NK News

2024 Winter Celebration

Held on November 22, 2024. It was a huge success. 

850 hats, scarves and toy bears went to our four target charities who assist New Yorkers in need! 

Enjoy this slide show of images from the celebration. 

2024 Baby Blanket Celebration

On June 21, 2024, the NYU Naughty Knitters held our annual blanket celebration. At this event, we displayed the 195 blankets our members have knitted and crocheted since September 2023. We then presented these blankets to representatives from Care for the Homeless, who will distribute them to their clients in the coming months.

We want to thank everyone who came out and joined us at this special event. We also want to extend a huge thank you to the NYU Administrative Management Council (AMC) and the NYU Office of Community Engagement for their generous annual support, which makes all of our work possible.

And, of course, thank you to our caring and talented members for creating these beautiful blankets. Each of your blankets is a work of art, and you constantly blow us away with your skills and creativity.

Founded in 2004, the NYU Naughty Knitters is a group of NYU-affiliated individuals who knit and crochet items for donation to New York City-area charitable organizations. To date, we have donated over 20,000 items, including hats and scarves, blankets, teddy bears, preemie hats and octopus dolls, and catmats.  These 195 baby blankets brings our total number of items contributed for  the 2023-24 academic year to over 1500! 

Thank you for watching this video.  Below the video is a slideshow of photos. We look forward to showing you more projects in the near future.

Slideshow of photos:

Weekly Meetings

See the Schedule page on this website for the current information on our in-person meetings

2023 Winter Celebration

On December 1, 2023, we held our annual winter celebration.  Hats, scarves and bears were displayed. Several of the charities we donate items to were able to send representatives to attend.  1450 items were donated to eight local charities. 

For an album of photos from this event, please visit our Facebook page.

2023 Blanket Celebration

On June 2, 2023, the NYU Naughty Knitters held our annual blanket celebration. At this event, we displayed the 211 baby blankets our members have knitted and crocheted since September 2022. We then presented these blankets to representatives from Care for the Homeless, who will distribute them to their clients in the coming months. 

We want to thank everyone who came out and joined us at this special event. We also want to extend a huge thank you to the NYU Administrative Management Council and NYU Community Engagement for their generous support, which makes all of our work possible. And, of course, thank you to our caring and talented members for creating these beautiful blankets. Each of your blankets is a work of art, and you constantly blow us away with your skills and creativity.

The music in this video is Perception by Benjamin Tissot of BenSound.com. (License code: TBRVY1ZUMPGDXSAK)

Thank you for watching this video! For an album of photos from this event, please visit our Facebook page.

2022 Holiday Party

The NYU Naughty Knitters held our annual Holiday party on Tuesday, November 29th, 2022. In the video below, you can see is video, you can see many of the 1,249 items we donated this semester that we had on display during the event. 

In the Fall 2022 semester, we donated 247 hats and scarves to the New York City Department of Homeless Services, 270 hats and scarves to Visiting Neighbors, 576 children's items to Xavier Mission, 82 teddy bears to Saint George's Ukrainian Catholic Church, and 74 teddy bears to Knitting Without Borders. Our grand total for items donated this semester was 1,249. 

We want to thank everyone who joined us to celebrate at our holiday party. We would also like to thank the NYU Administrative Management Council and NYU Community Engagement for their generous support, which makes all of this possible. Finally, we want to thank all of our amazing members for knitting, crocheting, and weaving all of these beautiful items. We are constantly blown away by your skill and creativity. You are incredible.

The music in our video is "Memories" by Benjamin Tissot from BenSounds.Com. 

Winter 2022 Donations Deadline and Holiday Party Reminders!

As a reminder, the deadline for dropping off items to be included in our Winter 2022 donations is Wednesday, November 23rd. That's a week from today! If you have finished hats, scarves, and teddy bears, please contact Jennie directly at jt6@nyu.edu to arrange a time to get them to her. 

Also, we will be holding our holiday party on Tuesday, November 29th, at 12:00 PM in rooms C05 and C06 of 383 Lafayette Street. We'll have tons of hats, scarves, and bears on display in room C05, so you can check out our members' amazing handiwork. In room C06, you can enjoy tasty treats, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate at our potluck. We hope to see you there! 

2022 Baby Blanket Celebration

On August 17, 2022, the NYU Naughty Knitters held our annual Baby Blanket Celebration, our first since 2019. At this event, we presented 291 crocheted and knitted baby blankets to representatives from Care for the Homeless. The video below shows all of the blankets on display at this event. More photographs of the event can be found on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/nyuknits.

