Press Releases 2010

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Rowan And British Wool Week (July 2010)

Rowan is proud to support Wool Week 2010, in association with The British Wool Marketing Board

Rowan is extremely excited to present it’s programme of events in conjunction with Wool Week 2010. Commencing on the 11th October 2010, Rowan will celebrate and support the British Wool Industry through a series of events held in John Lewis stores and independent retailers nationwide. We will also be working with the prestigious Liberty store in London on a special design project with The Royal College of Art.

Taking centre stage will be the Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds yarns; Chunky, DK and Bouclé, which are shorn and blended from British sheep and spun into beautiful undyed yarn at mills in Rowan’s heartland of Yorkshire. Now entering their third season, Rowan’s British Sheep Breeds yarns are showcased in three design collections including; The British Sheep Breeds Collection, The Purelife Winter Collection and Purelife Autumn – New for Autumn/Winter 2010.

As part of the week’s activities, Rowan will be launching it’s first exclusively online design collection; a beautiful selection of homewares using it’s 100% British wool. Also exclusive to Rowan, a perfectly on trend men’s union jack slipover by Martin Storey and a ladies tunic dress by Grace Melville. Both will be available to download for free from October.

The Wool Project is the brain child of HRH Prince of Wales and is being spearheaded by Nicholas Coleridge, managing director of Conde Nast, the global publishing company behind titles including Vogue. The week is designed to highlight the natural and sustainable aspects together with the practical benefits of wool and using this great product rather than man made fibres. The project captured the prince’s attention from discussions he had had with tenants on his own estate who had told him that it is hardly worth shearing their sheep.

“The sad truth is that around the world farmers are leaving sheep production because the price they get for their wool is below the costs of actually shearing it”, he said “The future of the fibre was looking very bleak indeed.”

By bringing together diverse groups from across the Wool sector including textile designers, spinners and fashion industries it is hoped that the week will raise the profile of the Wool Industry and put British Wool back on the map.

Click here for details of further events

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Craft Club Launch 2010

Craft Club brings craft back into classrooms with the help of the WI

The Crafts Council and the UK Hand Knitting Association are joining forces with the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) to help teach youngsters to knit.

Craft Club, www.craftclub.org.uk, launched 8 January 2010, is a new national campaign to provide children and young people with the opportunity to learn craft skills from members of their community via free after-school clubs. The teaching of craft is widely variable in the UK with some pupils receiving minimal opportunity to work in 3D due to cost, space and staff expertise. Craft Club has been developed to ensure that craft skills still have a rightful place in the classroom.

Craft Club needs the support of schools and individual teachers and also relies on the enthusiasm and skills of the broader community in order to pass on craft skills and techniques to its participants, or ‘Craft Clubbers’. Volunteers will receive specialist training at workshops across the country and will then become involved in their local Craft Club. Each Craft Club can be run in its own way – either combining efforts to achieve a shared goal or working individually in the company of friends on solo projects. 

The first skills that Craft Club will focus on are knitting and yarn crafts, enlisting the help of local knitting groups, WI members and all other enthusiastic knitters. Knitting provides a sense of achievement, helps boost self confidence and improves dexterity, maths and handwriting. Knitting has only recently been seen as a female-only pursuit as knitting originated in the Middle East and was spread by sailors and merchants along trade routes.  And men and women alike helped the WWII war effort by knitting garments for soldiers on the front line.

The Craft Club website will provide volunteers with access to teaching tools, practical tips and project ideas and Craft Clubbers with a forum to share patterns, ideas for projects and contact other like-minded Craft Clubbers across the country.

