INFORMATION WANTED - STICKY BOMBS.

Sabrina Gschwandtner, author of the brilliant book and magazine series 'Knit Knit' has asked us to help her with an investigation. 

Does anyone remember anything about the manufacture of 'Sticky Bombs' in World War 2?

These pictures and the caption below are the only material Sabrina has on this subject. Sabrina is trying to find any of the women who did this knitting. She wants to know where they did the knitting, for how long, and how they got hired (or was it a volunteer effort?). She would like to interview them about the experience. 

"Women war workers fit knitted woolen jackets onto the glass flasks of sticky bombs at a factory workshop somewhere in Britian. The women including Mrs B Colman (nearest to the camera) and Miss H Brearley (centre), fasten the jackets by means of a draw string around the neck of the flask.  The woolen jackets will soon be coated with adhesive to enable them to stick to their target before detonation."

If anyone has information could they please contact PYF or 

Sabrina Gschwandtner, 526 West 26th Street number 1022, New York NY 10001

sabrina@knitknit.net

http://www.knitknit.net/sabrina.html   (718)812-0446

PIN RITUAL.

We are pleased to announce that Kirsty Hall, textile artist from Bristol is heading our way.

Kirsty's exhibition will be at Prick Your Finger for the next month, and her work is all about pins. Kirsty has been collecting pin stories for years and will be listening to our pricked fingered anecdotes over tea and cakes on Saturday 24th January from 3-6pm. You are all welcome.  Here are some stories she has collected already.

Fairy Pin Story

"A middle -aged woman told me a story about a favourite book she'd had as a child.  She couldn't remember anything except this one image:

There was a coat so worn that nothing but the lining remained. It was pinned all over with thousands and thousands of safety pins, so many that the coat was heavy with them. And no one knew how many there were, but when you put on the coat you could hear the fairies singing."

Bent Pin Story

"Pins were dropped into sacred springs by the Celts. The pins were often bent, probably deliberately.  Sacred springs where such pins have been found are usually associated with fertility. Needles and pins have other links to fertility, Sleeping Beauty pricking her finger on a spindle springs to mind.  Occasionally whilst pinning, I find bent or blunt pins - misfits, useless for their purpose - and I think of those other sacred pins."

If you live too far away to take tea with us and you have a  pin story please send them on a postcard to Kirsty Hall, Prick Your Finger, 260 Globe Rd, London E2 0JD

or e-mail pins@prickyourfinger.com

DIY NATION.

I had a chat with Crafts Business Magazine this week, about one of my favourite subjects....

RECESSION! What I love about Craft Business is that they don't ask about my Grandmother or celebrities.  

Have a read at http://craftbusiness.com/site/index.php/content/news/diy_nation/

LOVE IS AWESOME.

Love Is Awesome opens on Valentine's day in Reading, Berkshire, not far from London.

Artists Felicity Ford, Rachael Matthews, Stavroula Kounadea and Emmylou Laird are opening their show on Valentine's day 2009 to offer new perspectives on the idea that LOVE IS AWESOME.

LOVE IS AWESOME promises to be a surprising antidote to the asinine syrup of Valentine's day and a marvelous tonic for the heart.

LOVE IS AWESOME is at Gallery 10, 10 Gun Street, Reading Berkshire RG1 2JR

LOVE IS AWESOME opens for cake and wine on Saturday 14th February at 6pm. 

Bring a bottle.

Show remains on until 28th February, check gallery for opening times.

THEY WEAR THEM WELL.

Incase anyone missed this story, here it is again, thanks to my mum who cut it out of the paper.

'hens rescued from a battery farm, sport "chicken jumpers" knitted by members of the local WI. The battery hens, which are kept on an allotment in Bilsworth, Northamptonshire, have fewer feathers than their free-range counterparts and need the sweater to adapt to outdoor life. 

I'm sure you'll agree they wear them very well.

IN VOGUE>

Holes and sloppy knits are back again! Well we all know they never go away....

Here is a selection from Vogue, that we reckon could be knocked up on big needles over quite a long weekend. Non- Knitters would have to pay £2,600 for the Giles silk sweater dress, £3,500 for the Sinha - Stanic beaded sweater, and £238 for the McQueen black and white number. 

TAKING THE PISS.

Yesterday we sat admiring our gorgeous yarn shop, wondering how the recession will effect us, and thought it more interesting to speculate what our lives would have been like if we had a yarn shop 500 years ago.

The 13th century was a boom time for the wool trade. There were three sheep to every person, and wool was our biggest export.  Our wool cloth was of the highest quality, thanks to the Fullers.   Fullers, possibly had one of the worst jobs there is.  They had to stand knee deep in vats of stale urine and fullers earth,  trampling on the wool cloth. The ammonium salts in urine cleanses cloth to eliminate oils like lanolin, dirt and other impurities, and locking the fibres, making it thicker and softer.  Each length of cloth needed to be trampled for about two hours before it became soft. Hopefully after a while you would get used to the smell and stop wanting to throw up.

The collection of urine has worked it's way into our modern language. Urine was collected in the cities, and taken to the mills by canal. Number 1's, the self employed narrow boatmen, would sometimes boast at carrying barrels of wine, while their peers would mock them with "You're taking the piss!"