Knitting Needle Nightmare: A Video

Be afraid. Be very afraid.




In the very special episode of Grandma's Cats Are Trying to Kill Her, Lucas has to foil his grandmother's two murderous cats after they contrive to get into Grandma's sewing room. As for the video itself, I live for the day when screenwriters will take the time to google any craft-related terms they use to find out what they really mean. The writers of this video do not seem to have grasped the definition of "afghan" or to know the difference between "knitting" and "sewing".

Otherwise, the video isn't a bad little watch, and while cats shouldn't play with yarn as it will mess up their small intestine and possibly kill them if they ingest it, if you're facing imminent death at the paws of your beloved but homicidal cat, you're justified in distracting it with yarn until you can escape to a place of safety.

Rocket: A Video

In Rocket, a stop animation video short made by ChunkiChilli, a rabbit astronaut takes a leap for bunnykind by voyaging into space.

Knit One

Knit One, written by Claire d'Este and directed by Clare Gray in 2012, is a delightfully offbeat little short in which the newly widowed Sadie’s grief-fuelled knitting obsession transforms her environment and helps her forge a new connection.

Baby You're a Knitter

Stephen West demonstrates that he's the knitting scene's Weird Al Yankovic with his performance in this video.

The History of Guerrilla Knitting: A Video

At the 24th Chaos Communication Congress that took place in Berlin, Germany in 2007, one of the speakers was Rose White, who gave a presentation on the history of guerrilla knitting. I've hesitated to post this video because White isn't the best speaker, and she gets some of her facts wrong (i.e., she claims knitting did not exist before the Renaissance, when knitting is currently believed to date from at least 800 A.D.), but she does have some interesting insights on the evolution of knitting from what she calls "proprietary knitting" to the kind of subversive and democratized knitting common today, and I found the video well worth a listen.

Pretty Crabby: An Animated Video

Check out this animated video for "Pretty Crabby", a song from the album Rise and Shine! from Caspar Babypants, aka children's music artist Chris Ballew. The video was directed by Charlotte Blacker, and it's a great and unexpected pleasure to watch a crocheted crab go to town on its guitar.

This is Why We Knit: A Video

Very Pink Knits asks knitters of all nationalities and ages why they knit. The answers range from the funny to the pragmatic to the moving.

Eight Leg Reunion: An animated short

In Eight Leg Reunion, an animated short from KnitBits, the helpless body of an octopus gets its legs and joyfully submerges itself below the waves for the first time.

Skein of Thought with Mochimochi Land

In this video, Anna Hrachovec shares some of her thoughts and techniques she uses to employ her designs in photography and animation.






This video is a supercut of the charming Mochimochiland.com animated GIFs made in 2012 by Anna Hrachovec.

An Interview With Kaffe Fassett

In this 35 minute interview, Kaffe Fassett talks about how he became a knitwear designer in the 1960s and muses about the appeal of knitting.

Mrs. Wilson's Knitting Circle

In a presentation called "Mrs. Wilson's Knitting Circle" that was recorded on February 7, 2014 in the J.C. Nichols Auditorium at the American National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, the Museum's Curator of Education, Lora Vogt, and its Registrar, Stacy Peterson, introduce World War I-era knitting patterns and discuss the history of the National World War I Museum and knitting during World War I.

One String

In this video, created by Joe Penna, AKA YouTube user MysteryGuitarMan, gives us a narrative brought to life by a single skein of yarn that has been rearranged 703 times. According to this CNet article, it "took just under three weeks of work to create the minute-and-a-half-long animation, with two to five people working on it 10 hours a day" to create this video.

Ready Set Loop

In this stop-motion music video, "Ready Set Loop", directed by Liz Hilder, and shot by Jon O'Shea, we see what happens after a knitter makes a few knitted mice and leaves the room. You may want to cover your cat's eyes before you watch this.

Easter Egg Socks

This video, from YouTube user Kris Krafter, demonstrates how she dyes yarn for sock knitting by knitting tubes on her hat knitting machine, colours them using Easter egg dye, plastic wrap, a microwave and salad spinner, winds them back into yarn balls, and then finally knits up the yarn again on her sock knitting machine, and all to a lively salsa beat. It's fun to see how the dyed yarn knits up, and the resulting socks might just make for interesting Easter egg hunt finds.

Knit One/Purl The Other

"Knit One/Purl The Other" was one of the plays featured at the 2011 Minnesota Fringe Festival. Unfortunately it's too late for us to see the production, but the promo of it does give us a sense of what a nail-biting, stitch-dropping production it must have been.

Cage Knitting!

The Assisted Living Sports Network brings you the trailer for Cage Knitting 4: The Cast Off, featuring knitters Betty Hegarty and Barbara Sandwich, both of whom look like knitters to beat. And only one will walk out of the cage with a new pair of slippers.

Thinking of the Moon

Thinking of the Moon, a "silent muffler" knitting animation by Miho Yata, with piano accompaniment by Mie Yanashita, tells us the story of the thief who wishes for the moon, and finally gets it through the magic of yarn. You may be interested in checking out the other silent muffer videos I've posted previously: Film Muffler and Cherish Garden.

Flight of the Snowman

Here's a stop animation video about a snowman ornament who decides he's going to go find another Christmas tree to hang out on.

Flags Xmas Story

In this video, made by YouTube user Yatamimation as an advertisement for a clothing business in Tokyo, when the young couple plan what to get each other for Christmas, they think in terms of crocheting and knitting. Hope you enjoy seeing what they decided to give one another.

The Yarning

In this stop motion animated short by YouTube user lapendule100, a skein of wool explores a knitting basket and finds the horrors that lurk within it. If skeins of yarn had sensibilities, they'd probably report all of us knitters to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Inanimate objects.