The Bath Crafting Cranny

Handmade09

Coming our way: I can't wait!

IKnitLinks at The Bear pub, Bath

Betsan from Stitchlinks tells me that: 'Stitchlinks and IKnit London have got together to form a Community Interest Company called IKnitLinks – the official launch will happen at the IKnit weekend. The aim of IKnitLinks is to knit together communities through knitting groups and we will be supporting groups in hospitals, GP surgeries, pubs, bars, cafes etc. The intention is to provide training and a resource for group leaders as well as communication network.

We have couple of groups up and running in the health service and the Bear Pub on the Bear Flat has agreed to reserve their sofa area for a knitting group every Wednesday night at 7pm.'

I'll be popping up next Weds - see you there...

uh-ohhhhh!

....low-maintenance sheep which do not need to have their fleeces shorn?!

World Wide Knit in Public Day

It's that time of year again! World Wide Knit in Public day encourages what it says! I'm not a public knitting wallflower, with a pair of socks on the needles permanently in my handbag for bus journeys - but this is an excuse for a group-knit.
I've got loads on at the moment so Helen and Janine are running the event: Saturday 13th June from 2-5pm. Here's their news:

'Ideally we would like to link to reuse, recycle, buy local ethic.  With this in mind, if one of you is happy to knit a project out of reclaimed material of any type for the afternoon, that would be very excellent. 

We are also planning to have a brag washing line, so if you are happy to have a knitting project featured it would be great if you bought it along.

I myself will be bringing my spinning wheel plus a selection of unspun/spun fibres so people can see natural fibres before, during and after processing.  I am also planning to bring some skeins of indie dyers such as laughing yaffle, NDS, Fybrespates to tempt people.

Janine and I shall be working on publicity but if you have a blog, facebook page, or twitter could you please push it.

If you have any questions etc in the meantime, please contact me.

Thanks and have fun

Helen'

Contact Helen here or visit her blog...

Larkhall festival 1-4th May

The Larkhall festival is almost upon us! :0)

You can get the programme here.

I'm supposed to be helping JohnBoy paint the bathroom this weekend (grooooooan) but with any luck we'll be able to sneak across to Larkhall between paint coats! On my list of Things I'd Like To See are: the Printmakers' Studio and Vicky Sanders' woodturning.

Caroline Harris tells me that she's doing a couple of workshops at the New Oriel Hall on Saturday 2nd May, which sounds great: 'Making, Doing and Mending' at 11.30-12.30 and 'Greener Spring Cleaning' at 15.30-16.30.

Also, Sue Bradley is running some knitting workshops! 'Tactile Textiles' (Saturday, 11-17.30) and 'Subversive Knitting' (Sat, concurrently at 14.00-16.00).

I'm not sure I'd be allowed to get away from the painting long enough for a workshop - but, please, if you go: take photos and write a wee summary of the workshops that can be put up here!

The Museum of Unnatural History

Etsy boom!

This brought some cheer to the reading of the news...

...and, on the theme of budgeting, here's some sage advice on being creative on a shoestring...

Singer madness!

I've seen houses for sale cheaper than some of these sewing-machines are going for!

:-S

Goodness gracious me! (via http://www.boingboing.net/)

One expensive stitch!!

ImaigImagine being paid £14 for every stitch! Golly!

Coat for a boat!

Tyneside knitters have a big job on their hands: want to help?

Sushi sock rolls!

Browsing, as I often do, Jon from EasyKnit's website, I spotted these sushi sock rolls...

How cool are these? Knitted wool that you knit into something else?!
Never again will all my needles get tangled in my yarn in my handbag; will my yarn wrap itself so tightly around my housekeys that I am rendered homeless for hours; will I curse loudly in public as my yarn ball (a) rolls in a puddle (outside wound ball) or (b) gets knotted into a never-to-be-resolved knot (centre-pull ball).

Oh, and he also now sells beeeeeeeeeautiful BFL fibre: which is going to prove VERY exciting for me...but more of that soon! ;0)

Tablecloth sans table

I think this is just perfect! But would my kittens get their paws trapped through the holes?? (Although that would swiftly teach them not to play on tabletops!!)

O-W-L-S!

Whoop, whoop! The Owls pattern is up as a PDF...thank you, Needled!! :0)
Cannot WAIT to cast this beauty on!

