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Michigan Artist Knits a Safe House

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safe house knit installationLife 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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Comments

  1. $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.

  2. 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!

Have you read?

Stitch Your Favorite Fruit on a Sweater

The other day I saw a post from Pinterest about trends for summer and it said one of them was “cultivating whimsy.” 

Well, I don’t know where Pinterest has been all this time, but we’ve been cultivating whimsy here at Craft Gossip for a long time. I love sharing projects that are a little different, things that make you smile when you see them, and will make you smile when you knit them and wear them or use them. 

Such it is with the Tutti Frutti tee knitting pattern from Bea Creative Knits. 

This cute little baby tee is worked top down in the round with contiguous shoulder construction to shape the sleeve caps. There are short rows for the neckline and folded hems with picot edging at the hemline, neckline and edges of the sleeves. 

All of this would be great on its own, but then there’s the addition of a super cute fruit icon, which is added with duplicate stitch. There are a lot of options, including strawberry, banana, orange, cherries, watermelon, lemon, blueberries, kiwi, peach, dragon fruit, apple and pear, so it’s likely you can add on your favorite fruit. 

It is offered in eight sizes, to fit a bust measurement ranging from 28-30 inches (71-76 cm) to 56-58 inches (142-147 cm). The design is meant to be worn with around 6.3 inches/16 cm of negative ease, but you can choose the fit you prefer. There’s also optional bust and waist shaping included in the pattern if you want to make it even curvier.

This is considered an advanced beginner or intermediate project because of all the skills involved, but it’s sure to be a lot of fun even if some of these techniques are new to you.

Grab a copy of the pattern for yourself form Bea Creative Knits on Etsy. 

[Photo: Bea Creative Knits]