Circular vs. Straights

Skacel Collection, Inc., has decided to show us how much faster a knitter can knit on an Addi Turbo Circular needle compared to straight needles. Speeds may appear faster in the video than they really are, especially given that neither contestant seems to actually have any idea how to knit.

Scritchy's To Do List and Other Knitting Fables

Oliver always liked to have a nice studio portrait taken of him and Peaches to use on their Christmas cards. Peaches could only be thankful that this year's shot wasn't as bad as that of the last three years. She was still planning on knocking over and breaking the 8" x 10" framed photo Oliver put in the living room as usual.

Sometimes it had been too long between brushings and Jasper couldn't bear to face the world.

"Can you take me back to the shelter, pleeeeease? Or just abandon me on the side of the road somewhere. At this point, I'm not picky."

Lavinia's person had a passion for Edwardiana and liked to dress Lavinia up in lace. Lavinia yakked up a hairball on said lace as often as possible.

After getting his new hamster house, Scritchy mentally made out his to do list for the day:

1) Sleep in house all day.
2) Eat house at night.
3) Bite owner while she was cleaning up the resulting blue droppings.

Lucky had always felt he was a lion trapped in a cat's body.

Anna had taken the phrase "purse dog" a little more literally than Mickey thought necessary.

"Maybe I shouldn't have peed on her last four boyfriends."

Nothing made Sprig and Sprog feel closer than wearing their matching sweaters. Unless it was sniffing each other's butts.

"Turn me into a Koopa, will you? I am totally hitting 'reset' on your game the next time you play Super Mario."

Intarsia, Intarsia Baby

While working on the 1990s post for my 20th Century series, I stumbled across what might be the penultimate nineties knitting: New Kids on the Block and Vanilla Ice fan sweaters. These sweaters were made by Joanne Conklin, who, as she explains on her blog:

We were living in Germany at the time and bands like New Kids On The Block were huge with the teen set. However, there were no fan t-shirts to be found anywhere, so I decided to knit sweaters. I made one for my daughter, then her friends, and word-of-mouth spread and the next thing you know I'd knit over a hundred of them, selling all but about 6 of them.

I can't get over the sheer level of detail and care that went into these designs, and the idea of knitting over a hundred of them stuns me. The New Kids on the Block and Vanilla Ice should have hired Conklin to design their fan merchandise. If you are, or know a die-hard fan of these old bands (or just love ironic kitsch), you'll want to know if Conklin has published the patterns anywhere. It seems not. Conklin has moved around quite a lot since 1990 and is no longer even sure if the patterns still exist, or if so, where they are among her belongings. Oh well. At least we can still hang tough and check out the hook while the DJ revolves it, courtesy of YouTube.

Places Where You Can Knit in Reykjavik

If you're ever planning on going to Iceland, you might want to check out designer Stephen West's helpful video montage of all the places one can knit in Reykjavik. Some of these ideas will work much better than others, of course.

The Knitter's Curse

"The Knitter's Curse" is a catchy and all-too-true little ditty by The Savoy Ballroom. Unfortunately a number of the examples of "knitting" that appear in the video are actually crochet, but perhaps that's just The Savoy Ballroom going the extra mile to portray a knitter's life as realistically as possible.

A Tale of Four Hats

It started out so innocently. Violet had always loved hats and wanted little Rose to wear hats, especially in the winter, and pixie hats were in for little girls in the 1940s, they really were. And little girls looked cute in almost everything.

Then, ten years later, because Violet was the kind of mother who would say, "I'm cold just looking at you!", she made her daughter something special for a formal at school, the Sequin Earmuffs pattern from McCall’s Needlework & Crafts Annual, 1952. Violet also made Rose a matching clutch and pumps.

For one Christmas present ten years later Violet made Rose the Pixie Loop Stitch Hat from Bangle Hats, published in 1962. She thought it would evoke all Rose's fond memories of the cones of yarn that always sat in her mother's craft room, and also be the perfect career girl hat.

But then it all seemed to go sour. Rose began to insist on making her own hats, and by the early seventies was sporting numbers like this one. Violet really could not understand where she had gone wrong in teaching her daughter to appreciate fine millinery, and prayed for death so that she might never see what her daughter was wearing on her head by the eighties.

Casting on and Casting Light

Perhaps you've made yourself a pouf, or bought one of Clare O'Brien's knitted stools or Bauke Knottnerus's Phat Knits, and are looking for a coordinating home furnishing piece to continue the knitting theme. Perhaps you'd like a lamp, but have rejected the knitted lampshade as not being meta enough. Well, in that case, I have a few home lighting ideas for you that represent the actual act of knitting. The Needle Table Lamp from Vitamin Living above being one.

This design is Louisa’s Loup Light, created by Louisa Pacifico. The design is mains operated and is available in various colours and materials.

This is the "Granny Lamp", by Sebastian Errazuriz, which is made of knitted electrical cable. I don't know if it's at all available commercially, and I think if it were to be, Errazuriz would have to consider renaming it.