“Craft Club will engage young people with craft in a fun and informal setting and introduce them to members of their own community and provides the opportunity to be creative whilst socialising.” Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council

The first Craft Clubs are planned to start in spring 2010 but people who are interested can register now on www.craftclub.org.uk

For further information and electronic images please contact Jill Read, Press Officer, Crafts Council, Tel: 020 7806 2549 or Email: media@craftscouncil.org.uk

Notes

The UK Hand Knitting Association (UKHKA) is dedicated to raising the profile of yarn crafts through a variety of campaigns and initiatives including Knit1, Pass It On to encourage all knitters to pass on their skills to other people.  For more information on all aspects of knitting and yarn crafts, including latest What’s On news, knitting clubs across the UK, Knitted Textile graduate showcase and awards, knitting artists and celebrities, knitted projects for all to join in, fascinating facts and statistics and links to numerous knitting related organisations and individuals visit the UKHKA site; www.ukhandknitting.com

The WI is the largest voluntary women’s organisation in the UK with more than 205,000 members in 6,500 WIs. It plays a unique role in enabling women to develop new skills, giving them opportunities to campaign on issues that matter to them and their communities, and provides wide-ranging activities for members to get involved in. For further information please visit www.theWI.org.uk

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Craft Club Launch

Craft Club brings craft back into classrooms
The Crafts Council and the UK Hand Knitting Association are joining forces with the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (NFWI) to help teach youngsters to knit.

Craft Club, www.craftclub.org.uk, due to launch soon, is a new national campaign to provide children and young people with the opportunity to learn craft skills from members of their community via free after-school clubs. The teaching of craft is widely variable in the UK with some pupils receiving minimal opportunity to work in 3D due to cost, space and staff expertise. Craft Club has been developed to ensure that craft skills still have a rightful place in the classroom.

Craft Club needs the support of schools and individual teachers and also relies on the enthusiasm and skills of the broader community in order to pass on skills and techniques to ‘Craft Clubbers’. Volunteers will receive specialist training at workshops across the country and will then become involved in their local Craft Club. Each Craft Club can be run in its own way – either combining efforts to achieve a shared goal or working individually in the company of friends on solo projects. 

The first skills that Craft Club will focus on are knitting and yarn crafts, enlisting the help of local knitting groups, WI members and other enthusiastic knitters. Knitting provides a sense of achievement, boosting self confidence and improving dexterity, maths and handwriting.  Knitting originated in the Middle East and was spread by sailors and merchants along trade routes and men and women alike helped the WWII war effort by knitting garments for soldiers on the front line. There are so many aspects of history that can be incorporated as part of a curriculum topic. The Recycled Rainforest Project at Lindens Primary School is covering ecology and dealing with creative hands-on aspects of recycling and from the whole of year 5 who are now avid knitters, the craze is spreading throughout the rest of the school.

The Craft Club website will provide teachers, volunteers and Craft Clubbers with their own dedicated access to practical tips and project ideas as well as a forum to share patterns and a point of contact for like-minded Craft Clubbers across the country.

“Craft Club will engage young people with craft in a fun and informal setting and introduce them to members of their own community and provides the opportunity to be creative whilst socialising.” Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council

The first Craft Clubs are planned to start in Spring 2010 but people who are interested can register now here

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Recycled Rainforest Project Update (November 09)

Year 5 at Lindens Primary School, Streetly, have been working with visual artist Lindsay Chalford-Brown and a number of volunteer knitting experts to create their own “Knitted Rainforest”. Constructed entirely from recycled materials, this project is the flagship of the “Craft Club” initiative launched in November 2009 by the Crafts Council and sponsored by the UK Hand Knitting Association. The project is supported by the WI who provided many of our wonderful volunteer knitters. The Head at Lindens, Simon Griffiths, has been a driving force, extending the arts right across the school curriculum and creating a truly wondrous learning environment for all the children in his care. This project has bought together children, staff, parents, community volunteers, artists, national arts organisations and industry to provide a showcase for the talents and commitment to craft skills and the recognition of their future value in education.

The practical side of the project is entirely administered and managed by the children themselves, with each phase of the project having a "Group Leader". The whole process is further overseen by two "Project Leaders", who collaborate with the Group Leaders, Artists, Volunteers and Staff to administer the mechanics and logistics. So far, after an introductory afternoon knitting workshop and an intensive week in school, we have created a collaged backdrop of a Rainforest environment – waterfalls and forest - (6m long x 2.45m) which has been made of hundreds of  hand knitted items cut and collaged onto a Hessian background and then painted to pick up all the textural interest. We have also created free-standing tree trunks out of donated, recycled industrial polystyrene, which will be covered in textural hand knitting produced by the children and their knitting support visitors in classroom workshops and at Craft Club. Using the same polystyrene core, the children have also made huge, knitting-covered “rocks”, which will sit under the backdrop waterfall and provide seating within the knitted “river”, which is also being produced from squares of knitting sewn together.