RRRs

I've been thinking a lot about the RRR (reduce, reuse, recycle) policy lately...it's been in the news so much lately that it's hard to avoid, really. (Although some sections of the media are, infuriatingly, choosing to resist the bleedin obvious.)

Most of it makes such perfect sense, that you may find that you can live your life adhering to the RRR suggestions without really trying...

As a nation we are lucky that most of us have the luxury of choosing whether we adhere though: aspects of the RRR lifestyle are not always cheaper...buying yarn is an expensive business! :0(

And, it has be noted that RRR and other environmental concerns are often so-called 'luxuries': if you were really poor you might not be able to 'indulge' in living your life around green issues...(even though you may have much more reason to be campaigning).

But, needlesstosay, we may notice an increase in RRR living with the current Credit Crisis (TM): sales in second-hand books are noticing a promising rise!! :0)

Needled has a great post about her year of not buying clothes. It's wonderful writing, as always. And I, for one, will be podcasting Needled's recommended BBC series: Dirty Business.

And, in this RRR vein, there is a great event in Bath tonight with Christine Bone, who has pledged to buy nothing in 2009 except food, toiletries and medicines.

{Sadly, I can't make it tonight: an extracurricular knit-group is organized at a knitter's place who is currently house-bound...but if anyone goes, please consider writing something about it here!)

Some winter cheer

Fellow knitter/publisher, Sara, forwarded this comical article to me.

A spoof...but may contain some truth! :0)

Bath knitting fame!

Blog reader Mary drew my attention to Simply Knitting Bath folk on TV today (Working Lunch on BBC2 at 12.30). If you missed it, you can view it here until 12/01/08.

Anyone who wants to skip the boring Credit Crunch blah at the beginning (I should take heed, I know, I know: but it's Monday and it's my first day back at work - so I can't face it): skip to 22 mins 55 seconds in and watch the knitting cheer with a smile from there :0)

They are chatting from Edna's yarn shop, one of the few in the Bath area (4 Brookside House, High Street, Weston BA1 4BY. Tel: (01225) 423058).

Update on the Bath knitters...

I'm making a pre-New Year's resolution - to remember to take my camera to all Stitch'n'Bitch meetings and to take notes on what people are actually working on...and then to post it all immediately...

Apologies for the rather erratic postings and content this year - it's been one of those years!

Anyway, the dust in Jess-World seems to have settled somewhat and I'm back on the ball...(well, as much as I'll ever be...)

So here's some updates! Elizabeth S has started furiously cross-stitching her Christmas cards (top left); and Betsan is making some mini stockings (right).

Celia is making some freeform ear muffs (left); and Elle is knitting a shawl (right).

I've been bitten by the Floret socks (Bronwyn Lowenthal; Let's Knit! magazine, 9, August 2008)... I've not executed intarsia before and, needlesstosay, socks may not be the simplest thing to practise this stitch on - but, hey!, why make life easy for yourself??

Helen, the two Elizabeths and I skipped over to Get Knitted on Saturday morning for a splurge and a Chrismassy knit - lots of fun to be had! I dented my finances with some Rowan Kid Classic yarn (in Smudge, mmm!) for the Bed Jacket by Jennie Atkinson (from Beads, Buttons and Lace) and some Lorna's Lace shepherd sock yarn in Flamingo. It's stunningly Pink (with a capital P), which pleased me greatly, but the best bit is that 20% of all sales of this colourway goes to breast cancer charities. I don't know of a better way to poke this disease in the eyes with pointy sticks than this.

Yarn Christmas wreaths

Ahhh, this is lovely! I've already found myself a berry one for our front-door - but...next year...

Kaffe's talk at Toppings on 13/11/08: Eirlys Penn

This year saw the curtain come down on my third decade and what a better way to celebrate than to go for G&Ts, then a talk by Kaffe Fassett in Topping & Co. (with knitty friends and wine) and then to the Raven for some ales with more friends. Oh, and have a cake made for me too!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. In honesty, I love colour, I love pattern, I LOVE polkas - but there was something about Kaffe's work that didn't sit that easily with me and I struggled to put a finger on why. And now I realise: I was looking at the work of his that I like the least. Having seen more of his work - I am smitten. Next year is officially The Year of Craft in my house and I'm already drooling over The Gift (left) and the Knot Garden Quilt.

Eirlys had cunningly remembered a trusty notepad and, as all the birthday alcohol had meddled with my memory, she has very kindly offered to write up the evening (see below)...thank you, Eirlys!

