Helping the Little Guys

[picture by Charlie from Skeinz]

Casually scanning Twitter the other day I saw a tweet by Brett Bara with a link to this article about the plight of penguins who survived an oil spill in New Zealand.  

[photo by Toby Zerna/Newspix/Rex USA seen on abc NEWS]

Even though I don't know much about that part of the world (aside from Flight of the Conchords) I found this especially touching: Skeinz yarn store was calling for knitters to make jumpers to warm the penguins before and after rescue workers cleaned them, and to protect them from preening their oil-soaked feathers and being poisoned.  What a great way to use crafty skills!

[photo from Adorablog]

A similar request 10 years ago from the Tasmanian Conservation Trust for 100 jumpers resulted in over 15,000, and now already Skeinz has reported on their blog they've received enough to reach "critical mass"!  Here's video news proof with cleaned up penguins swimming happily.  But if you've already finished a jumper, or just want to try your hand at creating penguin clothes, you can still use this pattern and send to Skeinz for the Wildlife Rescue Team to keep on hand if needed.

So hooray for penguins and for all the knitting and cleaning hands that helped them out.  I'll leave you with my amigurumi penguin: I crocheted him for Christmas 2009 from a Lion Brand Yarn pattern and I love him so. 

For further reading on penguins and crafting doing good:

• Dyan deNapoli, "The Penguin Lady" has a lot more to say about the conservation and rescue efforts.
• Book: Knitting for Good! A Guide to Creating Personal, Social and Political Change Stitch by Stitch by Betsy Greer, read more about her on her Craftivism blog.
• Book & EVENT!: Craft Activism People, Ideas and Projects from the New Community of Handmade and How You Can Join In by Joan Tapper and Gale Zucker.  Read more about them on their Blog and even MEET them in person for a signing at Lion Brand Yarn Studio in NYC next Monday, October 24th 2011 at 6:00 p.m. (RSVP required).
• and of course Many MANY more pics of penguins in sweaters as Googled by Gothamist

Test Drive for Teeny Tiny Feet

A few weeks before my friend Allison's due date I took More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson for a book test drive: could these little baby socks really take only the suggested 3 hours a pair? Not counting the 12 minutes it took to find the right size needles in my stash, this 1st pic below was taken at 7:30 p.m.

Next by 7:45 p.m.

Then a break to answer some work e-mails that popped up and grab a snack.  By 8:13 p.m. there were 2" and the leg section was done.

I turned the heel flap the wrong way and had to take a few rows out, then look up the SSK (slip-slip-knit) stitch,

and how to pick up stitches along an edge

since it's been a while since I knit my last little baby project.

Once the heel was done it was on to the toe.

And by 10:11 p.m. finishing off.

And voila!  One done by 10:38 p.m.  So, already that's almost 3 hours (with various interruptions) and the 2nd one took about that long too: twice the quoted time, but I need to brush up on my speed.

In any case, I liked this sweet card to go with it.

And always love gift wrapping, especially for something so very small and soft.  It's nice to use a strand of the yarn for a preview of what's inside.

There are lots more projects in the book I want to try too: soft baskets (2 - 4 hours), spiral seat cushions (6 hours), socks (more than 8 hours) and more...maybe my time ratio will be a little better next time.

Creative Kids

A wonderful author friend of mine has a daughter who has started making "contraptions" as he says: so young and she's already creative.  I've been sort of obsessed with 2 very different movies: Never Let Me Go, based on the amazing novel by Kazuo Ishiguro (author of The Remains of the Day, also a fantastic book and movie).  I read the former on vacation and it blew me away more than any book I've read in such a long time so I'm so excited that the movie releases next month (movie poster above, trailer below):

The children in the novel have a tragic fate ahead of them, but in the meantime they become prolific at creating art: drawings, paintings, sculptures, poetry and more, which they trade at school sales and for which their caretakers select from to create a gallery of sorts, the meaning of which is not clear until very late in the story.  I was interested that there have been several different covers for the different versions of the book.

And then a very different kind of movie: Children of Invention, featuring two adorable, enterprising kids who try to help out their struggling mother by buying a ton of supplies and getting to work on their creations.

Two very different movies to be sure, but I like how the themes are both about kids who are creating something to improve their situations in life, even though one has more dire consequences than the other.

Oh, and there's still time to enter my knit sushi giveaway, drawing is Labor Day, 9/6, so I need to get working!

Sew Inspired!

My stylish friend, She Crafty, surprised me the other day with this beautiful book: Seams to Me: 24 New Reasons to Love Sewing by Anna Maria Horner.  I had been telling her about the wonderful sewing machine I got for Christmas and how I need to learn how to use it.  So far I've successfully threaded it and now I have to get going!  Seams to Me has great, basic information, helpful to me as a beginner and I can't wait to pick out one of the projects and figure it all out.  The last time I touched a sewing machine was when I made an iPod case at Make Workshop in the Lower East Side where they have classes from knitting to soap making, embroidery to letterpress, and even shoe making! 

My boyfriend pointed out that so many crafty book titles are a play on words.  Also from my bookshelf are: In Stitches: More than 25 Simple and Stylish Sewing Projects by Amy Butler, Knitting Pretty by Kris Percival (my 1st knitting book from years ago; seems to be back at my place so no cover pic here, but I've made many projects from it) and Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller (taught me how to crochet the magic circle, very helpful!) 

So, I must face the sewing machine head on, and I'm so grateful to be armed with a new book.  Thanks, She Crafty!