Knitting in Second Life

Have you heard about Second Life? It’s an entire 3D virtual world on the internet. (Addictive as all get-out.) You can create an avatar of yourself to inhabit it, and you can own virtual land and build a virtual house. You can meet people, buy clothes and furniture, join groups, and even fly.

. . . And now you can knit! I was wandering around Second Life the other day, and found this charming little knitting shop, Knit This, created by Ida Keen. (Ida Keen is the avatar name of a real-life person, but in Second Life, you use only your avatar’s identity.)

Ida has created a series of virtual knitting needles, balls of yarn, and knitting bags, which she sells from these cute kiosks. They have a kind of motion-program attached to them, so that when your avatar picks them up, your avatar actually begins knitting! Crazy.

So here is my avatar, knitting away while relaxing in Ida’s sitting area. I can’t knit a stitch in Real Life, so this was a real treat. (By the way, the avatar looks something like me . . . on a really, really good day . . . about 15 years ago.)

Here’s the best part, there’s a Second Life knitting group you can join, involving real-life knitters who also frequent Second Life. In fact, they’re having a show-and-tell on January 21st. The theme is socks.

If you’re a Second Lifer, then you can find Knit This on Amida: 88,140,27. If you’re not feel free to email me and I’ll help you locate it.