At the weekly Craft Club our fantastic community volunteer knitters have been joining us and all sorts of recycled yarns get created and knitted! Plastic bags, fabric strips, old tights, ribbon, packaging and wire are just a few of the yarns we experiment with – and they are incorporated in the “Rainforest” to create texture and pattern.
The children’s response to the project has been our inspiration. Really taking on the challenge, the boys and girls have been practicing their knitting at every available opportunity and even taking it home with them. "They would rather knit than play football!", Mr Griffiths reported one lunchtime, after seeing a group of (usually sporty) boys knitting giant strips of fabric together on knitting needles made from recycled dowelling and walking-stick ferrules! As a result of this enthusiasm, all 45 children involved can now hand knit proficiently and have a wonderfully creative outlook on the application of what are still recognised as traditional crafts.

We are hoping that this project will inspire many similar projects in UK schools, either as part of a themed curriculum topic or as an after-school Craft Club.

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Comments from the children and volunteers who took part in The Recycled Rain Forest

Molly 10 Aged 10
I’ve enjoyed working with big needles and other materials

Stephanie Aged 10
Getting to know people and getting them to know the project

Sam Aged 9
I taught lots of people to finger knit and I can knit with needles as well

Liam aged 10
Learning to knit and finishing it made me really proud. It was my very first piece of knitting.

Pavan aged 10
First I knitted with small needles then bigger knitting needles and now finger knitting

Harry aged 9 ½
I’m proud to have carved, painted and knitted parts of the project especially the tree that we’ve made.

Nikki aged 9
I enjoyed working with Lindsay and all the people who came from the community because they taught me not only how to knit but how to make ribbon flowers and I loved all the creativity.

Daniel aged 9
Before I couldn’t knit but now I can knit and finger knit I’ve really enjoyed it and I’ve made a snake with my friend Deepak.

WI Sheila Davies Federation Chairman, West Midlands Branch
This has been a very worthwhile project. We have all been impressed by the enthusiasm and positive attitude of the children involved. It is very important for traditional skills to be passed on to the next generation and WI Members have a vital part to play in this process. West Midlands members responded well to the challenged and have enjoyed it very much.

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Recycled Rainforest Project (October 09)

Recycled Rainforest is a collaborative pilot project to launch 'Craft Club' and will take place at Lindens Primary School in Sutton Coldfield. The Recycled Rainforest Project will be showcased at the Design + Technology Show at the NEC in November 2009. At the show, six pupils from the school who have been involved with the project will be there to talk about the skills they have learnt to anyone who visits the stand.

Project Leader Lindsay Chalford-Brown explains:

"Taking the topic “Life Cycles” as a starting point and looking closely at the structure of the Rainforest, the impact that our lifestyle has on its wellbeing and the highly relevant subject of Recycling for inspiration, the aim is to produce a huge scale (4m x 2.50m) “relief” collage frieze based on the Rainforest environment, which will serve both as an introduction to the project and provide a dramatic and colourful backdrop for the showcase stand at the NEC ICHF show in November. It will also eventually be on permanent display in the school. Working on a base of Hessian and applying a 3d collage created from “recycled” donated hand knitted items then enhanced with paint and recycled collage materials. Working in Groups, overseen by a Y5 Project Leader and each led by a Y5 Group Leader, the children will design and make the frieze from scratch."

The project is supported by the UK Hand Knitting Association and The Crafts Council and resources will be made available and volunteers encouraged to come into the school to pass on skills and help with the project. The project will benefit from an ongoing after school club across all year groups where yarn crafts could be learnt from parents and volunteers. The children will be encouraged to make basic yarns from recycled carrier bags, string, raffia, fabric strips, theads, yarns and other exciting materials. Skills will include finger knitting, crochet, French knitting and knitting. Giant knitting needles, a giant knitting frame and other novel things to knit with as well as traditional equipment will be supplied.