----------------------------------------------------

I've had a secret hankering to be a small, servile cog in the legendary Kaffe Fassett creative needlework machine since he brought out his first inspirational book, Kaffe Fassett's Glorious Knitting (1985).

He took a fusty tradition by the scruff of the neck and shook it until its teeth rattled, making knitting seem suddenly so...well...dazzlingly exciting! Many a happy lunch-hour I spent trotting to and from a Central
London wool shop to choose one immaculate skein of tweedy Rowan yarn after another, happily dreaming my woolly daydreams before resuming the so-called glamorous day job in the publicity department of a Covent Garden publishing house. But, alas, all that I managed to create from my fabulous materials was disappointing fumblings of dubious tension and unsympathetic tone and colour: abject failures which never even made it off the needles.

Fast forward twenty years. Almost every seat in the very long, thin, endlessly shelf-lined Topping Books is taken by the time the Bath Crafting Cranny Posse (aka Geology Jess and her 30th birthday entourage) seat themselves at the back. We are some distance from the microphoned hotseat. Kaffe is on tour promoting his latest exquisite book, Country Garden Quilts: Twenty Designs from Rowan for Patchwork and Quilting and we are here to be edified.

Candace Bahouth, a friend of Kaffe's and a fellow artist, is kind enough to kick off the evening. She is renowned, amongst other things, for her extraordinarily opulent mosaic shoes (not of a wearable type, alas, otherwise) and was Kaffe's co-exhibitor at the deeply soothing Blue & White Exhibition (Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, Spring 2008). Summing up her and Kaffe's approach, Candace says: "In art we thrive rather than survive." She advises her wannabe artistic audience to simply: "Start! Start making! And stick with it! Find a space for imagination to flow." She and Kaffe both believe in not thinking too much about it, in just doing. Don't get stalled by Anglo-Saxon over-cogitation. Just start the process, she urges.

She describes the order in which to work with four memorable C-words:

Collect
Compose
Create
Celebrate

I silently regret that I've never got much beyond the "Collect" stage (I still own a lot of that wool, plus a fair amount of fabric besides), and have been cogitating way too much, for sure. Then, suddenly, it's Kaffe's turn. He is much taller than anticipated and an astonishing seventy years old now. But he still crackles with vitality, his blue eyes twinkling with incipient mischief: no wonder we all want to touch the hem of his techni-coloured robe, hoping that just a little of the magic may rub off.

He begins by saying that he's a very instinctive artist and hates being asked why he's done something in a particular way. A Channel Four producer (who made a programme to coincide with the book 'Glorious Colour') treated him as a painter, which he found very gratifying as it was exactly how he wanted to be treated, he says. He goes on to describe how he grew up in a redneck part of California which was nevertheless full of natural beauty, and lots of artists were drawn to the area; as a youngster, Kaffe identified with them. When he came to Britain in the 1960s, it was the British sense of the ridiculous that he particularly liked; by contrast, Americans can be very earnest. However, he brought with him an American sense of can-do and no-limits, and when Brits said to him: "You can't do that!" it ironically spurred him on. He'd simply go for it.

Kaffe then talks us through a selection of slides (here's some Take Home messages from them):

• Kaffe was a painter first, then took to knitting and needlepoint. When he started on quilts, he says, he was clearly not going to produce anything dull. They were going to have to be party frocks!

• Pattern is very important to him.

• His first still life was in neutrals.

• Here's a mosaic he created for his parents' restaurant in California: neutral stones, graded in size.

• He's fascinated by neutral palettes, for example the work of the Australian aborigines.

• Dots. He LOVES dots! Collected lots of dotty fabrics.

• Don't put colour against white walls: pale grey or biscuit are good backgrounds. Use a grey or camel-coloured flannel screen to build a quilt (pin it up to arrange/rearrange into pleasing pattern).

• For the colour-unsure knitter, use Kaffe's Colourscape yarn: put it on a dark background to form a vibrant pattern.

• Stripes: Brandon Mably (Kaffe's studio manager) has been knitting a lot with stripes and has his own knitting book out now. Kaffe mentioned being obsessed with the stripes on the bottom of Chinese robes: "Does anyone know what I'm talking about?" he asks. Someone in the audience does, which Kaffe says is unusual: the majority of audiences look at him blankly when he brings it up.

• He loves yellow: in Chinese opera, everyone wears yellow.

• He recommends flowers: there are so many ways to approach them.

