KnitBits: Knitting for Jimmy Kimmel, Knitting for Charity and Knitting Against All Odds

February 5, 2016 by Sarah White 3 Comments

There’s so much great knitting news this week, but I think we have to start with the story of Brad Perry, a reporter from KUSI San Diego, who on a whim accepted a ticket to a taping of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Like all good knitters, he brought his knitting bag with him, and was working on a pair of two-color, flat-knit fingerless gloves during the taping.

A producer saw him and Kimmel talked to him during one of the commercial breaks:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sLvApnT2O4]
Perry says he’s been knitting about 4.5 years, and started because “my daughter wouldn’t knit me a hat.” Also, “chicks dig it.” After saying he knits “pretty much every day, all the time,” he offered to knit Kimmel a bow tie before the end of the show.

This clip doesn’t show it, but he was successful, as you can see above, and in this pic from Bow Tie Aficionado.

Red Heart Yarn is teaming up with the Red Cross to give a little comfort to people in need. You can download their Red Heart Cares blanket pattern in knit or crochet (there’s also a pillow and a first aid kit), and when you buy specially marked red or white yarns in the Super Saver, Soft or With Love lines, Red Heart will donate money to Red Cross North America (they’re donating $250,000). They also encourage people to make a blanket to donate to the Red Cross or other charitable organization and tag their creations online with #StitchaHug.

Finally, you might have thought learning to knit was hard when you first started out, but imagine what it would be like to learn to knit if you were born without fingers. After lots of effort, trying and failing, and perseverance, Jennifer Jeremie Marquis learned to knit (she also paints and does cross stitch). Check out the video if you need a little encouragement to keep trying anything that’s been a challenge to you in life.

[Photo via Emmys.com.]

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Comments

Ricki Duke says
February 6, 2016 at 3:52 pm
Way to go Brad! Your awesome. To bad your not still here in Arizona. We miss not seeing you on TV3! I see you keeping in touch with Tara Hitchcock! Good for you.
carrie says
February 7, 2016 at 1:10 am
Love it!
I know he was a field reporter in the mornings, I bet he gets some great Knitting time in while traveling and waiting for his que.

Have you read?

Practice Your Brioche Knitting with the Folgate Set

Brioche knitting, also sometimes known as English rib, is a popular way to add a lot of texture to knitting projects. It can be a little intimidating when you’ve never done it before, but once you get the technique down it’s lots of fun to do. And it creates the squishiest, warmest fabric, so it’s great for fall and winter accessories like these.

Mirella Moments has a whole collection of English rib knitting patterns, including the hat pictured here, a headband and an infinity scarf.

These would be super as gifts to knit now and have on hand for the holidays. You can knit all three and give them to three different people, or gift them all to one person, or keep them for yourself. No one is judging here.

All of the projects use worsted weight yarn but they come out looking chunky because of the knitting technique, which involves yarn overs that are worked together with the next stitch on the next round so there’s not a visible hole, it just makes the fabric really stretchy.

You can practice working the stitch flat if you like, but it’s not any more difficult to do in the round. If you’ve never done it before you might want to start with the headband pattern here before moving on to a bigger project.

The hat and the headband both come in three sizes for adults (the small would probably work for a teen) and the infinity scarf is one size but you could adjust it to be bigger or smaller if you like.

These projects are so pretty and relatively easy to do, too, even if you’ve never worked brioche before.

You can find all the patterns, complete with photo tutorials, at Mirella Moments: hat | headband | infinity scarf.

[Photo: Mirella Moments]

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