high-quality, squishy yarn. 

 

county fair

gaelic magic

This is so exciting for us! All of our yarns are also already on Ravelry so it will be easy for you to link/share your creations with us too!

We will be adding more fingering weight and worsted weight to our shop very soon. If you're interested in certain colors, we'd love to hear it. Comment below or get in touch with us another way:

website: http://yesterdaydream.com/
"Like" us on facebook: http://facebook.com/yesterdaydreamdotcom
Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/yesterdaydream
Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/yesterdaydream
Instagram: http://instagram.com/yesterdaydream

Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/brands/yesterdaydream

Basic Ribbed Hat

Today, I'm knitting a basic ribbed hat. This will fit teens to adults and it has incredible stretch for warmth and comfort. Scroll down for the link to the PDF file.

US13 DPNs
Wool-Ease Thick & Quick from Lion Brand Yarn

Cast on 48 stitches and K2, P2 around until the piece is 8-10 inches deep - this will allow you to choose the amount of 'slouch' you'd like.

For the decrease rounds:

K2tog, P2tog around (you will have 24 stitches at the end of this round)

K1, P1 around

K2tog around (you will have 12 stitches at the end of this round)

Pull yarn through to close.

Click here for the Ravelry link and PDF file. If you make one, email me a photo to be featured here...I'd love to see it!

Tiny Chickens Tail Add-On

I recently found Anna Hrachovec's pattern for Tiny Chickens and they've been so fast and fun to knit up. Some of you who recently received orders may have found one. 

In making these little cuties, I've come up with a quick add-on tail for them. You can easily use different colors and skip the comb at the top of their head to have the look of many other birds. Below is my version of a pigeon, made using this very pattern. 

The add-on tail is very simple: 

Flip the chicken upside-down and with color 1, pick up and knit 3 stitches on the bottom center of the body, just where a tail would be. 

Row 1: Purl

Row 2: KFB, K1, KFB

Row 3: Bind off

Break yarn and weave in ends.

When you're finished, it should look something like this. Happy knitting!

The Bee Keeper's Quilt

I've done it! I've finally started The Bee Keeper's Quilt. It's been in my queue for far too long and I was inspired by Thea at Ladybug Hill Farm. The photos from her instagram feed were wonderful. 

It consists entirely of 3 inch "hexipuffs" made from sock wool. It's pretty difficult not to quickly become addicted to these squishy hexagons. This is all I've finished so far, having just started yesterday. These make for a perfect small traveling project as they take up very little space in a purse or bag and knit up very quickly.

They are a great way to use up some of those tiny bits of wool from other projects. You know you have some of those pretty little scraps wound up in your stash, come on. This quilt is going to take some time and I'm looking forward to creating some custom hexipuffs to make my quilt very personal. 

Have you worked on this project? How far have you gotten? Are you in hexilove? I am!

New In The Shop!

The Harwin Cowl is back in the shop! It can be worn as a cowl, shrug, hood, turtleneck, capelet or twisty scarflette. The brooch is included too and it may be unpinned and moved!

At The Farmer's Market

We went to our local Farmer's Market today to see what's out there and mostly just to walk it. It's fun listening to the different people, music and comments people make in this type of place. At one point, we went from hearing Lady GaGa to The Bobbettes. One guy went walking away singing "...Mr. Lee, Mr. Lee, Mr. Lee...." In these places, I love people the most. Everyone is looking for a deal and bargain; it's raw and true.

I was hoping to find fabric or something useful or special enough to give new life to. In the end, I walked out with two sets of vintage knitting needles, an old blue Ball jar, some doilies and a skirt. That will have to do.

Do you know of a great market where there is old (or new) textiles or fabrics? Where do you like to go?

ravelry

Slate did a really interesting article about why facebook can't match ravelry, the social network for knitters and crocheters alike. I've been using ravelry for several years now and never truly knew about Casey and Jessica Forbes. As it turns out, they're a married couple from Boston who work as a team with only two other people to run the site. They rely heavily on volunteer editors and a strict code of etiquette from its users. I thought it was an interesting read and maybe you'll enjoy it too. My ravelry handle is yesterdaydream so say hello if you stop by, okay?

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On The Needles...