• Byzantine crosses.

• Peruvian Connection produces good hand-knits to Kaffe's designs, with plenty of colours

• Socks: he designs wool for instant patterns (made by Regia)
  

• Cycle of Stars - title of quilt using diamonds [which Jess particularly liked].

• Kaffe's dining room has pattern everywhere. One guest asked him: "WHERE do you go when you have a HEADACHE!"

• Loves seeing where people go with his ideas; he's not possessive of them.

• Confidence is an elusive thing: was probably more confident as a young man than he is now. Feels he is frequently stumbling about in the dark.

Helen asks how he balances the constraints of the commercial world with his artistic inclinations. He thinks that's a great question and answers that when he first started out designing for knitwear he would put 200 colours in a single coat; this had to be adjusted downwards drastically for commercial purposes. He knows how to push, though, to get a result nearer to his liking; sometimes a producer will ask him to use four colours, say, and he'll counter with "How about twenty?".
But limitations can also be useful and can even stimulate some of the best designs.

Where does he begin with designing? asks someone else. He's shameless about raping the past. He was inspired by Liberty designer, Susan Collier, who was working with some old Bulgarian designs. She admitted to him that, Yes, she was copying them. But she was also reviving them, bringing them back for a new audience who would otherwise not see them. That's what Kaffe does, he says: he takes something old and makes it available. He goes for stuff that's, in his words: "fabulous, juicy and full of pizzazz". [Link to a bit of Collier Liberty 1970s nostalgia here and here.

Neil asked about Kaffe's failures and how he deals with them and Kaffe says that he's very lenient with himself. He may make a rat's nest, but at least it's a colourful one! And you too must find your creative voice. Wing out. Take chances. Stumble on some good ideas. And he also says that "that horrible thing" that you make while on direction to somewhere else shouldn't be thrown away. Someone will eventually walk into your studio, love it, and pay you a lot of money for it.

When asked what else he'd still like to do, he answers: "Scale!" He'd love to cover an entire building with mosaic, for example. And he is just about to head off to Holland to be involved in a four-storey-high quilt project.

As the talk winds up, books are purchased and many of the crafting posse hang around to get them signed and to chat briefly with Kaffe and Brandon at the far end of the shop. Brandon genially informs me that the homeknit tank-top I'm wearing (bought for a fiver a decade before in a West London charity shop, long after I'd given up hope of ever making my own) is actually a high-quality Kaffe worth up to £150. I am gob-smacked and totally delighted, but feel slightly guilty (afterall, I seem to have leapfrogged the first three stages of the creative process straight to "Celebrate"). Irrepressible Kaffe, though, is off in pursuit of his next idea. He's drawing Brandon's attention to the compelling striped patterns made by the wooden bookshelves, receding down the shop into the distance.

You can find out more about Kaffe Fassett at http://www.kaffefassett.com/

[Eirlys adds that, failed knitter though she is, she is fairly competent with fabric, needle and thread and has started a group on Facebook called the International Sewing Conspiracy, to which anyone (fabulously creative or otherwise!) is warmly invited to join. She also tweets about thrifty crafts etc on Twitter under the name of Scrapiana. Anyone wishing to contact her about a writing project (of any scale) can locate her at the office here.]

Make & Do Christmas!

This is exciting! :0)  

News of what the Bath knitters are working on will be posted shortly (in the customary code, of course, so that any passing recipients can't tell what they might be getting!)

Erica Knight in Bath

More Topping & Co. wonderfulness:

Erika Knight
Tuesday 18th November

Much respected knitwear and crochet designer and sought-after fashion consultant, Erica Knight has worked for Nicole Farhi, Whistles, Edina Ronay and Gap as well as running her own company producing designer knitwear. Erika will talk about her new book, Men's Knits - 20 handsome hand-knitted projects for men of all ages, shapes and sizes. Come along with your ideas and knitting projects.
The Bookshop, 7.15 for 7.30pm. Tickets £5 with £5 off the book. Reception.

I'm going, certainly. But in the meantime - I am all excited about Kaffe on the 13th...

A knitting challenge awaits....

...help contribute to the World's Longest Scarf...this should help the winter pass quickly!

More knitting in the news...

I wonder if we could introduce this here to help combat crime..??

Knitting in the news

Other reasons why I miss the North...

