Free Tai Shan hoodie pattern

My favorite shot. Modeled by the lovely Gina DeSantis.

Front view, now with 100% more product placement! (Hi, Lexie!)

The Tai Shan hoodie pattern from How to Knit in the Woods has been posted as a free download — here (PDF link) — and on the knitgrrl.com errata page. Why? An alert reader pointed out a funky set of numbers re: stitch marker placement (thanks, Michele!), so Andi went back and found some other things that we decided would be better released as an entirely revised pattern PDF rather than bits and pieces on the errata page. We’ve also included some extra notes on how the bamboo in the sample garment has “grown” a bit over time, and how you can counteract it when you knit your own.

Speaking of bamboo, guess what I found at the fabric store today? Not only do they have PLA fiberfill (PLA = better known as ingeo, or corn fiber) but also bamboo/organic cotton batting. I bought some Japanese-themed fabric and the bamboo, thinking I’d make a padded jacket. The batting looks a lot like Warm & Natural, if you ask me, but lighter in color. If you like sewing and wanted to line your Tai Shan with bamboo batting for extra weight/warmth, well, this’d be the stuff to get, eh? Bamboo city!

My new favorite visual toy: Multicolr — here you’ll see I’ve picked my favorite green. It pulls photos from Flickr in a selected color (you can even select more than one — here’s the green + purple). What a fun way to stimulate your creative juices when it comes to picking colors for projects!

And for those of you who wonder just what I’ve been up to, teaching all week long outside in a tent for six whole weeks, some photos:

I like to call this one “No! Don’t drink it!” — getting ready to dye some yarn and fiber.

Aforementioned yarn drying, with the Cleveland Botanical Garden in the background.

Wet felting is fun. Note bracelets. You thought I was kidding about the 1980s thing?

At our first exhibition, with some of their handiwork, wearing items from our Thrift Store Challenge. The dress at left (black/white) used to be a pillowcase. The hand-dyed yarn and felted scarves were much coveted.

So that’s how I’ve been spending my days from 9:00-4:00. I’ve got them all hooked on knitting now, too (mwah ha ha ha). It warms my heart to hear them whisper, desperately, when they’re about to go to a lecture or something else they think is going to be boring: “CAN WE BRING OUR KNITTING? PLEASE?”

Tagged with: ArtWorks, How to Knit in the Woods, Knitting, Patterns