hi from the newest newbie

Hey everyone, I'm Lawren, your newest newbie (sorry I kind of stole that from the other newbie a few blogs down).. I study skulls by day (seriously... I'm writing my dissertation on climatic adaptations of the human skull) and knit and make earrings by night. I promise to post a pic of my newest knitting endeavor (some rugby inspired gauntlets) as soon as I stop being so lazy (can you be lazy and a grad student? probably not.). But for now... my favorite punk rock husband and wife are pregnant and I was wondering if anyone knew of any SUPER cute (but rockin') baby stuff I should think to make for them. I breifly looked online and the coolest thing I found was baby cowboy boots. Skulls are preferable (always)!

-Law

Knitty Gritty going down the tubes for good?

If you love Knitty Gritty ...
there's a petition (did I spell that right?) on the net for viewers to demonstrate their support for the show that is in danger of being cut from DIY.

sign it!!

picked this up from knittinghelp.com

f****ing ridiculous

Note from our moderator: the way the article appears was edited as per the rules to avoid excessive profanity. The way the article appears below is NOT how it appears in the original article cited. To see the unedited version, please follow the link to the article. Amanda's words which appear below the article were not edited.- Carissa



The Rise of Adolf Knitler: The crochet-fascists are back.

by Steven Wells


You know what really annoys Philadelphians? Journalists who get neighborhood names wrong. Write that the corner of 23rd and Analretentive is in Whogivesaf***, and you’ll get 100 letters and phone calls sneeringly pointing out that Analretentive stops just south of Getaf***inglife Avenue, which means the corner you’re talking about is actually in Stupidyokelwithnothingbettertodo, “you f***ing idiot” (no matter how politely they start the phone call, geographical pedants can never resist swearing right at the end.)

But giving these local-geography fascists a good run for their money in the hysterical overreaction stakes are Philadelphia’s legions of extremely sensitive and appallingly badly dressed knit-Nazis. Boy do they get pissed if you write rude things about them.

I should stress here that knit-Nazis are in no way like real Nazis (apart from being really touchy and big fans of the films of Leni Riefenstahl). I use the term because it’s an astute parody of the way the crafts most associated with brain-dead, soul-destroying pre-feminist housewifery—knitting, beading, stitching and crocheting—have been re-packaged and successfully sold to smugster sheep as radical, alternative and edgy.

I have two books on my desk right now, both pushing the strange idea that twiddling about with bits of wool is totally punk rock. And they’re just the tip of a huge knitted iceberg. There are entire sections containing metric sh**-tons of these knit-Nazi manuals in every book barn in America.

First up there’s Alter Nation. There’s a rad-lookin’, crazy blue-haired rebel chick on the cover alongside a boast that it contains “25+ DIY fashion projects.” Be still my punky heart.

Then there’s Anticraft, subtitled “Knitting, beading and stitching for the slightly sinister.” One can only assume they’re using “slightly” here to mean “not at all.” And that “anti” is a misspelling of “auntie.”

Seriously, if you called housework antihousework, would that make it cool? If you anticleaned the kitchen after antichanging the kitty litter before antipicking your screaming brats up from school and antidropping them off at soccer practice before rushing home and nearly anti-overdosing on antidepressants so you can face clearing up the vomit your sh**-faced alcoholic of an antihusband has puked all over the bathroom (while still finding time to knit an amusingly decadent antitoilet-roll cover) does that mean your lifestyle is somehow edgier and more interesting than that of your poor burnt-out-at-40, dead-by-50 great grandmother?

Put it this way, young goths: Vlad the Impaler didn’t crotchet his own ear-flapped bobble hats. And neither should you. If you need a hobby, take up spitting.


Does anyone else feel insulted?
QUICK!! Let me run to Hot Topic and purchase something! Would that make me more punk?
We have the CHOICE to craft, and incorporating a DIY aesthetic into things is a good thing.

A poster on a board I'm on said something that resonated my feelings on 'choice'. Just because I like to do some of the things my gramma did, doesn't mean I want her life, her salary or her marriage.

