Knitting News

Nobody's fool | Des Moines Register

Nobody's fool
Des Moines Register - December 29 2005

Kyle Helmick didn't always know the difference between angora or alpaca yarn, or the knit and purl stitches.
The owner of the west-side shop the Village Knit Wit — dubbed "a yarn gallery and knitter's retreat" — tells the story of his fairly recent introduction to knitting: "I was visiting a cousin in Omaha and we were out shopping. She wanted to go to a knitting store, and all I could think was 'This is just going to be painful,' " he laughed.
Once at the store, Helmick had a dramatic change of heart.
"I could see how wonderful and relaxing it was," he said. "The next thing I know I'm buying knitting needles and I'm instantly hooked."
Helmick was so hooked that he hung up his corporate badge at Principal Financial Group to create a shop where new and experienced knitters can relax, learn and find needed supplies to enjoy their craft. [more]

Top of the knit parade | Preston Today

Top of the knit parade
Preston Today - December 30 2005

Madonna and Julia Roberts may have kicked your granny off top spot last year – but now Lancashire's kids are ready to take on the celebs as the world's top knitters in 2006.
Knitting is the craze which is set to explode across the county as hundreds of youngsters take up the hobby, following the stars creating unique fashion items.
Wool sellers are reporting they have sold more yarn than ever with everyone from teenagers to pensioners getting their needles in a twist with the new craze.
Students Beth Goldsbrough, 22, and Philippa Lammas, 20, who study business at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, are just two local lasses who have been swept up in the casting-on craze and joined a local Stitch and Bitch knitting circle.
Beth said: "It was seeing Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex in the City knitting in a magazine which got me interested in it and then I saw a scarf which I liked and was told it was knitted and how easy it would be to make something for myself. [more]

Heritage shows in Sue Asplin's knitting

Heritage shows in Sue Asplin's knitting
Herald Journal Enterprise Dispatch - January 2 2006

Sue Asplin of Dassel displays and sells knit caps from her Berry Patch collection at Latte Da Coffee Shop in Dassel. She knits a strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, boysenberry and blackberry caps and pumpkin caps. The money from the sales goes to missions at her church, Evangelical Covenant Church of Dassel, she said.
Her real passion, though, is knitting Scandinavian sweaters, Asplin said.
Asplin, a native of Independence, Wis., actually went to Norway to buy authentic patterns, yarns and buttons for them.
“My stepfather grew up in Norway so he could help me translate the patterns,” she said.
Asplin started knitting Scandinavian sweaters while she was still in high school. “My mother was a knitter and she taught me as a child,” she said. [more]

Shop fulfills knitter's dreams | The Indianapolis Star

Shop fulfills knitter's dreams
The Indianapolis Star - December 30 2005

Unlike a lot of new business owners, Nancy George is smiling and at peace fussing around the store she opened last month in Clearwater.
The Knit Stop, a small shop filled with exotic yarns, knitting needles and instructional manuals, indulges two of her passions: knitting and dogs.
Three four-legged floorwalkers greet customers entering the shop at 3941 E. 82nd St.: Eliska, a large German shepherd; a Pomeranian named Sam; and a papillon named Juliet.
George is part of the Hulman-George family and serves on the board of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. She's always been interested in fashion and design and learned how to knit when she was pregnant with her daughter, Jessica, who is now a college student. [more]

At 90, her knitting needles keep veterans warm | The Narragansett Times

At 90, her knitting needles keep veterans warm
The Narragansett Times - December 29 2005

Grasso's husband Arthur is a veteran of World War II who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and won a Purple Heart as a soldier with the 1st Infantry Division 634, Tank Destroyer Battalion.
"This is the reason I picked to make Afghans. I kind of do it for his buddies. Those poor fellows really need something. There are women there too, you know. It does help them to know someone thinks of them," she said Friday. Her son is also a veteran of the Vietnam War. "He's retired Air Force," she said proudly.
Grasso thought about making blankets for people in hospitals too, but said of the veterans in the home, "It seemed like they're the more lonesome ones."
She hasn't personally met any of the recipients of her blankets because, Arthur said, "You don't want to do it Mae. It would break your heart."
Still, she has a stack of letters from the Supervisor of Volunteer Services from the Rhode Island Veterans Home thanking her. "Before I get to the end of the drive they've started to write a letter of thank you, telling me how much they appreciate it," she said. She has made more than 100 blankets in the last 10 years.
Arthur who is 86, drives his wife over to deliver the blankets, usually in Nov. "I've been taking them for at least 10 years and I usually take them for Armistice Day," he explained, referring to the official name for the end of World War I, on Nov. 11 1918. Now, of course, we know it as Veterans Day. [more]

