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

Protest banner workshop #1: aka Helen's austerity sweatshop and partytime

Me again, you cannot get rid of me.

Just wanted to ramble on a bit about the first workshop we did on Monday night at the Castle in Manchester city centre. It was great to meet new people, all of whom share my intense dislike for the Tories and their cruel and useless austerity measures, AND a passion for craft and making! Awesome. I've made friends.

Here are a few photos from the evening.

all the wool.

Here is Molly learning to knit for the very first time. She mastered casting on and the knit stitch in under an hour, and informs me that her first square doubles as a cat cape. Versatile.

Ames and Kelly riding the crochet train

Louella, Jo and Beth

smashin the system, needlecraft style.

Kelly learning to make granny squares

Kelly's first square plus stoic Eastwood style pose

dem squers

Okay so that was fun and rewarding, and we now have a bit of banner. Here is it:

I'm aware that the letters look a bit rubbish at the moment but that will be rectified and they will be MEGA legible, so don't fret. I wanted to get a word finished by the weekend, so I'm on a square-collecting mission, do you have any?

There will be another workshop this Monday, despite it being a bank holiday, because we are THAT DEDICATED. Well, I'm not, because I foolishly am going to London and I won't be back in time, so newly qualified granny square expert, Kelly will be overseeing proceedings. I will be around the week after and every other week forever.

Thanks to all my lovely knitting and crocheting bros and sisses! I'm thrilled that this banner MIGHT ACTUALLY HAPPEN <3 p="" xx="">

CROCHET CROOCHET A LONG TIME

Hi there campers

It's been a GODDAMN long time again, I always say that, but blimey, when was the last time I wrote anything here?

The answer is FEBRUARY LAST YEAR. Man!!!

I have excuses guys. Last year I broke up with my boyfriend, broke my elbow in a dramatic fashion, moved to Todmorden, had a mental breakdown and finally moved back to Manchester. Since then I have been concentrating on getting better and knitting and crochet have not been high on my priorities, at least until I mastered things like: getting out of bed, getting dressed etc.

I am feeling a lot better now you guys! I am on a new drug (yum!) I have a new dude, an ace little flat in Chorlton where cats come to visit, and I have got up and got dressed MOST DAYS in the past few months! HOORAY

Okay so I will shut up about that now and get on with the important matter of BLOGGING. I have ideas, I want to make things and tell you about them and talk about craft and feminism some more and shit like this, although I will have to read some books and stuff before I can do that (one devastating consequence of depression/anti-depressants is not being able to read more than about four words before my mind trails off, Very Frustrating).

But a few weeks ago I went to St Helens to do a little crochet workshop with some of my mum's friends, so I will tell you about that. It was a lot of fun. I forgot how much I enjoy crocheting with other people, and teaching people (although I am a bit incoherent at it).

Have some pics.

Evelyn and Pat (aka mum)

Janet and Rose Ita

Janet and Rose Ita and some beautiful examples of crochet by me

Mastering the chain

a stylish bag ornament.

me being helpful and NOT forgetting how to hold the yarn

woo hoo - Rose Ita made the middle bit of a square!

onto the second round

So that was exciting. Afterwards I got an email from Rose Ita containing this excellent photo.

a-wooooooo

awesome, I won the crochet tutelage game.

I hope I will update again at some point, I need to make something good to show you. At the moment a lot of people are poppin' out babies like whoa, so I am using this as an excuse to make babythings which are small. So expect a babything, baby-makers.

I was inspired to blog today by my beautiful friend Valpuri who has just been sticking her ace makes on her own blog here. Check em out if you haven't already, she's wicked.

Okayyyy that's enough for now. take it easy friends. love you a lot xxxx