Friday 29 May 2009

SHOW TWO at the Royal College of Art


Date for your diary for the forthcoming MA textile graduate exhibition - Open from 26 June – 5 July (closed 3 July). Open 10am to 6pm daily.

The event will also showcase work from Animation, Architecture, Communication Art & Design, Conservation, Critical and Historical Studies, Design Products, Design Interactions, Fashion Footwear and Accessories, History of Design, Industrial Design Engineering and Vehicle Design.

Wednesday 20 May 2009

We should do this


Words and knitting, we should especially do it as justbefore this someone was telling me poem about knitting by Adrian Mitchell, they were relaying it over the phone so this is meant to be.

I've sent of for a pack so we should be on course...

Knit a Poem

Celebrate the Poetry Society's centenary, by helping to create the world's first giant knitted poem.


Knitters everywhere are invited to knit a poem one letter at a time. The final poem, in all its knitted glory will be revealed at the end of the centenary year.




Packs will be available at the beginning of May, featuring knitting templates, and instructions. There will be opportunities for experienced knitters and beginners alike.

To register your interest, send your contact details to:

Rebecka Mustajarvi

Email: officeassistant AT poetrysociety.org.uk
(please use @ instead of AT when sending your email).

Or (if you don't have email)

Post: PLEASE INCLUDE AN SAE

Rebecka Mustajarvi
Knit a Poem
The Poetry Society
22 Betterton Street
London
WC2H 9BX

Thursday 14 May 2009

Back to back

Seen as part of Stroud textiles festival – an attempt to knit a man’s sweater, from sheep’s back to man’s back, in a day. It was part of the international Back to Back Challenge, an annual competition where teams from all over the world hand-shear a sheep, and attempt to spin and knit the sweater faster than any other team.



There were two sheep to be sheared [each accompanied by young lambs who presumably couldn’t be left behind]. They were from a flock of organic Lleyns, lent from Highgrove. And to fit in with the competition rules they had to have been reared entirely outside. The shearer chose one with a dense fleece and one with looser, so that the spinners could choose. I think they went for the denser one as being easier to spin quickly.





The team was made up of seven ladies, not counting the shearer, and they were all able to spin and to knit, and so could swop jobs during the day. All participating teams had to follow a fixed sweater pattern, and the finished woolly would be inspected for dropped stitches and deviations from the pattern, which would mean being disqualified.

At nine o’clock sharp, the shearer started. And at seven minutes past nine, there was enough wool spun for the first knitter to cast on. The sheep was looking pretty ragged – not a neat job at all, but super-fast. And then all day, in a gazebo on the lawn outside the Museum in the Park, the seven ladies took turns to spin and to knit. The wool was coarse and unwashed, and so scratchy and hard to work with. A friendly masseur spent the afternoon rubbing their aching shoulders and arms.

In 2008, the winning team was from Toronto and finished their sweater in five hours, 55 minutes and 50 seconds. The Stroud team wouldn’t have beaten this as they were still at work at 4.30 when I left, but they were hoping to be done by early evening. The finished sweater is being silent-auctioned to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support charity.

Wednesday 13 May 2009

famous people and knit night

You know that emma is a knit superstar, Kevin McCloud stroking her cosy and all that, well now skein queen is having a trunk show all to herself this weekend at socktopus from 12-5pm. Just drool over that yarn....



If anything is left (LOL!) then the queen will bring some for us outcasts to look at next Wednesday.

In the meantime, knit night is on tonight, without yarn to drool over from Skein Queen, from 7-9.30 at jelly workshops, Old Town Hall - everyone is welcome