We're nuts about knitting | icCoventry

We're nuts about knitting
icCoventry - December 28 2005

Your granny's favourite hobby is trendy again thanks to the likes of Julia Roberts and Madonna.
Hollywood's A-list celebrities are going nuts for knitting, which is shedding its fuddy-duddy image.
Screen sirens Sarah Jessica Parker, Uma Thurman and Cameron Diaz have all been spotted knitting between takes.
Now Jeanne Kelly, of Mrs T Textiles and Upholstery, in Winsford Avenue, Allesley Park, Coventry, has set up knitting classes at her shop.
She started them two months ago after a member of staff complained there was no knitting group in Coventry. [more]

Knit-Knack Club | Black & White Online

Knit-Knack Club
Black & White Online

Junior Ellen Oshinsky remembers seeing numerous students knitting in her classes, and this year, she decided to do something about it.
She's formed the Knick-Knack Club, which aims to provide an environment for students who love knitting to express their creativity. "I've seen a lot of students knitting in class and there was a need to create a club, so that these people can come together and share their hobby with others," she says. [more]

Knitters spin a new volume of yarns | The Mercury News

Knitters spin a new volume of yarns
The Mercury News - December 25 2005

Knitting is one of the few handcrafts that is solitary and social. The act of knotting wool or silk or cashmere into designs simple and spectacular creates a mixture of physical pleasure and spiritual comfort.
Linda Roghaar and Molly Wolf, editors of the KnitLit series, know this. Their current installment, ``KnitLit the Third'' (Three Rivers Press, $14), brings the knitting experience to life with more than 70 personal knitting stories grouped under headings such as ``What's in my head?'' ``Who's in my life?'' and ``What's in my basket?''
There is Charmian Christie's binge knitter confession and Barbara Fornoff's ``things one should not do while driving.'' Marilyn Webster knits a shawl for her estranged partner and reveals a woman tender and wise, and Corey Mesler's intimate observation of his wife as she knits is refreshing. Elliott Carpenito takes us through the painful wait for a newly adopted son, with knitting his only comfort.
Knitting is described as obsessive, maddening, artistic and healing. It begins as something every young woman knew how to do, disdainfully devolves into ``women's work'' and is reborn as the ultimate stress-buster. It is a skill sometimes forced, sometimes coveted, but always deeply personal. [more]

Not your grandmom's macrame | Orlando Sentinel

Not your grandmom's macrame
Orlando Sentinel - December 24 2005

Imagine a toaster cover decorated with a skull and crossbones, or candles made of rolled beeswax and shaped like sushi, or hand-poured soaps shaped like a heart -- a bleeding heart.
Craft fairs may conjure images of little old ladies with blue hair selling tea cozies and macrame potholders, but a new crop of hip, urban craft fairs is breaking onto the scene, serving up everything but the ordinary. The vendors might have blue hair, but they are young, vibrant and out to re-invent crafting.
...Leah Kramer was one of those Gen X-ers who was looking for a creative outlet. She found, and fell in love with, Bazaar Bizarre, Boston's urban craft fair.
"In my 20s I felt all these crafty urges," says Kramer, now 31. At Bazaar Bizarre she didn't find macaroni-based crafts but a sea of like-minded folks who had channeled their urban coolness and craftiness into businesses.
Kramer went on to found the online crafting mecca craftster.org, which epitomizes the new urban craft-fair sensibility with its motto "no tea cozies without irony."
"Craftster is a funny way to combine someone who is crafty and a hipster," she said, referring to the term she coined. "Crafting used to mean painted cows and hearts on boxes. There was a stigma attached to crafts."
Kramer credits feminism for allowing women to embrace the positives of crafting without buying into the old notions of domesticity that limited women of earlier generations.
"It's not like the '50s, where you had to darn your husband's socks," she says. "It's sort of empowering to have your knitting needles and do a project anywhere you want." [more]

5,000 warm hugs...and counting | Dundas Star News

5,000 warm hugs...and counting
Dundas Star News - December 23 2005

Wellwood has now presented its 5,000th handmade afghan to someone in this community who is affected by cancer.
This is one of the supportive cancer care centre's most popular and successful initiatives. Many visitors and patients of the Juravinski Cancer Centre and Henderson Hospital or clients of Wellwood will recall seeing knitting baskets in various waiting rooms and sitting areas. [more]