Inspiration Pinboard: Cinematic Symmetry

Movies draw their inspiration from everything in the world around them, and so can your knitting or crochet crafts.

While watching movies lately, some symmetrical pattern inspiration leaped off the screen. We created a pin board to highlight our inspiration connections.

Pinboards or journals are great ways to store your inspiration as you come across it. Whenever you need ideas for color combos, patterns, or any new ideas, flipping through these inspiration piles can help stir your imagination.

This edition draws mostly from the Shining, and the works of Stanley Kubrick, who loved symmetry and patterns and featured them prominently. The eye-catching scenes in his movies inspired us to choose yarn colors, pattern textures, and some little accessories and additions to projects.

Colors, patterns, and textures. Collect your own photos and make inspiration collages featuring whatever captures your imagination. This is how we were inspired, but your own unique eye and style is what makes an inspiration board great!

The colors coming across in our board reminded us of these adorable Baggu reusable bags. The orange and yellow cat print is bold, but we love it. Find this bag and other great prints here »

Danny wears a knitted sweater in the film, featuring stars and the Apollo 11 spaceship. We located the pattern for this sweater, and think Karisma has the perfect colors for the project. 

These cotton ribbons also pull the colors from the carpeting or from the knit sweater photos we have added to our board. Featuring Nordic patterns, they are great additions to your projects and they will add another detail that emphasizes color and pattern. Find all our Cotton Ribbons here »

The iconic carpet of the Overlook Hotel features such a striking pattern, and bold colors.
We think Drops Alpaca could replicate this pattern perfectly.
We feel inspired to knit a scarf or socks in this pattern! Colorwork,  oh yeah!

The symmetrical black and white patterns featured in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey reminded us of the symmetry in Cascade's Double Knit Scarf in black and white. You can find this pattern for free here »

The maze scene in the movie is creepy and features interesting shots. We love the way the maze walls create a twisting pattern, and love the way the two tones of green create an interesting look in this scarf.
Holding two strands together in different colors creates very interesting tonal effects and is as eye-catching as the maze. Try it out!

We hope you were inspired, and would love to see YOUR inspiration groupings. Show us where you draw inspiration from on our Facebook page, our Google+, or tag us in your Instagram photos @nordicmart #nordicmartinspiration

A Knitter's (or Crocheter's) Right to Choose-A NM Tutorial on How to Substitute Yarn

Here at Nordic Mart we answer lots of questions about yarn. How many yards? How much is it? Is it machine washable? Does it come in a more yellow-orange, instead of a gold-orange? You get the idea. :) One of our most common questions is "How much do I need?" This question happens a lot, sometimes it is a simple answer and sometimes it is a little more involved.  So to take away some of the mystery here's a handy how-to!

Lush by tincanknits

To get started lets choose a pattern. We thought we would go with this cute cardigan called Lush by tincanknits. This pattern calls for a DK weight yarn. Two great options to choose from would be DROPS Karisma Superwash or Cascade 220 Superwash.

DROPS Karisma Superwash- 109 yds / 50g

Cascade 220 Superwash- 220 yds / 100g

So lets say we are going to make a size Medium using DROPS Karisma which calls for 1100 yards of yarn. For this calculation you would take the yardage required (1100) and divide this by the yards per skein (109), the answer be the number of skeins needed. It's that simple! :)

1100 yards ÷ 109 yards = 10.09 skeins

For this number we would not round up. Most patterns count skeins not actual yardage, we would round up a skein if the decimal place was over 3. 10 skeins should be plenty for this project as long as the gauge is correct.

Chevron Stripes 3 Season Sweater by Esther Chandler

Let's do an example with Cascade 220 Superwash. Here's a pattern for you crocheters from Ravelry! This Chevron Stripes 3 Season Sweater by Esther Chandler is made using Debbie Bliss Rialto DK. What would we do if we wanted to make it in Cascade 220 Superwash instead? 

If we make a size 36 we need 4 skeins of cream, 2 skeins of purple and 2 skeins of Navy. 