We would also like to encourage the children to keep a record and monitor their progress and mood using the ‘mood thermometer’. This is to support the research being carried out by Stitchlinks on the benefits of yarn crafts in terms of educational development and self esteem as well as the calming, de-stressing effect of engaging in the creative process.

The children will be using their own initiative to work independently and well as in teams. Other local schools and interested parties are welcome to join in where appropriate Lindens School is blazing a trail for the Craft Club project.

Craft Club is a new initiative to get yarn crafts into schools and has been set up by the Crafts Council and the UK Hand Knitting Association with the support of other organizations.

Using our Craft Action Network we will set up regional steering groups of professionals who will be able to link with schools all over the UK, introducing yarncrafts into lunchtime and after-school clubs as well as integrating it into the curriculum.

A dedicated Craft Club website will be launched during the early autumn and this has been designed to appeal to children participating in the craft, as well as including resources and information for teachers and volunteers, educational material, project sheets, lesson plans, branding and logos and a forum for project leaders. The site will develop organically as the project spreads to schools across the UK.

In conjunction with the launch of the Craft Club, Knit 1 Pass It is a new initiative to encourage all UK knitters to pass on skills to at least one child/adult and will be launched in the autumn in all the specialist craft magazines.

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Knit 1 - pass it on

Knit1-Pass It On is a new national campaign launched by the UK Hand Knitting Association. The aim is simple: to support at least one other person (child or adult) to learn to knit or crochet. All you need to do is pass on your knitting skills!
Depending on the age and ability of the person you are teaching, this could be finger knitting or the basic knitting or crochet stitch progressing to casting on and plain or purl knitting. The main thing is conveying the pleasures of yarn crafting and having some fun!

To kick start this exciting new programme we need your help.
All you will need is a willing student who has so far slipped through the knitting net (yes, apparently they do exist!) and pass on your skills.

Knit1-Pass It On is the start up project to herald an exciting new initiative from the Crafts Council in partnership with the UK Hand Knitting Association to introduce knitting and related yarn crafts into the school curriculum and school clubs across the UK.
Craft Club marks the beginning of a new era in which children are encouraged to learn traditional skills, empowering them and advancing creative opportunities. A new website dedicated to this initiative is being launched soon.

Click here for Craft Club website

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Stitches on the Bridge / Lùban air an Drochaid

Stitches on the Bridge, Lùban air an Drochaid, in the West Highlands of Scotland, will be hanging pieces of knitting and crochet on the Skye Bridge from Friday 23 to Monday 26 October 2009.
 
The hanging is to celebrate Highland Homecoming and the links between Skye and communities worldwide.  Pieces of knitting and crochet have been sent from as far afield as China, Australia, the US and Europe.  Many Scots residents have also taken part and commemorated the lives of their forebears in patchwork blankets and embellished panels. Fiona MacEwan, of Luib na Luban, a local textile arts groups which has organised Stitches on the Bridge, says: “It’s been great to be part of a project which connects the remote West Highlands with the rest of the world, with knitters in their 80s and children as young as 5 years old taking part.  It’s really exciting to get parcels from all over the world every week - Christmas has started early for us this year!”

Stitches on the Bridge is calling for volunteers to help with compiling the pieces in the weeks leading up to the celebration and also with hanging the pieces on the bridge on Friday 23 October.  Volunteers should call 01599 566323.

On Saturday 24 October, Under the Bridges, an afternoon and evening event to celebrate the hanging, will be held in Kyleakin Village Hall from 2 pm until 11 pm.  The afternoon will see informal workshops in knitting and crochet with the aim of creating giant links to form a knitted chain for the bridge.  Teas and coffees will also be available.

Kyle Youth Café will be holding a stovies supper in the early evening, along with an informal ceilidh, in the true sense of the word, with a variety of different turns and an “open mic” session.  The Big Field Blues Band will be playing for a dance in the later evening. Under the Stitches, supported by A’Chroabh, will give people the opportunity to not only view the panels on the bridge but also to join in the all day celebrations.
 
