Australia’s oldest person, 111-year-old Jean Gray, credits her longevity to a healthy lifestyle, and her knitting hobby.
So many amazing sweaters!
Another venerable knitter, Loes Veenstra, has been knitting sweaters since 1955. Over the years, she has knitted 500 sweaters, and had stored them in her house in Rotterdam. They had never been worn, until an enterprising group of friends and neighbours took it on themselves to make a parade... Just wonderful! The sweaters are on display at the Rotterdamn Museum until January 18th, 2013 (the webpage is in Dutch), and a book of the sweaters is being published, too.
Knitting in winter wonderland…
Seasonal yarnbomb: a concrete ball is turned into a snowman in Andover, Hampshire, UK. If the snow is not falling from the sky, perhaps you can find something snowy in your stash?
A mom posts a call to a message board asking for help learning to knit – she’s planning to home-school her daughter and wants to learn to knit herself so she can pass it along to her daughter. I love that she takes this responsibility seriously.
One wonders if the Queen knits?
Interesting discussion alert: blog Jezebel writes about a toy company in New Zealand and their packaging of a knitting kit as ‘a good thing for girls’. (Looks like a fun gift for the younger set, actually, although I do agree that there is no need to label it that way.) The comments make very interesting reading – lots of discussion of men and boys who knit, some women in a tongue in cheek way saying that the feel like they aren’t proper girls because they can’t knit. I don’t agree with all of them, but it’s a good insight into the perceptions of the muggles towards knitting and the gender expectations around it. (Be aware, there is some salty language in other articles on the site. NSFW, possibly.)
In other things I’m not sure I totally agree with, but find interesting: a Knitting 101 class promoted as part of a Disaster/Apocalypse Skills workshop. My hubby has always said that my sharp Signature needles would come in handy in the case of a Zombie attack, but I’m very confident he’s kidding…
Carry it with pride!
Just a reminder: the special Knitty 10th Anniversary Tom Bihn Swift bag is only on sale until December 31st. The bag is in stock – place your orders now!
I seem to recall film of the Queen knitting. She was a young woman and in uniform for WW II. I know her main job involved the motor pool, but she was knitting for the soldiers, too.
Love the 500 sweaters flash mob. I’m still grinning.
the dutch sweater video was enchanting! it brought tears to my eyes! what a gorgeous variety of sweaters, what joyous people, and did you see the guy in a kilt over pants at about 2:03?!
Thank you for the flash mob! It’s the most joyous thing I’ve seen in ages. I’ll have to consult a Dutch friend to figure out why the sweaters weren’t worn before then!
Knitting is such a great hobby. When my 12 year old was having anxiety problems knitting really helped her calm down. She made plenty of hats and other items. She doesn’t do it much now but she has her condition so much better under control.
[...] ~Highlighting flash mobs a few times, I immediately clicked on the flash mob link my spinning class teacher sent to us. This is a unique, flash mob twist. The flash mob was featured on the Knitty blog. [...]