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.

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