The Baby Blanket Celebration marked the end of AY 2021-2022. We had an incredibly successful year, crafting and donating 1,795 items for various charities and organizations. Along with these 291 blankets, we donated 267 children's items to Care for the Homeless. We also donated 125 winter hats and scarves to the New York City Department of Homeless Services, 106 winter hats and scarves to Visiting Neighbors, 422 winter hats, scarves, and pairs of fingerless gloves to Knit the Rainbow, 120 preemie hats to Hats and Peas, 40 teddy bears to the St. George Catholic Ukrainian Church, and 414 teddy bears to Knitting Without Borders.

Since the group's founding in 2004, the NYU Naughty Knitters have made and donated over 15,500 items!

Thank you to the many people who make this possible: the NYU Administrative Management Council, NYU Community Engagement, and our absolutely incredible members who knit and crochet each item with care, skill, and love. We could not do this without each and every one of you.

We look forward to another amazing year in AY 2022-2023!

Spring/Summer Baby Blanket Deadline: August 1, 2022

The deadline for submitting baby blankets to be included in our 2022 donation to Care for the Homeless is August 1. 

Please contact Jennie or Tricia to make arrangements to drop off your finished baby blankets by August 1. Thank you!

Teddy Bears for Ukraine

Many members have asked if we are donating to any groups that are serving the people of Ukraine. We are now making teddy bears that will be brought to Ukrainian children. The specific parameters for these bears are as follows:

Size: Small

Colors: Body of bear should be tan or brown only. Do not use black or other colors for the main body and face of the bear. The bears can have colorful sweaters (i.e., arms and torso area). 

Facial Expression: Eyes, nose, and smile. (Please do not use red yarn for eyes.)

Decorations: Something colorful like a heart or the Ukrainian flag

Relevant Patterns and Tutorials:

Knitting Without Borders teddy bear patterns (knit and crochet)

Tutorial: How to make a KWB bear face on a crocheted bear*

Tutorial: How to make a KWB bear face on a knitted bear*

Tiny crochet heart pattern

*Note: I made these tutorials in Microsoft Word a few years ago, and I only uploaded them to Google Drive moments ago. It is likely there will be some formatting weirdness in Drive versions as a result. I apologize for any inconvenience, and I will try to correct any errors soon. -TV

Other Important Notes

• Jennie is our point of contact on this project. Finished bears need to get to Jennie. You can make arrangements to mail or physically drop off bears with her directly by emailing her at JT6@nyu.edu.

• If you want to make teddy bears but do not have fiber fill to stuff them with, that is OK. You can make the bear bodies, make their faces, and then sew up the bears so that only one side of the bear's head is left unsewn, and get these bodies to Jennie. Jennie will take care of getting the bear stuffed and finished.

• Red Heart Super Saver yarn in Bright Yellow and Blue are close color matches for the colors of Ukraine's flag. 

If you have any other questions about this project, please do not hesitate to ask Jennie or Tricia via email or direct message on our Facebook page. We're here to help however we can.

Final Winter 2021 Donation Total

The NYU Naughty Knitters donated 1,123 items in the Fall 2021 semester! That's 1,123 hats, scarves, cowls, pairs of gloves, and teddy bears that went to Care for the Homeless, Knit the Rainbow, Visiting Neighbors, the NYC Department of Homeless Services, and Knitting Without Borders. THANK YOU to all of our incredible and talented Naughty Knitters. Here's to another great semester. Keep on stitching!

Winter 2021 Donations Deadline: November 25, 2021

The deadline for dropping off items to be included in our Winter 2021 donations to Visiting Neighbors, NYC Department of Homeless Services, and Knit the Rainbow is THANKSGIVING (THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25). If you have items that you want included in these donations, please make arrangements for dropping them off before that date directly with Jennie (jt6@nyu.edu). 

Austin Rivers of Knit the Rainbow joining our August 20th Zoom!

Austin Rivers, founder of Knit The Rainbow Inc., will be joining us at 1:30 PM during our Zoom meeting on Friday, August 20th, to tell us all about everything the group achieved in its first year in action and what it plans to do going forward. We'd love if you'd join us too! https://nyu.zoom.us/j/97869023862

Do you have questions for Austin? Email them to us at nyunaughtyknitters@gmail.com for the Q&A portion of the meeting.

Care for the Homeless Blanket Donation

On July 19, 2021, the NYU Naughty Knitters delivered 320 baby blankets to Care for the Homeless. Our members worked all throughout AY2020-2021 to knit and crochet these blankets, and every one is a unique work of art that we are sure will be loved and treasured by whoever receives it. 

Thank you to the AMC and Office of Civic Engagement for their constant support of our work, to NYU Security for delivering the blankets to Care for the Homeless, and to Ramon, who helped us store these blankets throughout the year and prepared them for delivery for us. We could not have done this without you. 

New Partnerships and Updated Projects!

We are excited to announce that the NYU Naughty Knitters are now crafting hats, scarves, and fingerless gloves for Knit the Rainbow, an organization founded by an NYU alum that collects and distributes garments to homeless and housing-insecure LGBTQ+ youth in New York City. 

