It's not news that lots of celebrities -- just like lots of "regular" people! -- like to knit, but there are a couple of stories in the news this week about people you might have heard of taking up the craft.
Actress Jennifer Aniston says she received needles and yarn as a gift and decided to resume a craft she learned in school. She says so far she's made a couple of scarves and is working on a poncho. And Martina Sorbara, singer for the electropop band Dragonette, says she knits whenever she has a spare moment. Her latest creation is mittens with fingerholes to allow for easy texting.
And thanks to our Guide to Minneapolis, I can share with you the story of knitters Melissa Seitzer and Jane Leverenz of Mankato, who were commissioned to knit socks for actors Jeff Bridges and Peter Leung to wear in the movie "True Grit." Sounds like a great gig, right? Until you realize that Bridges has size 13 feet! Still, you do get to see a lot of the socks in the movie.
The Avoncroft Museum in Bromsgrove, UK, is enlisting the help of local knitters to raise funds and make the museum's tea room a bit more cozy. Knitters are asked to knit tea cozies to donate to the museum, which will be on display and available for sale in the tea room. Knitters get a free hot beverage when they donate, and the knitter with the most creative design will get vouchers for the museum.
And while it's not knit, a historic model of the salt molecule made out of knitting needles and yarn balls is on display in Edinburgh. The model was made in 1883 by professor and knitting enthusiast Alexander Crum Brown. The model inspired the ball-and-stick structures used for many years and even still today to represent the physical structure of molecules. It's on display as part of the celebration for the International Year of Chemistry.
Finally, fiber enthusiasts in and around Pittsburgh are gearing up for the seventh annual Knit and Crochet Festival, which takes place next weekend, February 11 to 13. The event features free and paid classes on a variety of fiber arts as well as vendors selling all sorts of fibery goodies. The festival is a benefit for the Bloomfield Waldorf School. Students at Waldorf schools are taught to knit as part of the curriculum.
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