Knitting News

In Life’s Second Act, Some Take on a New Role: Entrepreneur | New York Times

In Life’s Second Act, Some Take on a New Role: Entrepreneur
New York Times - September 28 2006

Call them silver entrepreneurs or senior entrepreneurs or third-age entrepreneurs. They are people who do not want — or are not financially able — to idle away their retirement years and, instead, opt to start a business.

[...]Ms. Grazioli, 59, plotted her transition carefully. When she resigned as nursing administrator at the Henry Ford Kingswood Hospital in Ferndale, Mich., in February 2005, she took the hospital system’s career transition training, including two workshops on entrepreneurship.

“I had been knitting since I was 9, and I always had a dream to work with fibers,” she said. Just then, a knitting store that she and her daughter, Amy Goller, 36, frequented in Royal Oak, Mich., went up for sale. They met with a financial adviser to devise a plan, but decided the purchase price was too high.

But her appetite was whetted. “I could have gone back to the field where I felt comfortable, but I believe you need to take a risk,” Ms. Grazioli said. [more]

Romance, Russia and billy goat fluff | International Herald Tribune

Romance, Russia and billy goat fluff
International Herald Tribune - September 27 2006

Cashmere and angora are still the fashion staples in the world of luxury knits, but there is now a new rival for the fashionista's wardrobe.

Pookh, or dandelion fluff, as it translates from the Russian, is made of a cobweblike fabric that is woven from the beards of mountain goats that graze on the foothills of the Urals and is heading to the forefront of the fashion world as the signature material of the flourishing designer brand Rodnik.

Richard Ascott, 25, and Philip Colbert, 26, the creative directors at Rodnik, were not discouraged by the challenge of being newcomers when they introduced their label in 2003. They have been unconventional from the start. Colbert, a philosophy major, and Ascott, an art history major, were discussing what they would do after graduating from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, when Ascott saw the fabric on a friend. It struck him as beautiful and unusual.

It was Pookh. With the energy and enthusiasm of novices, they used the fabric to help revive the name Rodnik, taken from an early 20th-century Moscow shop owned by Princess Tenisheva, a patron of arts and crafts, and run until 1905. It was to be the perfect union: Pookh scarves made from the beards of Russian goats and Rodnik, the Tenisheva's Russian arts brand. [more]

MP3 players oust knitting in NZ price index revamp | Yahoo! Finance

MP3 players oust knitting in NZ price index revamp
Yahoo! Finance - September 28 2006

MP3 music players and laptop computers will take over from knitting needles and sherry as New Zealand revamps its measure of inflation to reflect changing consumer tastes. [more]

When knits are hits | International Herald Tribune

When knits are hits
International Herald Tribune - September 27 2006

The war of the wools is being fought in such a genteel way among the Scottish knitwear clans that they seem more like friends than fashion foes.

Ballantyne and Pringle should be archrivals, since both brands showed on the same day in Milan, both have a diamond pattern as a base and both are trying to be lairds of luxury. Yet they proved that when knits are hits there is plenty of space.

Ballantyne played up its heritage by transporting a little bit of Scotland to Italy. Two weavers creating intricate intarsia, or built-in-picture, patterns worked at their looms against a backdrop of 40 years of designs. Framed like the pictures they create were the color charts for poodles, flowers, polo players and jungle animals. Each spot on a leopard's hide, or the petals of abundant poppies, appeared on the archive knits. [more]

Anthony's personality a great mix | The Arizona Republic

Anthony's personality a great mix
The Arizona Republic - September 27 2006

Anthony is a young man with an unusual mixture of domestication and adventure in his personality. He loves all sorts of activities, such as driving go-karts, riding roller coasters, knitting and house cleaning.

In his spare time, Anthony, 14, has no difficulty finding ways to occupy his mind.

"Sometimes if I get really bored, I'll just clean," he said. "I like cleaning anywhere. The grill - like cleaning up the grill - and I like cleaning up the ceiling fans. I like to clean the baseboards . . . I like to help."