Today was perfect for focusing on this slouchy hat I'm making for my friend Amy. It's made using Knit Pick's Dishie cotton yarn and coming along pretty nicely. It's perfect for those late nights at the lake or beach where you want to just throw a hat on and go. She chose the color of coffee and I think it will look fantastic on her.

Meemer!

Meet Meemer. He listens to your secrets and never speaks a word. His soft red body is so squishy and flops when tossed upon a chair. He is super special and I can't wait for him to find a great home. Hopefully, he'll find someone who loves him as much as I do. 

He was also featured last month in my Underneath it All post. He was the one with the purple heart carefully stitched below his hand knit skin. His over-sized blue eyes make him really hard to resist.

Baby Mittens

I've been knitting up some baby mittens, both for the shop and also some custom pairs. They're made from superwash merino, which makes them machine washable and super convenient. I plan on making more during and after the Christmas holiday and will definitely be adding more soon. They're stripy, super adorable, soft and made especially to keep the tiniest hands warm with style.

 I should also mention my facebook page here too. I'm not sure I have, but there is one for yesterdaydream and it's a nice way to here from you and also for us to keep up with each other. Please say hello if you stop in because I'd love that.

No Place To Fall

Lately, I've been so busy with the shop and the recent shows. No matter how hard I've tried to switch gears and focus more on the clay and sculptures, there is some drying time with that and I find myself diving back into my vast collection of fibrous materials. In the end, I'm trying to push away the scattered feeling and to help do that, I've been listening to this and maybe you'll enjoy it too.

See Dot Run

I'm not a fan of CGI and special effects that require them, but usually catch myself fascinated by old-school animation and good ol' camera trickery instead. Maybe that is why I love this little (literally) stop-motion animation and should also mention "Dot" broke the Guinness World Record for Smallest stop-motion animation character in a film.

Dot wakes up in a world that seems to be unraveling. Fleeing an encroaching wave of loose threads, Dot, a girl who is just 9 millimeters tall, runs across coins, pins, nuts and bolts and jumps on a bumblebee to fly away. Finally she saves herself by knitting the threads into a sleeping bag.

New In The Shop

Introducing the Mistress Cowl. It's made to draw attention to your personal beauty while keeping you warm with this incredibly soft wool blend. More information on this piece may be found here.

The Very Softest Heat

If I had my way, my home would eventually look like this. I found this video on the craftivism site and loved it instantly. The making of this commercial is creatively inspiring. Hoping your weekend feels like this.

Monkey, geraniums, oh my!

I've been placing certain plants outside and I'm already seeing results. This geranium was adopted from my mother last Fall. As she was getting ready to throw them into her compost, I asked her for one. It's beautiful.

I'm beginning to work on some side-projects in my spare time and one of them is to continue my Monkey Socks. This is a project I started last Spring and haven't really looked at. In fact, I purchased another set of size 1 needles to accommodate for my procrastination. I was so busy that I didn't even think about this project much at all. I am comfortable with this well-written pattern, but not as pleased with my choice to make them using Knit Picks' Palette yarn. I do like the edamame color, but this yarn splits too easily. A photo of my progress is shown below and hopefully, in the end will resemble the sock above. So far, so good. 

French Press Felted Slippers

I did it! I made this gorgeous pair of slippers in less than a day to give to my mother for Christmas. They took me a little longer than 90 minutes to do the actual knitting than the Yarn Harlot site suggested, but they're done and quite lovely. I'm confident the knitting will take less time if I make another pair. I've felted with Lamb's Pride yarn before, but I may have just fallen completely for the Paton's Classic Wool used for this pair of slippers. Without having very much time or four days to block them, I used the household hairdryer to speed the process along a bit. I have exactly enough yarn (in two colors) to make two more pair.

The best part of this is that my mom was pretty shocked & loves them.

If you're interested in finding the pattern, please visit the designer's etsy shop: French Press Knits

The Knitted Science

What happens when science nerds get hold of knitting needles & crochet hooks? Discovery the brilliant world of knitted science here:

Splashy Colors & Baby Hats

The colors are changing all around me! Everywhere I go, there is a beautiful collection of bright splashy colors and dusty blues with greens. I love Fall!

I've also been making baby hats for family and friends. It seems like everyone is  or has a baby and they've been cute and fun to make. I'm thinking about making a few to donate and a few for my shop too. If you're reading this and know of an organization or children's hospital, I'd appreciate the suggestion.