Red Nose Day Dolls

There has been an extremely exciting project doing the rounds in blogland lately, the Red Nose Day Dolls, being made to auction on ebay for Red Nose Day.  Not only do Maisie, Mac, Blossom and Poppy have outfits, they also have blankets, teddies, books, pets, jewellery, picnic baskets, bags, capes and of course red noses.  They truly are the toys of every child's dreams.

The project was thought up by Emma Mitchell of Silver Pebble and Ros Badger and has now grown to include bloggers from all over the globe.  It's a fantastic fundraiser but it's also a great celebration of the hand made and of craft in general.

There is more information on the Red Nose Day Dolls' blog or on facebook and you can sponsor the project here

P.S. also check out this sweet video of Mac going camping:

P/Hop - knit one, make the world a better place

P/Hop stands for "Pennies per hour of pleasure" and is a knitting initiative set up by the Yarn Yard's Natalie Fergie to raise money for Medicins sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders). The idea is that you can download one of their patterns, then make a donation to Medicins san Frontiers according to how many hours of pleasure you reckon you received from knitting the pattern. The scheme is currently working on reaching a total of £40,000 raised to mark MSF's 40th birthday.I'm writing about this as last week I made a pair of socks for a friend's daughter using the Quick and Easy Ribbed Sock pattern from P/Hop and I thought that the scheme was worth promotion. The pattern was clear, comprehensive and everything a sock pattern should be.

However, the patterns on P/Hop cover more than just socks, there are also hats, scarves, mittens, household items, toys and crochet patterns. I would particularly recommend the Cranford Mitts, inspired by the recent BBC series.

It's a win-win situation: we get the pleasure of knitting great patterns and MSF get the funds they need to keep their valuable work going. So happy knitting!

P.S. For those interested the yarn is Regia College 6ply in shade 06503.

Fifth knitaversary

Today is my fifth anniversary of learning to knit. I was taught by a friend at university and have never looked back, my only real wish is that I had learned sooner. Knitting has brought me occupation, solace in hard times, fun, wonderful friends, socialising, warmth, new knowledge about myself, new skills, new confidence and a huge amount of yarn! Anyhow I thought I'd mark the occasion by posting a picture of my favourite project from each year that I've been knitting.

2007

Wavy Scarf from Stitch'n'Bitch Nation (my first ever knitting book) in random acrylics from Durham's indoor market

2008

Drop Stitch Scarf from ravelry, in Colinette Iona, colourway Jay

2009

Poppy by Ysolda Teague

2010

Fair Isle scarf I designed for a Knitting magazine competition

2011

Argyle socks from Veronik Avery's book Knitting Classic Style (these win the prize for most patience needed for all that embroidery).

Who knows what the next year will bring, though I am hoping to prise myself away from the knitting needles for long enough to learn to sew.

Homemade and Handmade

I was extremely excited this morning to receive a disproportionately huge jiffy bag containing my pre-order of Rend Collective Experiment's new album Homemade Worship by Handmade People. I have been looking forward to this album's release for weeks and had listened to the first single released over and again.

As well as excellent, inventive and interesting music and lyrics, which take them well outside the usual Christian worship music, I love Rend Collective's ethos and ideas. They are trying to do things differently, they recorded all the music on the album in their homes and they are trying to live in community and embrace the family aspects of being the church and the body of Christ here on earth. Some of these ideas link into the general craft sub-culture that interests me and the move away from the mass produced towards things made with love and skill. The album's reference to "handmade people" then reminds us that each of us was handmade by God:

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139

The songs reflect this, exploring themes around surrender, the cross, redemption, forgiveness, God's kingdom coming here on earth and bringing change to us and to the world. Messages we so sorely need in this world, hope and the idea that things can be different. I love the language of God re-crafting us into redeemed people, as the first single, Second Chance, puts it:

"Countless second chances

We've been given at the cross

"Fragments of brokenness

Salvaged by the art of grace

You craft

Life from my mistakes"

The Bible says that we are made in God's image and so just as God is creative, so we are creative. So that just as our earthly love is just a shadow of God's all encompassing love, our craft, our up-cycling and reusing and creating is a shadow of God's ongoing work of recreation through Jesus and a reflection of Him in us and us in Him.

