#knittersoftwitter

This elephant is so cute!

a Vale Hospice Knitted Elephant

This image courtesy of skandavalehospice.org

When you knit the Skanda Vale Hospice Knitted Elephant, you are knitting for a good cause. This knitted animal pattern makes an adorable elephant you can send directly to the hospice or sell on their behalf in order to raise money for their new in-patient unit. Skanda Vale Hospice is located in South West Wales. The hospice is run by the monks and nuns of Skanda Vale Monastery. Interestingly enough, the monastery is also an animal sanctuary and the inspiration for this knit elephant pattern is Valli, the elephant who calls the sanctuary home. Work up this cute knitted animal for yourself or your kids or consider donating it to the hospice to support their admirable efforts.

Click here for knitting pattern

"Good night Daisy doll is all ready for bedtime - she has her teddy bear and her hotwater bottle. Daisy is approximately 34 cm (13.5 inches) tall. Her little bear is approximately 7 cm (2.8 inches) tall. Daisy doll is knitted flat. I used DK/8ply yarn and 3.25 (US 3, UK 10) knitting needles, but of course you can use any yarn and needle combination you like that gives good tension. Great project for using up oddments of yarn."

Click here for free pattern

Parents may breathe a sigh of relief at the beginning of each new school year, but their children certainly don't feel the same way. Use knitted toy patterns like the Magical Mini Backpack charms to help ease your children's transition by adding a little magic to their school day. Free knitting patterns for toys make great lunchbox surprises and key chain charms, especially when they're perfect miniatures of everyday school objects. Your kids will be enchanted to find that these little charms even have straps, just like their real backpacks.

Click here for knitting pattern

You better watch those sewers - you never know when Baby Gators will start crawling up for some sunlight! Need some protection? Use this free knitting pattern to make some little gators of your own.

Click here for knitting pattern

Last week, I recounted the ways that my world has been falling apart, and while I had a brief reprieve over the holiday weekend...

...the crumbling recommenced even before we got in the car to come home...

...and continues as I type: hurrying up and waiting to schedule each day around appointments at hospitals and doctor’s offices, making hard choices in the wake of a collaborative collapse, watching helplessly as people I love suffer.

My nephew’s mom is still not completely clear of a big-C diagnosis. One of my former students called in shambles this morning. Old Goat is wrestling with his own challenges, and we’re both tired.

A pile of crisis has slowly grown at my feet, and my only choice is to keep climbing.

The Upside

On the upside, Carmine’s most recent blood work returned completely normal, so we’re all resting a bit more easily...

...especially him.

I’ve regained use of almost all of my fingers as the swelling and bruising from last week’s hound-melee has slowly waned, but I’m still not able to use the indigo-tinged finger to keep tension on my yarn. As a continental knitter, this is devastating...

...but not insurmountable. With a six-hour ride in the car ahead of me on Friday, I had a choice: languish in knitless misery or finagle a way to make stitch happen English style.

Even with all of the fiddling and fumbling, I still wish the rest of my dilemmas were that easy.

We knitters are a motley lot

from every corner of every spot.

Some of us throw, and some of us pick,

while others are more inclined to flick

with wool or acrylic, alpaca or cotton,

or whatever sale yarn we might have once gotten.

We travel all over to fatten our stashes,

from LYS to fiber fair to hidden yard sale caches.

We're always a-stitchin' on something like socks...

...a scarf or a sweater in a nice superwash

for knit-worthy family, friends, and few others.

I know some knitters who won't even knit for their mothers.

Sometimes we knit, and sometimes we frog,

sometimes we gather for a cool Knit Along.

We meet up online or at shops around town,

or retreat to our dens to detach and wind down.

Other times we lose hours to Ravelry and Pinterest

and hoard more patterns than we thought could exist.

We often meet folks who make jokes of our hobby,

but to them we say, “Tish tosh! No knits for you, snobby!”

We're happy to laugh and be part of your fun...

...but we'll remember your jabs when you say, “Oooh, make me one?”

Like one whom we love, like a close, sacred friend,

like a habit or vice upon which we depend,

perhaps not like food or the air that we breathe,

but knitting is something a knitter always needs. 

Our knitting's beside us through the thins and through thicks.

When life gets us down, we reach for our sticks

and get lost in the magic of making our arts,

the stitching, the blocking, the seaming of parts,

the something from nothing that knitting provides,

the coming together as so much divides.