One-A-Day snack bag

If, like me, you've been trying to eat well and fend off the start of those wintery sniffles - you might like this One-A-Day bag...something to drool over whilst you're pretending that your apple snack is a sticky bun...

 

Rosie Flo delights

It's nice to see that Rosie Flo colouring books are getting a good plug! I love her new book 'Rosie Flo's Kitchen' - parts of the book are printed on special see-through baking-style paper, how lovely!!

I go to a Publishing meeting on the first Tuesday of every month in the Raven - and the writer of Rosie Flo, Roz, and her partner come along too. She tells me that her children used to ask her to draw clothes so they could fill out the other details, like the faces...and the idea grew from there... 

The full range is here, and the stockists in the SW are here. Go and buy some...your children will thank you...and, if you're lucky, they might let you colour one in!

Knitting poetry!

What Happens When We Wind!

There's nothing wrong about the wool
When first it is untied;
The strands are lying evenly
And neatly, side by side.

But you should see what happens when
We start to wind that wool!
It gets in knots that won't come out,
No matter how we pull!

It keeps on slipping off our hands;
It tangles left and right;
And long before we're half-way through
It's in a dreadful plight!

The ball jumps down to find the cat,
And then it wanders round
And ties itself to table legs,
And things upon the ground.

And while we're looking for the ball,
Our Mother says, 'Oh dear!'
'You've got it in an awful mess!
'You'd better bring it here.'

[Hat tip to the V&A; check out their list of 1940s patterns while you're there - love the Fatigue Cap..!]

Pins making pins

This is amazing! Rather her than me though....(ow!)

Science paper of a different kind

Ooo, this appeals to the scientist in me so much that I fear I might have to strip the paper off our newly-decorated spare room and re-paper with it. But would it reduce the number of our guests willing to stay??  

Oh blimey!

Hehehe!

Knitting, nappies and poo :)

Alison Blenkinsop recently got in touch wih some interesting and unusual knitted crafts. She helps mums with breastfeeding and have found a knitted breast is ideal for explaining attachment and hand expression. 

 

She has also designed and knitted a set of nappies with splodges in various colours to represent the baby's first five days of feeding, to show mums how the poo changes - and also to make them laugh!

 

She's mentioned these items in a fun book about breastfeeding called 'Fit to Bust', which was written to raise awareness of the importance of breastfeeding, raise funds for Baby Milk Action and raise a laugh. You can get its details here. 

Weird and weirder

A colleague recently had the luck to go to Iceland to attend a conference and spotted this wool shop (left). Nothing untoward here, I suppose. Much like any other yarn shop, said us.

Ah...yes... but here is another angle of the window display (right).

Please note the two-headed lamb. Hmm.

Oh, and the skeleton. Assumingly, that scarf takes a long time to knit...

Keep discovering those hidden gems of crafty wonderfulness

In the crafting world this is certainly holds true, doesn't it?

Speaking of which: check out these lunchboxes for Asda by Emma Smart (left)! (Brought to my attention by the great Design is Mine.)

Cheery Saturday

It's Saturday, it's sunny, I'm making Eirlys' chutney, friends are coming for dinner, I'm planning what I'm going to knit today and I've been browsing and giggling at this site: I love this t-shirt, this one and this one.

It's going to be a good weekend here - hope you have a nice one too!

Christmas crafting inspiration

Sad as it sounds: it is nearly that time of year again...planning and starting your Christmas knits/crafty gift list. The ever increasing list of Xmas Socks To Do. Yikes. Eirlys reminded me that inspiration for crafty gifts can be gleaned from the American Museum's courses (thanks Eirlys!) - don't they look great? I may join up for the 'Knitted Christmas Ornaments with Pauline Bayne' on Saturday 29 November - I'll keep you posted!

Don't forget...

…about the Vintage Fashion and Textiles Fair this Sunday! (Assembly Rooms from 10am-5pm.) Eirlys and I will be there in the afternoon if anyone wants to join us… :0)

A sampler of a different kind...

Oh my! Look at this lovely stitching! Another beautiful combination of art and science...

Ethics and knitting grannies

Last week, a damning Lords report by the Science and Technology Committee strongly criticised the wastefulness of cut-price High Street fashion. The report declared that the growing popularity of stores such as Primark was 'costly and socially unacceptable' since the clothes are now so cheap there was no incentive to repair or recycle them. Wise words. Read more here.

