Knitting News

Issey Miyake, the Dream Weaver | BusinessWeek

Issey Miyake, the Dream Weaver
BusinessWeek - April 25 2006

Issey Miyake takes the concept of "cutting-edge design" literally. The Japanese fashion designer's latest innovations, to debut in fall, 2006, promise to slice across design-world boundaries and into two new markets: home furnishings and jeans. His new experiments build on the groundbreaking computer-driven manufacturing process he first developed, with design engineer Dai Fujiwara, nearly 10 years ago.
In 1997, the duo invented a means of knitting or weaving entire pieces of clothing -- no sewing needed. Thread goes into the loom, and tops, skirts, and pants come out. To be specific, a wide-flattened tube of cloth emerged, with embedded "seams" that looked like a faint outline. Each piece of clothing could be cut out of the swath of fabric, as you might separate a paper doll's dress from the page along the perforated line. [more]

Woolly bully | Time Out New York

Woolly bully [via Free to Stitch Free to Bitch]
Time Out New York - April 20-26 2006

Knitting circles evoke cozy camaraderie over clicking needles. Lately, however, the stitching world has become entangled in a legal imbroglio that’s anything but warm and fuzzy. The trouble started last May when Elissa Meyrich, owner of the Sew Fast Sew Easy shop on West 35th Street (which, in addition to offering supplies and classes, hosts an online forum called Stitch & Bitch Cafe), started to enforce her four-year-old copyright on the term Stitch & Bitch*. “Stitch & Bitch started when students of Sew Fast Sew Easy gathered for Friday evenings of sewing, knitting and crochet fun,” SFSE’s website explains. “No other usage of Stitch & Bitch ever occurred before.” One knitter, however, thinks otherwise: Debbie Stoller, author of Stitch ’N Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook (Workman Publishing). [more]

It's actually a trademark (not copyright) for STITCH & BITCH CAFE (not just Stich & Bitch)

CRAFT - Coming this Fall | MAKE

CRAFT - Coming this Fall
MAKE - April 24 2006

You knew this was coming, right?? Just announced at the Maker Faire this past weekend is our new magazine devoted completely to crafts! CRAFT: Make Cool Stuff, will be available on newsstands this fall so don't miss out. [more]

Knit Motorcycle! | Extreme Craft

Knit Motorcycle! [via MAKE and Newlin]
Extreme Craft - April 21 2006

Theresa Honeywell is tougher than you. You're just going to have to accept that fact. She lives in Pennsylvania, where knits, cooks, embroiders, and otherwise kicks the everloving shit outta the domestic arts. Theresa has an eye for the masculine arts, knitting tool belts, jackhammers....and yes, a MOTORCYCLE! [more]

Attention Knitters | New York Times

Attention Knitters [via]
New York Times - April 23 2006

There you are in a theater watching the promos, when, if only you could see, you could be finishing that adorable little sweater you've been working on. Monica Dremann, the wife of Michael Rosenberg, the president of Imagine Entertainment, mentioned this sad state of affairs to Edith Eig, an owner of La Knitterie Parisienne in Los Angeles, and Mrs. Eig's husband, Merrill, a retired engineer, got on the case. The resulting partnership yielded Knit Lite: knitting needles with glowing L.E.D tips, which allow you to purl away not only in the movies, but also at night on the lawn under a starless sky or maybe even in an amusement park tunnel of love. [more]

Knitting Rules | Lexington Herald-Leader

Knitting Rules
Lexington Herald-Leader - April 23 2006

America is the land of obsessions: gas prices, American Idol, the Cats.
Author Stephanie Pearl-McPhee readily admits her obsession: knitting. Pearl-McPhee has poured her knitting successes and failures into her newest book, Knitting Rules.
Pearl-McPhee, author of At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much and Yarn Harlot, has a different goal in mind for this book. Her intention is to help knitters really understand how to knit. "If I can save one knitter from the mistakes I made," it will be a success, according to Pearl-McPhee.
She intends to provide a how-to book that is "not excruciating," but she also has filled the book with humor and patterns.
Want to know exactly how obsessive a knitter is? She provides a handy quiz and 10 tips for "Identifying your own kind."
Pearl-McPhee describes the obsessive knitter as "wanting to knit to the exclusion of everything else." She is able to knit while traveling, while reading her e-mail ("you hit the space bar with your toe,") and while exercising. Said Pearl-McPhee, "I am all about innovation in knitting. If you want to knit bad enough, you'll find a way." [more]

Weavers celebrate Navajo tradition | Clovis News Journal

Weavers celebrate Navajo tradition
Clovis News Journal - April 23 2006

Eleanore Nestlerode captures nature on strands of yarn.
In an open-air studio, against a desert backdrop of mesquite and amber, she dunks long coils of cloudy yarn into steaming pots of water. Plucked from their baths, they reveal a spectrum of sunny yellows, poppy reds and indigo blues.
The soles of her black cowboy boots, coated with a layer of dust, crunch against the gravel as Nestlerode scoops up her dyed creations.
Her pallet is the land, she explains. She boils wood chips, insects, flowers, prickly pear fruit, and wild spinach down to a soup to dye skein after skein of yarn. [more]

Natural Resource Trust to knit sheep wool | fibre 2 fashion

Natural Resource Trust to knit sheep wool
fibre 2 fashion - April 22 2006

A new group has been formed at the Easton’s Natural Resources Trust Sheep Pasture that will make use of the wool from the sheep in the pasture.
This project is to integrate the use of natural materials and spread and promote awareness about them.
Monique Melcher, Sheep Thrills Fiber Circle, which is a group of knitters and crocheters, explained that their workers get together every month and craft products like hats, scarves, mittens and so on.
Melcher approved of this program and informed that another goal of the group and a field trip to Fiber Festival at Waltham has been planned in April.
This event displays many local vendors who raise animals for their furs and hairs. A wide variety of fibers are on sale including camel hair and a Golden Retriever blend for dog lovers.
Information on processing the wool will also be provided by the group in future.
[more]

Faire unleashes the inventors within | The Daily Journal

Faire unleashes the inventors within
The Daily Journal

It has a trampoline that shoots fire, a life-sized mechanical giraffe, wooden bicycles and LEGO creations that will make any adult awe in amazement. Call it crazy, call it weird, call it a science fair for grown-ups.
It’s the Maker Faire and it’s about to attract approximately 15,000 to the San Mateo Event Center. The event is organized by the publisher’s of Make Magazine, which only started last year and already had a subscription base exceeding 45,000.
It’s part of the growing DIY — do it yourself — movement sweeping the nation.
“It’s things that you want to do in your own time, that are satisfying like a hobby,” said Make Magazine founder Dale Dougherty. “There seems to be a lot of people out there that this has touched, not just hard-core geeks.”
There has to be plenty of space for the kind of things going on this weekend.
There will be a material swap, knitting classes and workshops about adding lights to clothing. [more]

Knitting more than a hobby for Sheridan students | The Sheboygan Press

Knitting more than a hobby for Sheridan students
The Sheboygan Press - April 23 2006

Sheridan Elementary School students just completed knitting scarves, ponchos, hats and more as part of an after-school knitting club.
The club began last year when Sarah Resch, Sheridan reading educational assistant, noticed that many students were attending school without mittens.
"I thought it would be fun to knit mittens for our kids to wear," said Resch. "This fall, kids started asking me about the scarves, ponchos and hats and things I was making and asked if I would make one for them. I thought it would be more fun if they made one for themselves."
So Resch began a knitting club earlier this school year. Knitting is taught by Resch and Mary Heitzmann. "I taught Mary to knit so she could help me," Resch said. [more]