Ukulele Strap

©The Yarning Darling 2012

I finally finished the ukulele strap for the boy!! It did take a few months, but only because I wanted to do the finishing touches to it whilst I was visiting him.

In terms of the design, it's a moss/seed stitch with a cable knit running down the middle. Since learning the cable knit I really wanted to include it in a project, so when Jim asked me to make him a strap for his ukulele it seemed like a match made in heaven!

I did make it a little too long as I completely underestimated how stretchy it would be! After a bit of improvisation, we managed to find a way of using the ribbon and two buttons I had bought as a means of attaching the strap to the ukulele. 

 We chose a ribbon to pass under the strings around the waist as its thin enough not to disturb the strings and distort the vibrations. The buttons were used to wind the ribbon around to secure it in place.

©The Yarning Darling 2012

The pattern I used for the decorative part of the strap was: (18 stitches in total)
1. KPKP KP K6 PK PKPK (the 'KP' and 'PK' either side add a sort of margin around the cable area)
2. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK
3. KPKP KP CABLE PK PKPK (cable = slip 3st purl wise onto cable needle, knit next 3st, knit first 3st)
4. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK
5. KPKP KP K6 PK PKPK
6. KPKP PK P6 KP PKPK

©The Yarning Darling 2012

What you could do is do the cable stitch every other block so it doesn't look so twisty. I just put that pattern up as a bit of a guide.

Anyway, my boy is pretty happy with his ukulele strap, so I'm happy :D

©The Yarning Darling 2012

Musée Mechanique

What does a little museum full of old arcade games have to do with yarn? Well, I'll tell you what - a really old fusball table with players wearing little crocheted jumpers!! Not much else to say on this, I just found it quite funny :)

Crocheting in Alcatraz

I couldn't think of a witty title for the post mainly because I'm still pretty surprised to find out that inmates in Alcatraz used the crochet!

Me and the boy are currently in San Francisco and went on the Alcatraz tour last night. Part of the audio tour described what inmates used to do to pass time and low and behold there was half made blanket, yarn, and a hook in one of the cells! I got pretty excited and had to take a picture or two.

I do think they could have chosen a more manly and scary colour than pink - these men were the worst prisoners in the US prison system, and they chose baby pink as an example?! Oh well!

Domo-nation!

After I made a Domo for my brother, I received a few requests from friends and the boy!  My boy specifically asked for the mouth to be inset and so the challenge began.

I made one of the Domo's normally as according to Nerdigurumi's pattern (Domo on the left). For the second one (right) I sat and thought very hard about how I'd go about making the mouth inset. A little hard to explain, so I'll let the pattern do the explaining.  Seeing as my pattern is just a mangled version of Nerdigurumi's, I'm going to ask her permission first before publishing it on here.

Needless to say, I was pretty pleased with myself when I managed to get a mouth that looked inset! I made a third one and now they're all one happy family! (Well, only for another 30 minutes when I leave for the airport and take one with me to give to Jim).

Signing out for now, it's the Travelling Yarning Darling once again.

PS When I named this post, I started singing "we're all part of a domo-nation" on the style of Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation'.  And it's now stuck in my head as I'm typing this.

The World Famous Crochet Museum

I'm not lying, there's a museum dedicated to the world of crocheting, and it is really called  The World Famous Crochet Museum!!  It looks tiny, but pretty cool :)

I came across this whilst catching up on my twitter feed.  It's in a little place just outside of Joshua Tree National Park, California - around 130 miles west of Los Angeles.  So even when I do go and see the boy, I think a trip here would be pretty unlikely :(

If anyone does go and check it out, let me know!

Hey Girl, it's me, Ryan Gosling

http://handmaderyangosling.tumblr.com/post/19342287710/submitted-by-maryvl

A few months ago, I never understood the whole swooning over Ryan Gosling.  I was also pretty content living in this uninformed world of mine.

On my most recent trip to see my boyfriend, there were a few movies showing starring Mr Gosling and so I thought I'd watch them to see what all the hype was about.

OMG.  Like, seriously.  After watching "Crazy Stupid Love" and "Drive", I was swooning 30,000 feet in the air.  Literally.  (sorry Jim, you'll always my number one guy to make me swoon!)

Anyway, background done, there's an awesome tumblr site called  Handmade Ryan Gosling. It's made just for people who love crafting and who adore Ryan Gosling!  The picture above is pretty much what the site is all about and is one of my favourites.  Go visit it....now!!

NB If you didn't notice, this was just a poor excuse to mention Ryan Gosling somewhere on my blog :)

Knitted Card (yes, really)

So, it was my BFF's birthday this week and in true yarn-addict style I decided to knit her a card.

In my head the card looked a lot different...it was going to be all fancy and amazing and fabulous. But in the end it kind of looks like a primary school kid made it. That's not to say I still don't love it, and I'm sure she will too!

I encountered a few logistical problems after making the huge stockinette swatch to cover the actual bit of card. I thought I'd make it like a book cover. However, I failed to think about the extra thickness the overlap of an inch would make and I forgot the rolling that happens with a stockinette!

I ended up having to sew the swatch to the card, then gluing another bit of card to hide all of that! The sewing of her name turned out a bit childish, oh well, I guess it adds character!

I'm pretty happy with it, although I will make a few alterations to my next one! (oh, and the cupcake frosting and candle are crocheted before anyone points that out!)

NB Stockinette swatch was made with double knit (DK) acrylic yarn and 4.5mm needles