Mostly boring, but sometimes interesting!
Updated August 24 2005
Nutty knitter
Fashion UK - August 23 2005
It's hard to imagine that someone has become a minor celebrity by knitting, but Rachael Matthews has pulled it off. She founded the Cast Off Knitting Club, a lively collection of needle-nerds who promote Knitting In Public (aka KIPing) and like socialising whilst they work the wool, or, as the official blurb goes: "Cast Off aims to introduce a wide cross section of people to the craft. By providing materials and tuition, to beginners and more advanced knitters."
Rachael's club has received shedloads of publicity and she's even written to the queen to request suggestions for public knitting venues (you can see the lovely letter she got back from her Maj's servant on the website).
Knit together
Stanford Report - August 24 2005
Attend any one of the regular gatherings for members of the Stanford Knit Wits and you'll soon realize that years of needlework inevitably sharpens a knitter's skills in two important areas: accessorizing and socializing.
While Sharyle Leidy knitted a brown winter shawl last Wednesday, she explained the exotic origins of her yarn, which consisted of wool and leftover fibers from the looms of sari makers in Nepal. She gave fellow Knit Witter Lourdes Ventura the website of an organization that recycles silk fibers into yarn and sells it to raise money to fight hunger.
Leidy, an administrative associate in the Neurosciences Institute, and Ventura, a student services specialist in the Department of Electrical Engineering, were among seven knitters who showed up for one of the club's noontime sessions last week. The Knit Witters meet at various locations on campus, on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, and usually every Thursday.
Spinning and weaving a new business
Fauquier Times Democract - August 23 2005
Three local business women say that they see the lingering impact of the events of 9/11 in their business.
"Knitting and weaving are coming back," said Dina Callow, one of the co-owners of the recently opened My Favorite Yarn Shop in Warrenton. "Cocooning is in. Ever since 9/11, people have decided to go back to the old ways, the old things."
Callow and her partners Dianne Six and Linda Witt have been practitioners of weaving and knitting for years.
"All of us have been in the fiber arts for a long time," Six said.
The trio said the shop will provide a variety of services, products and lessons.
"A lot of yarn shops really don't serve spinners and weavers, and that's what we do," Callow said.
"We're going to have everything from raw fleece to the finished product," Six added.
Knit one, pearl two: Two old hookers will show you tricks of their trade
Belleville News-Democrat - August 21 2005
Kelly Terschluese and Maggie Hunter call themselves "two old hookers."
Don't get the wrong idea.
The tricks of their trade are knitting needles and crochet hooks.
"We love (the name) and our husbands hated it," said Maggie, 37, of Belleville, a substitute teacher who thought of the catchy name.
"It's her warped mind," added Kelly, 46, working on a colorful afghan in her Belleville living room. The bright pink, gold, turquoise and white blanket was about half finished.
Men at work - knitting
Philadelphia Inquirer - August 21 2005
Jim Casale knows the question is coming, so he waits for it with a patient smile.
"They don't just ask: 'Do you knit?' " he says. "They say: 'You knit?' "
It's uncommon, to say the least, for a man to run a knitting shop. So Casale understands that shoppers might be taken aback when they step into the Knit With yarn store in Chestnut Hill and find not just him, but his brother-in-law Bill Giampa, in charge.
Yes. He knits, and so does Giampa.
They also know the difference between kid mohair yarn and super kid mohair. They know Addi turbo needles are better than birch, if speed is what you're after.
It's their job.
And their family duty.
A bit of needle
Guardian Unlimited - Augusst 11 2005
William Morris championed fusing politics and craftwork more than a century ago, but knitting for victory is back. American homebody Lisa Anne Auerbach is one of the webheads leading the fight with her site, Steal This Sweater.
"Ms. Jake" Opening Yarn Shop at Age 70
KSL TV - August 18 2005
For some people, retirement after a long career means slowing down a bit, spending more time with family and friends, traveling, new hobbies. Not so, for everyone! We found a woman who's realizing her dream job-- at age 70.
There's a new store on this Salt Lake City street. "Ms. Jake's Yarn Shop," which opened just last week. Owner Ginger Jacobsen, who indeed knows how to handle a pair of needles, has been hoping to have a store like this for years!
