A Post about Knitting, Twitter and…Budweiser?

When I saw this story I almost couldn’t believe it because it just sounds a little crazy. I mean, I have no idea at all how Jennifer Anton, Budweiser UK’s marketing manager, came up with the idea for the beer company to devise a knitting machine that would run on people’s tweets that include a special hashtag (#jumper4des, I know you want to know).

Just that is kind of crazy enough. But the sweaters the machine makes feature horses, of course, as well as more traditional snowflake motifs, and the words “Celebrate Responsibly.” Because this campaign is really all about getting people to avoid drinking and driving.

With Christmas jumpers knit by a robot.

Can anyone understand this?

It’s still kind of cool, I guess, and if you want one of the sweaters — which will be knit through Dec. 6 — you can enter for a chance to win one on the Budweiser UK Facebook page.

Maybe while people are on Twitter they should be reminded to celebrate responsibly by not drinking and texting, too. Drinking and knitting? That can be dangerous, too, but in a completely different way.

[Photo via MSN UK.]

Looking for more Christmas themed Knitting patterns? Check out some of our favorite Knitting patterns on Etsy and

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I’m honestly not totally sure what to say about the Sun King shawl pattern from Ursa Major Knits other than isn’t this cool? You should probably make one.

This modular design is worked in two parts, the “waxing” and “waning” sections. Both pieces are asymmetrical and use the same yarns in different ways to mix up the colors and make it even more interesting.

You can choose to use two contrasting solid yarns, a solid and a gradient or two complimentary gradients for your yarns. And you can use any weight of yarn and whatever gauge you like to make shawls of different sizes. There are also a bunch of different size options (seven, in fact) that take the project from a little collar like design to something more like a scarf to a large shawl that wraps around the neck to keep you warm.

The sample projects use fingering/lace weight yarn, but you can use whatever you have on hand to make your own beautiful version of this shawl. Using lace weight, you’ll need twice as much of one color as the other.

There are lots of yarn suggestions on the pattern page on Ravelry, and I love the color choices the designer made so much I’d definitely be tempted to use the same colors they did (there are a couple of different versions on the pattern page if you want to see how it looks in different sizes and different colors).

I love the little diamond shapes a the edges of the pieces, which add a little more drama to the project, as if it needed more.

I’m still not sure this boils down to anything beyond this project looks really cool and you should probably knit it, but that’s pretty much how I pick all the projects I share, so I guess that’s fine. You can check it out for yourself and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Ursa Major Knits]

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