CAPABLE WOMEN SEEK MAC EXPERT.

Rachael and Louise, flourishing haberdashery artists, seek Mac Expert for good times, and technical support. 

Wages in the form of good food, fine wine, and darning. 

LOUGHBOROUGH STREET TRAINING ESCALATOR RIDING TECHNIQUE.

There are many ways to go shopping. Make sure you do it the way you want to. 

Today the lovely Lottie Child came into the shop and told us all about her adventures on the high street. We know that most Prick Your Finger customers have clear intentions when they go shopping. We are creative and we are not bullied by big corporations.

For ideas on how to have fun in shopping centres, go  Lottie's website  www.malinky.org

UNCLE AT A WEDDING.

Congratulations to Sumitra who fought back, after the bastards at the parking shop ruined his afternoon by not giving him a parking permit. He came to Prick Your Finger to buy two meters of red ribbon, to top off this outfit, which he has worn to his niece and nephew's wedding, but which he put on specially to show us. He also showed us some Ventician masks, which he wares with this suit, but we were so blown away, we forgot to take a photograph of those.....

DDA / DRWG,

Louise has been knitting a parable of planting seeds on a stoney road. For a while, an image of a river and a church was lurking in the front lobe of her head.  This week, not able to resist it any longer, out came her needles and she clicked out a banner.

There is a river leading to a church with Dda / Drwg written either side of the cross. Dda and Drwg is the Welsh for good and bad. 

"Dda and Drwg sums up going to church. The church I grew up with was a bit sin heavy, so I added some flames down the bottom, and an occult symbol up the top, which I spotted on a church in france. The sign is a triangle with an eye going through it, but I think it might be a symbol that Christianity picked up from druidism."

We love Louise's banner. It is a calming influence on our studio as we try to plant seeds on all the little stoney paths we walk on, and learn new stitches along the way. 

MY DUST IS SETTLING.

Pom Pom International can change your world. Like most people, I meet conflicts which can take a while to resolve. When I first met Amy Lamé,  I wanted to fix a problem I've had for ages....DUST.  Amy is an inspirational host. I love to welcome people, find out how they are, have a good time, serve drinks, and do domestic things,  but somehow, I'm not proud enough to dust.

 I don't see dust, and I don't see why I should have to see dust either. Reassurance came when I watched the 'Naked Civil Servant' a film about Quentin Chrisp, where he explains that after four years of not dusting,  dust will not get any thicker, and you can live in peace. I can live in peace, but not when people come to stay or when we have a party.

A dusting outfit seems to have done the trick.  Rachael does not dust, but this lady does.  She has Pom Poms on her head  made out of dusty Herdwick, scraps and ripped up dusters, and her head scarf is made from 3 dusters stitched together. Her make up is by Mac and her pinny is converted by Barbara's mother from a shirt of Barbara's father's. 

The cleaning lady might be coming round this weekend. 

Thank you to Amy and Mark Chilvers of the Sunday Times for sending this picture.

HELP WOMEN IN POOR COUNTRIES HAVE A HAPPY PREGNANCY.

Oxfam are asking people to knit squares for a giant baby blanket and demand world leaders meet their promises to provide decent health care for the worlds poorest people.  For every mum, the day her child is born should be the happiest of her life. yet, in the world's poorest countries, many mums don't survive to look after their babies. 

They are aiming for 250,000 patches, one for every mum who should have survived pregnancy in the last six months.

Once you have knitted your square, take a picture, send the square to Oxfam, and put your picture up on their flickr sit

Rosemary knitted this yellow square. It is actually the cheese for the burger she is knitting so we can't give it to Oxfam but we will knit some squares for mums tonight in front of Agatha Christie. 

To get involved and make a difference go to

www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/campaign/health_and _education

REFLECTIONS ON KNITTING.

In 2003, Ian McMillian, poet, blew my mind with his poem Hat. Part 1. 

Mr and Mrs Doorbell are knitting on a bench, on a cliff in a storm and they see a fishing boat being wrecked, so they help by knitting a new one....

".....And they almost ran out of wool, and their fingers almost broke,

But there, in the end, was a wool boat, with the mast and the

Cabin and the photographs and even a wool mirror and how

Doorbell knitted that wool mirror I'll never know and in fact Doorbell

Himself said that for years after that day he tried and tried to knit

A wool mirror but he never could. A wool mirror for the wall,   

And Doorbell and Mrs. Doorbell dragged the wool boat to

The edge of the cliff and threw it over and you'd think the wool boat 

Would sink but it didn't, it floated, such was the knitting skill 

Of Doorbell and Mrs Doorbell, and....."

Well I kept thinking how could I knit a mirror and then my friend Sabrina taught me that in America you can have any jpeg knitted up into a blanket. It is a popular service for the families of soldiers going off to war.  They don't ship overseas which is annoying, but Sabrina had it made for me, for our film about knitted smoke and mirrors.

Here is one knitted reflection of putting mascara on.  I love the way my nose looks so big.  How they knitted it, I'll never know.....