Background

2009 is the year of Homecoming Scotland, a Scottish Government initiative, which is an events programme celebrating Scotland’s great contribution to the world. Stitches on the Bridge aims to combine knitting the Skye Bridge – covering parts of the bridge with knitting and crochet - with the Highland Homecoming celebrations and invited Scots, ex-pats, Scotophiles and interested parties all over the world to contribute to highlight the ideas of “coming home” and “linking” with communities worldwide. Participants were invited to contribute items of particular dimensions: large panels, scarves, or smaller rectangles.  These will be joined together and mounted on the ramparts of the bridge, creating a colourful and thought provoking display of knitted links with the world.  All the items will eventually be sold to raise money for charity.

Linking is our theme: 
·       Knitting nowadays links people right across the globe, with the likes of online knitting communities like Ravelry, “competitive knitting” games like Yarn Smackdown, Hat . Attack and Sock Wars (to name only a few!), specialised Yahoo groups and numerous blogs.
·       Knitting links people nationally when they contribute to the likes of the Great British Picknit (see below).  
·       Knitting links people in their communities when they come together to knit something like the Devon Knitted Christmas Tree.
·       Knitting links the generations and, as one passes on its skill to the next, it also links us with our cultural heritage and roots.
·       The Skye Bridge links communities and Homecoming Scotland 2009 links both generations and communities.
 
The inspiration for knitting the Skye Bridge came from a combination of the likes of guerrilla knitting, yarnbombing and knitting graffiti, and community and charity projects like the UKHA/Simply Knitting/ICHF/  Shaun the Sheep Great British Picknit, The Gingerbread House and Prudence Mapstone’s Pink Project.
 
Luib nan Lùban was formed in February 2009 in order to promote different forms of textile art, including knitting, and to take forward this project.  It is a constituted group with representatives from different communities on both sides of the bridge.

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"Knitters Forge New 'Thai's' In The Far East"

A Knitted Gingerbread House measuring 140 square feet and weighing  790 kilos is leaving North Devon today on a container bound for Thailand. The unique knitted wonder house which was the brainchild of Alison Murray, 46 year old international textile designer, and the house, complete with knitted garden is heading to Thailand to help promote a Thai community project, “Let’s Knit for the Needy”.

In 2005 Alison came up with an idea to knit the World’s Largest Knitted Christmas Tree. “I wanted to organise a community project to promote knitting and I was overwhelmed with the response. What had started out as a local project saw knitters clicking in unison around the world and we ended up with a 37 foot Christmas Tree which went on tour across the UK ”.  The success of the knitted tree was the impetus Alison needed to come up with another wacky knitting project and as a result a full size ginger-bread house, complete with a knitted garden was created. “Millions of stitches were knitted by hundreds of women across the world to create a single storey house with 10 inch squares sewn together in a complex jigsaw”. Alison’s obsession with the house grew and she encouraged people to get more creative with their knitting. “We also furnished the house with bed,
dresser, chairs, pictures, table and even the stove which were also hand knitted, as well as household goodies like sweets, cakes and biscuits. We then surrounded the house with a garden, with knitted flowers and knitted 12 foot high trees.” Early last year the gingerbread house went on tour to Paris and Alison is now hugely excited about the house’s next adventure to Thailand . “I was approached by Angela Stafford, an English lady who works for the community relations centre at an international Thai hospital called the BNH Hospital. Angela’s team came up with the idea of asking people to knit small squares to make into blankets to give to the needy in Thailand before the next winter. After reading about the Gingerbread House she invited Alison and her House to come to Bangkok ’s Central World Shopping Centre for the launch of their “BNH Let’s Knit project” in September as a guest of honour. When Alison first got the call inviting her to travel with her Gingerbread House to Thailand she was somewhat surprised, “I must admit I was taken aback when I received a phone call asking if I would be willing to let the Gingerbread House travel to Thailand to be part of the BNH Hospital “Let’s Knit for the Needy” press conference. I can however, see that by exhibiting it there, it will inspire many people to knit squares for the blankets which will keep the mountain children warm during the winter, and the novelty of a knitted English house on display in Bangkok will certainly spark an interest for knitting in a nation not normally associated with woolen garments and fluffy accessories. It is a great community care project and I am delighted that our Gingerbread House can help”.

