We love Serena & Lily’s Handwoven Whitewashed Baskets available here. The baskets are hand-woven and made in Zimbabwe and have amazing texture, complemented with a hand-applied white-wash finish. We love the way they look with a collection of jewelry, or on their own as sculptural objects on a table and especially on the wall. Be Sweet partnered with Serena & Lily to be able to bring these baskets from Zimbabwe to you!

I noticed while at Target the other day that Revlon has jumped onto the knitting trend also. Their CustomEyes Eye Shadow has a stockinette texture available here – very cool!

There was also this clever coffee mug from Zazzle available here. Caffeine AND knitting? A perfect combination!

Then there’s this artful vase from Have You Met Miss Jones here that would be a perfect gift for any knitting friend!

If we have any cross-crafters out there who also like to sew, this fabric from Spoonflower here offers up the illusion of being knit, yet is really printed directly on the fabric. Clever!

What have you found while on the hunt for knitted goodies?

For the first time ever, TNNA will take place in Phoenix, AZ at the Phoenix Convention Center. Running from January 21-23 with education beginning on the 19th. Be Sweet will be there in booth #303 and #305. Stop by and say hello! We have TONS of great garments for you to try on, all of our yarns, new colors, new surprises and new treats! Looking forward to seeing you there!

We’ve talked about yarn bombing a lot here on the blog. I was pretty excited to recently run a search on “yarn bombing” and come across a new Wikipedia entry for it.

Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada

They say: “Yarn bombing, yarnbombing, yarnstorming, guerrilla knitting, urban knitting or graffiti knitting is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth rather than paint or chalk.

Method and motivation

While yarn installations – called yarn bombs or yarnstorms – may last for years, they are considered non-permanent, and, unlike graffiti, can be easily removed if necessary. Nonetheless, the practice is still technically illegal, though it is not often prosecuted vigorously.

While other forms of graffiti may be expressive, decorative, territorial, socio-political commentary, advertising or vandalism, yarn bombing was initially almost exclusively about reclaiming and personalizing sterile or cold public places. It has since developed with groups graffiti knitting worldwide each with their own agendas.

History

Examples have been recorded as early as May 2004 in Den Helder, Netherlands. In the U.S., in 2005 Texas knitters used their leftover and unfinished knitting projects, but it has since spread worldwide. The start of this movement has been attributed to Magda Sayeg, 37, from Houston, who says she first got the idea in 2005 when she covered the door handle of her boutique with a custom made cozy.

The movement has been said to be “changing the face of craft” as stitchers are more and more frequently being viewed as fibre artists rather than amateurs or vandals.

Joann Matvichuk of Lethbridge, Alberta invented International Yarnbombing Day, which was first observed on June 11, 2011.”

While we are not encouraging you to go out and break the law, dear readers, it’s pretty great to see this movement becoming a worldwide trend. Every time I encounter a yarn bombing unexpectedly it brightens my day, makes me smile and makes me reach for my ever-present knitting.

If you find yourself in Melbourne, Australia, there’s a big event coming up.

In January they are embarking on their biggest project to date and will be creating a public installation and running workshops. They will be covering all 12 trees in City Square with yarn to promote summer in the city and also to bring more coverage of crafts in Victoria. The yarn bombing installation date is Saturday, January 21 and on Sunday, January 22. They will hold learn to crochet and knit workshops and they estimate that they will remove it one month later. They have close to $20,000 of sponsorship [mainly in yarn] for the project so it’s a big deal! Anyone wanting to help out must sign up to the Yarn Corner Facebook group. If you are not local to Melbourne you can still join in but will have to pay for postage or use your own yarn.

Bombs away!

Rules and deadlines are in this week’s previous posts.

Good luck!

We call it “NYNY” and it’s in our Boucle Mohair available only through The Yarn Co. If you’ll be at VK Live this weekend at the NY Hilton you can be the first to see it in person at the Marketplace!

This yarn is perfect for our free Tube Collar project and takes only 3 balls! You can download it here.

Hope to see you there so we can show you our exclusive colorway!

Enter for a chance to win! Good luck!

I recently came upon this interesting article on CNN.com about the strength and multiple types of spider silk. It reminded me of yarn, especially the silk blends that are super strong.

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The secrets of spider silk

Editor’s note: Cheryl Hayashi is a professor of biology at University of California Riverside and the recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She spoke at the TED2010 conference in Long Beach, California. TED is a nonprofit dedicated to “Ideas worth spreading,” which it makes available on its website.

ted-cheryl-hayashi-spider-silk.ted

(CNN) – With all due respect to arachnophobes, I love spiders. Some might call me obsessed, but I’ve been studying spiders and spider silks for many years now and don’t see an end in sight. There is simply too much to do.

Spiders have been around for over 300 million years and are found in nearly every terrestrial environment. There are more than 40,000 species living today and each spins at least one type of silk. However, most spiders spin more than one type of silk. For example, the orb-web weaving spiders that are commonly seen in gardens during the day or near porch lights at night, typically make seven kinds of silk. Each silk is chemically and functionally distinctive.

An individual spider can produce multiple varieties of silk because it has numerous silk glands inside its body. Some silk glands make one type of silk, another set of silk glands makes a second type of silk, and so forth. One of the unforgettable moments in my life was the first time I dissected a spider and saw its stunningly beautiful, translucent silk glands.

Spiders make good use of their many silks. When you look at an orb-web, there’s one type of ultra-strong and fairly stiff silk that makes up the scaffold. This silk, which is also used as the safety drag line, is tougher than almost all biological and man-made materials. The sticky spiral of the orb-web is composed of two different silks, one a glue and the other a highly stretchable fiber. The glue and the fiber are produced in separate glands and the spider dots the glue onto the fiber while building the web.

Spider silks, with their magnificent diversity and amazing properties, are the perfect system to engage people from different walks of life. Geneticists, engineers, biotechnologists, artists, natural historians, and comparative biologists (like me) can forge exciting collaborations.

Researchers around the world are working on silks spun by spiders from around the world. Inspiration and knowledge are being exchanged along a modern version of the ancient silk road.

Speaking of the ancient silk road, I’m often asked what’s the difference between spider silk and silkworm silk, the kind of silk in a typical silk scarf or blouse. Silk used in textiles is spun from the mouths of caterpillars to form cocoons that protect them while they transform into moths. A silkworm has only one pair of silk glands and can make one type of fiber.

Spiders, in contrast, have many silk glands, and the silk emerges from spinnerets located towards the rear of their bodies. Spiders are also able to spin silk from when they are very young and continue to do so throughout their lives.

Researchers are drawing inspiration from spider silks to produce novel, protein-based, eco-friendly materials for use in medical, cosmetic, electronic, textile, industrial, and other applications. The potential is enormous, especially considering the mind-boggling diversity of spiders and their silks.

For me, each day begins and ends with wanting to learn a little more about the secrets of spider silk.