multi functioning good things

Not that we have ever had to point to the value of knitting...


This is a self-knitting lamp, it is knitting its own shade. The contraption at the top is the lamp, and when it's activated at floor level it begins slowly spinning and knitting a shade for itself at a speed of about three rotations an hour.

come on knitters, show me other functioning knits

Something gorgeous for the weekend

A gratuitous knit shot because I love it


Image courtesy of knitwit

How French shepherds did their knitting in times of yore.

French shepherd resting on stilts, knitting. Undated.

"[...] Walking was just one form of locomotion. The swamp dwellers of the Marais Poitevin got about their watery world using fifteen-foot ash wood poles with webbed feet that allowed them to vault across a canal twenty-six feet wide. The shepherds of the Landes spent whole days on stilts, using a stick to form a tripod when they wanted to rest. Perched ten feet in the air, they knitted woolen garments and scanned the horizon for stray sheep."
~ 'The Discovery of France' by Graham Robb.

Maybe it is because I am becoming older

but I really want to keep my belly warm!


mmmm, belly warmer and knitted too!

More Finished Projects (Visions of Loveliness)

Two more Finished Projects have been added to the SQ website this week which I thought I'd share:
Loop-Through Scarf in Lavish - Bea from California knitted this gorgeous Garter Stitch Loop-Through Scarf by Marci Richardson with just one skein of Lavish in Sea Serpent which her sister from Reading, the lovely Machi, sent her as a consolation gift after some horrible person stole the shawl she was in the middle of knitting. The pattern is from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders and it's such an unusual design - I love it!


Montego Bay scarf in Lavish - Jaana from Finland used two skeins of Lavish in Golden Plum to create this sumptious but cool, summery Montego Bay scarf. The pattern is by Amy R. Singer and was published in Interweave Knits, Summer 2007. Jaana has a fantastic eye for colour, as can be seen by her projects on Ravelry (where she's known as Kamicha) and is a very talented up-and-coming knitwear designer. See more of her designs and adventures in knitting on her yarned

Yes, this tree is wearing a sweater

Sweater wearing trees are popping up all over the place, including this example in the town of Yellow Springs, Ohio. Residents of the town have embraced knit graffiti in a big way, covering the town's "knitknot" tree in knit panels filled with in-jokes and family artifacts.

It is reported that things in Yellow Springs aren't all peaches and cream, though:the tree is vulnerable to the raised legs of passing pooches. Because of that, the panels of yarn don't extend all the way to ground level.

Check out the abc article or the blog here at extreme craft

brrrr..... keep warm

a sedate pastime or revolutionary crafting?

Original post by Alabamawhirly - See post below for more info and comments.

a sedate pastime or revolutionary crafting?

We are not even going to start this debate again about where we all sit in this debate (I think we all know what category we fit under) - you can check out an earlier outcast post here

If you need any further proof that knitting is an exhilarating seat of the pants activity why not join in the forthcoming Sock Wars?

Now in it's 3rd year Sock Wars is the brainchild of Julie Gardner a 31 year old mother of 2 who after travelling Europe has returned to settle in her native Northern Ireland.

1,000 knitters took part in the first Sock Wars, making the " international sock of doom" and for Sock Wars II the pattern was called "scar" - a sock with a ridge down one side.

The players also post photos of the completed socks online, with some dramatising their "assassination" using fake blood or by lying on the floor beneath the pair they received.

If you are brave enough sign up to do battle you will be emailed a top secret assassination dossier on 9th May 2008. This file contains the details of your target and an exclusive, never-been-published-before knitting pattern with which to assassinate them.

To kill your target you must knit them the pair of socks in the pattern (your weapon) and mail it to them. Once your target receives your parcel they are dead and must post their death on the “fallen comrades” section of the sockwars site.
They must also immediately send you details of their intended target (who becomes your next person to assassinate) along with their unfinished knitting (which becomes your new weapon).
All the while this is going on, someone has been assigned you as their target…
Prepare to live in fear… Kill or be killed!

Sign up for the bloodbath at the Sock Wars home.

I Knit

I have been hearing about I Knit for a while, thinking they are just like us outcastians - they like to KIP, they watch movies, compare knit ratings and it appears an all consuming passion.

So here they are on Ravelry and even better, there is an online shop, blog, a club and a film club - knitty heaven

Now, low and behold they are going one step further and presenting the first KNIFTAS, Knitting in Film and Television Awards..., full info here.

Fancy a knit night on tour trip? Or day out to the I Knit Day in September? Or even have any ideas of what you would nominate for the following categories?

Worst knitting/crochet/craft scene

Best knitting/crochet/craft scene

Best knitwear

The rules are that all nominated films must have played in UK/US cinemas, or been shown on UK/US television between 1st January 2007 and 29th February 2008.

Nominations to be posted here or on the Ravelry I knit group message board, where you also argue/discuss the other nominations.

so what is it to be an etsyian?

I don't know the answer to this, but some of us outcastians became etsyians and some etsyians have become outcastians.

The founder, Rob Kalin has reached the goddess of American Life (sic)Martha Stewart for an interview on leap day - you can watch the footage courtesy of moth to flame here or see a web exclusive from martha

so what do you have to say about Etsy?