Little Bear

My first knitted teddy bear! (I'm so proud!) It took me just over a week to knit up the yarn and put him all together. He is one of the smaller bears from the book, just about 5 inches tall. It has been quite delightful to take an uninteresting ball of yarn and turn it into a little friend with such personality.

I have a feeling I won't be able to stop at just one...

Knittin' Wizards

I've got my next project all picked out. It has to do with a book I've been eyeing a long time (over two years), and finally brought home with me. The book is:




Isn't that cute? Unfortunately, I can only work on one project at a time, so I had to pass up this one:



...which is a real shame, because who doesn't need their very own knitted wand cozy?

It's knitting needles you want, not iPhones

Believe it or not, we had the knitting class (see previous post) in the works before finding this article.

Apparently a study called D-Code was just released, an annual survey that tracks youth culture. According to the study,

"Young people's circuits are overloaded. They can't keep on top of their email, surf their Facebook, handle their Second Life avatar and upload their Flickr. They find all this technology that is designed to connect them is in fact disconnecting them. They are actually in multimedia meltdown."

The result is a knee-jerk reaction towards the less sophisticated, as young people seek temporary salvation from the cutting edge. They are being driven to activities reminiscent of their childhood and more familiar with their parents' generation. Out goes MySpace, PS2s and iPhones, and in comes knitting clubs, craft fairs and cloud appreciation societies.

..."But this is not a fight against technology – youths want to be at the leading edge, but they also need a time for back to basics, where analogue living provides some respite."

Perhaps this hunger for the tangible explains the popularity of the knitting Sunday School class. When signups began, I had expected that class to garner less interest, but so far the first ten signups have been for knitting, including three very active 6th grade boys! I am very curious to see how the class plays out over the next four weeks.

If all goes well, perhaps we should consider starting our own 'cloud appreciation society'...

Knitting and Tattoos

More about the changing world we live in,

according to an MSNBC article about "microtrends":

Here are some factoids to take to the “Jeopardy” audition:

Over the past two generations, the number of left-handed Americans has nearly doubled.

Between 2004 and 2005, the purchase of fashion yarn increased 56 percent. The fastest growing group of knitters are teens and twentysomethings.

The fastest growing group of videogamers? Moms over the age of 45.

People making more than $75,000 a year are much more likely to be among the 30 million Americans with tattoos than members of lower-income groups.

Of young Californians surveyed last year, 1 percent aspire to become military snipers.

Only 77 of Harvard’s 6,700 undergraduates are majoring in math.

For more about these changes in culture, read the full article here.

A Close-Knit Family: An Ode to Knitting

For me, knitting is the perfect hobby...

I love to wander the aisles of Michaels, touching all the soft yarn in the rainbow of colors.

I imagine all the delightful things I could make.

I can knit anywhere – while traveling, in waiting rooms, while watching television or just hanging out.

I can relax – and be productive – at the same time!

There’s something about wearing an item I made myself that makes me feel independent, able, womanly.

I just can't decide which I like better: the knitting itself, or modeling the final product...