OPP! (other people's projects)

eee I love it when people make the knitting projects that I design! Laurie and Shawna found my braided headband pattern on ravelry. Here they are!

I love the yarn that Laurie chose! 

Shawna aka heartcallah made a lovely reddish pink headband!

Meanwhile, Lily made her very own acid cat ears and blogged about it at Hot Pocket of Delight!

too cute! I love them all! If you've made one of my patterns I would LOVE to see a pic! Send to laura.hopf@gmail.com

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Gladstone Flea!

DATE CHANGE! This year I'm going to be organizing the Gladstone Flea!! I'm incredibly excited about this and I think it's going to be a BLAST! Our first flea market is June 1  June 8 and we're looking for vendors! Here is all of the information from the Gladstone Website:

A curated monthly marketplace, without the itch.

On the hunt for unique gems, fashion finds, vintage scores and other market must-haves, but hate the idea of spending the weekend knee-deep in thrift store piles?

The first Saturday of every month in the summer, the Gladstone Hotel teams up with notable fashion and lifestyle aficionados to jury an organized, handpicked, marketplace. Packed with purpose, artist goods, reclaimed vintage, craft, design, jewelry, clothing, and more, Gladstone Flea curates the market to help save you from the thrift store itch.

Gladstone Flea is organized by knitting and DIY expert, Laura Hopf, of Scarffaces and Limberlina.

Jurors:
June 8: Anita Clarke (I want – I got) & Jen McNeely (She Does The City)
July 6: Haley Mlotek (Worn Fashion Journal) & Meg Sinclair (Muttonhead)
August 3: Haley Cullingham (She Does The City) & Andrew Sardone (NOW magazine)

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Dates: June 8/ July 6/ August 3 | 10am-4pm |Load-in: 9am-10am, Strike: 4pm-5pm
Venue: Gladstone Hotel Ballroom or Melody Bar
Artist, designer, craftsperson, zine-maker, or vintage aficionado? Submit to become a vendor! Tables are $50 and we’re looking for vendors for all of our markets. Apply by emailing gladstoneflea@gmail.com with a few photos of the objects you would like to sell and by filling out the following information. Note that the jurors change each month so acceptance into one of the fleas does not guarantee acceptance into others.

Tell us about your products:
Company Name:
Website:
Category (vintage, craft, design, jewelry, clothing, other):
Date(s) you’re interested in (June 8, July 6, August 3):
Additional requirements for setup:

The Gladstone will be promoting this event to their network of over 20,000 people and through a postering campaign

So SUBMIT!! I can't wait to put this all together!

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limberlina's first craft show

Tomorrow is limberlina's FIRST craft show! The Toronto Indie Arts Market at the Gladstone Hotel from 10:30-4:30. If you're in toronto PLEASE come check it out we would love to see you. We really cannot wait I am so excited!!! Limberlina is so different from scarffaces that it really feels like a whole new world! Even though it's the exact same world. It's just all very exciting. We're going to have three kits - an arm party, knit bows 3 ways, and tassel kits:

ah excited for this! 
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bday!

It's my birthday tomorrow and I had a really fun party on the weekend!! My DIY BFF kim made me a really cool banner, beautiful cupcakes, tissue paper flowers with mason jar containers, and really really amazing magnets of instagram photos!! She is just the best, and all of the tutorials will be up at limberlina.com shortly 

A few months ago I stole another polaroid camera from my parents. My other polaroid is also stolen from them and they gave them away as gifts at their wedding!! Anyway I'm not sure when my new one is from but it looks even older than the one I usually use. I used black and white expired  impossible project film and two of the photos turned out great! The third is kind of messed but whatever that's what you get when you used expired film + a camera from the 80s. 

                

Tomorrow it's supposed to be really warm out so I'll take a walk down to queen street and get my fave slice of pizza and later on get some beerrrzzz omg I'm excited, 27 is going to be the best I know it. 

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knit shorts!

A few weeks ago I posted a photo on Instagram of a pair of shorts that I knit and got an incredible reaction! 

