When I saw WifeOfBrian’s Shop featured on the front of Etsy today, my curiosity was sparked – instead of the usual boring hats, socks, and scarves, she’s turned her love of knitting into something slightly more amusing – beards, mustaches, and other funny disguises!

She describes her work on her website as a “beardy wonderland,” and that it is! All of her designs are clever and very beautifully crafted, usually in the form of fuzzy yarn facial hair to keep you warm or silly gloves to make a statement and sometimes scare your friends.  She keeps up a blog with all of her goings-on, including crafts shows and fairs, so you might just get to see her beautiful beards in person!

We highly recommend taking a look at her stuff – it’s a must see for anyone with a sense of humor – or a desire for fuzzy facial hair. :)

Helena not only displays her completed projects, but also gives detailed hints as to how she completed them, including the size needles used and her choice of yarn. A good blog to follow, she continues to wow me with every single post. If you’re interested in checking out more of her work or seeing how she completed these snuggly socks you can find it here at Ignorant Bliss.

Leah started me off with some size 13 needles and some yarn of unknown weight and composition – it took me awhile to get the hang of holding the yarn, but once that tiny step was passed it was a breeze! I only had to restart what I was doing once – casting on has become frightfully easy, but I had some trouble getting my stitches mixed up or confused, and occasionally sliding off the needle. Below is what became of this first try…not too shabby for my first shot, I think!

That was enough to get me hooked, but the solid colored yarn was actually proving problems for me, because I had a hard time seeing where to put the needle in as I went along, and things like that. So when I went to Wal-Mart later I picked up some multi-colored yarn and a pair of smaller needles – size 10.5 – and things went MUCH better. I’ve spent a lot of time since undoing and redoing what I was working on – I’m having a hard time “recovering” from mistakes – but below you can get a feel for what my new swatch was starting to look like:

Sorry for the blurry photo! So that particular yarn came with a recommendation for size 7 needles and since I’m LOVING the smaller needles I went ahead and picked up some 7’s (and another roll of yarn!) today, so we’ll see how this goes!

I will keep you all updated on my knitting projects – do you have any knitting advice or a tutorial to share? What is your favorite thing to knit?

Hailing from Holston Mountain, Tennessee, these folks knit up handmade wool hats for projects such as UNICEF, orphanages, and battered womens shelters. Their teeny newborn hats have gone all the way to Hungary and Albania, and back home they’ve been sent to cancer victims and those suffering from hair loss. Way cool!

The hats aren’t just for a good cause – they fund the project by selling hats to us average folks who just can’t get enough of the cuddly knit wear this season.  They predominantly sell their work through festivals, but the hats are very affordable – my fiancé picked out a red and black “aviator” style hat for under $20. The hats are guaranteed too – if it’s ever damaged, just send it back and they fix it for you.

The knitters are regulars to Shakori Hills, so if you’re looking to check out their stall in person and will be in the North Carolina area in April of 2010, you may want to check them out. You can also send them an email at holstonhats@yahoo.com – they can do even the most detailed custom requests.

As for my big purchase, I gave in to a set of scrap-yarn hair ties: totally adorable and a great DIY or gift idea, I was proud to add them to my wardrobe! They’re a little long for practical use, but I think they’re going to serve well for special occasions, hooping, and the usual festival festivities.

Know where we can find some more neat knits for the cool weather? Share some info in the comments!