The Close Knit Gang

'The Close Knit Gang' is an exclusive collection of baby and children's knitting patterns shaped by a timeless, elegant, vintage style. The patterns in this book cater for all levels of knitters from the absolute beginner to the more experienced looking for a challeng.

Patterns for all levels of knitters from the London-based knitting store MillaMia, which celebrates the Swedish heritage of its two founding sisters. Features stylish and contemporary designs for sweaters, coats, accessories and more for a variety of sizes, from the newborn baby to toddlers and young children.

Knitting has recently exploded in popularity. Professionals, punks, and feminists are embracing this ancient craft, an activity that was previously relegated to the realm of the traditional woman, the mother and homemaker. While knitting books featuring such hip projects as iPod cozies and yoga mat bags abound, few explore the subculture of knitting in any depth. Who are these people? Why knitting, why now? Wills takes the reader on a fascinating tour of this subculture, complete with lively anecdotes and revealing interviews. Those who are new to the craft will enjoy a fascinating introduction to the knitting community, while those who have been unable to put down their needles since knitting that first scarf will glean new ideas for their next blog session, online shopping spree, or knitting group get-together. Knitting has recently exploded in popularity. Professionals, punks, and feminists are embracing this ancient craft, an activity that was previously relegated to the realm of the traditional woman, the mother and homemaker. Books that cater to this new generation of knitters are flooding the market with patterns for such contemporary projects as iPod cozies, yoga mat bags, and laptop covers. The attitude of these publications is decidedly hip, featuring models sporting tattoos or piercings. Missing from the avalanche of knitting books, until now, is one that fully explores the subculture of knitting. Who are these people? Why knitting, why now? Intrepid journalist and avid knitter Kerry Wills set out to find out. She takes us on a fascinating tour through the history of knitting, exploring the lives of such women as the revolutionary Elizabeth Zimmermann, whose strong opinions and classic book, Knitting without Tears, popularized knitting in the 1970s, anticipating current trends. Wills visits knitting groups that meet at such places as a feminist vegetarian restaurant, churches, pubs, and senior centers. She describes political activists who knit tree cozies to protect the trees against developers, groups that knit afghans for Afghans, and knitters who make shawls for people with cancer. She also explores online knitting communities. Those who are new to the craft will come away feeling more connected to the history of knitting as well as to their place in today's universe of knitters, while those who have been unable to put down their needles since stitching that first scarf will glean new ideas for their next blog session, online shopping spree, or knitting group get-together.

Throughout the history of the United States, gangs have existed in one form or another, from the violent thugs of old New York to the holdup gangs of the Old West and from Prohibition-era bootleggers to modern-day street gangs. Each type of gang has posed a serious problem for law-enforcement authorities. Police have developed numerous techniques for identifying gangs, tracking their activities, breaking up illegal rackets, and addressing the social issues that contribute to the formation of gangs. Gangs and Gang Crime details the history of criminal gangs and law-enforcement efforts to fight them, from the nineteenth century to the present.a

Winner, 2014 Distinguished Contribution to Research Award presented by the Latina/o Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association Los Angeles is the epicenter of the American gang problem. Rituals and customs from Los Angeles’ eastside gangs, including hand signals, graffiti, and clothing styles, have spread to small towns and big cities alike. Many see the problem with gangs as related to urban marginality—for a Latino immigrant population struggling with poverty and social integration, gangs offer a close-knit community. Yet, as Edward Orozco Flores argues in God’s Gangs, gang members can be successfully redirected out of gangs through efforts that change the context in which they find themselves, as well as their notions of what it means to be a man. Flores here illuminates how Latino men recover from gang life through involvement in urban, faith-based organizations. Drawing on participant observation and interviews with Homeboy Industries, a Jesuit-founded non-profit that is one of the largest gang intervention programs in the country, and with Victory Outreach, a Pentecostal ministry with over 600 chapters, Flores demonstrates that organizations such as these facilitate recovery from gang life by enabling gang members to reinvent themselves as family men and as members of their community. The book offers a window into the process of redefining masculinity. As Flores convincingly shows, gang members are not trapped in a cycle of poverty and marginality. With the help of urban ministries, such men construct a reformed barrio masculinity to distance themselves from gang life.

In contrast to the pattern of long-standing occidental street gangs modelled in the North American paradigm, new-age gangs have appeared as loosely organized, with a high degree of interchangeability of their membership. Associated with this structural fluidity is an equally significant geographic mobility, which paradoxically does not appear to diminish the intensity of personal bonds formed within and between ‘new-age’ gangs. The dimensions of fluidity of gang membership and geographic mobility across police jurisdictions is increasingly seen as the organizational pattern of emerging gangs, in large part shaped by worldwide patterns of human migration and globalization. While the structure of new-age gangs appears as loose-knit, what must be emphasized is that this characteristic is reflective of a criminal network of economic commodity-based ‘turf’ as opposed to a close-knit geographically anchored ‘turf’ that has characterized the prevailing North American (occidental) gang model. This volume illuminates the structure and organization of increasingly emergent, fluid and mobile, new-age gangs within the context of transnational networks. The implications for law enforcement agencies is two-fold: i) the fluidity of new-age gang players challenges investigative techniques that remain predicated on suspect recognition through modus operandi repetition by those involved, and; ii) the movement of new-age gang players across police jurisdictions challenges the sharing of police information. This innovative work will be of interest to researchers in Criminology and Criminal Justice, as well as related disciplines including Sociology and Anthropology studying gangs and group-organization. It has strong implications for practitioners and professionals working in law enforcement, public policy, or with at-risk youth/young adults.

The first comprehensive national survey of organized agency and community group responses to gang problems in the U.S. The only national assessment of efforts to combat gangs. Presents a comprehensive gang prevention and intervention model based on this national assessment. These models are recommended as effective policies, practices, and strategies for communities to combat gangs. Covers: gangs as organizations, membership demographics and experiences, the social contexts of gang development, social opportunities: schools and jobs, and more.