Anthony's favorite hobby is an unexpected one for a teenage boy. "I also like to knit, and I like crocheting. I knit sweaters. Well, I haven't knitted a sweater yet . . . I just haven't put it together yet." [more]

The End of the Yarn? | Publishers Weekly

The End of the Yarn? [via Fearless Knitting 101]
Publishers Weekly - August 28 2006

Trends, fads and fashions come and go, and many are the businesses that try to keep up with them, including publishing. Whether chick-lit, anime, sudoku or survivor memoir, book publishers run the risk of committing to projects only to see the public's enthusiasm wane before the books appear, or grow tired at the onslaught of titles once they do. Suddenly, yesterday's trend is today's old news.

In the hobbies and crafts category, knitting began to take hold about six years ago; no one knows why. But in a post-9/11 world, the activity has continued to increase in popularity. Publishers, of course, have responded with books and more books. But now comes the challenging part. Is knitting on the verge of becoming a widely established American hobby (like, say, gardening) or is it headed for the fate of philately? Although St. Martin's senior editor BJ Berti characterizes knitting as "the trend that refuses to die," not all the signs promise longevity. [more]

Game Inspired Knit Wear | Kotaku

Game Inspired Knit Wear
Kotaku - September 26 2006

Now that it is autumn, time to pack away the shorts and tube-tops and pull out the knit wear. For those lacking warm clothing, here are a retro pixel scarf and hat to keep you tacky and loud nice and toasty. [more]

When learning to knit, start from the beginning | Sun and Weekly Herald

When learning to knit, start from the beginning
Sun and Weekly Herald - September 27 2006

"Tell me how you teach," my new student asked me during our first lesson together.

"I start at the beginning," I said.

"But what do you do that's different from the 20 teachers that I had in the past 20 years?" she queried.

I thought, "Help!" but I didn't say that. What I did say was, "I try to listen to my students. I teach what you want to learn with a couple of suggestions thrown in."

"I'll take two!"

I laughed, not sure whether she meant two lessons or two suggestions. Either way, we were off and learning to knit. [more]

Finding the "Lost Arts" Bowling balls, lotus flowers, and the "Knitting Circle" | The Epoch Times

Finding the "Lost Arts" Bowling balls, lotus flowers, and the "Knitting Circle"
The Epoch Times - October 25 2006

Recently, I attended a meeting of the "Knitting Circle," a group of women who knit, weave, or spin, at the home of Larry and Carol Ann Parker. We gathered in a small building set aside from the main house called the "Wool shed." Inside, the chairs were arranged in an L-shape and the walls were lined with wooden hat molds, large jars of buttons, brim molds, hat boxes, spools of thread, as well as numerous skeins and balls of yarn. A few hat racks covered with felt hats and scarves sat about, and the pleasant hum of several lively ongoing conversations permeated.

One of the first and one of the most outspoken ladies I met was DJ Falconer, who not only knits, but also spins, weaves tapestries, crochets lace, and does quilting. She was very engaging and quite energetic, speaking initially with me of politics.

DJ finds a "creative outlet" in knitting, and says her involvement with the "Lost Arts" is very "historical." (Many members attend events throughout the year wearing period-style clothing and doing demonstrations for the public, school children, etc. to promote the "Lost Arts.") She has also benefited in meeting new people and making new friends. Her advice to anyone interested in the "Lost Arts" is to: "just get started, get support, and find groups." [more]

Let's go play on the gender gym | The McGill Tribune

Let's go play on the gender gym
The McGill Tribune - September 26 2006

I remember what a taunt it used to be to be told that you throw like a girl. A girl obviously can't throw very well. Of course we all now realize that, as a girl, it should be a compliment to be told that you throw like a girl. How terribly anti-feminist to think otherwise, right?

Along with this reasoning came a wave of other reclamations-a process of recoding all that is deemed "women's' work" as nothing less than superb.

And so a murmur of clicking started to spread across the country, as knitting needles frenzied at Stitch 'n' Bitch parties. Women took up knitting as a return to their roots and enjoyed the attendant fuzzy feeling they got from knowing that, woven into their woolies, was their own personal form of feminism. While I hope never to knit a line in my life, I understand the feminist agenda. [more]