Dark Roasted Blend: Strange Knits and Yarn Monsters

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Strange Knits and Yarn Monsters

"QUANTUM SHOT" #486
Article by Rachel and Avi Abrams, link

When Art and Knitting Needles Collide

Knit your way out of stress and anxiety - into a more ordered universe of sophisticated yarn, crochet and lace patterns. Here are the weirdest knitting projects we could find...

Word of advice: finish your projects! The unfinished knitting projects tend to increase entropy ten-fold and fill all the space allowed for them - these misshapen lumps of yarn can breed in the dark corners voraciously.

The coffee cup says "I love you more than zombies love brains": Knitted squid by Not Hip, cup via

Let's start with the Biggest Knitted Sculpture - a pink bunny, big enough to be spotted from the Earth's orbit:

(images credit: Gelitin, via)

Viennese art group Gelitin knitted this fluffy wonder high on a mountain in Piedmont, Italy; it took them five years to do it. Now, some guys climb its belly to watch the sunset, others prefer to crawl around its knitted guts, spilled to one side... Speaking of unfortunate gutted rabbits, here are a few more, from Patricia Waller:

(image credit: Patricia Waller)

The Grim Knitter Cometh...

The unspeakable knitted menace, sneaking by the sink:

(image credit: Miss Shine)

Did you know that the way to the "Mountains of Madness" is paved with the fluffy Cthulhu Dolls? Of every variety, it seems:

(image credit: Amber)

On the left - just an innocent Cthulhu Penguin. On the right: Psycho Tomato from the Vegetable Liberation Army.

(Patterns by goddessSue13 and Sylvie)

One day the menace of the Cthulhu will awaken and terror will fill the Earth... all will die, except hardy knitters with their offerings and cthulhu idols will be spared. Believe it.

(image credit: Grim Knitters)

Halloween costume idea: the Gollum Hat, with Andy Serkis posing next to it:

(image credit: Regina Gonzales)

Speaking of hats and balaklavas, these designs named "Crochet Help for Ugly Children" are something else:

(image credit: ashesmonroe)

Knitted Anatomy

This is not Great Aunt Muriel's mothballed sweater. All things knitted are not cutesy, boring, and itchy... at the very least they can teach anatomy to all who care to wear them:
Baby's First DNA molecule

(Patterns by Kimberly Chapman, via)

The Womb...

Instructions and FAQ can be found on Knitty, made by mk.carroll

The Heart... (Pattern found in Knit.1, Winter 2006/7)

(image credit: TinKnits)

Every girl needs to knit her hubby a digestive system, because "the way to a man's heart is through his"... no, wait, not like this...

More detail and pattern available here

Knitted vegetables... maybe this propaganda will cause your man to eat his vegetables. Maybe not.

(image credit: Berroco)

Knit Your Own Aquarium

If you didn't get down to New York to see the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, you can always populate your own textile aquarium with a great variety of knitted & crocheted animals. Knitters have an interesting affinity with deep-sea, many-tentacled & non-cuddly specimens, such as the nautilus:

(creations by Beth Skwarecki and Audrey M)

Squids are in vogue:

(creations by Kristi Schueler and Hansi)

Cuttlefish, Jellyfish, Nudibranch and Deep Sea Anglerfish:

Creations by Hansi

(image credit: Brigitte Read)

Above is a manta-ray, of course. Below is a lobster, named François:

(pattern by Molly)

Cool and Geeky Knits

Single-sided Klein Bottle Hats:

(creations by kleinbottle and majolo)

You know who this is:

(Pattern by Amigurumi)

This is Dalek from Dr. Who:

(image credit: Kimberly Chapman)

Comfy, Woozy Office Supplies:
(knit yourself a cubicle and defend it against evil bosses with sharp, long needles)

(creation by Nguyen Le, via)

Knit an egg holder, and more (some kind of "Awesome Pentagonalicious Goodness") -

(image credit: Berroco)

SubAtomic Particles (a "Particle Zoo" collection) -

See the whole catalog with descriptions here.

We did not cover any lace patterns here... wait, there is this urban piece of design that almost got included into our World's Weirdest Fences article:

Lace Fences!

Dutch design team Demakersvan came up with the idea and yes, these fences recently went into mass production in India:

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Category: Art,Weird

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COMMENTS::

12 Comments:

FRY said...: bender!!! :D; ___
Anonymous said...: Knitted awesomeness from Steriogram:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asdN1jJw4EE; ___
Avi Abrams said...: Great video, anonymous - putting it in link latte.; ___
Anonymous said...: Great article, but I just wanted to point out that knitting and crochet, while both done with yarn, are different crafts. Knitters do not create crocheted objects and vice versa (well, some of them do, but you know what I mean). Of your pictures, the Cthulhu penguin, the eyeballs, the gollum hat, and Bender are definitely crochet. The rest are either knitted or a combination of the two.; ___
Anonymous said...: nice list! here's one of my favourites from the world of weird knitting:
http://www.maxsworld.co.uk/sculpture/ajobforabear.html

check the animations there too - more knitz.; ___
Rhoadan said...: Actually, the Cthulhu penguin is knitted. The pink Cthulhu above it is crocheted.

Oh, while we're at it the goal of creating these idols is not to live, it's to be eaten first.; ___
Vashti Braha said...: Of all the photos, 13 of them depict crochet, not knit. And the funny thing is, the ski masks are dissed as crochet but are knit!
I'm a big fan of strange crochet.; ___
Simone said...: HEHEHEHEHE

that is really great - I aint letting my knitting near my coffee!; ___
Calli Arcale said...: SWEETNESS!!!!

I have got to get back to that Dalek I was trying to knit. I think the bottom part looked better than the one shown here; I just have to figure out a better top dome for it. I came up with a great way of doing the neck grill, too....

To non-needleworkers, a good rule of thumb is to look for material that looks like its made up of a bunch of tightly-packed Vs. That's stockinette stitch, your basic knit stitch. (Knit when working on the right side, purl when working on the wrong side.) There are other stitches, like garter stitch, which looks like rows of little interlocking arches -- or like cheap fake chainmail, which is often garter stitch, spray-painted silver. (Convincing only at a great distance. Most of the knights in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" wore garter stitch fake-mail, because it's cheap.) But most knitting revolves around stockinette stitch, like the stuff shown above, so for these examples, that test will give you a good idea of which ones are knit and which ones are crocheted.

Man, I *love* that squid at the top of the page. Absolutely gorgeous. The nudibranch is stunning as well.

It's too bad the gal with the Dr Who patterns was forced by the BBC to take them offline. She had this awesome Ood that would've looked great next to the Chthulu knits.; ___
Anonymous said...: You missed these: http://killerbanshee.com/robotsandmonsters/index.html; ___
Zombiesocks said...: Someone stated that knit and crochet are two seperate crafts with little crossover - this is incorrect. In some countries (Japan as an example) making fabric from yarn, with two sticks or one, is generally considered the same craft. Many many projects require both techniques. Even in the US, you would be hard pressed to find a knitter without a crochet hook in his/her bag. All experienced knitters know how to crochet, even if they limit it to edgings and cast ons. A person could limit themselves to just one half of the craft, but why cut off one hand? And just to be a little snarky - those commenters who think ALL was crochet, learn to read stitches before you open your gob. <3sox; ___
nityakalyani said...: Hello,
Not all are knitted some are crochet. Thanks for sharing.can you provide the link for the patterns,it will be useful.thanks; ___

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