Step 1:

Find the yards per gram of Debbie Bliss Rialto

Debbie Bliss Rialto- 115 yds / 50g

Step 2:

Multiply the skeins required by the yardage of Rialto

Cream: 4 x 115 yds. = 460 yds.
Purple: 2 x 115 yds. = 230 yds.
Navy: 2 x 115 yds. = 230 yds.

Step 3:

Find the yards per gram of Cascade 220 Superwash

Cascade 220 Superwash: 220 yds /100 grams

Step 4:

Divide the total amount of yards required by the yardage of Cascade 220

Cream: 460 yards ÷ 220 yards= 2.09 skeins
Purple: 1 skein
Navy: 1 skein
The purple and the navy require 230 yards, but the designer states that she had plenty of leftover yarn. This means that we only need one skein of purple and one skein of navy. We love an even exchange!

 It's not rocket science, but we know that calculations can be a challenge. Now you are ready to choose a color, which is the best part! We hope this tutorial helps more of you branch out and feel free to pick the yarn you want to work in! :)

Spring Inspiration

Happy Friday all! Spring is officially in the air and it is a great time to be inspired. We found some beautiful inspiration from a knit blog sharing photos of some knit and crochet floral creations. These photos are from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for their "Knit, Purl, Sow" exhibition. We were mesmerized by the intricate and complex work that has gone into creating this large flora and fauna!

We searched out our own floral inspiration on the web and we found some great patterns to share with you! We found patterns from Ravelry which is a great free pattern resource for knitters and crocheters alike!

Ravelry: Flower Power Shawl by Ekin Deniz

Ravelry: Flower Pie Shawl by Megan Ellinger

Both of these beautiful patterns can be knit in DROPS Lace, a lovely 70% Alpaca, 30% Mulberry Silk blend.

If it is still a little cold where you are at, but you want to bring some spring flowers into your life you could knit this blanket or jacket from Garnstudio.

Try this super soft knit blanket with big floral motifs made from DROPS Alpaca and DROPS Vivaldi

This sweater is one of our most popular patterns! It is originally knit in DROPS Nepal, but you can use any worsted weight yarn. Why not try your own unique spring version in Good Earth Solids, it is a great cotton/linen blend perfect for warmer weather!

If you have some spare time this weekend be sure and check out the podcast from The Knitmore Girls and listen for a Nordic Mart shout out! <3

Our Favorite Woolly Winter Hat

As the weather cools down you definitely want something to keep your ears and your head warm.

We love this hat pattern: It's simple, it's fast, it looks great. 

Make a few for yourself, make a few as gifts.  This is a great project for beginners because it utilizes some of the basic knitting skills like ribbing, decreasing, and using circular and double pointed needles.

 

The pattern is available for free here 

We made a few adjustments to this pattern:

• We used a size US 10.5 needle for the ribbing, and a size US 11 for the rest of the hat. Keeping the ribbing a little smaller helps this hat stay on your head, and we like the look of a tighter ribbing. 
• We used Eskimo instead of Andes.  We particularly love the Eskimo colors for this project. You can stick with Andes or use Eskimo as a substitute.

Eskimo Color 27 is a beautiful brick color that lends itself well to the Autumn Season.

We have a lot of great Eskimo colors to make this hat in. We love the color mixes because they give a fun variegation of color.  But we also carry solids in every hue of the rainbow. You could also choose a few colors and make a striped version! This pattern is very versatile.

You only need two skeins of Eskimo for this hat! Find all the available colors in our Webstore. 

Or you can use 1 ball of Andes. Browse all the Andes colors in our Webstore.

                                                                             

Post your hats to our Facebook page when you're finished!

Happy Crafting,

What's New?

We have some new awesome products that we want to introduce to you! 

These are just a few things we have added to our selection lately that we think think you should see.

First off are some of our NEW Chic-a bags. We will slowly be adding new stock of these bags, but one of our favorite new bags is the Market Tote.

