Knitting in the News: Charity Knits and the Queen of Embellishment

After last week's huge list of knitting news, this week is a bit quieter. A group of Connecticut kids have learned to knit and spent this year knitting scarves that were recently donated to the state affiliate of the Komen/Race for the Cure foundation. The 18 scarves were sold as part of a fundraiser at the Hartford Race for the Cure earlier this month. Komen Connecticut encourages knitters to "Knit for the Cure" by donating chemo caps and other knit items to cancer patients and survivors.

In Australia knitters are working to keep kids warm in the Caucasus, a remote, cold and poor region of the world encompassing parts of Russia, Turkey and Iran. Guardian Pharmacies are collecting knit toys and clothing that will be sent to the region. So far about 1,000 garments have been collected, and by the time the collection ends at the end of August they hope to have 8,000 knit articles to send.

Finally, knitter/crocheter/embellisher exraordinaire Nicky Epstein recently paid a visit to a knitting salon in Colorado where she shared tips about fun things to do with corkscrews, flowers, felted bits and anything else you can think of. She also reported that she's working on a travel knitting series that will begin next year with titles about knitting in Tuscany and Australia. Nice work if you can get it!