The Knitted Gingerbread House will remain on display for five days in the Central World Centre with knitting workshops located next to it and will then move to the lobby of the BNH Hospital where it will remain on display until the end of September.  A display taken from the knitted house will be presented to HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn at a seminar as part of the BHN Hospital ’s Corporate Social Responsibility presentation. Alison will travel to Bangkok with her uncle, John Murray, courtesy of the BNH Hospital and is keeping her fingers crossed that the Gingerbread House arrives in Bangkok ahead of her.  “I have brought my brother John to help with the erection of the house as it is fitted on to a special metal frame which he himself designed! This is a great accolade for everyone who contributed to the knitting of the Gingerbread House, particularly those in North Devon who supported my crazy idea when I first decided to knit the World’s Largest Knitted Christmas Tree”. North Devon+, an organisation in North Devon who promote community regeneration admire the creative angle the Thai are taking in promoting social responsibility and are thrilled that the world is sourcing its creative flair from North Devon.

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Knitting Stastics 2009

About the UK Hand Knitting Association

The UK Hand Knitting Association is a charitable organisation dedicated to promoting the crafts of knitting and crochet through a variety of initiatives;

Information and Statistics from www.ukhandknitting.com

Knitting Groups

Over 200 groups listed in the UK on this website

Estimated number of knitters in the UK

No official statistics, but it is estimated there are between 4 and 7 million knitters in the UK but the number is increasing rapidly as school clubs and knitting groups flourish.

Celebrity Knitters

Scarlett Johannson

Debra Messing (Will and Grace)

Jimmy Hill

Muslim Shabaz (Big Brother)

Kimberley Stewart (Rod’s daughter)

Tracey Ullman

Kate Holmes

Laurence Fishburne

David Arquette

Uma Thurman

Kate Moss

Hilary Swank

Cameron Diaz

Catherine Zeta-Jones

Sarah Jessica Parker

Kate Moss

Winona Ryder

Uma Thurman

Brooke Shields

Lily Allen

Madonna

Julia Roberts is starring in The Friday Night Knitting Club due out in 2010

Knitting Magazines

There are currently eight magazines dedicated to knitting and crochet.

Knitting – circulation 32,000

Simply Knitting – circulation 45,459

Let’s Knit – circulation 50,000

Knit Today – circulation 20,000

Yarn Forward- circulation 15,000

The Knitter (new from late 2008)

Inside Crochet – new launch

Contemporary Crochet – new launch

 

National Press featuring knitting:

The Guardian

Daily Mail

The Telegraph

The Scotsman

The Independent

The Daily Telegraph

The Mail on Sunday

The Sunday Telegraph

BBC News website

Sunday Sun

Irish Independent

Marie Claire Magazine

Prima

Financial Times

Knitting As Therapy

Knitting has shown to be beneficial for;

Studies have shown that knitting provides relief for:

Stitchlinks

 Aims

What does Stitchlinks do?

When the seeds of Stitchlinks were sown the idea was to support those who felt isolated or lonely by circumstance or illness. But it has blossomed from there to include people who believe in preventative healthcare, carers and healthcare workers. The benefits can help everyone to find balance in life, to take control, as well as better manage illness.

The tools we use are knitting, crochet and stitching and a large number of people already use these to manage a range of medical conditions that you can read about.

Retailer listings

The UKHKA offers retailers the chance to feature their shop on the site.

Charity Projects

All around the UK there are many life-size community knitting projects taking place – the most prominent one this year is Above and Below the Waves.

Having raised thousands of pounds through The World's Largest Knitted Christmas Tree project and more recently The Gingerbread House in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, Alison Murray has set her sights on raising money for the RNLI to train a person to man a Lifeboat for a year. Aptly named Above and Below the Waves, we are calling on all knitters to help knit items for this project.