We have a few different patterns, and these bags are perfect not only for your knitting or crochet projects, but also as a grocery tote, a bag to take to the beach, or to carry work or school supplies!

We have 4 adorable patterns in the Market Tote, but just one of each in stock! Grab yours before its sold out!

Purchase these Market Totes plus all of our other awesome Chic-a Bags in our Webstore!

The interior has two pockets, a magnetic closure, and two snaps to extend the bag from smaller to larger .

 You don't want to miss this next item!

We have a new, very unique item you won't find anywhere else.

It's called a Yarn Susan, and its meant to keep your skeins of yarn or cones of thread from rolling away while you're working with them! It spins smoothly, much like a lazy susan on a table and is very easy to travel with since it features a removable spindle!
These would make a great gift for yarn lovers, and each one is one-of-a-kind and handmade in the USA. We met the creator, Jack, when we bought these yarn susans, and we selected a few of his most gorgeous Cherry wood susans!

As you pull your working yarn, the yarn susan smoothly spins on its base to dispense your yarn easily and keep your skein from rolling away.

A bottom view of the well crafted spinning mechanism on the Yarn Susan

It comes with its own cloth bag to store it away or travel in. The spindle is easily removable.

You can wind your yarn right onto the Susan by spinning it, or by using the spindle as a Nostepinne.
 

Purchase a beautiful Yarn Susan in our Webstore

 

 Have you ever tried Tunisian Crochet? 

It's a different method of crochet which creates a denser stitch, and can look more like knitting that traditional crochet. The hooks are attached to a cord, since this techniques has all the stitches you are working on the hook at one time.

If you've never tried this technique before, grab one of our Tunisian Hooks and give it a try.
You can buy all of our hooks by themselves in our Webstore. And if you love Tunisian Crochet, we have a whole set of Tunisian Crochet Hooks.

To learn Tunisian Crochet watch these videos:
Tunisian Crochet Afghan Stitch
Tunisian Crochet Knit Stitch

To make this easy pattern, follow these basic instructions:

Ipad cover in Tunisian crochet
Measure from side to side: 7½ x 10 inches (19x25cm)
2 skeins DROPS Nepal #8783 forget-me-not (or whichever worsted weight yarn you like best)
Work tunisian crochet following tutorial videos

With hook 5mm/H ch 29. Insert the hook back into the 2nd ch from hook, pull yarn through, then insert hook in next ch, pull yarn through and so on until end of chain row. All 28 new sts remain on the hook. At the end of row do not turn work, but now start binding off each stitch by first pulling yarn through 1 st, then yarn trough 2 sts at the same time until end of row. Pick up sts again and continue back and forth.
When piece measure 21 inch (54cm) work a row with sc along upper edge, making 3 button hole loops evenly by chaining 6-8 sts before continuing with sc in each st.
Fasten off. Fold piece double so top flap with loops overlaps. Sew tog sides. Sew on buttons to match the loops.
Voila! 

There are a lot of fun Tunisian Crochet patterns available on Ravelry if you need more of this fun stitch.  

A Yarn Crawl Recap

This past weekend we had our first ever San Luis Obispo Yarn Crawl with four other stores in our area, and it was a great success!

We first want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the crawl and to all of our amazing sponsors who provided prizes for the participants.  We learned so much and can't wait to have future Yarn Crawls. If you missed it this year, be on the lookout for next year's event! It was a blast!

We also wanted to recap some of the fun that happened in our store during the crawl!

Joanna from Chic-a bags stopped by and we had all of her adorable print needle cases and project bags out on display for a Trunk show!

We carry a lot of  Chic-a bags and will be expanding our selection after seeing a lot of new patterns we hadn't seen before!

Shop all our Chic-a bags in our Webstore.

Lena from Garnstudio also stopped in to give some expert pattern help for the DROPS patterns.

Find all our pattern books in our Webstore. And we now have the NEW Fall pattern books in stock! That is books 149, 150 and 151, plus a new Childrens book, number 24.

One of our favorite happy customers is also one of our speediest knitters. Eldra stopped by during the crawl to show off a BEAUTIFUL poncho she made in DROPS Nepal in Fall colors.