Finally I am ready to share the pattern with all of you! I saw that Ani had posted her version on Kollabora so I used her guidelines as well as Barbro Andersen's guidelines which is what Ani followed. And then my friend Karen aka Kids of the Wood took some sweet photos of me wearing the shorts! 

Here is what I did!

Materials:

- 2 balls of Cascade Yarns 100% superwash wool 100g 220 yards

- size 8 (5mm) circular needles

Directions: (basically you know it up like a cowl and stitch a little crotch into it! super easy!) 

- cast on 105 stitches join stitches being careful not to twist! 

- creating ribbing: knit 5 rows, purl 5 rows until 45 stitches (8 stacks of ribbing)

- continue with ribbing BUT decrease - on every 3rd purl row, purl 2 together every 10 stitches

- continue in this way until you have 80 stitches

- bind off LOOSELY (I used this tutorial)

- stitch up crotch: about 1 cm in the middle at the bottom of your shorts (the wider end)

OK SO for me these didn't fit perfectly, the were too big and I'm a size s/m to make these smaller you could go with a smaller needle size however I really like how the size 8 needles look I wouldn't go smaller, you could also cast on less stitches. What I did was put them on and then I sewed up the side so that it fits me perfectly and seriously no one even notices they just notice how awesome the shorts are.

It takes some wiggling to get in and out of but I love them so much! 

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knitting class #2

Earlier this week I taught my second knitting class through Uniiverse! It was great, this time there were 6 students and only one of them didn't finish a headband! So in total 9/10 have completed headbands during class time! PLUS one of my students, Mel, instagrammed a photo of her starting a scarf!!! I couldn't be happier! Making things is so much fun so I'm happy that I can help people learn a new skill :) 

Erika, Mel, Hayley, and Lauren casting on!

Making progress!

Finished products!

Awesome work done by everyone, I am so impressed with all of these new knitters!!

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DIY BFF Kollabora

I recently interviewed my DIY BFF, Kim (co-partner of Limberlina) for an article on DIY BFFs for Kollabora. Check it out here! Crafting is always better with friends and Kim is the best so I'm just the luckiest girl! This past Sunday we crafted ALL day, and our tutorials will be up on Limberlina soon!!

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Beyonce cross stitch

I've been wanting to make another cross stitch since making the ludacris/valentimes cross stitch. I really want to get better at cross stitch and I love the feeling of it, how it takes a long time but on a day where you just want to watch movies or tv shows it's really great way to relax :). My friends Haley and Daniel recently celebrated their 10 year anniversary (more on to come!) so I wanted to make one for them. I was having a hard time coming up with something! All of the songs that they love have REALLY LONG lines and it had to be something short. I sneakily told Haley that I wanted to make another cross stitch and she said "oh! do a Beyonce one!" Little did she know that it was actually a present for her. I used the lines "me and my boo, and my boo, boo ridin" ok this was a lot harder said than done, I wanted to make sure that those were ACTUALLY the lyrics so I went on several different websites and they all gave me different information! Finally I found an article on MTV's website addressing this specific lyric and apparently "me and my boo, and my boo, boo ridin" is the correct lyric. I followed the same format that I used for the ludacris cross stitch and added a cute little heart at the bottom with h+d on the inside. 

I wrote everything out in fading ink and then as I went along I checked for spacing. I really like the &s! 

I learned that it's easier if you just do one side of the X on the way up and the other side of the X on the way down! It looks neater on the back this way and goes more quickly, but it can be hard to do this with certain letters like Os for example. 

Nothing fancy here! Just used a glue gun to glue some fabric onto the back. I KNOW that the proper way is to stitch the edges with a machine but I was hard pressed for time and my sewing machine wasn't set up, etc, etc, etc. 

Finished product! I improvised the heart which is why it doesn't look that good but I like it!! 

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Beginner's knitting class!

I'm happy to announce that I'll be teaching ANOTHER beginner's knitting class! I'm really pleased with the results from my last class (EVERYONE FINISHED A HEADBAND!!!) So I decided to teach again! This class is good for ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS (have never knit before) as well as for people who have some experience with knitting but who want help or advice. The cost is $25 and it includes a ball of yarn, a pair of knitting needles, a tapestry needle, and a pattern. The class is on March 13 from 6:30-8:30 and will take place at Uniiverse HQ near Queen and Jarvis. Sign up here! 

