Knitting News

First steps today in knitting marathon | The Post-Standard

First steps today in knitting marathon
The Post-Standard - December 10 2006

Bellevue Manor is passing along age-old traditions this holiday season.

The Christmas Holiday Marathon for Knitting and Crocheting will be from 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Dec. 27, 28, 29 and 30 at Bellevue, where children and adults of all ages can teach or learn to knit or crochet.

"This is an intergenerational event," said Traci Niederhofer, community relations director at Bellevue Manor Assisted Living Community.

"Many people have knitted and crocheted for years, and this is a chance for them do so with camaraderie." [more]

Rock 'n' Roll Craft Fair | New York Press

Rock 'n' Roll Craft Fair
New York Press - December 2006

This holiday season don’t get ripped off—let arts-and-craft artisans reach into your deep pockets instead. Female-centric magazine Bust, under the editorship of Stitch ’n Bitch knitting priestess Debbie Stoller, made arts and crafts cool again by featuring a do-it-yourself project in every issue. Its second annual Holiday Craftacular is a chance to peddle iPod cases, silk-screened tees, handbags and lots of other wares you probably don’t need, all hand-made by crafty ladies and gents.
[...]Dec. 9. Warsaw, 261 Driggs Ave. (at Eckford St.), B’klyn, 718-387-0505; 12 p.m.-9 p.m., $1 entrance fee. [more]

Crochet Instructors Share Tips - Learning How to Crochet Doesn't Need to be Confusing Anymore | PR Web

Crochet Instructors Share Tips - Learning How to Crochet Doesn't Need to be Confusing Anymore [press release]
PR Web- December 2 2006

Many crochet enthusiasts complain that it's hard to learn how to crochet - especially when it comes to reading a crochet pattern. However this is not true. Crocheting can be fun & easy if you learn it right.

Unfortunately, many books on crochet are hard to understand and difficult to learn. Most people seeking to learn crochet are giving up as they get more confused as they go along.

Now, to iron out the problem, Kelly Parkson together with another crochet expert, have created a program called Crochet Mastery to help future crocheters learn how to crochet without the confusion.

For readers to understand easily, the program has a total of 186 actual color photographs guiding readers step by step as they create their first crochet masterpiece. There are no sterile, confusing diagrams.

Each crochet stitch, basic and advanced, is a completely detailed instruction telling the reader what to do and how to do it. It's like having a crochet expert sitting right next to you. [more]

Circling Back To Sewing | Time

Circling Back To Sewing [via Craft]
Time - November 27 2006

The coolest new accessories for the style savvy may be a pincushion and a pair of pinking shears. Once relegated to little old ladies, the frugal-minded and neohippie handicrafters, sewing your own clothes is back in vogue. Inspired by the desire for a unique look and by reality-TV shows like Project Runway, in which aspiring designers compete for an entrée into the established fashion world, more young people are trying their hand at this traditional domestic art. The Home Sewing Association estimates that there are about 35 million sewing hobbyists in the U.S., up from roughly 30 million in 2000, and annual sales of Singer machines have doubled, to 3 million, since 1999.

And as sewing regains popularity, it's also evolving. Since many new sewers never learned from their moms--who were often too busy earning a paycheck to spend hours cutting out patterns on the dining-room table--they're looking outside the home for guidance. Sewing clubs on high school and college campuses are flourishing, and there are even summer sewing camps and after-school classes for kids as young as 9. Some older newcomers are heading to chic urban sewing lounges for classes on making handbags, lingerie and cocktail dresses. Others are joining virtual sewing circles on the Internet, in which strangers exchange tips on the best hem styles and where to find inexpensive fabric. (Try Wal-Mart for prices starting at $6 a yard.) New books--such as Sew Subversive by the founders of Stitch Lounge in San Francisco and the upcoming S.E.W.: Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp, due out next year--give step-by-step instructions for all kinds of projects, from making a raincoat for your poodle to transforming a pillowcase into a sundress. And while some women are starting with the basics, cutting from patterns or stitching a seam, others are reinventing the craft by altering their old clothing for a custom look. [more]

Craft group turning llama fur into usable yarns | The Lawrence Herald

Craft group turning llama fur into usable yarns
The Lawrence Herald

udy Ross and her daughter Mitzi Ross raised llamas for years before Billy Bannerman, a master spinner and weaver, taught them how to spin the animals' fur into yarn.

Once they learned the craft, the Ross' wanted to share the joy of spinning with others and began the River Cities Fiber Clan, a group that meets to spin, knit, crochet, weave, needle felt, cross stitch, and appliqué.

"We wanted to see if there were other spinners in the area," said Judy Ross, one of the founding members. "As a direct result (of Billy Bannerman), this group was formed."

Right now there are about 40 members in the group, which has grown from six people who met at the first meeting in 2004.

"We meet to participate in and promote and educate people in all types of fiber arts," Mitzi Ross said. "We have people who are willing to teach. We welcome people of all skill levels."

The members hope to see the group continue to grow. [more]

Lincoln warms to pet project | The Coloradoan

Lincoln warms to pet project
The Coloradoan - November 30 2006

With the cold of winter upon us, students at Lincoln Junior High School are taking a little extra time to stitch, sew and crochet a helping hand for the many furry friends awaiting a home at the Larimer County Humane Society.

