HANDMADE NATION TIMES.

I will be introducing the UK premiere of Handmade Nation at the V&A this Saturday... 2pm - 3.30 pm, Lecture Theatre Saturday, 25 July Handmade Nation documents a movement of artists, crafters, and designers that marry historical techniques with a punk and DIY (Do It Yourself) ethos. Contact the V&A Bookings Office for free tickets: bookings.office@vam.ac.uk or + 44 (0) 20 7942 2211

DANCING IN SPACE.

40 years ago this week, man took a first walk on the moon and last night we all went there too thanks to Rocky and Professor Nervous Stephen who played us an inter galactic selection of space songs. We floated to Rah Band, 'Clouds Across the Moon', Queen 'Flash Gordon' and Hawkwind 'Silver Machine' with The Clangers on the big screen, while Rocky lit up our lives with his cardboard box space helmet powered with christmas tree lights and waving his arms clad in those tumble dryer tubes that you stick out of the window, while Professor Nervous Stephen lined up tune after tune under a thick sweat from his tin foil strobe lit capsule. Thanks guys it's great to know that our bodies and the vinyl are all formed by the same molecules together in one universe.

'MRS. MINIVER'S PETULANT SOCK.'

Congratulations Ingrid Murnane on successfully finishing a difficult UFO and giving us much to think about in the process.  This is what Ingrid wrote about her piece....

"I was thinking about relationships and how two people can become very interdependent on one another. Also about what we bring to a relationship.  There is a geometry problem called Mrs. Miniver's Problem that is about over lapping circles. It has a basis in a story....

 is reached when the area of the two outer crescents, added together, is exactly equal to that of the leaf-shaped piece in the middle.  On paper there must be some neat mathematical formula for arriving at this; in life, none. 

The sock pattern lent itself to this idea rather well, as instead of finishing the toe, I knit another heal and up the leg, so it would be a metaphor for a relationship between two people. I interpreted the idea of the circles into knitting by making the circles 3-D, turning them on their sides and making staggered transitions rather than a venn diagram idea.  I wanted to make the transition between one sock and the other pretty obvious so I used the contrasting yarn, and also (in somewhat of a stereotype I admit) made a female sock.  Actually while I was making it, it was more about the relationship between the origional sock maker and me, si I made the second sock to be the one that I would wear (that is to say an emerald green sock with a frilly cuff).

It is perhaps a warning not to get too hung up on one another or you might not have enough of yourself left to keep adding anything to that relationship. I rather like that nobody can wear it. That it's something that is generally thought of as a practical garment, but I've been able to make into a piece of impractical art. I think it might be part of a series."

Wow...Ingrid....thank you so very much for these lovely thoughts.

WHEN GHANDI CAME TO EAST LONDON.

Were mentioned in the Guardian comment last week, as contributing to the new Arts and Crafts movement. We were hand spinning cashmere, and we were surprised to discover the Guardian readers commented that that was quite classist. So we went back to reading about our old friend Ghandi, who was also mentioned in Prince Charles's lecture on sustainability last week.  Ghandi loved east London just like we do.

Like a favourite pair of old cotton jeans, East London is ripped and torn and patched and loved and that is why Mahatma Ghandi chose to stay with us in 1939 rather than hanging out with other political leaders in west London.

 Ghandi had not visited London since he was a dashing law student in a suit and tie. This time he arrived, an older man, dressed in a sarong and sandles, with a beautiful goat on a string, for the Round Table Conference-to discuss India's  strained relationship with Britain.

Gandhi was also, as he put it, "doing the real round table work, getting to know the people of England". He had accepted Muriel Lester’s invitation to stay in Kingsley Hall, a community Settlement in Bow, to be "among the same sort of people to whom I have given my life" As morning light appeared, he milked the goat, had his morning prayer, followed by walks around E2, E3; he visited his neighbours in Bow; workmen on the canals; he made friends with the children. "Uncle Gandhi" became a popular figure. He explained to the children why he had chosen to stay in the East End and why he wore a funny bit of cloth.

During the day, Gandhi pleaded for an honourable and equal partnership between Britain and India, held not by force but "by the silken cord of love." He found the odds against him. There was a financial crisis and a change of government in Britain. Britian was pre-occupied with other problems and not too interested in making changes. Ghandi was laying foundations for India's independence, partly formed around his philosophy of the Spinning Wheel.

 Ghandi was concerned with India's and Britian's textile industries. He believed that if every Indian family spun their own fibres and made their own cloth, they would feel a sense of independence, lost by years of selling their textiles to Britian, and  still being out of pocket. Ghandi also visited deprived areas around the Mills of Lancashire.

On October 2, Gandhi’s birthday, the children presented him with ‘two woolly dogs, three pink birthday candles, a tin plate, a blue pencil and some jelly sweets’—gifts which he especially treasured and packed in his little briefcase, ready to take back to India.

Having met all the locals, Charlie Chaplin and the pearly Kings and Queens, Ghandi and his goat waved goodbye and left a legacy of non violence, independence and friendlyness, which can all be read about through the Ghandi foundation at Kingsley Hall in Bow, which is still a proactive community centre.

 

KNIT ME A DINOSAUR COMPETITION.

Our dear Matthew Robins.... If any of you are in the dark as to who he is, let me cast light on the situation. He is, of course a fantastic knitter, but I think I'm justified in calling him Britain's most innovative silhouette puppeteer. 

On 15th August at 10pm, Matthew will be doing a new show at the National Theatre and it is about dinosaurs and knitting.

He would like you to knit or crochet some dinosaurs.

You can turn up on the night by 9.45pm and the dinosaurs will be in the show and there will be prizes for the best ones.

For more information e-mail someone@sadlucy.com and visit www.sadlucy.com and www.nationaltheatre.org.uk.wts

and posted below are some illustrations of dinosaurs for inspiration.

HIGHBROW CREATIVITY.

The staff at Tatty Devine are so creative, that we are constantly raising one eyebrow to them. Except we are not, because we can't actually raise one eyebrow. So thank you Amy Tatty for showing us how to do it with a little bit of wool.

USING ODD PINS.

Odd knitting needles can be useful for all sorts of things. They have given new life to this poorly, weathered bicycle basket.

If you have used a knitting needle for something other than knitting, do send us a photo! We'd love to see.