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Knitting class!

Last night I taught a knitting class for Etsy's craftathon week at the Uniiverse headquarters! It was a lot of fun and somehow everyone finished a headband!!! I'm incredibly impressed by the skills of all of these women!

Jaclyn, Sophie, Rhonda, and Rebecca cast on and ready to knit!  

       

             Sophie and Rhonda working away!                         Jaclyn in the middle of her headband! 

Finished products!!! Don't they look awesome? I'm so proud :) great job guys! 
There are a lot of other awesome looking workshops all week long which you can check out here. 

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valentime's cross stitch!

This year I've been trying to make some new things! Usually I just knit my friends presents but now EVERYONE THAT I KNOW has at least one knitted gift from me so I thought I would branch out. Earlier this year I learned how to crochet which I will post about sometime in the future. But crochet is similar to knitting so I thought for valentine's day I would make a cross-stitch for my boyfriend. Cross-stitch was probably the first real craft that I learned how to do - I cross stitched pillow cases for my grandmothers, and a few other things, I think I got halfway through a cross-stitch bib for one of my cousins but never finished it. I was really into it for a year but then stopped and haven't touched it for 15 years probably! Anyway cross-stitch is INCREDIBLY easy it just takes a really really really long time to finish anything. 

For this project I used:
- Cross stitch fabric
- An erasable/fading marker (it was near the cross-stitch stuff)
- a cross stitch frame
- embroidery thread
- pack of needles

I started by writing my messagel out with the fading marker to get an idea of the spacing. I didn't really have an idea of how large anything should be! So I started with the 'I' and 'w' and then continued to make letters as large as that.  

The w and the y were tricky, I looked at this website for guidance! You can also see that I changed it from L L L lick to li-li-li-lick, I thought it would look cooler. 

Success! I'm really happy about the way it turned out! I tried to find a circular frame but I couldn't find any so instead I glued some fabric to the back of it with a glue gun (I'm not sure that this is something people actually do) and I cut the extra cross-stitch fabric off from around the frame. Now it's hanging out in our kitchen!! I love it! 

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limberlina!

I'm incredibly excited to announce the launch of my new website (with Kim Keitner & Nina Flowers)!!! Designed by Adam Graves. It's a DIY site and soon we'll be hosting events and have kits up for sale. Check it out here!! Right now we have some great Valentine's day DIYs such as a knit mug warmer, bedazzled bra & iphone case, hot pink velvet cupcakes, and heart friendship bracelets to name a few. We worked long and hard on it and I love the result. I can't wait for the next few months to get into more elaborate parts of the business! This past weekend we had another crafting weekend so be sure to check the site for updated DIYs! 

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learn to knit a headband with me! - update

*Date and time change!*
On February 9th from 1-3 18th from 6:30-8:30 I'll be teaching a beginner's knitting course in Toronto! It's part of Etsy's Craftathon week, I'll be teaching the basics and hopefully everyone will complete a headband! It's a really easy project and I think it will be great. It's $25 and that includes a beginner's knitting kit!!! I've looked at what other places charge and this is a really good deal considering the kit is included in the price. To sign up click here for more details. 

I hope to see you there!!!!!
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Winner!

The winner of the awesome fingerless gloves knitting kit is Sapphirepill from instagram! Thank you to everyone who entered both on Instagram and through my blog!!! You guys are the best! Hosting my first giveaway was a lot of fun and hopefully I'll be able to do it again sometime!

