Michigan Artist Knits a Safe House

September 30, 2013 by Sarah White 3 Comments

Life has not been easy for artist and knitter Annie Eckrich. After her parents divorced and her mom stopped receiving child support, the family’s home was foreclosed on when she was 16. They spent some time floating from place to place, even living in their car sometimes.

She developed an eating disorder, and her mom taught her to knit to cope with all that was going on.

Now 22, she’s health and a recent graduate of Kalamazoo College, with a major in art and art history. She’s still knitting and recently completed “Safe House,” a 9.5 foot square, 13 foot tall structure made of knitting and complete with a knit couch, knit mailbox and baskets of wool roving for decor.

The piece has been installed — with Annie inside it — at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts, where it is part of the ArtPrize competition, the winner of which will receive $20,000.

This is a great story about the power of art and knitting and we wish Annie luck!

[Photo by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood via MLive.com.]

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Cath says
October 1, 2013 at 6:45 pm
$200,000!! I sure hope she gets it. I love it, and her story is touching. I think she could make and sell these things.
Paula Collins says
October 2, 2013 at 10:00 am
I hope she wins! I wonder if she has thought of taking pictures of just the wall knitting for wall paper. I would love to have a knitted wall paper!
Rose clark says
October 3, 2013 at 4:13 am
Amazing and I hope she wins also. This needs to be in a knitting magazine.

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Fun Easter Knitting Patterns

I love a good pattern with a bit of whimsy, and luckily for me that’s easy to find when it comes to Easter knitting patterns. Read on for fun patterns with a theme of bunnies, chicks and eggs, perfect to knit for Easter and beyond.

There’s something about the combination of babies and Easter (and knit things, of course) that is just extra cute, so I couldn’t help sharing this bunny ear hat for babies from Catherine Anfield. It’s actually a set that includes a matching romper, but I’m focused on that sweet hat with the droopy bunny ears. It’s worked in worsted weight yarn, sized to fit a newborn and available on Ravelry.

For bigger kids and adults, Amanda Berry has this cute bunny ears headband, which is a free pattern on Ravelry. They call for bulky weight yarn and are worked in garter stitch, so they’re a great project for beginners.

Whether your egg hunt involves real eggs or the candy variety, you might want to knit up something to keep them warm. WarmandKnittedS on Etsy has a cute set of egg warmers with an Easter twist including a little hat, a chick, a bunny, an owl, a carrot and a sheep. The patterns call for sport weight yarn.

The patterns from Wild Welsh Knitting say they are specifically for creme eggs, but they would probably cozy real eggs just fine, too. This set includes a rabbit, hen, chick and piggy all worked in DK weight yarn. These knit up super fast for a fun little addition to your egg hunt or as a fundraiser.

How about eggs that look like bunnies? Amy Gunderson has this cute pattern (with knit and crochet versions) for an egg shaped rabbit that looks like it’s wearing a little ear hat made with a contrasting color. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn, but try different weights to get different sizes of eggs. You can find the pattern, called Egg-cited, on Ravelry.

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