Speed Challenges

World’s Fastest Hand Knitter – Miriam Tegels  - 118 stitches in 1 minute

UK’s Fastest Hand Knitter – Hazel Tindall  -255 stitches in 3 minutes

World’s Fast Crocheter – Lisa Gentry - 5,113 stitches in 30 minutes

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Celebrating The Life Of Tom Paine: Let’s Knit and Knatter at Ancient House

In preparation for the Thomas Paine bicentenary celebrations in Thetford, Norfolk, the team at Ancient House embarked on the latest community project – knitting. One of the lesser-known facts about Tom Paine, Thetford’s revolutionary son is that he donated the proceeds from his pamphlet ‘Common Sense’ to provide mittens for the troops engaged in the revolutionary cause in America.

Looking for a fun way to join in the Tom Paine 200 Festival, Melissa Hawker, Learning Officer, came up with the idea of having 200 pairs of mittens – 1 for each year since Thomas Paine’s death, knitted in the patriotic colours of red, white and blue. These colours form a link between the Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes and the French flags.

In October 2008, the ‘Knit and Knatter’ group began with many eager ladies joining Melissa and Sue in a mitten knitting session. Our bi-monthly Knit and Knatter sessions have continued to be successful. We have already knitted 448 pairs of mittens! During the Tom Paine Celebration Weekend (6th and 7th June) the mittens will be displayed in the Ancient House before being donated to the Seaman’s Mission, the Salvation Army and the West Suffolk Hospital Special Care Baby Unit.

The ‘Knit and Knatter’ group has been so successful that the ladies have chosen to continue after the Tom Paine Celebration, and are currently considering their next project. One idea is to re-produce some historical knitting for use in the museum. As the mitten project was a charitable endeavour, the group would like to continue this good work.

Click here for details of forthcoming events

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The Knitting Noras - Naked Knitting 2010

The Knitting Noras are a group of dedicated (mostly female!) knittersfrom Bolton who have decided to follow in the footsteps of thewonderful WI ladies, and get their kit off for charity!The group, which meets twice monthly and who have been involved inprevious knitting-related charity events, decided it was time to dosomething special to raise money for a charity close to their hearts –Christie Hospital. Sarah Richards, co-founder of The Knitting Noras,was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2008, and very recentlydied. The project was already in the offing, but this recent eventmakes it ever more poignant.On Monday 2 March Vicky Jeffery and Lisa Brooks, the ladies who cameup with the idea, got together at Rivington Park Creative Centre forthe first photo shoot, along with Francesca Marsh, novice knitter andLisa's daughter. Laurie Jeffery, a renowned photographer (and Vicky'shusband) lent his talents behind the camera and attached is the firstpublicity shot.  Peruse it at your pleasure!More Knitting Noras will be on the receiving end of the camerasattention very soon, and there may even be a naked knit out in a localcafe!If you're a shy type and don't fancy letting it all hang out, feelfree to come along to one of our friendly knitouts at Costa Coffee onthe Town Hall Square, Bolton (last Sunday of every month) and theBlundell Arms, Chorley Old Road, Horwich, Bolton (second Tuesday ofevery month). No previous knitting experience is essential and we'rehappy to teach (and learn from) new members. 

To contact the Noras, please email: info@theknittingnoras.co.uk.

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UK Ravelry Day
Saturday 6 June 2009

