as we were sewing it, a girl yelled out her car window ‘excuse me, what are you guys doing that for?’ chelsea said ‘decoration’ i said ‘happiness.’ she yelled back ‘i like it!’ yay! we already made one person smile. – purplebetsyrain

This recent tag by Chelsea Creature (one of the pattern designers who contributed to our book!) and her friend Meg reminded me that I’ve been meaning to buy a stitch dictionary. I like this tag because it uses simple colour blogs, but has a variety of stitch patterns.

I’ve been thinking of investing in something like the Vogue Stitchionary Series. Does anyone out there have it? What do you think about it?

I’d love recommendations for other stitch pattern books if you have them!

I think that the KnittUps! do stripes really well:

Images courtesy of the KnittUps!

While digging into the stash and coming up with colour combinations on the fly is fun, there are a few tools that I adore on days when I’m feeling stuck.

The Random Stripe Generator. An oldie but a goodie, the random stripe generator lets you pick approximate shades of yarn, and how many rows you would like the stripes to be. It then spits out a pattern for knitting or crochet. This is such a fun tool to play with. It really helps you visualize how your project will turn out.

Here is a stripe that I made this morning:

A few tools that I use as a graphic designer really help me with my knitting. I adore Kuler. Kuler is a social community where folks can create and post their own colour palettes (which then can be directly imported into graphic design software such as Adobe Illustrator). Even if you are not a graphic designer, it can be a fun site to hunt around when you need to feel inspired. Who would have ever thought that they would need a palette inspired by Blade Runner or sushi?

Similarily, Color Lovers is a social community where folks contribute articles on historical colourways, trendy hues, and up and coming prints.

Have you used any of these tools in your work? If so, I’d love to see the results!

Several of the interviews that we’ve given in the past while have included discussions about glow in the dark yarn. Never having seen the stuff in person, I thought that I’d do some research about it online. I bet that glow in the dark wool would work really great on a tag under a a motion detection light so that it would charge up and become illuminated every time the light was switched on.

Here are a few types that I found:

Bernat Glow in the Dark: Bernat claims that if you expose this yarn for 5 minutes, it will stay illuminated for five minutes. 70% acrylic, 30% polyester. Suggested Knitting Needle 5.00 mm, US – 8 and Suggested Crochet Hook 5.00 mm, US – H/8

It comes in pastel colours: lilac, mint green, yellow, pink, and white.

Apparently it is only available for a limited time (my guess would be until Halloween) and you can only get it at Michaels. Here are some of the pattern ideas that they are pitching with it: http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayArticle?articleNum=as0245

I also found two other kinds of glow in the dark wool. Both of these are more expensive, but seem to promise longer luminescence:

Nightlights Glow in the Dark: This brand of yarn apparently will glow up to four hours if it is exposed to a light source for one hour. It’s suggested needle size is a US 6. At $9.95 a ball, it’s a bit pricy for tagging, but it might be worth it for one spectacular project.

Glow Yarn apparently can emit light for 6-8 hours after only charging in the sunlight for three minutes. It comes in yellow-red, green and blue. Among other materials, the company website says that the yarn it is made out of melted polypropylene which kind of freaks me out. I’d use it for tags, but not to knit toys for children as their website suggests.

I’d love to get my hands on these to test and see if the glow times are actually true.

I know that a few of you taggers out there have been using glow in the dark yarn in your work. Can you recommend one brand or the other? A few folks have mentioned using this, but I’ve yet to see a photograph with an illuminated tag. Anyone out there have one?