Working Mondays after school, Lincoln students spend an hour at a time creating small blankets that are donated to the humane society to be given to dogs and cats that might get chilly during the cold winter months.

The program, called "Snuggles Project," is in its fourth year at Lincoln but has been done by other organizations across the country for many years. [more]

Digital Age fuels radical crafts revival | Star Tribune

Digital Age fuels radical crafts revival [ with slide show - Putting their spin on tradition ]
Star Tribune - November 29 2006

Boyfriends and baby names, pet hygiene and avant-garde art. Those were just a few of the conversational threads that unspooled on a recent night at Crafty Planet, a northeast Minneapolis shop that caters to people who are putting a new spin on old-school handicrafts.

As the dozen women who showed up for "Craft and Chat" worked on their afghans, purses and scarves, they swapped stories about the hazards of extreme crafting.

"I had to go to urgent care with tendonitis, because of cable knitting," said Rebecca Yaker, as she worked on conjoined sock monkeys.

Kale Duden developed a wrist cyst. Then there was that puncture wound. "I bled all over my sushi quilt," she said.

Cedar Roller-Olson claims she's become addicted. "My boyfriend actually told me they'd have to do a knitting intervention," she said.

Crafting has gotten an attitude adjustment. No longer safe, staid and matronly, it's now fresh, edgy and even political, thanks to a new generation of freewheeling, enthusiastic practitioners.

They're forming alternative craft guilds with names like Craft Mafia and Crafters Local 612. They're doing "Subversive Cross-Stitch" (the title of a recent pattern book, which includes words that would have made Grandma blush). And they're gathering at indie craft fairs, such as Bazaar Bizarre (Boston), Crafty Bastards (Washington, D.C.) and No Coast Craft-O-Rama, which will be held Dec. 2 in Minneapolis. [more]

Related: Crafter: Rebecca Yaker

No Coast Craft-O-Rama
December 2, 2006
9AM to 7PM
Midtown Global Market
Minneapolis, MN

The new "it" bus pastime | Bus Chick, Transit Authority

The new "it" bus pastime
Bus Chick, Transit Authority - November 22 2006

This morning, a young woman got on the 8 with her knitting and sparked a bus-wide discussion. It started with the old ladies sitting near her in the front, then spread to the women further back, and eventually, to the punk-rock guy sitting next to me in the third row. Folks wanted to know what she was making (a scarf--it's the only thing she's mastered in two years of lessons) and how long it had taken her (two months so far). I got off mid-discussion, so I missed her tales of adventures in crocheting. [more]

Low-tech crafts for DIYers | San Francisco Chronicle

Low-tech crafts for DIYers
San Francisco Chronicle - November 22 2006

If the recent craft movement is any indication, 5 o'clock dinners and shuffleboard may soon be in style.

Hobbies once associated with Granny have become popular among young people. Several shelter magazines have declared needlepoint a bona fide trend. In cafes across the country, hipsters gather for "Stitch and Bitch" knitting sessions. And there's a new publication that just launched with the simple title Craft.

The quarterly started out as a special edition of the 2-year-old magazine Make, which focuses on do-it-yourself technology projects. But, according to Craft Associate Editor Natalie Zee Drieu, the publishers quickly knew they were on to something bigger. "They realized that this was such a growing community that had a lot of ideas to share," she said. "There was so much content that it could be its own magazine."

The premiere issue of Craft features 23 projects in all, ranging from home and garden ideas to fashion remixes. The instructions appear to be detailed, with lots of color photos and illustrations to guide the reader along. But I decided to put a couple of projects to the test. I wanted to gauge whether the instructions are indeed easy to follow and whether the finished products are worthy of showcasing in one's home. [more]

Swedes hooked on knitting | Sweden.se

Swedes hooked on knitting
Sweden.se

Knitting needles and crocheting hooks, stuffed away in closets for years, are re-appearing in Swedish cafés and homes. And its not just grandmothers who are putting them to use – a couple of professional free skiers are twisting yarn into very modern headwear.

A few years back free skier Sverre Liliequist spent some time in the Rocky Mountains, USA. Traveling from one treacherous ski slope to another, he started passing the time with a needle and yarn.

For his active, outdoor lifestyle, he wanted warm headwear that also suited his personality. Finding nothing of interest in the shops, he picked up a crochet hook and started doing what his mother had tried to teach him over the past Christmas holidays. “I’m left-handed and my mom is right-handed so it took a little while to figure it out,” Liliequist says of his crocheting debut.

From pastime to business

His first attempt is still one of his favorites – a beret inspired by Jamaican Rastafarian hats. “It was a big hat – green, yellow and red,” he says. A couple of hats later and his friend and skiing buddy Kaj Zackrisson was also hooked, and they came up with shapes that were more suitable for skiing.

The new hats, or beanies as they are called, were fun and colorful and attracted attention on and off the slopes. Eventually, requests started coming in from other skiers and the pair began making more hats to give away as gifts or even pay the rent with. [more]