On the whole the music is "louder" and less intimate than some of the songs on their first album, the Organic Family Hymnal. Walking to knitting group today the music was making me tap my toe while waiting at the pedestrian crossings, however, I did manage not to sing along out loud in public! Anyhow I am going to go back to listening to my new CD and get on with my creating (my Peaks Island Hood at present), while I sing along and pray for God's kingdom here on earth.

Rowan and Ravelry

I am frequently frustrated, when browsing Ravelry's immense database of knitting patterns, either while in search of something to knit for myself or while helping someone out on the forums, by the lack of Rowan patterns in the database. It frequently means that I simply do not knit the designs myself and do not have the opportunity to recommend the designs to others, a pity, since they have some extremely good ones. Rowan do have their own website on which some of their designs are pictured, but since the new site was launched it is no longer possible to view them closely enough to see the details, for example is it a dropped or set in shoulder? I have been lamenting this absence for a while now, but some interviews with Rowan designers, in their latest magazine (kindly lent me by a friend for me to read) have made me consider the subject again.

From what the designers were saying it was clear that Rowan are currently wrestling with how to approach the new realities of the digital age, where knitters from all over the world can communicate with one another instantly and self publishing has never been easier. Some of this phenomenon is not all that new - Elizabeth Zimmermann blazed a trail self-publishing through her Schoolhouse Press and her Wool Gatherings news letters as early as the 1950s. However, the realities of publishing, involving as it used to, the costs of printing and distribution, did mean that until the rise of the internet self publishing was not easy to accomplish. Now it can be done at the press of a button and yes, as Sarah Hatton cites "people like Ysolde Teague [sic] and Jared Flood... have just created themselves" and worked hard to create excellent professional brands and beautiful, stylish designs. These independent designers have used the internet to communicate directly with their customers and build up their brand, there is no reason why Rowan cannot do the same.

Indeed knitting always has been a very grass roots movement, passing from person to person and finding new ways to create. Knitters have always improvised, changed patterns to suit their circumstances and come up with innovative new designs - Kate Davies' excellent article on Shetland lace knitting a few pages earlier in the same Rowan magazine makes this point superbly. However, now instead of only being able to share their ideas with knitters in their immediate vicinity, or by post, we can share our ideas, our designs and put them out there. In terms of design there is little difference between the Shetland women's lace innovations of the early 19th century and a knitter today coming up with a design and sharing it for free or selling it via her blog or Ravelry. It is all part of the same creativity.

I can see how a more traditional company like Rowan could feel quite threatened by the internet, but actually it offers a great opportunity to interact with customers in a new way and to get your designs out there cheaply and effectively. And of course it is worth bearing in mind that important though Ravelry is to many of us, it is not the entirety of the knitting world. But at one and a half million members strong, it does represent a huge market for yarn and knitting companies and I feel it is a pity that Rowan has not yet made the most of this opportunity. Rowan yarns already have quite a profile on Ravelry, there are more than 15,000 projects listed using Kid Silk Haze for example. I have used the yarns far more than the designs and love their quality, a jumper I made in Rowan pure wool aran is still going strong after more than two years hard wear.

If more Rowan patterns were listed on Ravelry, together with pictures and tags to identify the techniques, used then more knitters would buy Rowan booklets and knit Rowan designs, very probably buying more Rowan yarn in the process. As Rowan is ultimately a company that exists to make money, this surely makes sense?

Personally I would also love to see at least some of the amazing Rowan back catalogue on sale as individual patterns, as Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting both do. Back copies of Rowan magazines and booklets often sell on ebay for eye-wateringly high prices, yet Rowan itself gets none of that money, why not put the back catalogue to work?

As the designers said again and again in the interviews this situation is exciting, things have been changing and bringing us all new opportunities and creative possibilities, so Rowan, please make the most of it!