Granny Square Cushion

I've been working on this cushion for ages and finally stitched all the squares together. I've been busy making other stuff too and will update this blog with some of my new makes over the next couple of days. I think that the stuff I make is very much part of my research as it allows me to relate to some of the people I'm studying, plus it helps me to relax after a tough day on the books. I'm still ploughing through my literature review at the moment, which is coming along nicely but I still have a lot of work ahead me. I'm also looking forward to some exciting interviews that I have coming up too. 

Knitted Kittens Craft Club

Once again Sophie has amazed me with her flyer design for Knitted Kittens this month, based on the awesome yarn bombed telephone booth in London. For more information about coming to our group please visit and add us on facebook:

We are hopefully meeting up sometime next week to discuss the potential launch of our website, more info coming shortly.

Knitted Biscuits

A few months ago I had food poisoning and announced through facebook that I was starting to feel better as I was craving biscuits, which prompted this photo to help my recovery from the very kind David Gauntlett. I remembered them this morning when looking through one of my favourite craft magazines Mollie Makes and thought this pic definitely needed to be shared. Unfortunately I'm not sure who to credit this to, so if you made these awesome biscuits and would like me to say where they are from then just drop me a message.

 

Knitted Kittens Craft Club

Had another Knitted Kittens group last night, forgot to put the flyer on here, it's a bit of a bonkers design this month but Sophie was trying out something different and it's good to mix things up. We had quite a few new members last night (which I was a little worried about as I want them to feel welcome) but they were all lovely and seemed to have a nice time, so I really hope they want to come back.

The new members said they found us through google, if you type in 'knitting group Manchester' we are listed second but it's just a random forum post I put up somewhere over a year back. This has inspired me to open a website for us so we can be found easily for new members, we have a facebook group but that's not always easily found, it might take a while to set up but I think it will be really beneficial to have a strong web presence, plus we can have a gallery for Sophie's artwork and photos from our events. Watch this space!

Interview with the Knitting Noras (Bolton)

Last Sunday I met up with the Knitting Noras, a knitting group based in Bolton to conduct an interview and participate within their group. This interview will contribute to the focus group element of my research and will hopefully be the first of many of this kind. The Knitting Noras are positively lovely, they were very welcoming and gave me lots of useful information for my research. Many of the members run their own blogs and use social networking sites such as Yahoo groups and Ravelry to share and talk about their work. The group has been running for about 10 years now and have accomplished so much during this time, including and most notably the naked knitting calender they produced for the charity Christies Hospital in memory of losing a member of the group to cancer. Below is a video of some of the members discussing and promoting the calendar on Channel M:

 

I had a lovely time but my only concern is because it was such a busy day in the coffee shop where they meet, I am worried that the interview did not pick up fully on my recording device, although if this is the case it does give me the opportunity to go back and interview the group again which is something that I would be more than happy to do.

Interview with Little Bundles

I have been very lucky this week to score an interview with the lovely Emma Scott who runs bespoke bunting company Little Bundles. Unfortunately I've never actually met Emma before so this was actually my first email interview, where I devised a few basic questions and let Emma answer them however she saw fit. I was put in touch with her through one of my supervisors (Rachel McLean) as they are friends and although I have never met Emma we have had a few chats via email etc... and I like to think that we share a few similar tastes and values.

As I mentioned before Little Bundles is a small company run solely by Emma based in Northumberland, which specializes in beautiful bespoke bunting which can be used for weddings, parties, nurseries etc... Although this may be considered to be a fairly niche idea, Emma manages to capitalize on this through a combination of quality, hard work and a resurgence of traditional British style. As you can see from the wonderful promotional shot below (taken by photographer Adam Barr) Little Bundles realizes that it is important for a creative business to have an iconic identity.

Little Bundles can be found on Twitter, or if you are interested in making a purchase then they can be found through their Etsy or Folksy stores, always support the artist.

My Makes

Of course one of the reasons why I'm writing about crafty people is because I'm a crafty person too. I'm mainly into knitting and crochet but I also dabble in other crafts as well. I've kept an unsuccessful blog showing my crafty makes but have decided to move it all over to this blog as I think it's all related to with I do with my research plus I want to keep this blog fun.
Here's a collage of some of the things I've made: