Selvedge, film....

Have you seen the film Wool 100%? It's quite good!

Selvedge, sheep!

Oh, this was a nice 3 or 4 spread article showing all kinds of varieties of sheep for their wool.

Selvedge, public knitting

Sweet story about knitting on public transportation in London. I'm afraid they don't ever put their articles online, so I can't link to it....

handbags

Outsapop is a rather recent addition to my bloglines, and she posted this about a project called Counterfeit Crochet where everyone crochets replicas of designer handbags. Across the board, I love the crocheted versions more, not because they are designed better or even are aesthetically more pleasing, but they are just so much more visceral, I can't resist them:

And of course, I couldn't resist the Coach example:

A Top Handle Pouch of all things! Ha!

This project also reminded me of the old Mary Ping project Slow and Steady Wins the Race, a favorite of mine in graduate school. In the eighth installment she remakes several designer hand bags all in white canvas....not quite as visceral as the crocheted bags, but something lovely about stripping them down to their essence and removing all the graphic identifiers. The Dior:

Anyway, the Counterfeit Crochet project led me to Stephanie Syjuco's own website and to all her interesting projects there. I really should write a whole post about her work....take a look around her site. I think Personal Protest is my personal favorite.

Learn to knit

Believe it or not, everyone wears this expression as they learn to knit!

sweet prints

I love the textiles from Sirena con Jersey (Mermaid in a Sweater!):

I'm not so into that kind of acrylic jewelry also on their website, but the knit designs especially remind me of learning how to use the knitting machine and how awesome it felt!!

other kinds of knitting....

I've been thinking a bit about other ways of knitting lately. I've seen some lovely ideas (click links for directions):

finger knitting:

Ever do this? I used to finger knit with loose strings when I was a kid....never made anything out of them of course, but maybe I should start now.

comb knitting:

I feel like girls in my school used to do this. I don't ever remember doing it though.

and for the really hardcore: Wii knitting!

This looks way out of my league, but wow!

Another sweet knitting site

A friend sent me to this weblog: Simply Olive. Take a look at some of the pretty pics on her site:


yoko izawa necklace & ring


Sandra Backlund dresses


Okay, not all knit. Fendi Spring '09 dress

Maker Faire Austin 2008!

I spent the weekend before last in Austin Texas promoting the Virgin Knitters project. I taught about 20 new people to knit and they all promised to send their first scarf in to the collection. It was so much fun to meet all these new people and talk about other people's interesting projects too.


Here's all the Lucky Scarves I've collected so far all laid out for display. You wouldn't believe how many people wanted to know if they could buy a scarf!


Matthew from Alabama was my very first knitter at Maker Faire!


This was the most knitters I taught at one time.


And this was the fastest knitter, see her finished scarf here.

Also, sadly, I did not get a chance to teach Bill Murray to knit. He must have gone by when all of my chairs were full :)

Looking back, I wish I had taken a picture of every knitter. There were so many great stories and people to remember: Zach the boy wonder knitter, the chemistry major thinking about changing his major to textiles, the woman wanting to knit socks to help her sons itchy legs, the mother daughter knitting team, the man knitting the fishing net, the girl from Nevada, and of course all the folks who said they'd come back and then did!

Kari Steihaug

I'm in love!

Norwegian artist Kari Steihaug has a lovely project called Archive; The Incomplete and Forlorn. I can't link to the specific page on her website (I hate that!), but I've posted the two pictures of the project here. She is collecting pieces of unfinished knitting. They are really lovely. There is also a component of the project called The Tatters of old pieces of worn knitting (see her site above for these).



I love that the Virgin Knitters project is sort of the knitting precursor to these two ideas. First you have the pieces about learning to knit, then you have the ones that the knitter never finished (you know we all of some of those), and finally the finished knitted garments after they are used and used and used....

Good (big) news for Virgin Knitters!

Guess what? I'm going to be at the Maker Faire in Austin on October 18 & 19 to promote the Virgin Knitters project! Look! Hopefully I'll be teaching lots more new knitters and also getting some new interest in the project!

I am so so excited to be going down there and meeting new knitters and talk to people about my project!!

See all the cool projects at Maker Faire here, and come if you are in the area. I'll be bringing my super knitting dad to talk about his experience being a Virgin Knitter!



Yay!!!

2 community sites I never heard of before

have you?

