Xmas Gift Tags

I decided to make some tags for people's Christmas gifts this year. I picked up these awesome rubber stamps and brown paper tags from the Paperchase sale last year and used some metallic blue ink to place a snowflake on each one.

The ink pad was actually supposed to be silver as that's what it looked like before I used it. It did actually say it was metallic blue on the back but I guess that's what you get for judging something on face value. Anyway I loved this project as stamping is so much fun, it's simple and so effective. I'm hoping to pick up some more bits and pieces in the sale again this year too.

Alternative Technologies Workshop

On Saturday I traveled to the wonderful Hebden Bridge to take part in a "Sparkle up your bike" workshop at the Alternative Technology Centre. The aim of the workshop was to demonstrate how to use alternative technologies and smart materials to decorate your bike for The Valley of Lights festival being held in Hebden Bridge tonight.

Another reason why I went along was to make contacts with technicians working with smart materials to see if they wanted to join us in our project we have started running in Bolton. The facilitators of the workshop Garry and Liz were really friendly and enthusiastic about what they do and were interested in our upcoming projects so I'm really hoping we get to work with them in future.

Here is a photo of a dress created by artist and workshop facilitator Liz Hutchinson. This piece has been created from reclaimed newspaper and the flowers are lit with LED's.

Glowing bunting

As we are looking to host a series of workshops within Bolton (in partnership with Bolton at Home) that mixes art/crafts with new technologies I have been experimenting with some of the materials myself. I've been using electroluminescent (EL) wire by stitching them into knitted projects and this is my first attempt:

I used an easy bunting pattern and decided to stitch the EL wire along the outside of the bunting to enable it to glow, it was a little bit tricky but after some practice I think I could make some really exciting and fun projects. I'm really excited about working with all kinds of smart materials and wearable technologies and hope to get the opportunity to use more and fund my new addiction when I find a permanent job. Hopefully this new project will be able to open up whole new opportunities.

Knitted Kittens Halloween

Here's the new Halloween themed poster designed by Sophie Daniel for the next Knitted Kittens on the 6th November. OK it's a few days after Halloween but Sophie has really managed to catch the spookiness of the season. Hope you can make it x

Charity Squares

We have decided to do a bit of charity work at Knitted Kittens to bring the group together and reach further into the community. We have decided to make knitted/crochet squares to stitch together to make blankets for The Society of Abandoned Animals based in Stretford, Manchester. More details can be found here: http://www.saarescue.co.uk/

Knitted Kittens artist Sophie Daniel has made us a beautiful poster with more information if you would like to get involved.

I've started making some squares already, please contact me if you would like some more information.

I have already contacted them and they would be really grateful for as many blankets as possible, even one would make a difference so please get knitting.

Knight Bus Scarf and Mittens

Since completing my PhD I've managed to do quite a lot of knitting. One of the projects I've been working on is my winter scarf and mittens. I wanted to make a simple ribbed scarf with some super chunky wool so I raided my stash and found some violet blue and black Big Softie. It's so soft and satisfying to knit with.

I also found this beautiful violet colour wool in my local yarn shop, it was a little bit pricey but I reasoned that I would be wearing these mittens every day in the winter so could justify paying a little bit extra. This picture doesn't do the colour justice it really is beautiful purple blue, it reminds me of the Knight bus from Harry Potter.

Here's a pic of me on the actual Knight bus from when we went to the amazing Harry Potter studio tour earlier this year. This was so cool but don't want to say too much as I don't want to ruin any surprises but I would recommend it to anyone who loves Harry Potter or any film fans. 

Viva Voce

I am pleased to announce that I have passed my my PhD viva with minor corrections. Over the course of my PhD I have faced some difficulty from others, especially within my own university claiming that my work was not good enough or placing unnecessary obstacles in my way. However, because of this it has given me the strength to believe in my work and myself, also giving me plenty of practice defending my research.

 Picture from the trial in Alice in Wonderland

Luckily for me I had a very pleasant and (almost) enjoyable viva. I had two fantastic examiners who I hold a great amount of respect for and they gave my work the attention it deserves. Not only that but they completely understood what my research is about as some of the problems I have faced has been due to a lack of understanding of the subject area, so it was great that my supervisors knew the right people to contact to examine my work.

