Tutorial: Octopus Hexipuff

About a month ago the tiny owl knits community made Miss Owl herself a beekeeper's quilt of her own!  I was struck by the love of the community and found myself crying right along with Stephanie in the video.  In addition to the amazing love in the video, she showed all of the puffs in the quilt.  There were two octopus puffs (one made to resemble a lost member's Ravatar) and I was completely inspired to make an octopus puff for my quilt.  

I didn't see any instructions on Ravelry, so I just winged it.  I thought I'd share my notes here in case anyone else wants to add a little weirdness to their quilts as well.

Here’s how I made him:

Just knit the puff like you normally would, but instead of binding off, knit the first 5 stitches on one needle like an i-cord. Once it is sufficiently long (an inch and a half maybe), k2tog, k1, k2tog, then continue on a 3 stitch i-cord for a three or four more rows, then k3tog and tie off.

Then do the same for the next five stitches on the needle. And then move on to the next needle and do the same! Once you’ve made all four legs, stuff the puff part of the octopus, then whipstitch him closed.

Oh, and then put some eyes on him! :)

I left a bit of yarn hanging from the end of each of the legs like so:

You can use those tails to tie him into the corners of your quilt!

He's taking over!  I may make a few more...  Maybe a squid too!  :)

♥ ashley

Knit in Public Day 2012

As many knitters know, World Wide Knit in Public Day happened last week.  Every year the website announces a week that knitters all over the world can group up and knit out in the public arena!  Technically our group knits in public every week at our local book store, but truthfully as far as the usual Books-A-Million crowd goes we are just as much a part of the scenery as the furniture we sit on.  We agreed we needed to change it up a bit. 

The biggest question when planning an event like this is "Where the heck are we going to put this thing?"  There are not many places in a middling town like this where a group of women can sit and knit for hours.  Restaurants will let you hang around as long as you are ordering food.  Starbucks only has enough seating outside, which in our June Louisiana heat would be considered a suicide attempt.  Other than our usual bookstore meeting spot, there weren't many options for us to choose from.  We landed on the food court in the mall, with an extra credit evening meet up at the nearby pub.

We had a great time and more than a few funny looks.

Mhmmmm... Green tea and alpaca...

Crystal bought us each a Ravelry button to put our usernames on.

Crystal's knitting bag fielded a few questions for us.

Shelley working on a little surprise for our evening event.

Later that evening we met up anIrish pub for a slightly more intoxicating knitting experience. (I promise we didn't get too crazy!  We had pointy needles after all...)  Shelley and Laura had called the owner to reserve us a table and, to our surprise, they were okay with us doing a little yarn bombing.  As soon as I sat down at the table, Laura passed some green yarn over to me and said, "I think JFK needs a hat."

So make a hat for the JFK bust I did.  The clover is a little wonky, but gimme a break 
I only had an evening to work on the thing!

May his head stay ever warm behind that bar counter.

Laura made a festive hat and scarf for the gnome inside the bar.

What a cozy gnome you are!

Britney and Whitney worked on clovers to keep the place lucky.

Once we started yarn bombing the columns, we became a beacon for all drunk people to talk to us.  Shelley didn't even get her Irish flag on the pole before a drunk guy bought it from her. She was still able to contribute to the bombing with an Irish hexipuff (you know, from all that beekeeper's quilt stuff).  Nikki and I put up two column cozies.  Nikki kept to the Irish theme with hers, while mine was a bit more 70s sunset in nature.

There were more people than this around.
I swear we didn't scare them off!!

After the yarn bomb dropped, I enjoyed a tasty beverage with even tastier yarn.
No hexipuffs were harmed in this process!

We had a great evening full of yarn and laughter. Angela even suggested we should make Enoch's a weekly knitting event.  We could call it Drunk Knit Night, or DK Night for those of you who enjoy DK weight yarn. I for one am all for spending more time with these awesome ladies.  Knit Night is my weekly therapy session and one of the few things I look forward to every week.  The World Wide Knit in Public Day was just an excuse for us to squeeze two Knit Nights in a week.  It makes me wonder what people without knitting groups even do?  

They probably knit.  That sounds okay too. 

We are truly not your grandmother's knitting group.