A comment from the Daily Mail's style editor, Liz Jones, is here:

'It would be a start to buy British wherever possible. The once thriving garment industry in the Yorkshire Dales and the Borders is on its knees, with one of the last family-owned mills about to close its doors.

This is because we now all wear wool and cashmere from Mongolia and Australia (oh dear, I could tell you some horror stories about the Australian sheep industry).

Wool from endangered British breeds like the Wensleydale and the Shetland is the best in the world: it lasts for generations (in contrast, ever noticed how that Tu at Sainsbury's sweater goes all bobbly and sprouts holes?) and feels as soft as silk.

The small, ethical Yorkshire fashion company Izzy Lane has just announced it will produce a range of British wool sweaters, each bearing the name of the granny who knitted it in her own home (this was the idea of model Lily Cole; she didn't gain a place at Cambridge for nothing).'

[For once: I agree with the Mail. Wow ;0) ]

My mum, however, has started sweating: "Is this grannism? If so, can I sue? Will I be abducted and forced to work from a care-home? Will they keep us alive with drugs so that we meet the orders of the privileged who can afford home-knitted jumpers? See next week's exciting instalment!"

(Don't worry, Mum, I'll fend them off with my pointy sticks!)

And whilst researching this granny exploitation, I came across this wonderful website (left). Get your christmas knitty orders in as soon as possible! ;0)

 

Travilla: the man who dressed Marilyn Monroe

Oh joy of joys: us peeps in Bath have been being treated to this exhibition at the Fashion Museum and on Saturday I wandered down there with Eirlys. It's on until this Friday (22nd) and, if you haven't been already, we highly recommend it! I'm going to be a nice blogger and not put any details about the outfits up here until the exhibition is over...but watch this space!

Cupcake delights!

It's a grey dreary day outside so I'm making my own sunshine...

Domesticali pointed me in the direction of these cupacakes (left) and it reminded me that I'd seen a cupcake shop on Walcott Street at the weekend from a bus (nose pressed against the glass)...and here it is! I'll be down there first thing on Saturday morning (rather peculiarly it seems that it's currently only open Friday 10am to 3pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm).

And then my Googling fingers took me to Bath's very own Purple Sparkle Crafts - and am now dribbling over her wonderful cupcake candles...mmmmmmm!

Chuckles from over the pond

One of my favourite people moved to Toronto earlier this year and he's just send me this funny photo...

(I think it must relate to this company, which sounds so gratifyingly ethically sound that it makes me smile for a different reason.)

Vintage Fashion & Textiles Fair

I recently found these lovely handkerchiefs in Vintage & Vogue (left); I'm not sure why they were commissioned. They seem to have been made by Jacqmar: the renowned British company that produced some of the most sought-after scarves, especially during the Word War II era.

They display carriage, full and afternoon dress images - my favourite is the afternoon dress...isn't it pretty?

I also picked up a leaflet about the 'Vintage Fashion & Textiles Fair' presented by Ashley Hall Fairs. They look great...I'll definitely be going to the next Bath fair (14th Sept)...

No wool though..!

Brilliant!

If knitwear could speak...

I love the sound of this book by Neil Smith...with one of his stories being 'a whimsical piece, "Extremities", told from the perspectives of a pair of gloves'! Brilliant!

Scotland, rocks and jewellery

Three of my favourite things!

(from the book 'Scottish Pebble Jewellery' by Nick Crawford; on sale here.)

...and I thought I was a geek..!

All hail to the knitter who is knitting all of Mario Level 1 into a giant scarf!

Oxfam knitting

Janine Woodward from Oxfam has emailed me looking for some Bath knitting help:

'For every mum, the day her child is born should be the happiest of her life. Yet, in the world’s poorest countries, many mums don’t survive to look after their babies. In the next minute, lack of access to health care will claim the life of another mum. In a year, half a million mums die because of poorly equipped hospitals, or because they can’t afford to pay health care fees.We cannot allow this to continue. Broken promises add up to lives lost.

We’re calling on all knitters everywhere to help spell out in no uncertain terms that enough is enough, that we won’t sit silently while this injustice continues. You can take part, and turn your knitting needles into poverty fighting needles by creating a square for a giant baby blanket – a ‘visual petition’ we’ll hand in to world leaders in September 2008. We’re aiming for 250,000 patches - one for every mum who should have survived pregnancy in the six months to September.

Square size: 9 inches in size
Yarn: any type of yarn is suitable, but preferably double-knitting weight yarn
Colour: all colours (and patterns) are welcome!