We are also pleased to report that we have resumed crafting CatMats for Kitty Kind to use to make the cages they house their adoptable cats and kittens in cozier and brighter and to ease the animals' transition into their adoptive homes.

For a complete and up-t0-date list of all the items we are making, please visit the Current Projects section of the site. 

Because we are still not able to hold in-person meetings on campus, we are still meeting via Zoom every Friday from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM. Please contact Jennie Tichenor at jt6@nyu.edu if you would like to join us for these online sessions. Similarly, if you need yarn or want to drop off completed items for donation, please reach out to Jennie to schedule a meeting. 

May 2021 - Catching Up

It's been a while, huh? 

If you know us--and if you're here, reading this, then you probably do--you know that we've been keeping busy during these past 15 months or so. Although we haven't been able to meet in person, we've been holding our weekly meetings via Zoom so that members can stay connected and show off their works in progress. Similarly, while we haven't been able to hold our usual end-of-semester showcases, we have continued making our donations to the organizations we work with. 

Currently, we are hoping that we will be able to have some sort of showcase of our baby blankets before giving them to Care for the Homeless at some point in the next few months. When exactly that will take place and whether it will be held in person or virtually has yet to be determined. Keep your eyes on this space, our Facebook page, and your inbox for more information. 

Fall 2019 Semester in Review

This fall was an incredible semester for the NYU Naughty Knitters. Our membership grew, we formed partnerships with some new great organizations, and we made more items than you can shake a stick at. Seriously! You just try to shake a stick at them all! You can't!

Our first donations of the semester were blue hats for the Hat Not Hate campaign and beige scarves for the USO to give to active service members this holiday season. Then, in November, we presented a representative from Hats & Peas with preemie hats, blankets, and stuffed octopuses during her visit to one of our regular meetings.

Then, on December 6th, we held our annual holiday party, where we displayed the hats, scarves, and teddy bears that our members had made for The Lower Eastside Girls Club, New York City Department of Homeless Services, Knitting Without Borders, Rendall House, and P.S. 17. We also enjoyed tons of tasty treats cooked and baked by our own members, who are talented in so many ways. 

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate with us at our party. Thank you to the NYU AMC for supporting everything we do. Thank you to the people at the ACC, Brooklyn Bridge Animal Welfare Coalition and Brooklyn Cat Cafe, Care for the Homeless, Hat Not Hate, Hats & Peas, Knitting Without Borders, the Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York, the New York City Department of Homeless Services, Rendall House, and the USO for all the things they do. 

And thank you, most of all, to our amazing members. You are all such wonderful, talented individuals, and we feel so honored that you share your time, energy, skills, and company with us. Here's to an amazing 2020 full of friendship, laughter, and yarn! 

Hello, Fall! 

Fall has started manifesting here in NYC, and it brings with it several of the best yarn-related events in the city all year. 

The NYC Yarn Crawl will run from Friday, September 27, through Sunday, September 29. During Yarn Crawl, many of the city's great yarn shops will offer special events, giveaways, deals, and freebies to visitors. To learn more about which shops are participating and what they're doing for the event, check out the NYC Yarn Crawl website: https://yarncrawlnyc.com/.  

Then, on Saturday, October 8, it's the 8th Annual Kings County Fiber Festival! This event will take place at the Old Stone House & Washington Park in Brooklyn from 10 AM to 5 PM. The festival will have everything from vendors to music to technique demonstrations to artist talks. It'll even have the Spin City team performing a practice run of the Fleece-to-Shawl challenge that they'll be competing in at the upcoming New York State Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck. For more details about this festival, check out its website: http://www.kingscountyfiberfestival.org/ 

I know I'll be yarn crawling and checking out the KCFF. If you're interested in attending either of these events as part of an NYU Naughty Knitters group, let me know! 

In the meantime, I hope you'll be attending our meetings on campus. The Schedule page will be updated as I get confirmations of meeting sites and dates, and our Current Projects page is up to date. Happy stitching!

-Tricia

NYU Naughty Knitters host Girl Scout Troop 4328

On Tuesday, June 11, 2019, members of Junior Girl Scout Troop 4328 visited the NYU Naughty Knitters on the Washington Square Campus to help us stuff teddy bears for Knitting Without Borders. The Girl Scouts were amazing crafters and helped us stuff and sew up nearly 50 bears!

Naughty Knitters Donate 360 Blankets to Care for the Homeless

On Friday, June 7, 2019, the NYU Naughty Knitters held its annual Blanket Celebration. All 360 blankets knit and crocheted by the Naughty Knitters were on display for everyone to admire before we packed them up and sent them over to Care for the Homeless's facilities. Representatives from Care for the Homeless and NYU's Administrative Management Council were also in attendance. Thank you to everyone who came by to see our handiwork and all our amazing members for their hard work, skill, and dedication!