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Two Toned T

Once again I received a really great response from instagram about this top! Thank you all so much for your awesome comments and positivity :) It makes me excited to create more! I used to just knit without even taking photos and would just slowly show my friends. Having a great knitting community on my phone is awesome for inspiration as I love to see what people are making and it makes me want to share what I'm doing too! Ravelry and Kollabora are great as well obviously. Ok SO! Here is the pattern for my Two-Toned T! I'm really happy about how it turned out and the fit! It's probably my best fitted knit top. This pattern is fairly easy, you only need to know how to knit and purl, but it can be tricky when going from knitting on the round to knitting back to straight needles. You can do it!! 

materials:

size 8 circular needles (5 mm)

size 15 circular needles (10 mm)

1 skein of Kollabora's Chunky Hunk Yarn in Silver Fox

1 skein of Manos Del Uruguay Maxima in Yellow

1 tapestry needle

I wear a size small and it's a bit stretchy so this would probably fit s/m. It actually would also fit a Large because of the stretchy material but if you're worried just add a few stitches when casting on and it should be fine. 

- With size 8 needles cast on 70 stitches and attach in the round (be careful not to twist stitches!! I did this my first time casting this project on and had to take it all out after 5 rows when I noticed).

Work in a rib of Knit 1, Purl 1 for the row. Keep ribbing in this manner for 5 rows. 

- Change to size 15 needles, decrease 1 stitch every 10 stitches by knitting two together.

- you should now have 63 stitches at the end of this row (if you have more just decrease on next row until you have 63 stitches, if you have less that's probably fine, it's stretchy!)

- You will now just knit until your piece measures 7 inches (this should look like stockinette stitch since you're knitting on the round)

- Switch to neon yellow yarn and knit 1 row

- divide the piece in half (put 30 stitches on another needle - your size 8 circular needles will be fine or anything else you have lying around) and forget about it for a while, you'll be knitting each side separately from this point on

- cast on 10 more stitches at the beginning of the row (this will be a sleeve), purl across this row until you get to the end. For the next row, cast on 10 stitches at the beginning (This is your other sleeve) now knit those stitches and continue to knit the rest of the row

- You should have something that resembles a T shape 

- keep knitting in stockinette stitches (knit one row, purl the next, etc) for about 18 rows. You can eye it and see it it looks long enough to fit your arms or not, if not knit a few more rows

- move your work to smaller needles (size 8 from before is fine or anything else you have) and bind off: this will give it a nice smaller bind off rather than a messier look you would get with the larger needles - make sure that you're binding off on a row that you are supposed to 'knit' and not purl, this will give the outside of your shirt a really nice edge for the collar and the sleeves will look cool when sewn together

- Do the same thing for the other half of the shirt

this is how your shirt should look after you're done one side! Notice how I added the 10 stitches to either side to make the T shaped Sleeves. 

PUT IT TOGETHER!

- sew the underneath of the 'T' part of your shirt on both sides with a tapestry needle

- sew the tops (the shoulders) together for about 3 inches (or if you want it to be wider or less wide that's fine too)

Now go out and show off your awesome new top!!! 

From the back!

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knock out gloves with studs!

Earlier this week Kollabora sent me an awesome fingerless gloves kit (to win your own enter here!) They were SO EASY and really quick too! Perfect for knitters of all levels, here is the pattern. Since they were so easy I thought I would spruce them up with some ~*bLiNg*~ ok not really bling just a few studs that I got at Arton Beads on Queen near Spadina in Toronto. I bought $40 worth of studs!!! Not just for this project but for projects in the future. It's $3.50 for a pack and you get probably over 50 studs in there!! Anyway they're really easy to use, if you don't have pliers just use the back of a pair of scissors to hammer down the sides. Here is what I did!

Materials:
1 ball of Lion's Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick (I used cobalt)
1 pair of size 13 needles
1 tapestry needle
1 pack of gold studs 

Follow the pattern posted from the link above. Now you have a pair of fingerless gloves!  

Add the studs one at a time, spacing them out evenly along the way.

You should now have something that looks like this! 

yay! I'm wearing neon pink nail polish but you can't really tell in this photo, it looks cool I swear! 

woot! Now go outside and show off your sweet new gloves! 

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GIVEAWAY!

I'm happy to announce that I'm running a GIVEAWAY! You can enter on here or on instagram. To enter just comment below! (or repost on instagram and tag me) Winner will be chosen on January 20th! Up for grabs is a fingerless gloves kit; awesome lions brand yarn, size 13 needles, and some great 'we are what we make' pins and stickers. Good luck everyone!!

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infinity scarf!