Ginger Jacobsen, Owner, Ms. Jake's Yarn Shop: "I've always wanted to. I've always been a yarn freak."
Ginger Jacobsen worked for the Utah Health Department for 28-years. And when she retired in January, she knew she was not really, going to retire.
Ginger Jacobsen: "I thought, 'I've got to have something that will take up my time.'"
So she remodeled her one car garage and turned it into a very colorful, full-service yarn supply shop.
Salon staff leads knitting effort for charity
Green Bay Press-Gazette - August 19 2005
“Caring” would be a fitting addition to the name of Kari Polkinghorne’s hair salon. Kari’s Clip ’n Curl has a caring staff and clients who have been knitting for charity.
Since February, they have made close to 500 sets that will provide either a hat and mittens or a hat and scarf for needy children in the community. The knitting will continue until Oct. 1, when a charity will be selected.
“We’re big on projects here,” Polkinghorne says. “No one can sit still.”
So that was why Polkinghorne and her two other stylists, Jean Kaminski and Pat Jadin, began knitting last winter.
The project quickly caught on with many of their clients. Soon others were knitting, donating yarn or providing money for yarn.
Knit one, purl one: Boys and gals pick up grandma’s skills
Deccan Herald
Knitting instructor Lisa Heggum demonstrates this basic knitting mantra to Malcolm Wilhelm, 11. For the next 15 minutes, the Grade six student tries to loop the yarn around the knitting needle and extricate it skillfully.
With gentle prodding from Heggum, Wilhelm plods on, alternating between exhilaration and exasperation as he scores hits and misses in his knitting debut.
As the class draws to a close, he has decided to return again. That means the addition of yet another male member in Heggum's teen knitting club at Toronto's Maria Shchuka public library.
Annual Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival Slated
Wisconsin Ag Connection - August 18 2005
Plans are being finalized for the fourth annual Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival at Jefferson Fair Park next month. Organizers of the September 9-11 event say the festival has been expanded to over forty Wonders of Wool fiber arts classes and workshops, as well as new sheep shows and a slate of activities sure to appeal to a wide variety of interests. The Wonders of Wool classes, taught by instructors from across the country, cover everything from beginning weaving to Australian locker hooking and will run Friday through Sunday.
Nimble fingers dominate knitting, crocheting contests
The Sedalia Democrat - August 18 2005
One contestant hadn't crocheted in almost 15 years. Another learned just a few years ago. A third brought her own cheering section.
Contestants in the crocheting and knitting contests at the home economics building Wednesday were a varied, but small group. Three people competed in crocheting with thread, and four people in the knitting and crocheting with yarn contests.
Sam Collins, 60, of Leeton, won first place in all three contests. For knitting with yarn, she tied for first with Stephanie Nelson, 36, of Butler.
Mrs. Collins has entered the contests every year for the past 10 or 12 years, she said. She can't remember how many blue ribbons she's won.
"I had seen it in the book, and I thought, well, I can crochet and knit, so I'll give it a try," she said. "I don't want to brag or nothing, but I usually win first place."
Have a little bitch with your stitching
Wednesday Journal - August 16 2005
In January, new knitter Cathy Busking found herself lonely for stitching partners and advice. She’d read about the national "stitch ’n’ bitch" knitting groups forming all over the country, so she Googled "Oak Park Stitch ’n’ Bitch," and found a newly-christened Yahoo group by the same name. Best of all, their first meeting was coming up in a few weeks.
"I thought, ‘I don’t know if I can wait that long,’" Busking remembers.
Founders and organizers Heidi Butler and Toni Maddi had actually come up with the idea to start a west suburban spin-off of the huge Chicago Stitch ’n’ Bitch only a few hours before. Within days, the group had 40 members.
Knit knack
The News-Press - August 16 2005
Knitting — in this heat?
Certainly. New lightweight, breathable novelty yarns are fueling a trend that had already begun unspooling all over the country: Yarn crafting is not just for Grandma anymore.
