The appliance of science, yadda yadda

I spent the weekend at the Science Museum, helping out the stitch london lot. I taught plenty of children and a fair few adults how to make a pom pom (If you want to know, google it, or go here)

and thusly, this A&G (Adam and Garth) clip was never far from my brain

There were some amazing things to see and do, and I couldn't possibly do them all justice, so head over to Lauren's stitch london tumblr to see them all in their glory.

One thing I really enjoyed was (re)learning to cross stitch -in my roughshod freestyle way - with Mr X Stitch, who lives at http://www.mrxstitch.com/ and his minions (they'll love that, they will). If you haven't cross stitched for years, give it a go! This years Christmas is going to be full of contemporary subversive samplers. More so than last year. Here is my offering

To Infinknitty and Beyond

And that's the last time I use that pun ever.

This weekend, see my giant plug and socket alongside plenty of science based stitched specimens and the Science Museum, nr South Kensington tube station,in central london. Also there will be a HUGE knitted solar system, and guess what? I only went and knit Uranus, and we all know uranus is a hilarious homophone. Also one of Claire Platt's super cool aeroplanes will be there. 

This heart by Sayraphim Lothian got lost in the post winging its way from Australia. Seemed a shame so I thought I'd give it an extra mention

Click here for all the info

It's Not Fair

I had a reply on facebook "It isn't just the labour it is the fact that we are wasting fabric i.e. we grow cotton that needs water etc then throw it away". As well as "Who has the time to go shopping every week?"

And this was my reply: 

"Yes, that was a good point made in the article (difficult to address them all concisely). I think the issue of price is bound with the throw away / bulk buy attitude. If an item is too cheap, then it can be bought without commitment.

and I have no idea who goes shopping once a week (even once a month is a push). However, one can easily buy eight garments in primark once a month and meet this average".

So I have some further thoughts:

The appetite for new clothing will not cease overnight, and nor should it cease altogether. I think even my brother - who clings to clothing until they have disintegrated - accepts that occasionally you need to replace your old garments. So we need to be able to buy clothes without feeling (or being) aligned with the axis of evil. So we need to know where to buy this stuff.

I've heard people suggest etsy.com, folksy.com and other such handmade market places before. On the whole- great AND thanks to http://www.tineye.com/ you can weed out resellers more easily. Personal favourites are braintreehemp.co.uk, toms.co.uk (for shoes) and peopletree.co.uk (although sometimes I struggle with their impossibly small armholes). I've bought awesome shoes from ascensiononline.com too. Has anyone found a decent place to buy swimwear from?

(I recognise that the article also covered a "war on want" of sorts. At university I struggled (and still sometimes struggle) with the idea of generating more "things" in the world. My tutor said "You are making things that people treasure". Which I don't think it a bad thing. As long as that is what does happen)

Ode to Penguins

Here is a poem I wrote very quickly in a text

Oh Penguin

You once stood staple in my lunch box

now a diminutive mockery of treat-time

I laugh in your face and not at your jokes.

No, stay! no more poems I promise. I've been trying to improve the website (and include cardigans as there have been enquiries). Well, here are my new photo albums - there's a bit more there to look at than before so have a peruse. Also please note I accidentally deleted my images folder on my server, so I've been trying to replace that but some of it is lost. I'm repairing links as soon as I can, but if you find a glitch, sorry :-(.

Utterly charming unique jumpers from Where's me Jumper?

I read this article in the guardian today. Sweatshops and such like are no secret, so I'm not going to bang on about that incredibly worthy but well worn topic - although I'm still yet to find a really good list of fair trade companies or independent designers who make their stuff in britain*. Nor am I so happy with her liberal use of percentages and loose language when it came to statistics.

However, I find her breakdown of the (d)evolution of the shopper very interesting - especially the genius of the Zara tapping into fly-by-night objects of desire, keeping up the compulsion to return and not lose out on the next unmissable purchase. I also found her analysis of a national homogenised wardrobe familiar, perhaps it started when Trinny and Susannah told us (ok, mainly women) how to "dress for our shape", and duly, we invested in v necks, ankle boots and whatever else it said in that book.

