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Good news coming from New Zealand this morning: the first batch of penguins who had been harmed by a recent oil spill have been released back into the wild. The cure to what ailed them? Your sweaters. More »
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Skeinz, a yarn store in New Zealand, is calling on knitters throughout the world to knit sweaters for the penguins affected by a massive oil spill that occurred earlier this month. The tiny sweaters, while eliciting aww's and squee's, serve a very important function: they prevent the oil-soaked birds from poisoning themselves by preening, as well as keeping them warm before it's their turn to be cleaned up by cleanup workers. And, you know, who doesn't want to save the lives of penguins by dressing them in the most adorable way possible? More »
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My mum had a cookbook called Half A Can Of Tomato Paste And Other Culinary Dilemmas that sat on our kitchen bookshelf when I was a little kid. (I remember her explaining to me what a dilemma was one night while she was microwaving me some Milo.) If someone were to concoct a book on crafts and pitch it at my particular tastes, it wouldn't be one of those books full of elaborate projects that take nineteen balls of wool apiece. It would probably be called Half A Skein Of Yarn And Other DIY Dilemmas. This week's DIY is one project that comfortably takes care of that kind of leftovers. More »
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If you've always wanted to learn how to knit but haven't known where to begin, you're in luck! Author, DIY maven, and BUST co-founder Debbie Stoller just recorded her first-ever DIY knitting instructional video, and she decided to share it with us. Watch as Stoller shows how to hold the yarn, how to cast on, and how to do your first rows of stitches. (If you already know how to cast on, you can skip ahead to 2:40.) "Knitting is really just a matter of pulling one loop of yarn through another loop of yarn," she says. "It's really not that different from what you do each morning when you tie your shoes." More »
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Craving a few tasty treats that won't deter you from your pre-summer diet? We don't suggest eating these pieces of art from Ed Bing Lee's Delectable Collection — but they sure are pretty to look at! More »
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Coraline were made by hand — and each one took 2 weeks. More »
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Kamikaze knitters The Materialistics like big-scale projects. And their latest? Knitted versions of some of the world's most famous paintings. More »
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Last week, right before the blizzard, the artist known as Olek covered the huge statue of a bull on Wall Street in New York with a crocheted cozy. More »
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Here's our how-to guide for shopping for how-to enthusiasts. Have your crafty friends make their own damn presents using supplies, kits, organizers, and books that make perfect presents for DIY-ers. More »
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• Gap, which last week announced it would be switching to a logo it had been trialling, immediately faced vituperative criticism. It first asked customers for better ideas, and then apologized. Now Gap has reverted to its boring old logo. [BBC]

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Artist Patricia Waller's crochet creations, like "baby-eating crocodile" and "Miss Piggy in a meat grinder," have a gory appeal, and as a bonus, "squirrel smashed with shovel" and "child biking accident" can also be used to traumatize naughty children. More »
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A group of night-stalking, needle-wielding vandals are decorating the trees of Cape May, NJ, with hand-knitted yarn sleeves. The cunning crafters, who call themselves the Salty Knitters, say they intend to persevere in the face of community countermeasures. [CBS] More »
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In this video, Dr. Laura claims she spent all night knitting a vest, and that "everyone says, ‘Ohhhh, you're such a big star, how can you have any time to be doing things?'" Funny, that wasn't our first response. [Sexist] More »
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Boing Boing has a knitting pattern for "Smittens," mittens to hold hands in. While theoretically they'd make a cute Valentine's Day gift (they are heart shaped) would anyone actually wear them in public? [Boing Boing] More »
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"I decided on making cozies for empowering objects which happened to be very hard, masculine, recognizable objects. The covers kind of softened them up and changed their determined roles," explains extreme knitter Teresa Honeywell. She was, of course, inspired by a toilet-paper cozy at a flea market. "It kind of made me a little sad to see someone's handmade craft discarded and being sold for pennies, but it mostly saddened me because it was such a bizarre and useless object. I pictured a sad housewife with nothing better to do then knit up a cozy for a roll of toilet paper. I knew then that I wanted to use that same lonely technique, and meaningless process, to cover up an object that I wouldn't ever need or have the opportunity to use again in my new role as a housewife." [Andew Sullivan] More »
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Officials at a Texas high school have their panties in a twist about nude pictures of women in the background of a German textbook. They will either ban the book or put a sticker over the naughty bits. • More banning! This time across the globe in India, some Hindu groups want to ban the Mike Meyers/ Jessica Alba film The Love Guru. • Starting next year, rape victims will be allowed to undergo anonymous ER forensic rape examinations if they do not want to go to police. According to Breitbart, "The new federal requirement that states pay for 'Jane Doe rape kits' is aimed at removing one of the biggest obstacles to prosecuting rape cases: Some women are so traumatized they don't come forward until it is too late to collect hair, semen or other samples." • Is Barbie getting eco-friendly with her new accessory line made from repurposed fabric? Not really. • Nina Simone's daughter, Singer...is a singer! She's releasing an album of Nina covers called Simone on Simone. More »
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Calling all knitters! Check out the ultimate in crafty chic: A Wonder Woman sweater. According to its creator, Kaby, it took "14 months to make, using 4ply wool, 3mm needles, a plain jumper pattern from the seventies, a ton of graph paper and pictures of Wonder Woman, and about a million bobbins for the intarsia." Raise your hand if you want one like, NOW. [BoingBoing] More »
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No really, why? There's this review of a show called "Pricked: Extreme Embroidery" (part of a series of exhibitions that included "Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting") at the Museum of Arts and Design in today's New York Times, and the first line of the piece is: "In the '70s, artists who swapped their paintbrushes for a needle and thread were making a feminist statement." Is it because embroidery and knitting were considered housewifely arts and the feminist movement was reclaiming them by making samplers of penises or something? Is this why Bust is always bombarding us with craft projects? Please explain!! Related: holy shit there's an entire magazine devoted to the crossroads of feminism and knitting. [NY Times] More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=338556&view=rss&microfeed=true Ever heard of Sock Wars? It's a knitting competition the Wall Street Journal describes as "the bloodiest extreme knitting tournament ever". Here's how it works: Players knit a pair of socks and mail them to their assigned "targets"; if a player happens to receive a pair of socks in the mail before he/she finishes, she is considered "killed," and has to send the pair of socks she was knitting to her assassin. (The last player left wins a pair of socks.) The first Sock Wars involved over 800 participants from around the world and, judging from an interview with Sock Wars II victor Leann Nassartook, people get really into it. Clip above. More »
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A group of women have decided to cash in on their hobby and others' kinks by selling custom-made fetish knitwear that include garter belts, face masks, and full body suits. The women are based in Germany (which for some reason, makes so much sense to us), and the oldest of the group is 86. Her specialty? "Willie warmers." [Daily Telegraph via Sexblo.gs] More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=317854&view=rss&microfeed=true We've been known to slip the odd stitch in our time, so we were thoroughly heartened to discover this gem on Youtube: More »
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