June 9 - International Yarn Bombing Day

The BBC is reporting on yarn bombing? This fiber art is sweeping the world (and international news scene.) Last Saturday (June 9) was International Yarn Bombing Day, an event that kicks off knit in public week.

I am looking forward to finding amazing images from this years event!

Miss Manners on Knitting

Knitting in public is a lot of fun, but there are still many misconceptions out there. Watch how Miss Manners deals with comments directed at a young woman who takes her hobby outside with her.

Olympic Scarf

Someone knit an olympic themed scarf and put it along a pier in North Yorkshire. Do you think the UK is excited for the Olympics to come to town? (I would be!)

The scarf features athletes that appear to be from the book Knitlympics: Knit Your Favourite Sports Star.

Yarn Alive

I read a great article today about knitting bringing comfort to elderly Japanese tsunami victims. The yarn they use has been donated from all over the wold. These women are knitting for comfort, and for practicality (such as creating blankets.) Please note: This availability of this article will be determined on your subscriber status to the Wall Street Journal.

"SHICHIGAHAMA, Japan—Every Tuesday in this tsunami-ravaged fishing village, the "Yarn Alive" knitting club meets—an accidental support group for a handful of the thousands of elderly Japanese still homeless after disaster swept away their lives nearly a year ago."

Visit the Yarn Alive blog for information on how you can help.

Death by Knitting

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day.

A while ago I shared an XKCD comic that discussed death by knitting accidents, and I am sad to say that I accidentally came across some real examples. Troubling, is that some of these nearly fatal knitting injuries were not accidents. In searching pubmed for scientific knitting articles, I came across the title of an article "Two knitting needles in the thorax in a suicide attempt diagnosed on day 6 and treated conservatively" published in the annals of thoracic surgery.

Today there is no knitting project of the day, but rather a day to share some suicide prevention resources.

National Suicide Prevention Hotline
Suicide prevention Resource Center

Knitting Propaganda

I know from some vintage photographs (WW2 era) that there was a big knitting for the troops effort. I don't have any idea how often these organized efforts happened, or who was organizing them. I came across the following knitting propaganda:

Photo credit Jessica Spengler via a Creative Commons License

I would love to learn more about these knitting initiatives. If you know anything about them, either from a personal perspective or a good book to turn to, please let me know through the KPOTD submission form.

Knitting in the News - Archives

KPOTD readers, I found something cool, but I am feeling blocked! While searching for current knitting news, I came across "News archive results for knitting:"

• May 22, 1937 Nerves Frayed By Boycott, Edward Turns To Knitting .Duke Makes ... Pittsburgh Press - all 149 news articles »
• Jan 25, 1942 Loud Protest Follows Sock Knitting Ban... St. Petersburg Times - all 16 news articles »
• Dec 5, 1959 Knotting, Knitting Among Princess Anne's Abilities. The Day - all 13 news articles »
  

Unfortunately, attempts to follow the links provided by google just brought me back to google.com. I now think I need to poke into knitting history! If you know of any knitting historical events, please let me know through the KPOTD submission form.

Scientific Comparison of Knit Sock Fibers

Comparison of cotton and acrylic socks using a generic cushion sole design for runners - Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association

Now here is a scientific study that has some relevance to knitters. I don't know how many of you expect your hand knit socks to be used as running socks, but this study looked at distance runners wearing socks that were identical in make except for fiber content. The result? Inconclusive. Continue knitting your socks with your favorite fiber. (I am aware these are manufactured socks, not hand knit.... but this is still interesting for sock knitters to know!)

Knitting Injuries

My mother always told me that you shouldn't run with scissors, but given what you can find from surgery scientific journals, you shouldn't run with knitting needles either!

Penetrating Cardiac Injury from a Wooden Knitting Needle from the American Journal of Emergency Medicine is just one example of an article about a knitting related injury.

Knitting in Science that isn't knitting

I thought it would be fun to search for scientific articles related to knitting. The following articles are some where knitting is used as a descriptive term, rather than the articles actually focusing on knitting itself (I wonder if any of the co-authors are knitters...)

• Knitting and snipping: chaperones in β-helix folding.
• Knitting it all together: breastfeeding education.
• Knitting and untying the protein network: modulation of protein ensembles as a therapeutic strategy.
• Regioselective knitting of aniline via ortho-C-N bond fusion using OsO4 as a template.