It would be great if Bath knitters could help us with this campaign – I’d love to be able to send at least 100 squares towards the petition.'

People should send their knitted squares should be sent to Janine (at: Oxfam Bath, Flat 5, 14 Norfolk Crescent, Bath, BA1 2BE) by the end of August 2008 along with thier name, address and email if they would like to be updated about what Oxfam make with the resulting squares! If we get involved, there may be a photo opportunity for us Bath S'n'B-ers in the press so watch this space...

Somerfords and District Show: Sat 9th August

John and I are just back from a few days catching up with friends in Yorkshire and fossiling/lazing on the beach in Devon (left). Wonderful stuff! I'm having a lazy day today at home finishing my Titzi socks (Easy Knits pattern) - they are knitting up lovely!

In knitting news: the mum of Jane (my lovely friend who gave John and me our Wedding-Kittens) has brought my attention to the Somerford and District Show on the 9th August.
For 30p (40p if entering on the 8th) you can enter your wares for their competition classes!

The needlework/knitting (new and unworn) classes are:

1. Item of cross stitch - own design/kit
2. A knitted bag
3. Best use of 1 metre of material
4. A scarf
5. Hand-knitted item DK
6. Any other knitted item
7. Baby garment
8. Window dressing e.g. 1 curtain/blind
9. A dressed teddy bear (teddy can be bought)
10. A handmade cushion

I haven't been able to scan the information document and entry form into this website (printer/scanner on the blink) but here are the details:

• Send 30p/entry and the class numbers (see above), name, postal address, tel. number to Mrs P. Scott, Hill Cottage, Little Somerford, Chippenham, Wilts.;
• Entries received in the Volunteer Pub, Great Somerford on Mon 4th August between 7-8pm or taken/posted to Mrs Scott (must be received before 5pm on Thursday 7th August);
• All exhibits to be brought to the show tent between 8-10am on the 9th August and collected ~5pm;
• No exhibitor will be allowed more than 1 prize in any 1 class but can enter more than 1 entry in a class;
• No exhibits to be shown that have previously been shown at the Somerford Show;
• All awarding of the prizes is left to the discretion of the judges;
• The Committee reserves the right to refuse an exhibit;
• Any complaint should be brought to the Secretary before 3pm on the 9th August; and
• The Committee will not be responsible for the loss/damage of any exhibit.

There are lots of brilliant other classes to enter too (please ring 01666 824241 to confirm any entry stipulations for your chosen class, in case I've left off any details that might apply):

• Arts: recycled item (#11); picture hanging (#12); craft item not included in other categories (#13); watercolour painting (amateur, #14); painting other than waterproof medium (amateur, #15); pastel/charcoal/pencil drawing (#16); toy suitable for 3-5yr child (#17); handmade greeting card (#18).
• Photography (amateur, class #19-24): landscape; face; animal; floods; garden study; with caption.
• Cooking (handmade, covered, class #25-47): tea-bread; white rolls (6); jam swiss roll (senior citizens only); carrot cake; gingerbread; lemon drizzle; coffee sponge; open treacle tart; decorated novelty cake (decoration only); fruit cake (not boiled; men only); brownies (6); plain scones (6); 6 cheese straws; shortbread (6); jar of soft fruit jam; jar of jelly; jar of marmalade; jar of lemon curd; jar of chutney; jar of pickled onions; bottle of sweet wine; bottle of dry wine; sample of homemade liqueur.
• Flower arranging: (ring 01666 824241 for details).
• Children's classes: a whole range, from finger painting (5 and under); the most highly polished boot/shoe (my favourite! 10 or under); decorated cake (to be judged on decoration only - chortle! 16 and under.) Please ring 01666 824241 for details.

GOOD LUCK! :0)

(I think I'll enter my snowflake socks!)

POSTSCRIPT: Here's the website: http://somerfordshow.com/

Snoozy Sunday afternoon

Today I've been catching up at home...first time in weeks...and chilling out with my Titsi socks and Alan Bennett's 'Untold Stories'. Boing Boing bought my attention to this website, Worth1000, which features photoshopping contests.

There was a knitting/crochet contest - some of them are amazing! I particularly like the steak (left) - I think the meat on the needles looks frighteningly real! But I love the knitted iPod (right) as the caption is 'Apple's latest invention is taking the Retirement Homes by storm'. Chortle!

And this has had my chuckling and humming for hours!