The Knitting Timepiece

This clock was designed by Siren Elise Wilhelmsen, a graduate of Udk Berlin, and is made from a 48 needle circular knitting machine. It knits one round every day and, after one year, you'll get a 2 metre long scarf. Rather awesome don't ya think?!

See the original article, which briefly discusses the philosophy of the design, here. Thanks to my housemate Nicki for sending this to me!

Basic Maths: Knitting + Cake + Pub = Love

A couple of weeks ago I was selling a few bits and bobs at a local in-pub jumble sale (in-pub = the best kind of jumble sale) and, as usual, was knitting away all by myself. I was approached by somebody who asked if I'd be interested in helping to set up a knitting club there as part of a monthly Sunday afternoon event.

Obviously I jumped at the chance and this Sunday saw the very first knitting club at Twee By the Sea, in 60 Million Postcards (Bournemouth). In a nutshell, it was AWESOME.

There was cake, including some delicious Happy Herbivore black bean brownies that I had made for us vegans and A Girl in Winter, chai and a whole lot of yarn. New knitters came along for the ride as well as us who are a bit more experienced and we even got two men involved.

Note to men: More of you need to knit, it's incredibly sexy. Fer reals.

Our novice knitters made some adorable little owls with the bits and bobs I'd supplied and all in all I think we had an attendance of around 12 people. A roaring success (or as roaring as a knitting club can be).

I'm very excited about next month's event already. If you are in the Bournemouth area and would like to learn to knit (or crochet) please come along. We have plenty of needles, hooks, yarn and patterns to get you started and I have an almost infinite vat of patience for teaching which I have only just discovered. Also, if you're old hat at knitting and fancy coming down to drink cider or chai and have a chin wag please do. The more the merrier. 3rd Sunday of the month, 60 Million Postcards from 3pm.

If you're not in this area, wherever you may be I would recommend setting up a group. With Facebook at our fingertips it's easier than ever to spread the word, it's oodles of fun and you get to meet new and lovely people.

Etsy Treasury

Still being a bit of a noob to Etsy I wasn't aware of the Treasury until recently, or more to the point until somebody chose an item of mine for their Treasury.

In a nut shell, it's a user chosen gallery of 12 items, usually themed, that the user deems to be awesome. They're pretty difficult to create as Etsy limits the amount of Treasuries that are active at any one time.

I give thanks to the lovely ArtistrybyRamona for not only choosing my item, but for telling me that she had (which is quite rare apparently). Check out her shop, the question mark necklace is fab and definitely on my want list!

Inspirational Ideas

Some people out there have pretty marvellous brains and, in short, I am in awe of them. Two things I have recently stumbled across in the land of knitting have left me thinking, 'shit, I wish I'd thought of that'.

First off we have The Knit Kit.



It's a fabulous little oval-shaped doo-dah (actual technical term) that has a crochet hook, stitch counter and thread cutter around the outside and scissors, stitch markers and point protectors inside. What's more is it slips handily into your bag and is safe to carry on planes. It's awesome. Sadly the only thing it doesn't have (which would probably make it less safe for air travel) is a darning needle. I'm sure there are plenty of knitting and crocheting terrorists out there that would love nothing more than to hold up a plane with an unusually large needle. In the eye, I say, in the eye.

The second thing I discovered today is not a doo-dah but a marketing idea so brilliant that I would probably sell my Nan in order to go back in time and steal it for my own. Though time travel is apparently impossible (pffft, tell that to Doc Brown) the idea of selling my Nan is even more impossible - she's The Evil Genius™ and would certainly see it coming a mile off. I digress. The site I am talking about is Net Granny.

Net Granny allows you to have a pair of socks custom knit for you and you choose the biddy to make them! It's all kinds of aces and I wish it was my frigging idea. This is my personal biddy choice; she clearly has excellent fashion choice and looks like she has done her fair share of partying. Yeah, she earned her perma-gurn.



On a final note, to those of you (ok, so that one of you) who have been checking my blog a little too often, I have your IP address, I know who you are and I think it's weird.

Sayonara stalkers!

Idea Overload

I've heard of writers block (or creative block) before, a lack of inspiration leading people to go weeks, months even years without creative a thing. What happens if you have the opposite? So many ideas that there just aren't enough hours in the day?

I'll tell you - Your brain begins to feel as though there is a thick layer of cotton wool encasing it, not allowing you to sensibly put these ideas in to practice whilst still keeping them swimming around upstairs. You sit on your floor surrounded by yarn and buttons and fabric and knit for the sake of knitting and a purse becomes a villain cape for your sock monkey. And you use lots of ands in sentences.

This is kinda where I am. I need to just keep making until I find my niche. This weekend I'm going to try my hand at making knitting needle bracelets, thanks to some friends, and I'm going to make some handbags with all the oodles of material that was donated to me by somebody last week. Exciting.

Hubert - My First Sale

Last night Monster Makes officially went live.

I listed all 8 modest items on my shop, refreshed a few times (to check view counts of course) and then went to bed.

Overnight I have already made a sale, the wonderful Hubert The Love Monster, who was only created yesterday whilst having an 80's movie-fest. What a better way to come to life but with St. Elmo's Fire, Mannequin and Pretty in Pink (can you spot the link?).

Farewell Hubert and thank you shopper. May you have a wild and crazy life together.