Crafters Against Cuts - keep going guys!

Hi there knitters, crocheters, friends and anti-austerity fans. I haven't done anything for a few weeks as I sort of floundered after the success of the knitted banner and all the work everyone did. The banner went out again on Friday to protest the meeting and nefarious dealings of David Cameron and President Xi in the town hall, by the way. She (she is a she, I've decided) is still fighting away. Good old banner.

At the protest someone secretly attached a crochet poppy to her, I love this! The banner got yarn-bombed!

So. Although the momentum of crafting against cuts might have slowed a bit, I want to keep on going and I hope you do too, a bit.

I started making a blanket out of the leftover squares, here it is so far.

I went for a nice checkerboard pattern.

The blanket is about 110cm square at the moment so I need to make it a bit bigger. I still have a lot of red and white squares left over:

I can probably get 1.5 to two decent sized blankets out of these squares. I also have a few squares in other colours, that I made with the purpose of making blankets:

The original idea was to send the finished blankets to Calais for the refugee camp, and later on I also wanted to donate some stuff to the homeless camps in town. Now. 1.5 blankets isn't going to do anyone much good and I can't do this alone. The thing is that blankets take a fair bit of time to make, and while they are desperately needed, it seems slightly futile to spend ages hand-making blankets which will get ruined fairly quickly and quite likely discarded. So first, I thought maybe hats, scarves, woolly socks would be appreciated and quicker to make - depending on your level of knitting expertise, you could choose what to make. 

Secondly, if we do make blankets, or other things, I thought we could sell them and donate the money for whatever supplies the organisers of Calais trips, or homeless provision, need the most. That way we are making something beautiful that people can use, but aren't spending loads of time and energy when really things are needed fast, and cheap. The money made from a beautiful handmade blanket could buy several like this, or this. Yes, buying fast and cheap carries its own ethical burden... but I'm trying to think practically and do things that can help. I reckon we could set up an auction or something and all the money made will be donated.

So to sum up: I need knitters and crocheters. Again.

You can make whatever you want: hats, scarves, gloves, warm things... which we can send directly to Calais and whoever needs them.

Baby things are needed too and even quicker to make. Blankets, little hats, maybe even toys.

Or, if you're still into squares we can make a load of blankets to sell. Or you could make something else to sell. 

I admit I am not sure what I'm doing here so please, please get in touch if you disagree with my ideas, or if you've got better ones. I want to do the best thing I can, and all I can really do is knit :) I will set up a meeting for Manchester types so we can knit together again, that was nice. But do join in if you're somewhere else too. I will get in touch with other organisations like Knit For Peace that do great work and have a wide reach. I just feel so helpless in the face of all this unfairness and I want to do something, even a little thing xxx

Lovehats (so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully pretty)

Good pun there I thought. Look, I am posting again within a week! Shocker. I wanted to tell you about this the other day but I couldn't because I promised. However, all can be revealed now, much to everyone's delight, I'm sure.

I got an email from Sarah a few weeks ago, asking if I could make two ski hats in a hurry, for a wedding present. I don't normally take commissions for things other than monsters any more, but I thought, why not? It would make a change and I thought it was a cute idea.

The happy couple are going skiing for their honeymoon you see, so Sarah wanted their hats to be personalised. I am playing the parts of both Mr and Mrs Castles in these photos.


Mrs.


Mr.

Aw nice! I was glad to hear that they liked the hats and I wish them all the best. I was reminded of these this morning after a tweet from Sarah with a photo that warmed my cockles! I'm always so pleased when people like their stuff.

Anyway that's that for now, I've got to go, I had the most fabulous idea ever before and I'm trying to get it off the ground. Just you wait and see! Laters, h xx

We All Match

Hello. Hey, look at this. I think this is one of the best pictures I've ever been in. Don't the tops of our heads look ace? You can tell we all approve, because we are sticking our thumbs up. We are special.



I'm going to Garth's in an hour so I will endeavour to take a picture of him in HIS hat, which is a complete masterpiece of a topper.

For some reason I decided to look up synonyms for the word 'hat' then (something remaining from GCSE English, not using the same word twice in a sentence) and 'topper' was my favourite! Synonym.com helpfully gave me: 'wear, put on, get into, don, assume, supply, provide, render, furnish.' Right, thanks.

Anyway I have things to be making, for these craft fairs I'm doing at the weekend. I don't know if I've ever mentioned them! This is one. SATURDAY, guys. And here is the other one. That's SUNDAY, you know.

Erk. Right, back to the tangled mess. Byeeeeeee

Hatzzzzzz

Hats.



Yep. Hats.



(One of them didn't have a pompom, so I put a monster there for symmetry's sake. Not that it is very symmetrical anyway.)

I have been making lots of hats you see. It's now winter and pretty cold. Some of these are commissions, some are just for fun! I will be selling them at the craft fair, more about that in a minute.

Patterns:



Roboty men.



More roboty men, with hearts. Not owls.



Um. Sheep.



Pompoms! I love making pompoms. Apparently they are really called pompoNs. I disagree.

So that's that. Erm... so come visit me on Saturday, I will be at St Clements Church in Chorlton again, hawking my grubby wares. I have Christmassy things. I have monsters. I have hats, obviously, and other bits and bobs which are simply too exciting to tell you about. I also have a stall at the craft fair at the Nip and Tipple in Chorlton on the 11th December, so if you can't make Saturday, never fear! Wooo!

All the Os

Helloooo. I have something very exciting to show you today. I got commissioned by my friend Catherine to make ANIMAL CLOTHES. Not clothes for animals, you understand, just ordinary human-shaped ones with animals ON them.

Number one: a hat with elephants on it. This is a totally rubbish photo of me wearing the hat before it was even finished, it has a pompom on it now, of course. All the best hats have pompoms on, innit.



I am going to get a better picture of this hat to show you, it is good, honest.

The other things I have been making are legwarmers with animals on beginning with the letter O; specifically, Owls, Orang-utans and Octopuses. I checked and it is correct to say Octopuses and not Octopi, so don't worry. I don't have proper photos of the legwarmers yet. I will take some. But here are the animals as a preview:

Owl:



Orang-utan:



Octopus:



I'd just like to add that I made the patterns for these animals up, after two pints last Sunday afternoon. Possibly ale is an excellent catalyst for knitting pattern design, who knows, or maybe I am just good at it, WHO KNOWS. My first attempt at the actual legwarmer was beautiful but unfortunately wouldn't fit round a human leg, so I had to try again. They are now looking spiffing and I can't wait to give them to Catherine. She is injured and bed-bound, get well soon lovely! I got things for you!