There were over 190 results when I searched pubmed for knitting. Just wait and see what else I've found!

Scieintific Knitting

As the author of ChemKnits, I would consider myself a scientific knitter. Not only have I designed many scientific knitting patterns, but I have also enjoyed searching for other designs.

Rather than looking at how knitters deal with science, I am curious about how science has dealt with knitting. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to research scientific articles somehow related to knitting (whether directly or indirectly) through pubmed. Wish me luck on my newest project!

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Whooops! This the first one I forgot to post on time. Sorry that it's two days late!

When Art Meets Science: The Hyberbolic Crochet Coral Reef

Before the launch of KPOTD, a reader at ChemKnits commented on my Humuhumunukunukuapua'a Knitting Pattern asking me if I had submitted this stuffed knit fish to Hawaii's Hyperbolic Coral Reef Project. This is the type of project that would be up my alley... if it were knit. The artists involved with the hyperbolic coral reef project have crocheted aspects of a coral reef, from coral to fish to other creatures that you would find there. It is really a beautiful work of art, and raises awareness for preservation of our coral reefs.

Urban Knitting, the world's most inoffensive graffiti

The author of the following article has ""scoured all yarn covered corners of the intertubes to find some of the best examples of knit/crochet graffiti (legal or otherwise)."" I thought that the bus cover and phone booth cozy that I've discussed previously were amazing. Can you imagine a crochet TREE COZY that covers the branches? (Apparently this one stayed up for three years)

I will be featuring some other of the projects that I've found on this page, but the tree is easy to share because it's located at the top of the article!
Yes, this yarn bombing is graffiti, but as long as the knitters clean up their work, then there is really no harm done. Much easier to clean up than paint or scratches!


Thank you, Keith, for sharing this article with me!

Urban Graffiti Knitters

Can you imagine being questioned by the police for knitting? Can you imagine the classic red London phone booth covered in a knit cozy? I'm not sure I can do this justice by describing it, but I have just learned about the movement of Yarn Bombing, or decorating public items for knitting. They may have called it a craft project, but I call it art!

I highly recommend that you read the entire article, it's delightful.

Thank you, Caroline, for sharing this amazing knitting project with me! Now that I've had more of a taste of this art, I am off to search for more. You will be hearing more about yarn bombing in the next few weeks!

Sweaters for Bald Chickens

Some animals raised for food are treated badly, and the lucky ones get rescued. The Somerset Knitting Club created dozens of knit sweaters for rescued hens. "They will soon fatten up and regain their feathers with the right care, but while they are waiting for their feathers to grown back they can benefit from our knitted jumpers."

If you want to create your own sweaters for bald chickens, now you can!

Knit the Royal Wedding

With the upcoming wedding of Prince William and Kate, so many souvenirs and commemorative items are popping up for sale. Well now you can knit your own souvenirs to celebrate this royal wedding!

The book Knit Your Own Royal Wedding by Fiona Goble sure has been making the news:

• This will have you in stitches: How to knit your own Royal wedding line-up (... including the Archbishop of Canterbury and a couple of corgis)
• Everett library staffers knit homage to royal wedding
• A Knitted Royal wedding tribute - although the following is not based on the book, but is another knit tribute to the royal wedding (without patterns you can access)
• Royal Wedding: Thanks for the memorabilia
• Knitters sew up royal wedding
  

I am more impressed by the likeness of Prince William to his knit doll than to Kate to hers...

I would like to thank my MIL-to-be for sharing this with me! There are many options for knitting for weddings that go beyond the royal wedding, if you're interested.

Noel the Dog

Noel is a dog who lost her ears from being used as fight bait. (Her rescuer thinks that she was used as the bait to train other dogs to fight because of the extent of her injuries.) To help make tog feel pretty, designers rallied and created headbands for Noel.

Vickie Howell shares her floppy eared knitting pattern with us on her blog. This would work great for Noel, and help keep her head warm.

Read more about Noel's Story.

Do you know a knitting design that has an inspirational story behind it? I'd love to hear it!

Makeover of the Wall Street Bull

The following is not a knitting project, but it is too fantastic to NOT highlight as a project of the day. On Jan 4, 2011, NYC-based artist Crocheted Olek covered the Wall Street Bull in New York City with a complete crocheted cover! Now this is what I call a big project.

OLEK AND THE CHARGING BULL ON WALL STREET from olek on Vimeo.

Thank you Naomi C. for sharing this article with me!