Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

Handmade Faire – NJ

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handmade-faire-200x200Watch out, New Jersey! Burlington County’s most cutting edge art and craft show – The Handmade Faire – Summer of Love is coming at you soon. The festival will take place on Saturday, July 18, 2009 from 10am-4pm at Freedom Park in Medford, NJ. This event will go on rain or shine, and is free and open to the public. There will be goodie bags – a reusable screen printed tote full of coupons for the vendors, samples, treats and more for the first 100 shoppers starting at 10:00. Also, throughout the day there will be giveaways of a variety of items to random shoppers.

Expect to see the most talented emerging artists from the local, regional, and expanded Indie art scene. Last year’s show welcomed artisans from as local as Medford to as far away as Maine. HF welcomes 100 of the most unique, talented and creative artists with a large variety of products and specialties including clothing, jewelry, paper goods, children’s items, ceramics, and more. Items will cover a wide range of budgets and prices so everyone can leave happy! Go here for more information about artists and vendors.

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Knit a Blanket with the Texture of a Ceiling

Knitwear designers can get inspiration from almost anything when it comes to re-creating a color scheme, an image or a texture in stitches. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t always obvious in the finished project, but sometimes it’s more literal. 

That’s the way it is with the Tin Ceiling Blanket from Purl Soho. Not just because the inspiration is in the name, but if you’ve ever seen one of these old ceilings you can see that the design of the blanket is quite similar to the pattern of the tin tiles. 

This is also a good example of the idea that you don’t have to use fancy stitch patterns or lots of color to make a big impact with your knits. This single-color blanket (designed by Gianna Mueller and inspired by a washcloth and towel set designed by Sandi Rosner) is made completely with knits and purls, other than slipped stitches at the beginning of rows to make neater edges. 

The pattern is written out row by row, but there’s also a chart, which means this project is a great opportunity to practice reading a chart where you can check your work against the written pattern if you need to. 

It comes in two sizes, a crib blanket and a throw. The yarn used in the sample is an organic cotton sold by the cone, which is a great way to get a large quantity of yarn and have fewer ends to weave in. In fact, you can knit either size of the blanket with just one cone of yarn, which isn’t inexpensive but makes you a great, sturdy, heirloom quality but still washable blanket you’ll use for years to come. (Of course you can use any sport weight yarn you like to make this blanket.)

Check out all the details and grab the free pattern from Purl Soho. 

[Photo: Purl Soho]