Of course none of this would have been possible without the support and guidance of my supervisory team. I would like to say a big thank you to Dr. Gill Green and Dr. Rachel McLean, they have changed my life, thank you xo.

Bit of Knitting

I've made this cardigan and bear for some friends of mine who are expecting a baby. They live out in Germany so I will post them out later today. The cardigan is a little bit wonky but I hope they like it anyway. It was my first real garment I have ever knitted so thought I would start small and simple.

 
Although I have now handed in my thesis I have decided to keep this blog running as I would like to continue documenting the things I am making and the various projects I am involved in. I am currently looking for a research position but as times are tough and highly competitive in academia right now I am not overly confident I will find something any time soon. I've pretty much accepted that I will have to take an unrelated job to make ends meet but I still intend to continue research and projects on the side so hopefully when the perfect position pops up I'll be ready. I am under no illusions that this won't be difficult but my research is based on who I am so I will continue to make, explore and write.

Thesis finally completed

My thesis is finally completed and handed in. It was actually finished last week but it has taken a while to sink in as it's the end of three years work and hopefully the start of something new. It's still unbelievable but my viva is booked for October 2nd so fingers crossed I can get through it.

 

Knitted Kittens September Poster

Here is the new Knitted Kittens Poster for September 4th, upstairs at the Ape and Apple Pub, Manchester (poster was created by Sophie Daniel). You can find out more about our group by visiting our Facebook page

I'm actually at the end of study and hope to hand in my thesis this week! Hopefully after it's done I will have a bit more free time and should be able to do more interesting things and write more blog posts. More details to follow...

Knitted Kittens August Poster

Here's the poster for the next Knitted Kittens Craft Group on Tuesday 7th August. Artwork by the amazing Sophie Daniel.

Make sure to join us on our Facebook group to follow our latest news and events.

Arduino Workshop

I've recently been thinking about and pursuing post doc research opportunities to continue my work with technologies and DIY craft.

We've been looking at into running projects that introduce smart materials and wearable technologies into creative communities. One of the things we have focused on is the Arduino and the LilyPad Arduino, and we are hoping to run some projects and workshops applying these technologies.
We ran an 'Introduction to Arduino' workshop on Monday at the university for students and staff to pilot our ideas and see how they may be implemented.

We invited Dave Mee from MadLad in Manchester to host the workshop and share his expertise. Dave was knowledgeable, patient and entertaining and it would be great to work with him again in future.

We were put into pairs to learn the basics, build and experiment with an Arduino.

It was amazing to experiment with even just some of the basic functions that the Arduino has to offer. We powered LED's, built a theramin, ran motors and controlled the functions via programming.  Here's a few pics of us controlling the colours of a bulb.

 
I found the workshop to be really fun and interesting and I learned a lot. I'm hoping to invest in some LilyPad Arduino's to use in some of my knitting and crochet projects when I have a bit more money. We have applied for a few funding opportunities so hopefully we will be able to develop this project further and integrate these technologies within creative communities. 

Crochet Slippers

As I only have four weeks of funding left I'm busy writing up my last two chapters. Everything is coming together but it is hard work, half of me wants it to be over and the other half is sad because it will be. It makes dull blog posts though so that's why I haven't posted in a while.

To combat the stress I've been doing a lot of crochet in the evening and have been practicing making slippers. These are so much fun to make especially thinking about all the different colours and buttons I can use. I've also been writing down some themes I could use as inspiration.
I've had some interest from friends so I'm thinking of opening an Etsy store in few months as a way to sell them to people, nothing serious or pricey just as a way to make back money for the resources plus it might be fun.

 

I've been exploring some perspectives surrounding running a handmade enterprise and the worth of handmade items within my thesis and I think it is really interesting. I've just discovered this amazing blog post by Twinkie Chan discussing some of her opinions surrounding this topic.

Jubilee Knitted Kittens

I am sometimes absolutely astounded at some of the amazing things made at and for Knitted Kittens. I had to show some photos of these brilliant cakes that member Josephine made and brought down for us all to share.

