Orbiting the Fiber Universe, 17 January 2012

Another wrap-up of all the great fiber arts news that’s caught my eye of late…

You know my world is about colour — I talk about it all the time.  And I am convinced that working with beautiful colour makes everyone else’s world better too.  So I just love this quick guide to choosing your own colours for for crochet patterns, from Stacey Trock of Fresh Stitches.  And of course, everything she says works for knitting too!

You’ve probably heard about those programs that teach inmates to knit and crochet, right? Personally, I can’t get enough of them, probably because I so wholeheartly believe that the fiber arts are life-enhancing.  But this article — where inmate are able to use knitting to reach out to kids who are facing the same tough situations they once faced — really touched me.

The number one thing most of my customers tell me they love is the colour of their yarn. And the close second is always the softness.  But, if you can step beyond those two essentials for a moment, come and have a look at these amazing crocheted wire sculptures by Ruth Asawa.  Just breath-taking. (And, when you’re done, you run straight back to soft and colourful, I promise!)

I loved this knitted Happy New Year sign from Mansha Friedrich in Hanover, Germany.  What better way to set yourself up for a year of fibery goodness?!?

Do you speak Finnish? Or wait… is it Danish? No, Norwegian?  Or… oh well, whatever it is,  I bet you will loooove this knitted wallpaper as much as I do.  Knitted walls for the win!

And now, for something really, really important.   It’s not fiber related but, people, this has totally changed my life.  Seriously, it has.  Read this article about olive oil — or, even better, click the link at the top of the page and listen to the actual radio programme.  And then, go out, scour those labels and find yourself some olive oil that was mechanically processed.  And watch your life change.  Well, we use a lot of olive oil in our house (a lot) so it was life-changing for us, but I promise it will at least improve yours a bit.

…No, seriously, do it.  It has changed. my. life.

Oh! and something really exciting happened — I finally got Pinterest!  I mean, I’d taken a little wander through it before and I thought it was pretty but… meh.  Another social networking site?  Another thing I’m supposed to keep up with?  Yeah, I wasn’t that into it.

But then this week, it finally clicked.  It’s for bookmarking webpages, but better.  Instead of a dropdown menu full of words that all jumble together, it’s visual, so I can remember instantly what it is and why I saved it.  Every pin clicks through to the original source.  And it’s social, so I can see all the cool-tempting-interesting stuff other people are bookmarking and grab it for myself — the colours, the images, the ideas.  Half the stuff in this post came from Pinterest.  And… it’s so beautiful.  Really, really beautiful.

I love it.  I’m hooked!  If you’re already hooked too, please come and follow me.   And if you’re not yet hooked, just click on that link and play around a bit. Once you realise it’s for much more than just looking at pretty pictures, I bet you’ll be hooked too.