UK Ravelry day will be held on Saturday 6 June 2009 at the Central Hall, Coventry. It promises to be an exciting day and will include a market (outside building in the Bull Yard square), demonstrations, workshops, talks. The event is being headlined by Meg Swansen, daughter of Elizabeth Zimmermann. Other well known teachers include Jared Flood (Brooklyn Tweed), Ruth Paisley (Woolly Wormhead), Elizabeth Lovick & Debbie Bamford
(Mulberry Dyer). There will also be collections for charities such as Knit in Gambia (baby clothes and shawls for older people) which is run by a Raveller and Liverpool NHS (knitted breasts which are used to teach new mothers how to breastfeed). The theme of this year’s event is British yarn. Says organiser Jo Watson: “Last year I was growing increasingly interested in finding out why it is that a lot of the yarns I use are made abroad. We have over 60 different breeds of native sheep in the UK and although quite a lot of our wool is coarse and suitable for carpets, a good proportion could be used to make handknitting yarns. It is shocking that farmers have to burn fleeces. After reading some information on the British Wool Marketing Board’s website about how much wool is exported each year, I decided that I would try and do something on a small scale to support
British sheep farmers during these tough economic times, by increading demand for British- made handknitting wools. It’s amazing how everyone who’s having a stall in the marketplace has risen to the challenge of sourcing British wool from British sheep.” She continues: “I had an idea in the car at the beginning of January about how great it would be if Ravelry could sort of come into being for a day. So I could meet all the people I’ve met
virtually on the forums, where we could all do in person what we do on Ravelry. I think Ravelry is the best contribution of the world of knitting there has been in recent times. “ Another theme of this year’s event is to support the United Nations International Year of Natural Fibres www.naturalfibres2009.org). UK Ravelry day is the only non-academic event being held in the UK this year which has received accreditation from the United Nations.
The event is being sponsored by the new high quality UK knitting magazine, The Knitter. The event is being organised as a not for profit day, with any leftover funds being donated to UK-based knitting charities as well as going towards next year’s week-long event. UK Ravelry Week 2010 will be held in Stirling, Scotland, during the first week of August 2010 and will include workshops by well known designers and excursions, and will end with UK
Ravelry day on 7 August 2010. Details of next year’s event will be announced in June.

Click here for Workshops at UK Ravelry day (correct as of 15 March 2009)

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Moray Firth Gansey Project

The Moray Firth Partnership have recently been awarded the maximum £50,000 Heritage Lottery funding for a 'Hand knitting of traditional fishing ganseys and associated fishing lore' project. Preparatory work is now well underway, although we still need to raise match funding before the project can officially commence.
 
The project aims to make hand-knitting accessible to a wide range of people of all abilities and preserve a traditional craft and to create links around the Firth through opportunities for groups to get together and network.
 
A programme of hand-knitting workshops/ training events will be held across the Moray Firth area, with the objective of establishing local hand knitting groups which would meet in a variety of venues. Participants could also take part in their own homes if they wished by obtaining a knitting pack.  Groups will have ongoing support from the overall co-ordinator and local contacts from partner organisations.
 
We are delighted to have been offered the opportunity by the organisers of the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy to include a four day event, featuring Gansey knitting and other maritime crafts as part of the 2009 Festival (Thursday to Sunday,2 – 5 July. The Festival is normally two days, but is being extended to four as part of the Homecoming Scotland celebrations.) The visitor figures for the 2007 Portsoy festival was around 18,000 over two days, so it is hoped for figures well in excess of that. Events planned for the Festival include:
a Gansey knitting exhibition including heritage, traditions, local patterns and mini ganseys showing patterns from around the UK;
exhibitions and demonstrations of some of the specialist knitting forms from other areas, and how these  influenced the development of patterns in the Moray Firth – eg  Netherlands, Norway, Faroes, Iceland, Shetland, Baltic, France, Fair Isle, Eriskay;
the 2008 Fastest Knitter in the World competition winner, Hazel Tindall, from Shetland will be in attendance;
a series of weaving and spinning workshops, demos, etc across four days;

We will run a Competition for fashion design students to create a new  garment, using traditional patterns / designs to reflect a new “spin” and new materials.   The winning designs will feature in an existing fashion show, encouraging school pupils to use gansey patterns  in different ways.
 
We plan to organise “Golden Hour” events in local primary schools,  encouraging pupils to learn skills, at the same time as hearing about their fishing heritage and the stories behind the different patterns used in making ganseys.

Older students will be encouraged to get involved with the production of an end of project booklet by interviewing older people to record their related stories and memories. They will also be able to develop other skills including fashion design, gaining interdisciplinary experience in research, photography, design and publishing. In this way we hope to achieve the preservation of physical resources such as knitting patterns, folklore and stories which, with an ageing population, are in danger of being lost forever.

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