New styles of ribbon and yarn and fashionable patterns court the biggest bunch of new knitters. And they are younger than 35, according to the Craft Council of America, which commissioned a recent study.
No, really, I’m liberated
Times Online - August 14 2005
Career women are reclaiming their domestic shackles as fast as you can say ‘nice pinny’, finds Lesley Thomas...
Knitting, another former housewives’ bond, has been rediscovered by smart young things. Anoushka Myers, 26, an intellectual-property lawyer, started her own knitting club in Notting Hill, west London a couple of years ago. “I used to knit when I was very small and went back to it a few years ago. It’s a good way to wind down. It’s something you can do in your lunch hour or in the train. I wanted someone to find others who did it and discovered there’s a massive internet community of women who like to knit.”
When she mentioned on internet message boards that she wanted to start her own club Myers was bombarded with e-mails. Now she and her fellow stitchers meet in a fashionable pub every week. “They’re mostly young professionals — other lawyers and media types between the ages of 18 and 40ish,” says Myers. They are the kind of women who can easily afford to buy themselves cashmere shrugs and jumpers, but they derive pleasure from knitting their own.
Get chic, get geek
Times Online
Want to stand out from the vacuous crowd? Then brain up and get yourself a nice safe hobby...
Perhaps even more surprising, the studios of Hollywood seem to have turned into high-class knitting circles. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Uma Thurman, Julia Roberts, Hilary Swank, Russell Crowe and David Duchovny have all been busy with the wool and needles.
Uma Thurman obsessed with knitting!
WebIndia123.com - August 13 2005
After Sarah Michelle Gellar, it is Hollywood actress Uma Thurman, who is said to be obsessed with the old-fashioned hobby of knitting.
According to femalefirst, the star was recently spotted in a Los Angeles knitting store buying 26 balls of casmerino wool, 16 balls of yarn, needles and a T-shirt with a picture of a woman knitting in the nude.
A close-knit community with a heartfelt project
The Philadelphia Inquirer - August 10 2005
The fourth-annual Knit-Out and Crochet Event in Philadelphia will have a color scheme this year: red, red, red.
The free event is held in cities across the country to celebrate needle crafts. In Philadelphia, the American Heart Association is sponsoring a scarf-making contest to promote heart awareness among women.
"Go Red for Women" is the heart association's awareness campaign. At the Knit-Out, participants are asked to knit or crochet a scarf with red yarn.
"We are very excited to have the American Heart Association's participation in this way," said Gwen Agard, coordinator of the Knit-Out.
The winner will have the scarf featured in the online winter edition of Interweave Knits, a magazine for needle enthusiasts.
Queen Creek 4-H offers knitting program
azcentral.com
Although 4-H has its roots in agriculture, today's 4-H program offers something for everyone. With the changing demographics in Queen Creek and the surrounding area, the Queen Creek 4-H Community Club is excited to offer another project that is not related to agriculture.
This fall, Queen Creek 4-H (of Maricopa County) will be adding a knitting project.
Sophia Shanelec, who this past year was an assistant 4-H dog leader, will teach participants how to knit. Youth members will all start on the same basic project, like a pot holder, and as they progress will move on to making more complicated items like scarves or hats.
Well knit!
The Hindu Business Line - August 12 2005
Once exclusively associated with `femininity', knitting has now become the cool thing to do in North America with many men signing up for knitting classes.
Pundits and knitters find common ground in Web logs
CNN - August 10 2005
Mena Trott: ...Knitting blogs are a huge phenomenon. I find it fascinating because knitting and sewing are things that have historically drawn women -- and now men, too -- together in groups to talk about their families, talk about their lives, talk about society. And they would use sewing and knitting and quilting as this way of getting together. I don't think it's any coincidence that knitting is one of the things that drives a lot of people to Web logging and to online communities.
What I want to see and I what I think the Internet is really evolving to is this idea that taking these things that we've done offline for centuries and millennia and bringing it in a way that is compatible with our daily lives. We live in e-mail, we live in front of the computer, we live with our cell phones. But we have to figure a way to work all these things in together.
