Archive for August, 2010

World Record Knitting Jobs

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

Next time you think your knitting pattern is too complicated or you just want to set a new knitting goal for yourself, this list of world record knitting jobs should give you something to think about. If nothing else, they are fun and interesting knitting facts. Are you going to be the next knitter to break or set a new world knitting record? After you have looked at these, you may want to think twice about it!

BIG KNITTING JOBS

She’s no Pirate but even in Penzance in Cornwall, nobody is going to be able to fight their way past the super sized set of knitting needles belonging to Julia Hopson. Her knitting needles were three and one-half meters long (or over eleven feet) and six and one half centimeters (or two and one half inches) in diameter. With these monstrous knitting needles, she managed to knit a ten stitch, ten row tension square using stockingette stitches.

Talk about working your fingers to the bone!…

According to Wikipedia, in 2004 a German man managed to finger knit an amazing strand using the finger method often used to teach small children and to help other people who may have difficulty with knitting needles. He ended up fingering enough yarn to knit a strand that was 4,321 meters (14,043 feet) long. I was unable to verify this world record anywhere else but it is still pretty amazing.

Faster than a speeding … knitting job?

Miriam Tegels of the Netherlands appears to have the fastest knitting needles in the West … or anywhere else for that matter. For this world record knitting job, the idea was to stitch as many stitches as possible in a three-minute time period. Her closest competitor came in with a very impressive 183 stitches. Still, that was an amazing seventy-four stitches too slow. Her three minute world record knitting job resulted in an incredible 257 stitches knitted within that three minute period.

A Run in her Stockings … Scarf maybe?

Suzie Hewer managed to tackle a knitting job that saw her create a scarf that was one meter and 20 centimeters (almost forty-seven inches) long. Now that in itself is not such an amazing thing but add to that the fact that she was making the scarf for charity … and it is still really not such an incredible feat. However, when you realize that she managed to tackle this knitting job while running a marathon … at the same time … then it becomes a bit more amazing. There is no word on how long it took her to run the marathon though … and no word whether or not she suffered any runs in her scarf along the way.

After having read about some of these world record knitting jobs, maybe your next task will not look so bleak no matter how difficult the knitting pattern may make it seem. If you would like to attempt to break any of these or any other world record knitting jobs, you are going to have to contact the Guinness book of records because that is one knitting job that we cannot help you with here.

Tags: knitting facts, knitting goal, knitting job, knitting jobs, knitting needles, knitting pattern, world knitting record, world record knitting
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Knitting Jobs -Why Are They So Relaxing For Us?

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Some people will just never understand how something like knitting can be so relaxing but the truth remains that many knitting jobs are extremely relaxing in addition to being very rewarding on a personal level. What it is about knitting jobs may be difficult to accurately define but there are many common factors that can help to explain the phenomenon. Whether you are looking at the physical aspects or the psychological ones, the fact is that knitting jobs really can be very relaxing in a very real way.

From a purely physical aspect, many studies have concluded that certain people are calmed by low-impact, repetitive tasks. While many high-impact, repetitive tasks will actually increase the heart rate, smaller tasks such as those while doing knitting jobs, which do not require excessive energy or effort, actually help to slow the heart rate allowing the person performing the action to relax while working. While this may not hold true for everybody, especially not people who have a very short attention span or those who get easily bored or frustrated, it is in fact, scientifically held to be true for a great many people.

When you look at the psychological aspects regarding why doing knitting jobs is so relaxing, you can come up with a lot more information. In all fairness though, much of it will be speculation and “theory”, though in reality, many of those theories are sound enough to stand up as evidence in any court of law so there may be a little more to them than what meets the eye. Whether or not you believe all that “psycho-babble” or psychological analyses, it does show that there are numerous things about knitting jobs that make them relaxing.

One of the most relaxing aspects of most knitting jobs is knowing and understanding that there is going to be some type of reward when you complete your knitting project. Whether you are knitting something so relatively simple as a bracelet or headband or even that hand-knitted, full-length cape that you always wanted, when you are done you know that you are going to have a knitted product that is (at least relatively) unique and made with your own hand. The satisfaction that you get from completing your personal knitting jobs may stem in some part from the fact that you will now have a lasting memory that you created from scratch and made by hand.

Many people these days listen to “soothing sounds” that are repetitive and soft, allowing the listener to relax as the sounds are played. Sounds like waterfalls, rain showers and running streams are among the most common. The same can be said for most knitting jobs that you take on. The smaller, smooth and repetitive movements create a sense of calm for many people. There is a deep psychological comfort in doing something familiar and the end result is very soothing for many people … even those who may not be a little quick to get bored.

Whatever the reasons though, and whether everybody will ever truly understand it or even have the same reasoning behind it, when you are working on your knitting jobs, I bet you are relaxed.

Tags: hand knitted, knitting, knitting jobs, knitting project
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