These jubilee cupcakes in both red and blue are topped with white chocolate corgis.

 

And the highlight of the evening were the glittering cakepops that looked like royal scepters and tasted incredible.

 

Jubilee Cupcake

I'm not what you would call patriotic but I've been dying to make some thing for a while. I'm making a cupcake headband for a jubilee tea party I've been invited to at the weekend. I've crocheted a cupcake from a pattern in one of my favourite craft books by Twinkie Chan. I've chosen blue, red and white. I'm going to use my glue gun to attach it to the side of an Alice band. Just a bit of fun but it was good to make something again.

Link to journal paper

My first journal paper has finally been published! It can be accessed through Emerald:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=17035892&ini=aob

Hopefully this will be the first of many and the start of a successful career in research (fingers crossed).   

Knitted Kittens Craft Group

I'm still so busy so sorry blog posts have been slow to non-existent but I'm happy to report that I've nearly finished my first draft of my 4th chapter (Data Collection and Analysis) and I'm pretty happy with it so far. As this chapter has been formed from the opinions and perspectives of my participants it's been the most interesting to write by far and has come together really quickly.
Anyway here is another fabulous poster designed by Sophie Daniels for the next Knitted Kittens craft club.

 
I've been busy spending a lot of time on applications applying for jobs and sorting out my first three chapters so they can be assessed within the department and it pulled me out of working on my analysis, as a result I had become somewhat distant with my data. However, when I read the transcript for the Knitted Kittens focus group it really inspired me again and reminded me about all the great things in my study. It rekindled my passion and interest in the domain and since then my work has been coming together really easily. Knitted Kittens is the best thing that I have ever done for this study (maybe one of the best things I've done ever!) and I'm glad it's going to be with me when I have finished my research.

Zombies!

Here's a pic of a zombie I crocheted a long time ago. The building in the background is Salford Cathedral and was the view behind my old flat. I probably won't be making anything new for a while so thought I would put up a picture of something I made a while ago.

It kind of reminded me of an insight that a friend who has just handed in his thesis shared with me: "I am now convinced that theses are a living organism who refuse to take form until they have watched you suffer. They feed on blood and stress related medical conditions - the more you start to deteriorate the better the thesis gets". 
 

Knitted Kittens Craft Club 2nd Birthday Party

I'm really busy with my thesis at the moment. I'm working day and night trying to get the final drafts of first three chapters finished so I won't spend too much time on here moaning how difficult I'm finding it all. Instead here is another amazing poster (by Sophie Daniels) advertising the Knitted Kittens second birthday party! I have no idea where that last year has gone but am really looking forward to celebrating with my friends. New members are always welcome so come and join us!

Stitch n' Bitch

"And that's when it dawned on me: All those people who looked down on knitting - and house work, and housewives - were not being feminist at all. In fact, they were being anti-feminist, since they seemed to think that only those things that men did, or had done were worthwhile" (Stoller, 2003, p.7) 

Caine's Arcade

Here is another amazing example of how technology can assist DIY activity. A boy named Caine built his own video game arcade from cardboard boxes in the back of his dad's auto part shop. The games he made from the boxes at his dad's shop were creative, inventive and a fantastic example of bricolage. Caine's Arcade was discovered by an amateur film maker (Nirvan Mullick) who wanted to tell the story of his DIY arcade. Mullick promoted the arcade and film through events on Facebook which has brought the acclaim to which Caine's Arcade truly deserves.
 

 

UKAIS Conference 2012

I have just come back from presenting at the annual UKAIS conference PhD consortium. Last year I had a lovely time with everyone and this year was even better. The conference was held at New College Oxford and we also stayed on the grounds. The weather was glorious and the college was beautiful. It turns out that some scenes from Harry Potter were filmed there and scenes from the book His Dark Materials were based there. As I explored the grounds I could hear the choir singing in the chapel and it really added to the atmosphere.

 We had breakfast and lunch in the Great Hall and I really did feel like I was at Hogwarts.

