Handmade Pledge: Knit Your Own Sportscar

Well there it is then. You have taken the handmade pledge and sweat blood knitting socks and sweaters for everyone you know. You are especially proud of the finger puppets for the nieces and nephews. Now you can lean back and relax, take some time to catch up on TreeHugger. And what do you find? Some bloody overachiever has gone and knit an entire 1:1 scale Ferrari sportscar!

In her defense, Lauren Porter did not set out to climb to rarified heights in the knitting community, putting you and I personally to shame. Admit it, truly her name should be added to some knitting hall of fame. And it seems fit to honor her statement in the consumer season, er I mean the holiday season.

As Lauren Porter states herself, she created the Ferrari because it is "the opposite of what people expect from something that's knitted." It embodies a fundamental question for those of us seeking to find a path between the integrated, post-industrial technological economy and an off-grid, 100-mile, self-dependent lifestyle: how do we deal with the limits of what we can create for ourselves?

Her masterpiece culminates her graduate degree work at Bath Spa University. Twelve miles of yarn, mostly in red garter stitch, compose the car. Black stocking stitch windows, tires and mirrors; crocheted details; and an embroidered prancing horse emblem characterize the knitwork shaped by a steel frame which Lauren welded herself (you go, girl!) Man, knitting just ain't what it used to be!

Via ::Spiegel Auto (German)

Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!