Knitters knot it for preemies, selves
LA Daily News - Augusts 9 2005
This is how you get named Woman of the Year by the California state Senate, and have Maria Shriver personally seek you out to shake your hand.
You listen to your 12-year-old's concerns about some sick babies, then you follow your heart.
That's what Kathy Silverton did eight years ago, when her daughter, Shane, showed her a newspaper story about premature babies finally getting to go home from the hospital, but not having anything to wear because they're still too tiny for regular baby clothes.
"I started calling up hospitals to see if they could use some help getting things like booties and blankets for their babies," Silverton said.
"They all said yes, and it just grew by word of mouth from there."
Soon, a handful of friends was gathering in Kathy's living room a few days a week and knitting tiny booties, sweaters,
hats and blankets. From that, the nonprofit Stitches From the Heart program has grown nationwide to more than 6,200 knitters, who have donated more than 200,000 items to 432 hospitals and shelters.
Projects warm youngsters; keep volunteers in stitches
The Coalfield Progress - August 10 2005
Anne Quinley and her husband, Harold, usually return to the area from their adopted home in Roanoke to decorate family graves at Pennington Gap on Memorial Day, or for short holiday visits.
This time, however, their visit had a lot of strings attached, or rather yarn, to be exact.
The Quinleys arrived in the Gap the afternoon of July 28 with their vehicle packed full of cotton thread and acrylic yarn to divide between the Professional Parent Services program, coordinated by Glenda Collins, of Lonesome Pine Office on Youth, and a program in Lee County that needed yarn.
Much Ado About Knitting
blue Oregon - August 6 2005
"Political insiders say they have seen signs, ranging from Kulongoski's increasingly surly demeanor during the session to his wife's knitting during public events, that hint at a one-term stint."
Yes, the article mentions the Governor's wife's knitting as a possible sign that he might not run for a second term. Was it a silly remark? Yes. Was it intended to be silly? Of course. However, from reading Peter Bragdon, Gail O'Connell-Babcock, and John Oberst's letters, it seems like some people in the Governor's camp take knitting very seriously.
Friendly help is a common thread
San Diego Union Tribune - August 4 2005
A little yarn shop, run by a mother and a daughter near the heart of downtown Encinitas, is legend and fantasy among knitting circles far and wide.
Common Threads is a magical place, wedged between a psychic reader and a sign painter on South Coast Highway 101.
Caryl Nelson, 83, the mom, and her daughter, Nancy, 40, are a remarkable team. They conduct the business as both an outlet for knitting accessories and a free resource and service center.
They had hoped to do that 11 years ago when they mortgaged the family's Leucadia home and launched their dream as Common Threads – A Learning Center for the Apparel and Creative Arts.
And they do it all in a way that makes you feel as if you're at grandma's house, sitting around a table, learning to knit and lose your stress through the relaxing art.
Our knitting efforts up there with the BEST!
ABC - August 5 2005
This years' DROP IN STITCHES campaign was a great success, resulting in four tightly stuffed wool bales being sent off to Sydney from the ABC New England North West studios.
As 702 ABC Sydney announcer Simon Marnie broadcast the breakky show amongst thousands of knitters, the counting of squares, wraps and balls of wool had started.
Knitters started as early as 5am in the ABC Ultimo Centre's atrium. There was even an industrious knitting team who had travelled all the way from Tamworth to Sydney to participate in the third annual 'Knit - In'.
Razorlight Drummer Confesses to Knitting Habit
Contact Music
Razorlight drummer ANDY BURROWS is a keen knitter, and would rather conjure up a woolly creation than go out drinking.
The GOLDEN TOUCH rocker's dream is to get busy with a pair of needles and make a garment for a friend, although he can't guarantee the standard of his knitting prowess.
He muses, "If I weren't drumming, I'd be knitting.
"It's the idea of something that calms you down that isn't alcohol. It would be really cool to knit someone a jumper or a Rupert the Bear-style scarf even if was c**p."
Needles pick up stitches to help knitters
CNN - August 3 2005
An English design graduate has created a device to help knitters keep track of the number of stitches they have knitted.
Rebecca Spender's "KnitWit" device automatically counts the number of stitches in each row by detecting the movement of the knitting needles.
