Monday 26 January 2009

Wool and the Gang - too wool for school!!!



Super groovy knitting kits and yarns - go check it out:

Wool and the Gang


Sunday 25 January 2009

Is Yarbombing the new graffiti art?







One idle afternoon, while I was entertaining my eyes on the computer, I glanced at the various cables popping out from under the screen and from the top of the mouse. I convinced myself that they looked quite uninspiring and that maybe I should use some of my light blue yarn and knit a cable cover with my Knitting Nancy. Little did I know that I was on the verge of trespassing into the world of Yarnbombing. http://www.yarnbombing.com/
According to the legend, Yarnbombing started in the US when Texas-based clothes shop owner Magda Sayeg created a website called Knitta Please. http://www.knittaplease.com/KNITTA_PLEASE.html
The story goes that one day Sayeg looked at the door handle in her shop and decided to knit a cosy for it. After that the projects got bigger and started appearing in the streets of the UK just like true graffiti art. Sayeg's latest project was a double-decker bus covered in knitted patches, which took her one week to finish with the help of a small team.
So next time you look at your TV and start thinking about bespoke knitwear to cover it, remember that you are not alone and that there is a group of knitters out there who are ready to wrap the world into yarn and they are unstoppable.

Wednesday 14 January 2009

The Knitted Brain














Reading about Karen Norberg's knitted brains for the Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art made me think. Can we really reproduce anything in the knitted and/or crocheted form? Why would we want to do this when photography and computers can render a more accurate image of what surrounds us, which can also be manipulated invariably. Maybe it is because by knitting and crocheting we go through the experience of making and assimilating the progress of the object through our hands. True the copy is not as accurate as it could be when it is replicated by digital means, but the sensation of the yarn and the needles through our hands does make up for any imperfection. After all who wants to see another perfect image of the real world when the knitted one can be so exciting.











Images are from:

http://imaginaryfriends.typepad.com/neuroscienceart/2006/09/karen_norberg_1.html

http://lcni.uoregon.edu/~mark/Space_software/animations.html


Tuesday 6 January 2009

Knit resolutions


New Year, new projects to come and a new optimism for those UFO's (Unfinished Objects languishing somewhere quietly)

Some things stay the same, we knit, we meet. It has felt such a long time since our last knit and natter (in fact it was the night at Picnic on the 17th December)

We are meeting this week at jelly from 7pm and next week there is no knit night so get the knit whilst you can

Please don't let it snow so we can all get there....

Thursday 1 January 2009

Christmas Knitting

My main Christmas knit was a Lace Ribbon scarf for my mum (Billy Brown on Ravelry). It was a surprise so I couldn't show you until now.From my mummy I recieved a beautiful pair of Mosey legwarmers. Absolutely gorgeous! 

My daughter who is two now calls the legwarmers 'nana's knitting'. When my brother-in-law was trying on his plain garter stich scarf (another Christmas knit but too boring to include a photo) she kept trying to take it off him saying 'mummy's knitting'. She must have thought he was trying to play with my knitting -as she often does!