My presentation at the conference actually went really well. I usually get so nervous when I present my work that I sometimes even have difficultly speaking, but the facilitators made me feel very comfortable and were very positive about my research. One of them made a comment that I was "pretty much there" and we both agreed that I still had to fine tune some aspects of my research. I left the conference with a regained sense of hope that I can actually finish my work in time and to a high standard. I had a really nice time and hopefully will be able to return next year with a full conference paper.

The Knitting Circle

Things are getting pretty crazy as I've only got a few months left of my funding, so I'm in the middle of analyzing the data I've collected. I'm still trying to keep up to date with all the new literature surrounding my subject but decided to take a break and read The Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. I thought that it would be light enough to give my brain a rest but still on topic so it didn't pull me out of thesis.

The Knitting Circle turned out to be more beneficial to me than I had originally thought. As I am using postmodernism with an interpretivist stance to read my data I believe that reality is constructed by little stories and everyone has their own unique world view. The Knitting Circle relates to my research as it tells the individual stories of each character within the group. As my undergrad degree is in English literature using a narrative helped me to cement some of the ideas that everyone has their own little stories to tell.
This has also been beneficial to me as it shown me that inspiration can be found anywhere. Sometimes it's important to take a side step out of the typical academic resources to be open minded in your approach to research.

The view through a kaleidoscope

Analyzing data is like looking through a kaleidoscope -

"Kaleidoscopes consist of many coloured fragments which when turned change pattern and configuration and are unstable" (Waring and Skoumpopoulou, 2011).

Knitted Kittens Craft Club

Here is the flyer for the next Knitted Kittens on 6th March (design by the talented Sophie Daniels). This time we will be at the Black Lion pub, Salford. The Black Lion has recently been taken over by an artist co-op known as Future Artists. This is something that I hold a deep amount of respect for so am really excited that we are being made welcome there. We still love the Ape and Apple (they are fantastic too) but unfortunately couldn't conveniently accommodate us this month so we are trying out somewhere new. Be sure to pay us a visit.

Vitae Workshop - The Effective Researcher the End is in Sight

Last week I attended another Vitae workshop called The Effective Researcher the End is in Sight. It was a workshop specifically designed for PhD researchers nearing the end of their study. They had a session on how to survive and what to expect from your viva. Then later gave us useful information on applying for jobs and what employers look for. They had really interesting guest speakers and the day flew by. It was really useful and I'm so glad I went.
I feel like I'm not at all ready for the end of my study but I do really feel like I'm getting there. One of the most important things I took away from the day was to remember not to get overwhelmed and to approach everything one piece at a time.

Sugar Paper Zines!

How lucky am I?! Seleena from Sugar Paper very kindly sent me copies of the missing issues of Sugar Paper Zine. I've been reading them ever since. They are all brilliant, really fun and inspiring. If you are into craft or DIY culture then I can't recommend these zines enough.

Check out the cool Hello Kitty tape that was on the package.

If you want to get your own copies of Sugar Paper Zine (and you should) then they can be found at: http://sugarpaper.bigcartel.com/

An Intro to Coding at Madlab

Today I went to An Intro to Coding presented at Madlab by Geek Girls Manchester. They introduced me to this fantastic website called www.codecademy.com with all these (fairly) simple exercises to teach basic coding. I'm still getting my head around a lot of it but will definitely continue practice working on it.

Here's my awesome name tag that they gave us to wear "Hello my name is...":

It was a great afternoon. Thanks to the team at Geek Girls Manchester for setting up the afternoon and for being so helpful.

My first paper

I'm extremely happy to report that my first paper 'Crafting a Future Online: A Study of how Independent Craftspeople Adopt Social Media and Web Technologies' has been accepted to be published in a Special Issue of Journal of Systems and information Technology. I wrote the paper with my supervisors Rachel Mclean and Gill Green which we based on an aspect of my research. This is fantastic news, it will really help validate my research when I'm being examined and shows that my hard work is starting to pay off.

Interview with Sugar Paper Zine

I'm nearly finished collecting my data. I could easily go on meeting and talking to people forever but I'm coming to the end of my study so I'm busy writing up.