As Jawbreaker once sang...
"You're not punk and I'm telling everyone!
Save your breath I never was one
You don't know, what I'm all about..."

Get Ready for a Punk Rock Along!

So the votes are in and Anne Kuo Lukito's Buccaner's Booty Socks came in first place with the Skull Socks of Fury coming in only 1 vote behind in second place. Since the votes were so close, I'm going to declare this a double KAL....knit both or chose the one you like the most.




For those of us on Ravlery you can find BBS here and the SSoF here

KAL starts on February 1st and will run through the month of February. We'll start taking nominations for KAL #2 in March. So sharpen your needles and find some yarn and get ready for some sock knitting fun!


PS - As always, participation in the KAL is optional. KAL isn't taking over the blog...it's just a fun side thing we're doing. :-)

Crochet in Spanish???

I haven't done anything rockin lately...just a lot of baby clothes... I'm planning one baby sweater that I think I'll call Evil Baby. Anyway, now to my actual reason for the post. Does anyone know of any knitting or especially crochet blogs written in spanish? I run a crochet club at the school where I teach and one of the student's mothers loves to crochet and try new patterns, but is far more comfortable with spanish than english. I can't seem to find one...I think I'll try looking on ravelry tomorrow for perhaps a spanish group, but I was curious if you all knew of any.

How about some more nomination choices?

Check out this website for cool FREE patterns. http://www.theanticraft.com/archive.htm Click on the "garb" links to see the clothing items. The Anticraft Book rocks, but I know a lot of people won't want to buy the book for the knit along. Maybe the skull armwarmers? I wouldn't mind making the Space Invaders hat someone posted on here awhile ago.

Time to Vote!

Scroll down to look at the nominating posts to refresh yourselves on what each of these look like. Happy voting!

PS voting will be open until 11:59pm January 24th and we'll announce the winner on the 25th.

What should we do for our first Punk Rock KAL?
	Skull Socks of Fury from Hello Yarn
	Biker Boy Sweater from Son of Stitch n' Bitch
	We Call Them Pirates Hat from Hello Yarn
	Buccaneer's Booty Socks by Anne Kuo Lukito
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Hello from the newbie

Hey everyone, I'm Angela from Oregon. Admin Carissa steered me to this excellent group (Heidi-ho Carissa!) I'm a psychologist by day and skull obsessed by night.

My latest FO is a felted bag from She-Knits called the Melly Bag.



The pattern was originally done in browns and beiges, but both brown and beige go against everything I believe in. Much better in the black and red I think.

As far as the KAL nominations, I think I'm all for the Biker Boy sweater. Then again, I was with Carissa at the Debbie Stoller book signing, so seeing it in person has made me way too excited to do it (which may not be a good thing since I've never knit a sweater before). Someone talk me out of it ;)

Monster hats

Since there was a few posts regarding the monster hats I thought I'd share the pattern. Its a very rough pattern as I just threw it together but its easy and fun. You could actually make it a couple other ways if you wanted to but thats besides the point. The yarn that blue hat was made of is Yarn Bee- Frosting (104 yards/ 114 meters)it was $1 a skein at Hobby Lobby on sale. The magenta and light mauve were Jaeger Fur. Which was super expensive even on sale for the amount you get (it was 20m or 22 yards per skein for 4.50 a ball on sale originally 10.50). I didn't have much selection though being on vacation and wanted to get these out of the way so I could mail them. The blue yarn was much more affordable and I actually made two hats out of one skein (the monster hat and a rasta hat for my friend Bethany). You can use what ever you might desire though.

Haven't seen these in a while!

I remember when I first found this group, there was a huge Knucks phase going on.
I was actually not a huge fan of the pattern at the time, but when I was playing Rock Band over the holidays, I noticed that you could get a pair of fingerless gloves that looked like this pattern.

So, this mixed with the sweetness of my friend Tom sending me a skein of Alpaca Silk (Blue Sky Alpaca) lead to their creation.

I altered the cuffs a bit. But yeah. Fun pattern!

