A Couture Corgi

After my last blog entry about the incredibly awesome art form known as yarnbombing, I decided to brush up on my knitting skills and start a new knitting project. So, I headed down to the local Yarn Barn for inspiration along with my crafting partner in crime, my mother. The Yarn Barn is a Mecca filled with brightly colored threads, needlepoint patterns, helpful employees and as I uncovered, doggie couture books. (Confession: My family is one of those weird ones that LOVES dressing up their pets. For Halloween, Christmas and Easter, you will find our dogs sporting bunny ears, Santa hats and devil horns. Our Shih Tzu even donned an English tea hat for our Wills & Kate royal wedding party. It's weird, but we've all got a few quirks...)

HRH Mimosa Farrah Fawcett, Duchess of San Antonio

After spending a ridiculous amount of time at the barn and awkwardly trying to contain my laughter over the doggie sweater books, I finally concocted a plan for my knitting project: a bowtie for my boyfriend's new Corgi puppy, "Henry," who is quite the little gentleman.

He needs a bowtie to match his "gloves"- his white lil paws look like gloves, am I right?

I based my pattern on a few that I found in the doggie couture books and on Ravelry.com, an awesome website with free patterns that the sweet girl at Yarn Barn told me about. Below is an adorable photo of a pattern by Posh Pooch designs, which I am basing most of my pattern on but adapting from crochet to knitting.

How adorable will this look on Henry?!

The Yarn Barn had so many different yarns that it was nearly impossible to decide on just one. I finally chose a very "refined" cranberry tweed that should look very becoming on Henry. I haven't gotten very far on the bowtie as I fell asleep on the couch thirty mins into knitting, but here it is thus far:

I will be sure to post the finished bowtie as soon as I bind off! If there are any other doggie couture knitters out there in the blogosphere, I'd love to hear about your projects and pattern suggestions!


-B

Grafitti, Granny Style

ATTENTION GRANNIES: Knitting is no longer just for making your grandchildren itchy Christmas sweaters they'll never actually wear. It's now an international urban subculture of artists who refer to their work as "Yarnbombing," knitting onto urban structures. Some call it grafitti, some call it art. Whatever it may be, its "bomb" (yes, a pun was intended), and I love the colorful and kitschy vibe it exudes. Plus, some yarnbombing is comedic genius expressed via yarn and needle. Knitted hats and 80's throwback legwarmers on sculptures are playful and silly. My personal favorite is the knitted bikini and sweatband on a nude reclining woman sculpture, my college art history professor would faint. 

I love that you can't help but smile as you walk by, which is one of the central purposes of yarnbombing. How cool are these artists!? They are like fuzzy vigilanties, spreading smiles and joy across the city one stitch at a time. Their slogan is actually, "Improving the urban landscape one stitch at a time," so I can't take all of the credit for the latter corny comment....

Visit http://yarnbombing.com for more information on this awesome art movement or to see where the next yarnbombing will occur in your city!