The New Yarnigans Blog

aaaaand… he’s done!

Wed, 02 May 2012 09:31:42 -0400

aaaaand… he’s done!

Work in progress. The creepy stage.

Tue, 01 May 2012 10:43:19 -0400

Work in progress. The creepy stage.

Kailani the mermaid

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:31:00 -0400

Kailani the mermaid

Theodore pattern + size 3 needles + loopy acrylic yarn =...

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:43:00 -0500

Theodore pattern + size 3 needles + loopy acrylic yarn = interesting result.

The fact that you can’t see his stitches makes him seem less like a knitted toy and more like something that just exists. He looks like he wandered out of a stop-motion Christmas special.

Christmasy yarns for making Christmasy toys. Going through...

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:54:21 -0500

Christmasy yarns for making Christmasy toys. Going through several skeins a week and holiday orders are coming in full-swing.

All yarns are Cascade 220.

I’m finishing up work on my first ever pattern collection,...

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:03:33 -0400

I’m finishing up work on my first ever pattern collection, and hopefully within a couple of days the “Little Holiday Knits” pattern collection will be available through both ravelry and etsy. All of my holiday patterns are included, as well as Theodore the Teddy and Marisol the Mouse (version 2.0).

Life story of a knitted toy

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:32:00 -0400

Life story of a knitted toy

Oatmeal the Snowman pattern is up and running. Check him out on...

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:38:37 -0400

Oatmeal the Snowman pattern is up and running. Check him out on etsy and ravelry now.

“What will we call him?”“Yeah, shall we call him Harold?” “Or...

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:45:00 -0400

“What will we call him?”
“Yeah, shall we call him Harold?” “Or Bruce?” “Or Christopher Columbus?”
“How about Oatmeal?” ALL: “Oatmeal!?”
-Frosty the Snowman television special, 1969

Oatmeal the Snowman pattern coming soon to the Yarnigans etsy shop.

Autumn colors hedgehogs

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 09:56:15 -0400

Autumn colors hedgehogs

Harvest Apple Butter

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:31:00 -0400

Faced with making an extremely large amount of apple butter for Regina’s autumn wedding and not being able to find a recipe, I decided to make my own. It had to be classic, but with a little extra “autumn” in the mix. After a few test batches, this was what we decided on.

20 large apples, peeled and finely chopped

4 cups sugar

4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp sea salt

1 splash lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a crock pot and cook on high for 1 hour. Reduce to low and cook for 9 more hours, occasionally mixing with a wire whisk to break up the apples. When the consistency is smooth, preserve in canning jars or refrigerate.

Yield: approximately 12 4oz jars

Two lovely mice

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 08:52:00 -0400

Two lovely mice

Tweaking my mouse pattern. Bigger ears = cuter mouse?

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 07:45:05 -0400

Tweaking my mouse pattern. Bigger ears = cuter mouse?

Olwyn the Elephant - newest pattern

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 08:45:28 -0400

Olwyn the Elephant - newest pattern:

A customer requested an organic elephant, and I ended up writing down the pattern when I made her.

Baby's room bunting

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 09:54:17 -0400

Bunting banners are so whimsically adorable. I’ve been seeing them on the front page of etsy and they’ve been catching my eye for the past couple of months. I definitely think they are going to be the next big thing. When the string of white lights that we had up in the kids’ room burnt out and had to be replaced, the first thing that came to mind was a string of buntings (is that how you would say it? I have no idea) to brighten up the space.

Making the bunting was simple and easy. I made a triangle pattern piece out of some computer paper, and was extra careful to make it symmetrical. Check out the diagram below:

I cut the triangle out of all types of scrap fabric I had laying around, including some jeans I was about to throw out. I cut an extra-long piece of white grosgrain ribbon, pulled out my sewing machine, and put a tiny white seam at the top of each triangle to secure it to the ribbon. When it was done I put and iron to the whole thing and tacked it up to the ceiling.

I sketched this logo with a sharpie and etsy seller...

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:25:10 -0400

I sketched this logo with a sharpie and etsy seller AHueofDuckEggBlue worked with me to create an amazing custom stamp of polymer and olive wood. I really love the way it turned out, and it’s going to be used on all my packaging and tags from now on.

Rainbow cake

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:31:54 -0400

Jude wanted to make me a rainbow birthday cake this year, and how could I say no to that? I saw something here on the craft magazine blog that made me think it would work, but I didn’t feel like making the cake from scratch so I changed it up a bit. I used two boxes of classic vanilla cake mix. Each layer was about 2 cups of batter, baked in a 9” round pan and colored with plain old gel coloring. The layers are uneven, and the colors didn’t turn out that bright, but it was still delicious and Jude loved it.

I spent almost all of my summer of 2010 working for a publisher to make simplified versions of some...

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:11:11 -0400

I spent almost all of my summer of 2010 working for a publisher to make simplified versions of some Yarnigans patterns for a book that would teach knitting to kids. That book is now available for pre-order here at Barnes and Noble.

Also, today is my birthday. Best birthday ever.

So I guess the “behind the scenes” photo of my mermaids was featured in Tumblr’s...

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:17:55 -0400

So I guess the “behind the scenes” photo of my mermaids was featured in Tumblr’s craft tag. Thanks crafty people! Welcome, new followers!

Finished! Kailani the Mermaid.

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 12:39:00 -0400

Finished! Kailani the Mermaid.