This is perfect for the season, and you can make your own with this free pattern.

The original pattern is made with supersoft and fluffy Alpaca Boucle, but we love the look that Nepal produced for this garment!

Shop all our Nepal in our Webstore, or choose another worsted weight yarn to make your own poncho.

 

Our first group of knitters that completed the Crawl!! They had a great time and we had a great time hearing about their fun day at each shop! Congrats ladies, and best of luck in the raffle!

   

 Another great visitor to the shop this weekend was Tammy! We donated some yarn to Tammy a few weeks ago for The Red Scarf Project and she stopped by to show us the creations she made. These scarves are donated to children in or leaving foster care, which is a great cause. Thanks Tammy! If you're interested in finding out more info about donating to this cause check out the Foster Care webpage here.

After the Crawl we are just swimming with ideas about new projects and variations on projects, so you'll see a new post about the fun stuff we have in the works SOON!

Until then....

Happy Crafting!

XO

 

We Love Lace

Knitting lace patterns can seem intimidating if you've never worked with them before. They often involve yarn overs and dropped stitches, which can seem a bit mysterious until you've mastered them.

We have the perfect pattern for those of you who have never tried a lace pattern and want to learn, or even those of you who just want a simple, interesting scarf pattern.
Instead of using very fine lace yarn for this, its easier to learn on thicker yarn or by holding yarn double.

DROPS Design 127-26 is made in its original version with Fabel, so it has some fun color variegation, but there are many different ways to make up this scarf. If you love the color changes and wash-ability of Fabel, shop all our colors in our Webstore.

If this pattern seems a little scary, watch these tutorial video to get some practice with these techniques:
Dropped Stitches Tutorial Video
Yarn Over Tutorial Video

Print this pattern for free

In the store, we have a version made with two strands of Alpaca held together, which gives this scarf a cozier and bulkier feel. Holding two colors together also gives more of a tweed color effect to the scarf. Browse all our Alpaca colors if you like this looks of this scarf best.

And stuck on our needles currently is this same scarf made with Cotton Light and Glitter.  Glitter is a great addition to hold along with thicker yarns to add to patterns you want some to have some pizzazz! It's a metallic and shiny thread in a variety of colors which adds sparkle without adding bulk. And usually just one bobbin of Glitter is enough for a whole sweater.

Order some Glitter from our Webstore.

The Cotton applied to this pattern makes for a super soft and washable scarf. Doubled up on a cool fall day, this scarf is warm without being itchy or too hot. This is also the cheapest version of the scarf, since Cotton Light only runs $2.90 per skein. Take a look at our Cotton Light!

 

Make your own version of this scarf and post the finished results on our Facebook or Ravelry page! 

Once you've mastered this lace pattern, you can make this adorable sweater with it!

Find the pattern here. 

Happy Crafting!

           XO

Cutout Sleeve Sweater

We just designed this awesome cutout sleeve sweater at Nordic Mart, which we also like to refer to as the "Hardcore Sweater."

This sweater is awesome because it looks like something you could find at H&M or Forever 21, but this one you can make yourself in any color you want! The other awesome feature of this sweater is that its constructed from a basic sweater pattern, so if you don't like the open sleeve look, just close the sleeves for a plain sweater!

 It can be made in a ton of fun colors. We used Cotton Light for our versions, but any DK weight (group B in Drops yarns) yarn will work.  It would be great to see it in Lima, Merino Extra Fine, or even our newest limited yarn Drops Loves You #4 !

To stick with our original pattern:

Browse all of our Cotton Light Colors.

Click here to view and download the free pattern! (pdf file)

You can also find this pattern on Ravelry.

It uses between 8 and 12 skeins of Cotton Light (read: between 25 and 35 dollars! Score!) and size US 8 needles.  You can find all of the supplies in our Webstore.

Post photos of your finished project on our Facebook Page, we would love to see some differing colors or yarn varieties on this stylish project!

Happy Crafting,
XO