LISA ANNE'S NEW CARDIGAN.

We are delighted to see Lisa Anne Auerbach's new cabled red cardigan knitted in Wensleydale DK shade no.131 Lot no. 375 509 She has taken these self portraits.


Lisa Anne lives in LA and started the cardigan in the summer when she came to stay with us. We love the way she has left a bit of yarn hanging from the collar.
We especially liked seeing her lovely smile on a grey day. Lisa you look SO COOL!
You can see L_A A's work at http://www.lisaanneauerbach.com/

SISTER JO'S ANGELS.

Congratulations to Sister Jo, from Our Lady's on Old Ford Rd, for making a fabulous collection of angels, for penny and a prize at the Christmas fair on Saturday. Sister Jo has been working on the angels since the summer using lots of odds and ends. They are beautifully made, and we hope she has raised lots of money for the church funds.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST.

I was so suprised on Thursday morning when Louise walked in wearing a hat I had made for her in 1994. Louise found it, all grey and dusty in her attic, and after a journey through the washing machine, it's come up all pink, ochre and fluffy.
1994 was the year that Kurt Cobain died and Louise had pink hair extensions. We loved Kurt.

THE WIND WHISPERS MARY.

Somewhere up in the Shetlands, on an island which is likely to be Windy, is a little croft cottage, and inside, Mary is busy working. She makes pin badges and decorations from traditional hand framed Fairisle knitting. She also makes hand bound sketchbooks, with chrisp white paper and a woolly covers. All now avaliable at Prick Your Finger. Books are £15.99 and badges and decorations £4.50.
And here is Jimi Hendrix singing 'Wind Cries Mary' in Stockholm in 1967. (Stockholm was the nearest we could find to Shetland)

NEW BAGS AND COAT OF ARMS.

We have a new bag (free with purchases over £10!) with a coat of arms. The bags were goody bags for Craftacular, but we shall keep making them for the shop. On the back it says, 'Be the change you want to see at Prick Your Finger' - wise words lifted from Gandhi.
The 'J' s on the main shield, are not actually 'J's they are tenterhooks, which we hang on a lot, being the sorts of people that continually take risks, but we also use tenterhooks for hanging washed fleece and skeins out to dry. We are smothered in nature and moths, with rulers, and cotton, hooks, needles, and buttons.
The coat of arms came about because I was in the middle of re-drawing Sebastian Horsley's coat of arms when he died. There were bits of tracing paper floating out of my sketchbook, waiting to become arms. Above is his original one. He wanted to swap the cotton for a top hat, change the leaves and fluff up the feathers. I guess he wouldn't have minded me borrowing his helmet.
And here is me with 250 bags on my bike. We printed them in one evening , along to the Sonic Youth Goo album which has kept us working at midnight for over 20 years.

DO IT YOURSELF!

We went to a party the other night and bumped into our lovely friend John Paul Flintoff, author of 'Sew Your Own.' (on sale here, and a marvelous Christmas present) He said he couldn't stay out late because he had to go and interview Vivienne Westwood about environmental issues in the morning. Gasping, I said 'Oh gosh, could you give her our manefesto, because she's quoted in it as saying 'It could be so brilliant'.

J-P said that while he was speaking with Dame Westwood, some people handed her a manefesto which she stuffed in her handbag without reading. Down hearted, J-P tried anyway and gave her our manefesto, printed on re-cycled paper, she kept it in her hand, even after shaking hands with the other hand to say goodbye! We were delighted.
Anyway, Dame Viv, promoting DIY in this week's Standard says "Stop buying clothes for 6 months - Wear a towel instead of a coat - it's very chic!"
We couldn't agree more.