E17 DIY

There are only 25 weeks until Christmas and E17 are getting on with it and inviting you to the Designer's Market, 

on Friday 16th May, 7-10pm

The Asian Centre

18s Orford Rd, 

Walthamstow Village, 

London E17 9LN

They have made bags, cards, children's clothes, small furniture, Jewelry, Scarves, artworks, cakes, clothes and music from our friends 'The Shellac Sisters". 

Have a look at e17designers.blogspot.com for more information.

SHEEP OF THE WEEK!

You thought Wensleydale was a cheese - well it is, and it is also a name of a Dale in Yorkshire where these sheep come from. 

The Wensleydale Longwool is the rastafarian of all sheep breeds, and they also come in black. Their long curls give a soft, silky yarn which is great for socks, security blankets and other special things. 

Not many people know that the Wensleydale can be traced back to one stud of a ram called "Blue Cap."

 In 1838, a dishy Leicester ram mated with a pretty Teeswater ewe, and Blue Cap was born. He grew up to be very handsome with blue pigmentation on his head and ears, which his breed still has today. Under his curls, he was big and tough, with little fat, and he started to climb fells to mate with Swaledale, Blackface, Rough Fell, Cheviot and Dalesbreed ewes, providing them with ewe lambs that would grow into heavy milkers, with little blue ears..... 

Wensleydale yarn is £8 for 100g, and we have it in pink, blue and red.

FELIX IS RISING!

I continually bang on about knitting and craft being good, and now there is living proof.

Miss Felix, pictured here, has recently undergone an operation to straighten her arthritic toes. 

Pain, which could have been a nightmare, has otherwise fueled a raw creativity, the likes of which I don't think I've seen before. 

Felix has been in pain for many years, and having her toes broken at the age of 27, will ensure she can run and dance in the future.

I went to visit her in hospital in Oxford, and I found her in a blaze of colour in the corner, wrapped up in a blanket knitted by her friends, and surrounded by trays, baskets, tables and bags of projects on the go.  Broken toes provided an excuse for Felix to buy expensive  yarn, and somehow, through a haze of morphine, she managed to knock up the leg warmers she'd always wanted.  I also had the pleasure of seeing Lara, Felix's friend, who was collecting Felix's fymo stitch markers in the shape of pills, to bake them in the oven in between visiting hours.

Felix described how, as the drugs wore off and the full extent of the pain sunk in, she found herself floating around the squares of her blanket, loving the colours and working out which stitches belonged to whom, and knowing that every square was knitted because we wanted her to feel no pain.

Felix discharged herself early. I was worried when didn't hear from her, but I should have known better - She was busy,  zooming around on a mobility scooter and recording the atmosphere of shopping centers.

Felix's attitudes towards disability are unique. I urge you to keep an eye on her work, because something good was brewing in the hospital, and it's only a matter of time before she gets back on her feet and we see how she runs! 

Felix's blog is at http://knitaluscious.blogspot.com

PORTRAIT OF A BUDGIE AS A YOUNG MAN

I plan to present this 'Portrait of a Budgie as a Young Man' to 'Jayne Mansfield'  in the Budgerigar Competition this Saturday at Haggerston Hall. 

He is crocheted out of hand dyed linen. 

While working on him, I thought how lovely it would be to have a husband who loved colour as much as male birds do

JAYNE MANSFIELD STILL WAITING!

Sadly, as Louise was making this Budgie, it died. These things do happen. She laid it out in a way that she does best. This Budgie's gone to heaven.

She will still present it to Jayne Mansfield.

(Sorry, please read the blog two down, if you haven't a clue what the budgie stuff is about)

UNITED WE STAND!

I'd nearly finished my budgie portrait and not in the whole of Prick Your Finger could I find the one black sequin I needed for his eye. 

So, instead of wasting a bus fare into town, I called Barley at Fabrications, your other local Haberdashery over on Broadway Market, and she gave me three black sequins, just in case I lost one on the way home, which I did, and I still have one spare.

Haberdashery in East London is united. If PYF doesn't have what you need, then Barley probably has.  

I teach at Fabrications, and we have lots of mutual friends.  If all businesses worked together like we do, everything would be so much easier.

PRETTY PETER , PRETTY PAUL, JAYNE MANSFIELD IS WAITING!

Thumbs up to our Rosemary for making Budgie Thumb Puppets in time for the most fantastic budgie day there has been, since the actress Jayne Mansfield, presented the prizes for a Budgerigar competition at All Saints Church Hall in Hackney, in 1959!

The event made the front page of the Hackney Gazette back then, and we hope that when our friend Susanna Edwards  ( www.susannaedwards.com ) recreates the competition this Saturday 10th May at the same venue, she will hit the headlines too. 

Our Sue, who really is fantastic, will be re- enacting the fashion and mannerisms of Jayne Mansfield, and inviting Hackney residents with budgerigars to come along and enter. 

The competition will be judged by 'Jayne Mansfield', Ian Sinclair and the Rev Rose Hudson - Wilkinson. 

The competition is part of a multi - stranded artisitic exploration of social, historical, and political issues in Hackney, on which Sue is working with film maker Emily Richardson....but the Budgies haven't been told that. The event will be photographed for an up coming show at Tatty Devine. And it's free and if you don't have a budgie, then why not knit one!