I did notice a while ago the "clone dresses" - it was clear what had been on the catwalk because there were variants of it everywhere. It was so fast, you probably saw it on the high street before it was in Vogue. There are points to be made about the consumer lacking in originality, but do they care?


Night night


*happy to start making one

Spring has most definitely Sprung!

Yesterday I ventured to Brixton whereupon I discovered the Crafty Fox Market. BTW I'm not currently doing any markets, I'm working on building up my range, sorting out my website and selling outlets. Christmas burnt me out and it's no longer wool season, but I'm still making and selling, just not at the constant pre-Christmas rate.

I'm starting to love going to these events and seeing faces I've met from previous craft fairs (and the Knitting and Stitching show). Zeena Shah of HeartZeena is doing tonnes of workshops people can get involved with. James Ward of Jimbobart (click the plate) has started selling prints (wicked wicked), so I'm now the proud owner of this crafty fox. Beautiful! Forgotten Stitches, who also won a place at the Knitting and Stitching show last year, has extended her range with bigger deers and more brooches.

Other things:

I've been looking at past notebooks and sketchbooks, partly to throw stuff out, and to see if there were any ideas I'd missed. I found what is best described as an externalised inner dialogue from before I came up with the biscuits. You can click on it if you want to read it.

The Miro exhibition at the Tate is dense and rather wonderful. In particular I was fond of the "moustache picture" (can't remember the real name :-/ ) in the second room with the gridlines showing. I found his roughshod-vs-meticulously neat approach both bloody minded and brilliant.

If you haven't, check out www.petehindle.com , he's a creative type with some interesting insights. And a completely different blog www.katielovesthis.com/ lists weird and wonderful designs from the good people of internet.

I also made a quite lovely cardigan, photos when I find the charger.

FIVE GOLD RINGS

Last night I took a little time out to go to my Dad's Christmas Concert (Bromley Concert Band). It was super christmassy with jingle bell medleys and some carols to boot. We've got a lovely christmas tree and the winter foliage is coming in to adorn the house.

I've been so rushed off my feet that I failed to address the "you must order by now to get it for Christmas" issue. 

Here's the drill:

Order before Tuesday 14th December for postal orders and Greenwich market collections

Order before Friday 17th December if you live locally and can collect from Beckenham

I will also put up a list of things I have in stock that I can mail out before on/before Friday 17th December

If you are local to Beckenham, send me an email or phone me about coming to my Christmas pressie party on Wednesday 16th December

Merry Christmas, kids

ps. if you haven't been following Roz Inetts Advent Drawings, i suggest you make that your next internet stop

New Accessories Sections & Some Up Coming Events

First off - Thanks to everyone who found me at Bust Craftacular, and to the organisers. It was a jolly event which had my sister grooving along to tunes and smiling at customers for me (ta Sheils). 

Secondly - I've finally got the accessories section up. More accessories and colourways to come!

Thirdly - Events (woop)

LONDON

Find ME at Greenwich Market on Saturdays, weather permitting. I am still planning on coming tomorrow (brrrr), I will tweet if unable to come (twitter feed to the right)

Jaina of Polka Dot Sundays won a stall alongside mine at the K&S show, and makes quirky colourful animals out of paper and tape - bringing the process to something of a fine art. Find her and other crafty delights this weekend at 

We Make London

when: SATURDAY 4th December 2010 11.00am- 5pm

where: Chelsea Town Hall,
Kings Road, London, SW3 5EE

If you can't make it to Chelsea because of the snow, why not have a look at her etsy store instead? I love, love, love the Christmassy birds 

BRISTOL

Kate Hindley graduated from Falmouth the same year as me and we happened to both be at bust craftacular last weekend. She's making all sorts in the way of print with mini poster prints, cards and badges and even a postcard book collaboration.  She'll be at Start the Bus from 10th Dec in Bristol, deets here

BRIGHTON

Emilythepemily is as delightfully mischievous as her name suggests. Find her at the Assembly Rooms this weekend

I'm off to make some stuff for tomorrow. If you've made an order recently and it's for slippers or booties, I'm waiting for the rubber grip stuff to arrive as i ran out last week.

PS despite ruining travel plans and causing there to be no post (yeah i know, right? postie's going to break his back with all my parcels building up this week), the snow's quite pretty, eh?