I received a really great positive response to my army green/neon pink scarf on instagram! I really love it! As I said, it's a perfect spring scarf, I wouldn't wear it on the coldest days though because it's not thick enough and I get cold VERY easily. But it's really cool looking and I love the mix of the grungy army green with the feminin and crazy neon pink. Right now I'm making a grey/neon yellow tshirt, with the same chunky hunk and merino yarns! I'm excited to see how it turns out. 

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Freestyle Knitting: Skank Flank Tank edition!

My favourite way to knit is by freestyle knitting; knitting without any 'real' plan or pattern in mind. It's how I turned a scarf into my beloved highlighter halter top. As I've said before, I really don't like following patterns because there are so many things that you have to do (make a swatch, have the proper needle and yarn sizes, etc). I used to look at patterns for reference and now I use other items that I've knit for reference. Also I usually don't write down exactly what I've done and then people ask me how I made it and I have no clue! WELL this time I wrote everything down and I'm here to share that information with you!!! If you want to follow a pattern use this, or use it as a reference for creating your own masterpiece. 

Materials:
1 skein of Best In Show Superfine Alpaca Yarn by Kollabora (I made mine into two balls of yarn)
1 set of size 5 (3.75mm) needles
1 set of size 13 (9mm) needles
1 set of size 17 (12.5mm) needles
1 tapestry needle

Yes I know it's a lot of different needle sizes! You probably could get away with using just 2 sizes of needles, it's important to have the bottom be a smaller sized needle so that bottom stays down and tight to your body (I learned this from freestyle knitting with all one size needle!)


I wear a size small so if you're bigger you might want to add stitches at the beginning. The front and back are essentially knit the same but the back has less stitches than the front (to stay flat on your back and the front has some extra room for lady-parts). 

Back:
With your size 5 needles, holding 2 pieces of yarn together, cast on 32 stitches 
Work in ribbing (knit 2, purl 2) for 4 rows
Row 5 - use size 13 needles to knit this row (and continue with size 13 needles), now you're going to use stockinette stitch
Row 6 - purl
(Odd rows knit, even rows purl) 
Row 15 - use size 17 needles to knit this row (and continue with size 17 needles)
Row 18 - knit this row (instead of purl) to give a nice line effect
Row 19 - knit
Row 20 - purl
(continue with odd rows knit, even rows purl) 
Row 24 - again knit this row instead of purl to give the line effect
Row 25 - knit
Row 26 - purl
Continue this until Row 33
Row 33 - switch back to size 13 needles and knit this row
Row 34 - purl
Row 35 - bind off

Front:
Same pattern but cast on 40 stitches

Putting it all together: 
Start with attaching the top - sew left and right shoulders together for front and back pieces using your tapestry needle; Sew about 1-1.5 inches for this part. Sew the sides together starting at the bottom about 2.5 inches on each side. Now go out and wear it while it's still cold outside! No just kidding wear some layers on top or underneath! I'll be wearing mine through till it's 30 degrees (celsius) out :). 

 back

side - showing off my skank flank

REALLY excited about the end product

If you make this top (or a variation) please share with me I would LOVE to see it!!!

xxxx

Neckies for Skiing!

A few years ago before I started Scarffaces, I made my dad a special neckwarmer that was knit on the outside and had a neon leopard print fleece lining. This took me a REALLY long time to make because the hand sewing was very tedious but I loved how it looked and felt. Earlier this year I thought about making some more neckwarmers but I wanted to cut down on my time, so I found a really quick and easy solution! What I've been doing is I wear the fleece neckwarmer that I already have had for years, and overtop I put my knit neckie! The result is a really really really warm face and neck :) and it looks cool. I love it so much! Plus it gives a nice versatility to the scarf - when I'm not skiing I can wear it without the extra fleece lining in the city for a regular warm scarf. The fleece lining is great for the wind while going up the chairlift, but wouldn't be ideal for a walk in the city. I'll try to take some better photos this weekend. 

Left - Adam in his charcoal/neon neckie, My dad in his custom neckwarmer with fleece lining, and my in my chevron oat/neon neckie (the lighting does not do it justice!) 

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