The project was her final-year assignment for a product design degree at Brunel University in west London.
Inspired by her grandmother and aunt, both of whom are keen knitters, Spender wanted to create something to help eliminate mistakes, which can ruin a design.
Inmates knit for chemo patients
Journal Advocate - August 2 2005
Some Sterling prison inmates are sticking to their knitting for a good cause.
Twenty-seven inmates at the Sterling Correctional Facility have spent the last five months making "chemo caps." Under the supervision of correctional officers Shelly Hughes and William Zwirm, the prisoners have knitted 335 caps for cancer patients who have lost their hair because of chemotherapy treatment.
Knitting guild provides VPD 'Precious Pals'
Venice Gondolier - August 3 2005
When police are called to the scene of an accident or crime in which children are involved, the experience for the children can be frightening and stressful. Many children can be calmed by having a soft, furry friend to hang on to until the situation is resolved and the child can feel safe.
That is why officers often carry stuffed critters in their squad cars. The friendly creatures usually are the result of donations.
The Heritage Trail Knitting Guild recently bought some huggable stuffed pets and dressed them in hand-knitted sweaters and scarves before turning them over to the Venice Police Department to comfort children in distress.
Resort town rivals Tate as seat of conceptual art
Telegraph - August 1 2005
Few seaside towns aspire to celebrate summer with more than a sandcastle contest or horticultural show. But one ambitious small resort set out its stalls yesterday to rival the Turner Prize.
The high street of Southwold, Suffolk, resembled nothing so much as an al fresco Tate Modern as more than 100 amateur conceptualists responded to the town's call to make an "alternative" deckchair.
...the top £1,000 prize went to an interloper, Robert Bailey, a 58-year-old artist from Norwich, for a chair resembling a giant ball of wool and knitting needles.
Knitting pretty
Desert News - August 1 2005
Knitting is hot.
When Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz starting doing it, celebrity-watchers perked up. Vanna White, Sarah Jessica Parker, Hilary Swank, Julianna Margulies and Daryl Hannah are just a few other Hollywood types that can be added to the list. Plus, rumor has it that all the "Desperate Housewives" knit.
When Martha Stewart left prison wearing a handmade poncho, suddenly ponchos were wildly popular, and requests for patterns flooded craft and needle arts bulletin boards and Web sites.
When fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi joined the board of Warm Up America!, he called attention to one of many national charity programs that have provided thousands of hand-knitted and hand-crocheted afghans, scarves and hats to people in need.
Yarn of a different color
Durango Herald Online - July 30 2005
Cindy Shrout of Greeley helps dye yarn with natural products at the Intermountain Weavers Conference at Fort Lewis College on Friday. Nine different classes were offered at the conference, which brought in 175 attendees from all over the country.
Knit One, Purl You!
Christian Parenting Today - Summer 2005
I just took up knitting. I squeeze it in between shopping for support hose and cleaning my dentures. But seriously, knitting seems to be the "in" thing now. Every time I hit the craft-store yarn sales, I end up garnering color advice from barely pubescent youngsters wearing poofy, wild-colored scarves of their own making.
I didn't take up the needles in fulfillment of a long-standing desire, to fill an abundance of leisure time, or even as some sort of "turning 40" ritual. I did it for one reason—salmon. But in typical God-fashion, he ended up teaching something entirely different.
Here's where it all started: I purchased a pair of corduroy jeans in the most gorgeous shade of salmon. Their hue is a cross between Sebastian on Little Mermaid and Princess Fiona's hair. Unfortunately, there is not a sweater, blouse, or T-shirt in all of Southern California that matches.
In a flash of genius, I thought, I'll bet I can find yarn to match! Sure enough, there was. A package labeled "Knit This Scarf" in big letters contained two types of yarn that everyone within three aisles agreed was the perfect match for my pants. I took it home, ripped open the package, and began reading the instructions, confident that within hours I'd be sporting a smashing salmon ensemble. But wait—what in the world is "casting on"? What is "knit one, purl two"? I had these two sticks, some yarn, instructions that might as well have been Martian, and no idea how to make my dream scarf a reality.