Ravelry, a knitting site

and

Fashioning Tech, a sort of social networking site about smart textiles.
This one I know a little about (I joined), it was started by Syuzi Pakhchyan who recently wrote a book of the same name. I'm not really sure what to do on there though :P

If you're on Fashioning Tech "friend" me! I'm still waiting for an invitation to Ravelry, but I'd love to hear insights or reviews of the community!

Auntie's work

May 11, 2008 was my Great Aunt Ellen's 90th birthday. She has always been a crafty one, that Aunt Ellen. And I don't just mean she's sly (which she is). I always remember seeing crocheted and embroidered bits and bobs not only around her house, but around all of our relatives' homes. Auntie was always giving away afghans, tissue box covers, doilies, you name it! If she could hook it, she'd make it. In honor of Auntie's birthday (and who my middle name came from) here are a few images of items she's made for me:


(afghan)

I am so grateful for these particular gifts, and for all the interesting things my family has made for me over the years. My Aunt Bev painted beautiful ceramics, my mother and grandmother crocheted and knitted lovely things, my Aunt Kathy makes gorgeous sewn decorations too. I'd love to see pictures or here stories of other people's handmade treasures and heirlooms. It's so wonderful to have things wrought by a loved one's own hands, don't you think?


(toilet paper cover!)

Are you getting sick of knitting yet?

Becky Stern at Craft posted about her awesome new project "Knitted Interfaces for Technology":

In this paper, we propose a participatory installation that aims to bring critical awareness and consideration to the complex relationship between people and their technological artifacts. These 'Body-Technology Interfaces,' (BTIs) in the form of hand-knitted custom wrappers for personal electronic devices, will reflect salient interaction behaviors between the participant and their chosen device.

How cool are they?

See a bunch more pics here

Learning to Knit Images

Craft magazine posted about Ladybird craft books, which seem to be all out of print, and I couldn't resist posting a few of their beautiful illustrations on learning to knit:







You can order any of these images on the Ladybird website....

A different kind of yarn project

Tired of actually knitting with yarn?

Try this!

My favorite knitwear brand

Keep and Share by Amy Twigger Holroyd is my absolute favorite knitwear company. Amy is inspired by the "story behind the product" and her philosophy of ethical fashion that is built to last has a growing number of beloved customers and fans. All of her pieces are made in her studio in lovely Hereford England. Unfortunately the mighty British pound makes it difficult for me to buy as much as I'd like, but the 'Jumble Sale', where last season's goods are 30% off, helps. Here are some of my favorites in her new SS08 collection:



My only complaint is her flash based website that only allows me to link to the main page and won't let me see bigger pictures of her beautiful work!

Beautiful knitwear

I've been posting mostly funny, weird or cutesy knitted things so far, so now i thought I'd better show you something beautiful. I first saw Tim Ryan's lovely knitwear on Style Bubble, and I was hoping to say I found a bunch more pictures of his work once I dug around the internet a bit, but sadly I have not. So here are a few photos that were on Susie's site and will have to do for now. I'm going to see what other beautiful knits I can find out there to inspire us.






If you're interested Susie's post talks a bit more about his interests & technical skills.

Scarf round up link

Make Magazine Scarf Round Up is awesome! A few of my favorites:


The saw that dripped blood


A scarf that loves you back


Blood scarf (you have to click on the image in her portfolio)

Snake Scarves

Really cute snake scarves!

For my Knitters

I'm doing a group knitting project for next fall (see here) so I'm going to keep my entries very knit-centric for a while to inspire my knitters! Please click on the link above to read more about it (and see the first pictures).

My first post has to be about Net Granny! Iread about this site recently on Craftzine, and it's a service that let's you order a custom-made pair of socks hand-knitted by the Swiss grandmother of your choice. Look:



You click on the picture of the Granny you want to knit your socks, then you choose which socks you want, and you can see how long the wait is for your socks, and how many pairs of socks she is already knitting. I wonder how they found all these grannies....Here's a blurb from their website:

Until now, handknitted socks have been mainly sold on rural markets or in handcraft shops. Distribution via online-shop appeals to the modern urban people, who is used to fulfill his needs on the internet and still loves nothing more than cozy handmade socks. On the other side the grannies, all passionnate knitters, have found a vast clientele who cherishes their work.

Sweet!

Feeling lucky?

A nice article on luck, one of my favorite topics.

P.S. not the best picture, but I totally want to make a balaclava. Maybe this one: