For My Friends in Japan

This ASTOUNDING entry was created by Kiyoko Yoshikawa of Kyoto. Positively famous in some international knitting circles for her amazing little book, FOOD KNITS, a few years ago Kiyoko turned her needles to knitting up animals - this one, for the sportswear company Descente.

Feeling utterly useless from this distance of thousands of miles, I virtually offer this extraordinary handmade penguin today in honor of all my friends in Japan – those I've heard from and know to be safe, and those from whom we are still awaiting word.  And much love and optimistic wishes to all.

Get ASTOUNDED!

 Hungry for knits?  ASTOUNDING KNITS features Kiyoko Yoshikawa's luscious bento boxes and whole roasted fishes; and such knitted dainties as Leslie Sudock's Passover feast (excerpts pictured below). For two years, Sudock toiled at her task, stitching up not only the usual assemblage of  bitter herbs, shank bones and roasted eggs, but also items that make appearances on seder plates in some progressive homes: potatoes, beets, oranges. And an olive branch, she says, "in recognition of the shared suffering of the Palestinian people...."  Some of the strands this 50-something grandmother used to knit the meal came from a stash she started amassing in high school. What yarn junkie doesn't relate?

ASTOUNDING KNITS hits bookstores March 27, 2011. 

Leslie Sudock's seder plate...

...and gefilte fish platter.

Happy 0th Birthday to THE HONEYBEE MAN!

Back jacket illustration by Kyrsten Brooker

Today, MARCH 8, is official publication day. To celebrate, here are 8 FACTS about honeybees and THE HONEYBEE MAN. Have some facts of your own to share? Post them posthaste!

1. Honeybees were domesticated even in long-ago times. The Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians; ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all kept bees for their honey.

2. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that honey distilled in water would dissolve gold, rendering it liquid and therefore, drinkable.

3. Now as then, one honeybee can travel up to 8 MILES a day to forage for nectar and pollen.

4. If this tireless bee were to reach her full life expectancy of 12 weeks, she could fly a total of 672 miles - that's the distance from Brooklyn, NY to Lafeyette, IN. 

5. And still, this bee, having visited tens of thousands of flowers, would collect only enough nectar to make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey.

6. Some of a honeybee's favorite flowers are:

     Black cherries

     Lindens

     Sweet pepperbush

     Purple flowering raspberries

     Locusts

     Woodland sunflowers

     Clover

     Bergamot

     Black-eyed Susans

     Asters

     Goldenrod

     Mountainmint

     Blueberries & Cranberries

7. Fred, the apiarist in THE HONEYBEE MAN, takes his likeness from illustrator Kyrsten Brooker's Grandpa Fargey, a dedicated flower gardener whose beautiful peonies Kyrsten (and no doubt, a fair number of bees) remembers with great fondness. 

8. John Howe, for years an apiarist in Fort Greene, Brooklyn and the founder of the NYC Beekeeping meet-up, was the heart and brains behind Fred. He told me almost everything I know about honeybees and even introduced me to his hives. Even though until March 2010, it was illegal to keep honeybees and other "wild animals" in New York City. Now, almost everyone seems to have gone crazy for urban bees and honey!

http://www.lelanargi.com

While You Wait for Spring, Warm Up With Some ASTOUNDING KNITS!

Now available for pre-order! 

"Silver Darlings," knit of 0.25 mm copper wire by Anita Bruce.

Close-up of Theresa Honeywell's motorcycle cozy. 

Robyn Love's "Knitted Mile" awaits unfurling...

...through the streets of Dallas, Texas.
"Knitted Mile" Photos by Shannon Stratton.

MEANWHILE, back in the land of knitting...

... Astounding Knits: 101 Spectacular Knitted Creations and Daring Feats (Voyageur Press) hits bookstore shelves on March 24. This book was great fun to write - and hopefully, will be great fun to read! It features some truly amazing artists and craftspeople: from Dave Cole and his "Knitting Machine," which stitched up an enormous American flag using utilities poles and excavators as needles, to Alasdair Post-Quinn, whose revolutionary double knitting features one pattern on the front and an entirely different pattern on the back; from Tatyana Yanishevky's anatomically correct flower garden, to Helen Pynor's representations of human organs knitted up with strands of human hair. From the sublime, to the outrageous, and everything in between, this book will be available soon for pre-order via my website. Look for it!

Tatyana Yanishevy's incredible passionflower, top; and hibiscus.