Gasping in Summer Heat? Knit Something Small.

Tiny Airplane: Much smaller than the one we'll take to England (I hope). Photo copyright and courtesy Mochimochiland.

Well, folks, the Slow Boat to Britain shippers came yesterday, and today the staging company is coming to retrieve the furniture they rented to us. By tonight, I suspect we’ll have brought our Adirondack chairs in from the deck so we can watch television without sitting on the bare floor. We know how to live.  Starting today, folks will be at our house to do some repair work in preparation for the house sale on the 21st. The cat is definitely not going to be happy. But we still have a bed, and a television set, and an internet connection. I even have a couple of P.G. Wodehouse books set aside for moments of true stress. And a leetle bit of yarn in addition to the future giveaway items. So – onward and upward!

It’s late August in DC, when the air feels like melted butter. Even if you’re as knitting-obsessed as I am, you may be feeling the merest hint of resistance to draping something wooly over your lap. This is, of course, the perfect time to knit a hat or a pair of mittens or socks, either for yourself or as early planning for holiday gifts. Or…you could knit 50 life-size bees.

The amazing thing about this miniature Christmas sweater by Althea Crome is - if it were regular sized, I'd wear it. For how many Christmas sweaters can we actually say that? Photo courtesy Bugknits.com.

That’s what artist Hannah Haworth did recently. She made the bees to accompany some bee prints she made, which were commissioned by the Union Gallery in Edinburgh for their Plight of the Bumblebee exhibition. How cool is that? Check out photos of the bees on her blog. They’re made of Malabrigo yarn (yum) and she clearly put a huge amount of work into them. Also check out the great white whale she knit for another exhibition – on a completely different scale, and yet just as cool.

I don’t knit small things (or large things), and yet I am a little obsessed with those who do. This started when I heard the 16th Cast-On podcast, way back in 2006, in which Sage Tyrtle was the guest host and talked about her miniature crochet. If you haven’t heard this episode, pop on over and listen to it. Among other things, Sage has a gorgeous, whimsical voice and is a lovely writer. [Plus, she crochets tiny items!]

Claudia Fingering-Weight Hand Painted Yarn: Yum.

There are other amazing miniaturists out there: Althea Crome, for one, who knit costumes for the incredible stop-motion animated movie Coraline. She’s been knitting on tiny (like, pin-sized) needles for more than 10 years, and often makes garments with intricate colorwork. She sells patterns and needles, too, if you’re brave enough to try! [I’m not.]

Then there’s Anna Hrachovec (the genius behind Mochimochiland). I think one reason these creations strike a chord in me is that they hearken back to childhood, when it seemed possible that other worlds (smaller ones, like those in The Borrowers or even The Cricket in Times Square) might exist parallel to our own.

Noro Silk Garden: Two balls that want to be striped together.

Anna’s little Woodins from the long-ago Knitty remind me of times when I thought there might be elves or fairies in the woods; her tiny factory reminds me the whole world is loveable (especially when it’s knitted). Her second book, Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi, just came out; it includes patterns for (among others) a tiny hot dog, tiny chickens, a tiny mailbox…basically, it proves anything can be cute if you make it really small.

Of course, I can’t type about tiny things without putting in another plug that you Knit A Tiny Hat for Innocent Drinks’ The Big Knit. 25p from each hatted drink sold goes to Age Concern UK, which looks after older people in the winter (making sure, among other things, that they stay warm). As I told you in my earlier post, if you make a tiny hat, you’ll get to choose something from my stash! [Or, if you knit that hat after the stash is depleted, I’ll send you a fun little knitters’ care package from Oxford.]

Rowan Calmer: For some peaceful cotton knitting.

Perhaps this is the exhaustion talking, but I might try to knit some nifty tiny items when I get settled in England. After all, I’ll have a lot less yarn, right? Plus, what a stash-buster…no, wait, the stash is depleting…yes, I think it IS the exhaustion.

Anyway, on to the giveaway:

1. Three skeins Claudia Fingering-Weight Hand Painted Yarn. Pretty, pretty! Think of the tiny airplanes you could make with these colors.
2. Noro Silk Garden in two colors – crying out to be a striped scarf or hat. Noro’s color combinations always teach me something about color theory – as I stripe with two color-change balls, I’m surprised at different combinations I never would have tried.
3. Three balls of Rowan Calmer – one in light green and two in ivory. Lovely cottony goodness for those with wool allergies or who just want to knit with something less sheepy.
4. Two balls of Louisa Harding Grace Silk & Wool in pale pink. Soft and drapey.

Louisa Harding Grace Silk & Wool: Deliciously silky.

The usual information (now found in the handy-dandy Stash Giveaway FAQ!) applies: I will mail via first-class mail, you can donate to shipping using the button in the right column of the blog, yarn frozen before mailing, one-cat non-smoking household, etc. Comment on this post before Saturday, 3 Sept. ’11 at noon EDT: what’s the smallest thing you’ve ever knit, or the largest? Did you see Coraline? Is it still hot where you are, or are things cooling off? Why do you think these little knit items are so appealing?