Sarah's Knitting Blog

Super crafter and Halloween fanatic Alexa Westerfield is doing something fun this month to share crafty Halloween patterns with the world. She calls it "Terrorific Tuesday."

Each Tuesday this month she's featuring a handful of Halloween projects from around the web, and this week she was kind enough to include links to my Halloween patterns, as well as some great projects from my fellow about crafters, Tammy at Jewelry Making and Kate at Rubber Stamping.

I also love the Crystal Web Necklace, the painted Halloween treat pot and Alexa's own crafts using her stash of googly eyes.

Are you crafting for Halloween? I'd love to hear about your projects!

I really enjoy knitting Diagonal Seed Stitch, this week's stitch of the week. It's basically just Stockinette Stitch with a bunch of purls that make diagonal lines across the fabric, but since the diagonal makes which stitches are involved in the diagonal shift every row, it's a heck of a lot more entertaining than Stockinette.

There are several variations of this kind of stitch that you can use on different numbers of stitches, and once you get the hang of it you could easily add the stitch pattern to any basic Stockinette pattern to give it a more interesting look. Right now I'm seeing a cute coat or cardigan in this stitch and worked in a multicolored yarn for even more interest, but it also looks nice in a plain solid yarn, as shown.

I really love pillows. I have a pillow in my computer chair, several on each couch, and others that just float around for whenever they might be needed. Pillows are an easy and relatively inexpensive way to change the way a room looks and feels, and this striped pillow will bring a lot of personality to any room you put it in.

Knit in two colors of two yarns and two stitch patterns (Stockinette and Reverse Stockinette), this pillow almost couldn't be easier, but its impact is dramatic, and not just because of the hot pink yarn. The varying widths of the stripes make this more interesting than many striped projects, both to knit and to have in your home.

This one ended up pink and white because I got both of these yarns in a yarn grab bag, but you could make it from any two colors and any two similarly weighted yarns you have in your stash. And it's such great TV knitting, you might want to make more than one.

I finally finished a good chunk of that reading I was planning to occupy myself with last weekend and have just posted a review of the new Mason-Dixon Knitting book. Just like the first one, this book is a lot of fun to read and contains plenty of great patterns you'll want to try.

This book focuses on developing knitting skills you might have been afraid of before, things like knitting lacy stuff, Fair Isle, knitting for kids who can say no, and making gifts and holiday decorations. Of course there are also plenty of projects for the kitchen, including knit cuffs worked onto purchased rubber gloves.

There are so many patterns in this book I'd love to knit given the time, from a very colorful rug to a lacy shawl made of two colors to look like plaid (I really almost bought some Kidsilk Haze earlier today so I could do just that). If you love those sassy knitting ladies, you'll want to pick up this book.

And if you need an introduction to their style, check out their hilarious music video for their country knitting song, "Pardon Me, I Didn't Knit that for You." Enjoy!

I've enjoyed Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's writing for a long time. I read her At Knit's End about the time I was really starting to get into knitting again after a hiatus and I felt like I had found a kindred spirit. I wanted to be this woman's friend, to have a beer on the back porch with her and talk about our knitting while we were knitting.

Her latest book, Free-Range Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again feels a little more introspective and maybe not quite as funny as some of her older works, but I found the maturity (that's all I can think to call it) of this book really nice. This book is more personal, more about the people in her life, than the other books have been, and it gives us more insight into her world and, by connection, the world of all knitters.

Usually I read Pearl-McPhee's books really quickly, in an afternoon or over a weekend. I spent more time with this one, savoring and thinking about how these essays relate to my own knitting life. Maybe I'm maturing a bit as a knitter, too. That can only be a good thing.

Sometimes a really easy project is also a really great project. If you need some simple in front of the television knitting but also something that won't completely bore you, consider this Envelope Purse.

Knit in Fleck Stitch, which is not too far from Stockinette, it's just a rectangle folded so that there's a flap and stitched together into a bag shape. This is a great shape for a little bag to carry your sunscreen and glasses case for a day on the beach or for an easy purse for a child. And you can use the same idea to make a much larger or smaller bag to suit whatever needs you have.

A woman in Germany who was arrested for damaging people's tires in her neighborhood has been ordered to knit jumpers for the victims instead of paying a fine. Heidi Kohl is 89 and said she was tired of all the people parking in her neighborhood, so she started slashing tires. She was to be fined for her crime but said she couldn't afford to pay it, so authorities said she could knit sweaters instead. She's also since been moved to a nursing home.

Some Australian knitters have been keeping their needles busy lately to the tune of 10,375 knit items produced for charity in the last 18 months. The items are being distributed to people in need through the Saddleworth Salvation Army Thrift Shop. They're going to homeless and needy people as well as those who have left troubled situations.

Finally, one woman's obsession with tiny knitting is being heralded for her efforts. Althea Crome Merback was part of a knitting exhibit at New York's Museum of Arts and Design and her work will be featured in the next "Ripley's Believe it or Not" book. She says she started knitting wee garments when she was working on a dollhouse for her children. The house never got done, but the tiny clothes are gorgeous works of art.

Nashua Handknits Painted Forest, 100 percent wool. 55 yards per 50 gram skein, bulky weight. (c) Sarah E. White.

I've had this yarn in my stash for a while, and it's getting pretty hard to resist. I have just four skeins and would love to make a little bag or child-sized backpack with it, but I might change my mind again before I get it on the needles. The colors are so luscious, I think anything made out of it would be beautiful.

Share pictures of your favorite yarns.

Every now and then you'll come across a yarn company or knitting store, online or off, selling knitting grab bags, usually a collection of yarns of a similar weight or from the same manufacturer that are sold at a discount. They're often overstocks or closeouts, and the catch is that you don't get to know or see what you're buying until after the sale is made.

I really like grab bags (and usually get one every time I buy from Patternworks). Getting them is like Christmas (except no one buys me yarn for Christmas, no matter how much I'd like them to) and it's really inspiring to figure out what to do with just a ball or two or a two of a particular yarn (you'll see some of the fruits of my latest grab bag later this week.)

Do you like grab bags? Have you ever gotten one and just loved all the yarn that was inside? Or do you feel ripped off when you buy one and the yarn is all strange textures and colors? Let me know by answering this week's poll.

This week is one of those weeks that happens to me a couple of times a year when I just feel like I've got too much yarn. I know there's not really such a thing, and that if I stopped buying yarn now I'd only have enough to get me through a couple of years rather than the rest of my life, but still.

Whether you're feeling the pinch of the economy so you want to use what you have or you just want to use what you have, I've put together a list of some stash busting patterns and books that might inspire you to go through your stash and find some bits of yarn to use.

There are projects big and small, from headbands to afghans of any size that can use as much of your extra yarn as you want. I hope they inspire you to look at what you've got in a new way -- not just as extra insulation for the house but as plenty of fodder for fresh projects.