Around a year or so ago I was looking for some crafty zines for me to read and I came across Sugar Paper Zine. I ordered a few issues and coincidentally it turns out that the girls behind them are based in Manchester. I contacted them through twitter and they very kindly agreed to talk to me about what they do.

Seleena and Kandy write Sugar Paper Zine, a bi-annual zine about craft projects and the Do-it-yourself ethic. Firstly, one of the things I love about sugar paper is it is the epitome of how craft meets DIY culture, it's a great example of how the two connect. The second thing I love about this zine is it's pretty fun and cool, much like the writers Seleena and Kandy. They were both very friendly and were really enthusiastic about what they do. I had a really great time chatting with them and it felt like talking to new friends.

Seleena writes a few other zines and Kandy designs and makes scarves/accessories with her own business Knit and Destroy. They are both really talented at what they do and are driven by love of making so be sure to visit their sites and support their work. Also have a look at their collective blog: http://sugarpapergang.blogspot.com/

Vitae Workshop - Using Social Media to Benefit your Research

As usual I'm really busy which means I'm a bit behind on blogging but thought it was important to mention how great and rewarding a recent event I recently attended was - '21st Century Research Profiles: Using Social Media to Benefit your Research' was a workshop held by some great people from Vitae. As I'm already a firm advocate for the benefits of social media I was interested to see what they could offer me, but all of the workshop leaders managed to introduce me to loads of new ideas and talked me round to websites that I didn't necessarily appreciate before. It was also a great networking event where I met lots of great people from a whole range of disciplines, definitely a worth while day and I hope they do more.   

Breaking the Internet

Don't let the entertainment industry and US government dictate what we can do on the Internet - "Entrusting the Internet to such forces would be as foolish as giving a delicate watch to monkey" (Naughton, 2012)

Knitted Kittens Craft Club

Here's the latest poster for Knitted Kittens Craft Club. I'm hoping to interview the group in February for my research, so will definitely write a blog post documenting how I got on. The poster is designed by my oh so talented partner in crime Sophie Daniels.

 

Email Interview with San Smith

I am extremely excited to tell you all about an email interview I had with one of my all time favourite bloggers San Smith. San is a freelance illustrator based in Atlanta, USA and I was ecstatic when she agreed to answer a few questions for my research. 

There are many things I particularly love about San's blog - of course it's fun to read and very aesthetically pleasing, but it has also taught me a few things regarding my own blog practices too. Her posts are always positive, you can tell that she writes to inspire herself and others; another aspect of her blog that I particularly like is how her personality shines through, San obviously has very clear ideas of who she is and is adept at displaying her creative ideas to the online community.
Her online presence and work is a prime example of how creative people use technologies to develop their businesses and communicate their ideas. I even think it is fair to claim that San's blog is amongst my main inspirations as to why I am exploring how creative people use online technologies in this way so it was really amazing to get her contribution.

San works as a freelance illustrator so if you are looking for cool and unique custom designs then you can contact her through her website: http://www.san-smith.com/ 

 

Interview with Quilting Ninja

When recently writing a paper for a journal. I realized (to my horror) that I hadn't actually interviewed any Etsy sellers yet, I needed to know some of the benefits of using Etsy for crafty people wanting to sell their work. After a quick plea on Facebook an old friend of mine (Madeline, who also runs an online store called Ghouls and Gladrags) said that she has a friend in America which has her own store on Etsy, she contacted her for me and managed get a few written statements to use for my research.

This also proves as an excellent example of how people may build relationships online (such as Madeline and her friend Kristen) even when based in different countries. It can also be used as an example of utilizing new technologies to collect data.

Kristen runs Quilting Ninja, where she makes and sells beautiful quality quilts with a "twist on the traditional".

Quilting Ninja clearly believes in the importance of individuality and the personality which can be found within the handmade, as Kristen also offers a bespoke service; meaning that if you had a particular design, theme or idea in mind then Kristen can be contacted to help make your ideas a reality. I personally love how she mixes the traditional notion of quilting with contemporary and alternative tastes, such as the Dr Suess quilt which is my particular favourite.

I want to say a big thank you to Madeline and Kristen as they have both really made such a big difference to my research, make sure you visit their stores and support their work xx