Extreme Knitting

Althea Crome from Bloomington, Indiana categorizes her knitting as extreme. No, she doesn't knit while spinning 360 degrees on a snowboard or jumping a bicycle. She knits using Size 0 needles, which are slightly smaller than a toothpick using "yarn" about the size of thread. If that weren't enough, she places intricate designs on her work as well. I would be challenged adding this type of detail to a normal sized project, she does it on sweaters that are 1:12 in scale!

Here's a sample of her work from her website

Back of Althea Crome's Crane Sweater

Back of Crome's Picasso Sweater

This woman is indeed doing extreme knitting. How about the details of the three cranes on the back of the photo to the left. Unbelievable.

Look at the Picasso sweater; there must be at least 8 different colours used to create the torso with a nod to Guernica at the hem and it fits on your thumb. I am in awe, I don't see well enough to do cross-stitch because I have a tendency to split the background threads with my work. Crome's work is so wonderfully precise!

I encourage you to go to her website to check out her gallery; her body of work is amazing. And to help remind those of us who don't see as well as perhaps we used to, her blog is written with white print on a black background, again emphasizing how well she can see.

Should you wish to see her knit in action, she offers a 2-minute video to show her contributions to the animated movie, Coraline. Or if you want to try a pattern or two there are free patterns for baby booties and a child's hat as well as needles and yarn for sale.

Humans are most fascinating creatures, we do many challenging things, including extreme knitting by Althea Crome.

Comments

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned ou...

Knitting-Related Guinness World Records

I had to share some of the Guinness World Records connected with knitting. It is amazing to me the type of skill, stamina and unique characteristics these record holders have in common. How about trying to knit with these SPNs?? Ingrid Wagner and her large needles and knitted swatch The largest knitting needles measured 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in) long and had a diameter of 8 cm (3.15 in). Ingrid Wagner, a rug and art creation artist, from the UK used the needles to knit a tension square of ten stitches by ten rows at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on March, 10 2008. (And I complained about getting certain SPNs stuck in my clothes.) See how this swatch was done with merely 5 people managing the needles. And what about the yarn? It is truly ex-bulky. It looks like they're knitting in a warehouse, but with a wingspan of almost 24 feet or 7 m, you'd need all that space. Or h...

Flagel Knitting Files

Search This Blog