R.I.P Vampira (Maila Nurmi)

I was very saddened to hear the news that Vampira (Maila Nurmi) passed way on the Tenth of January this year. She was defiantly one of my favorite personalities of all time. Her name will forever be remembered in my house. I think in her honor I am going to set up a movie fest of movies she was in. For more information on Vampira and her death check out here. Feel free to share and spread the flyer I made just please host it on your own. It's just polite.

In other news I have been a busy busy little bee with school, a graduation from my old school, moving into a new apartment, visiting my boyfriend who lives six hundred and sixty-six miles from me for a month and catching up on all my knitting. For a mini sample here is a hat that I made for a friend of mine's niece. I call it Razz-berry. Let me know what you think as I would love opinions. I have finished one more for her nephew and am working on a third for her other niece. I'll post pictures of those soon.

KAL nominations

I love the idea of a KAL, so here is my nomination. I'd go for a smaller project, as I don't have the time for larger projects.

I love the Buccaneer's Booty Socks by Anne Kuo Lukito. I wanted to knit them for a while and that would be a great reason to finally start them

The Tank

I work my mind to the extremes for one Tea cosy a year to compete in the Kiama Show. After 6mths of thinking and knitting I have finally came out with a tea cosy with just weeks to spare.

For more detail about it see my blog.

Skull Fingerless Gloves

Hi everyone! I'm new here and I thought I'd put up a picture of the fingerless gloves that I knitted my oldest daughter for Christmas. I adapted about three different patterns and improvised the skulls and accent rows. This was my first experience using dpns so I was rather happy they came out as well as they did. I hope my daughter enjoys wearing these as much as I enjoyed making them for her.

Punk Rock Pooch

It's not knitting related, but I wanted to share a picture of a hoodie my dog, Jack, got for Christmas from my sister:
If you can't read it, it says "Punk Rock Pooch." Love it!

Nominations

Hey guys! I think a PRK Knit along is a great idea. Here are my nominations:

We Call Them Pirates

I've knit this before for my dad, and I totally want to make myself one. The pattern was easy, it's a free pattern, and it's covered in skulls. What's not to love? I don't know.

I was also thinking that maybe be could just have a Skull-along? Like, gloves, hats, socks, whatever you want to knit, but they have skulls on them?

Long Time No Post

I thought you guys would appreciate this-even though there is a general lack of knittiness.
This is the Santa I made for my Dad. I wanted to knit the sweater, but as crunch time grew near, I knew there wouldn't be time. I ended up making the sweater from an old fair isle I felted. The face is polymer clay and everything else is fabric.

KAL Nominations

These are my nominations for our first Punk Rock KAL:

Biker Boy from Son of Stich n' Bitch

This pattern is available in Debbie Stoller's new book, Son of Stitch n' Bitch. I really like this and am planning on making it for my husband anyway.

The only two downsides I can see to this as a KAL pattern, is that:

1) It's a big item (as opposed to knucks)

2) You'd have to buy the book (or find it in a local library) to get the pattern. Right now, it's going for $10.85 on Amazon.com (which isn't too shabby considering retail is $15.95)





Skull Socks of Fury from Hello Yarn

I dig these. I'd do them in black and pink. You, of course, could do them in whatever color you want. This pattern is also FREE. Hooray for free!.

A New Year, a New KAL

So it seems we've gotten some pretty positive feedback about doing a KAL. Of course it would be optional and all PRK-ers would be free (and encouraged!) to continue posting non-KAL stuff on the blog. The KAL won't take over the blog....just be a fun side thing for those who choose to participate.

So let's open up nominations today and keep them open until January 17th. That gives 2 weeks to nominate and then I'll make a poll thing and we'll vote. We'll give that a week and then to give everyone a week or so to get yarn and supplies, we can start on February 1st. Sound like a plan?

So to nominate, just post a pic and link to the pattern plus any other info you think we'll want (like why you love it, if the pattern costs anything, etc etc). I'm excited to see what you guys come up with. :-)

I'll post my nominations in my next post.