LOVE FROM TURIN.

Mia, sent us these pictures from Turin, on a beautiful knitted day. It looks like she's having a wonderful time, and we look forward to her return!

SHANE DOES IT AGAIN.

Shane has done it again. Give him a space and he'll decorate it in the most beautiful and imaginative way, like here, at Dovecote Studios in Edinburgh for the show
'Taking Time : Craft and the Slow Revolution." curated by Helen Carnac and Craftspace.
Shane will be streaming a film about the making of the piece shortly.

for more information click here;
http://www.innovativecraft.co.uk/index.php/events/gallery/taking_time_approaches_to_textiles/

KNIT YOUR WAY THROUGH SIXTH FORM.

Thanks to Anna Maltz who on Tuesday, brought her sixth form art class from Skinner's School to tell us about their amazing projects. Skinner girls are yarn bombing the school, by looking into it's history and on reflection, knitting site specific pieces.
Here are the girls, sending us a photo from the Museum of Childhood, just around the corner from our shop. They are holding our limited edition bags which they all got for spending over £20!
Go girls, we can't wait to see what you do.

PENELOPE PINK.

Congratulations to Heather Jones who took on this UFO from our UFO Project Administration Service, and over one week turned it into...
Penelope Pink, who will be raffled for the Children's Leukemia Charity. We hope she raises lots of money.

INGRID'S KNITTED FRIENDSHIPS.

We are delighted to announce that Miss Ingrid Murname, (pictured right) will be showing a series of knitted relationships in our window as from next week. Her private view is on Wednesday 31st March 6-9pm and you are all welcome.Ingrid shows how knitting can bring people together like never before, but you will be allowed to go home alone.
We look forward to seeing you there.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS. CONTRACTS.

Contracts are important in any working environment. They don't have to be scary, they can be friendly, like a party invitation or a check. Every worker in our factory has to sign one. We wrote it by translating the suggested contact in the TSB Business Start Up Guide into our own language. It reads as follows.....
1. I hearby agree that work in this mill is of exchangeable value to be negotiated.
2. Prick Your Finger encourages a refreshment interval every 30 minutes and expects workers to practice expressive movements during this period.
3. Prick Your Finger mill expects workers to take psychogeography trips when needed.
4. Job title (to be chosen by worker)................
5.In case of accident please contact............6. Pensions. Craft is for life and this is where you start paying.
7. Prick Your Finger requires 30 seconds notice to be given by you the worker on leaving the mill.
8. Prick Your Finger Mill Worker's Union will be formed when the time is right.
By signing this contract I agree to all of the above statements.
Date....
The Small Business Guide, was lent to us by our big business sisters at Tatty Devine, and has proved most beneficial over the last couple of years.
Louise made these pay slips which each worker gets on clock out. the chap in the middle is William Morris although it looks a bit like Stephen.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS DAY 5. ANALYSIS.

Louise collected data all week and correleated it on the wall of her office. There were pie charts for time spent by individuals, tally of visitor numbers, and graphs showing how much yarn we produced as the week progressed. Information came from Clocking In/Out sheets and forms to be filled out next to each machine.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS DAY 5. ACCIDENTS.

Every factory has to have an accident book, and below is Louise keeping a tally of pain endured. We don't usually expect the boss to shed blood, but David Falkner, director of Stanley Picker Gallery, pricked his finger so badly, that we had to ring NHS direct, and when Louise applied a bandage, it glowed, like a shining light to be directed by.
And these girls trimmed so many pompoms, they got blisters on their fingers. a

LOUDER THAN BOMBS DAY 4. THE TEA TROLLY.

Tea Trolly has given her all this week. Louise bought her from a junk shop, and I made Situationalist cloths. The print is taken from the a Situationalist diagram, which links ideas of experimental behaviour, psychogeography, architecture, creating situations etc; which are all things we should be thinking about on our tea breaks.Trolly comes down in the lift, and has her own pathway marked out in red tape around the gallery. She's slowing down a bit because fleece gets stuck in her wheels.Louise made this film to show us a minute in the life of Tea Trolly.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS DAY 3. OVERTIME!

Working overtime, the beer came out and so did our friends from Soho. I explained the fluctuating voltage problem to David.
We burnt a lot of calories dancing, so Louise had a lot of data to collect from the pedometers.
Nervous Stephen pulled out all the tunes we needed and Hilary led the dancing line, round and round the tea trolly circuit.
There was devistation...
A good time was had by all,
and it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Jackie, who makes everything run smooth and safe at Stanley Picker Gallery.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS. SPINNERS.

Jake came all the way from the Isle of Wight!

LOUDER THAN BOMBS DAY 3. BUCKETS.

Buckets lowered for dying with Kool Aid. Water taken from upstairs kitchen. DK Swaledale dyed orange and blackberry.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS DAY 2. FACTORY FLOOR PHOTOS.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS DAY 2. FRAZZLE'S YARN.

Frazzle is hooked on the drop spindle. I challenged him to stay up all night spinning, and I think he might have done just that!He's aiming for a cardigan, and at this rate he'll get there.

LOUDER THANK BOMBS DAY 2. FLUCTUATING VOLTAGE PROBLEMS.

This is me feeling a great sense of achievement when we thought we had got the bike power generator working. It ran smooth for about 30 seconds!
Generating the power is fine. We measured it with the multimeter and the bike is sending out between 10-14 volts. What we don't understand is why the voltage is fluctuating when it comes out of the DC-DC converter. It is meant to be a steady flow. There's a little screw which we are meant to finely tune, and we finely tuned it all afternoon and got nearly nowhere.When the power reaches the DC-AC Inverter, the protection light comes on and it beeps loudly. The electric spinning wheel is turning, but intermittently.
It was kind of frustrating, but it's great to be part of a team of people, passionately trying to solve a problem. We decided there was something wrong with the DC-DC converter.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS DAY 2. MARK'S SCARVES.

This is Mark. He is studying Bio-Medicine at Kingston university and he learned to knit in October 2006.
He knits the most wonderful scarves,
and drinks cider from a horn when we have our tea breaks. Fantastic.

LOUDER THAN BOMBS DAY 2. ZARAH'S WHEEL.

Zarah 's perseverance always brings reward. She has nearly mastered her new wheel. It's a 150 year old, Danish flax wheel, which spins very fast and fine.
Zarah is half Danish and last summer when she visited her family, she found the wheel and her dad Terry cleaned it up. It's a proper piece of folk craft. Wealthy Danes wanted everything made out of Mahogany, but poorer Danes had to work with soft woods, painted for protection. Painted woodwork is very fashionable now.
This is the most exquisite wheel I've ever used, and it suits Zarah so well. We have loved watching her progress.