Stitch London Stitch Crawl 2012

It never rains at the Stitch London Stitch Crawl. Fact. This is because craft has the power to control the weather and with 10,000+ people invited to the event it's no wonder the heavens didn't dare open up. OK so all 10,000 didn't turn up. I purposely didn't count the masses as I knew the number would never seem as impressive. The day however, was.

After all, there were raffles prizes...

Yarn....

Knitters...(this family travelled from Buckinghamshire)

A fabulous host - Pro-Squid league member and knit wit extraordinaire (soon top be even more world famous when her woolley BT Art Phone Box lands in Trafalgar Square later this month) Deadly Knitshade...

And some special guest Crafty Avengers...(me!), the handsome Mr X-Stitch & the lovely Sarah Corbett from The Craftivist Collective.

Mr X-Stitch spread the stitch love to new recruits.

Sarah filled folk in about the work Craftivists do and their new campaign that launches on Sunday (17th June).

While I represented The Make Escape - a monthly craft night I co-run with the delightful Rosie Martin. In my workshop we made paper brooches.

No glue involved...just stitchery.

As the event itself was held to celebrate World Wide Knit in Public Day, there was of course plenty of knitting action. These ones caught my eye. The above stripey knits were all made from stunningly coloured yarns from Poundland. A pound well spent!

This was the final sleeve of a jumper that with this immense detail, has taken a year so far in the making.

My favourite spot was this incredible part crocheted, part knitted cardigan, beautifully made...

AND is the same colours as The Make Escape flier!

The knitting action lasted from midday to 6pm. All generations took part...

And no doubt this little lovely one will soon be the youngest knitter in the world if their aunt Lauren has anything to do with it!

This girl knitted a sock whilst wearing a fine cherry necklace and sporting leopard print nails.

One 1/2 of this couple knitted while the other caught up on the weekend papers.

I was also impressed by these wonderful socks. 

Not that you needed them! The sudden afternoon heatwave resulted in heighten picnic activity. If you've ever wondered what crafters eat whilst being creative alfresco, here's a selection of the treats I discovered...

 Home-baked cookies & yummy chocolate rolls

Dried fruit

Spanish omelette - I can verify this was the tastiest egg I've ever eaten. Not sure who made it, but she has talents!

 Soya mince & brown rice (my own creation -leftovers from two nights before!)

It being knitting in public day, I couldn't help but be drawn to the bags - the bags people use to carry their knitting in to allow them to knit in public. Like these two fab cake holdalls.

This creation is too amazing for words, knitted and held together by knitting needles...genius!

These two were simply print-tastic. 

 What I like about Stitch London's philosophy is that all crafts are welcome, not just knitting - also seen on the day was crochet (wish I'd photographed this before and after, watching the square grow was mesmerising.)

Also spotted - quiltmaking and embroidery.

 Highlights of the day were the three raffles - over £300 was raised for Doctors Without Borders of which I contributed to...the evidence being the fact I won a prize!

A rather tasty book! Yay!

Another happy winner! (Very pleased to find out this is the prize this lady had her fingers crossed for!)

And here are some of the brooches made at my workshop.

I can say without a doubt it was the lovliest Saturday afternoon I've had in a very long time. 

Crafting alfresco is just so 'meant to be'. If you've not tried it, make sure you add it to your goal before the summers out!

Also if you get a chance this summer, to get to the Southbank there are lots of lovely things to admire.

 Like this most beautiful fantasy tree.

The chance to watch cardboard TV.

Star in a photography exhibition.

And become a citizen of Antartica.

You can even stamp the passport yourself!

See - definately the best Saturday day I've had in ages. And best of all, it was totally free!

To find out about future Stitch London events visit their website & join their mailing list.

The Festivals of The World exhibition continues at The Southbank until September (and is a must visit!)

Book review: Stitch London

(Note the amazing cupcake!)

Confession time. I only knit one thing a year. For 2011 I’ve been working on a red robot for a friends baby that was born in August…suffice to say I have not yet visited it, as I don’t want to go empty handed : ( Feeling guilty is not a strong enough word. So to drown my bad knitter sins I popping along to the launch of this most momentous book that celebrates a city so dear to my heart…Londinium.

Written by a fellow associate of the rainbow hair society and a founding member of Stitch London, the mammoth knitting network (it has a tremendous 10,000 members!) Lauren O’Farrell, it's a book that shows you how to knit things inspired by the Big Smoke, like the residents:

One does love to walk one's corgis

Good day ma’am.

And its most spectacular of landmarks…(even the underrated ones like Tower Bridge.)

If you have never ventured to this fine capital city, you will certainly want to after feasting your eyes on this somewhat addictive read. (I’m referring to the bits inbetween the pattern instructions.)

To prevent one buying this book to add to their ‘craft porn’ collection (another near guilty confession)…the manual comes with FREE yarn and needles so you can get clicking straight away and make your own feathered pigeon.

Though cute as they are, I’m more interested in owning this sewer rat, it’s just soooooooo pesky : )

Lovely Lauren with an adoring fan!

So, that’s all the fluff, but is this book any good and should you buy it?

Well here is what I like about it:

You don’t have to be good at knitting

There’s a passage where Lauren encourages ‘messing’ with her patterns. To grab, shake, twist and change them as you want. One of the reasons I hardly knit is because patterns scare me. I prefer knitting random pieces and stitching them together. For years I thought a pro like Lauren would sneer at me for this but it turns out she’s on my side. I can’t explain (yes I know I’m a writer but allow me this once) how happy this makes me feel : )

It teaches you things…

like London lingo and even me, a born and bread Londoner has learnt a thing or to from this cultural manual like that ‘not really cricket’ translates as ‘not a very nice thing to do’ though thankfully I knew what a battenburg cake is. 

User friendly ratings

Complex projects are referred to as ‘Black Cab Drivers’ because they are the brains of the city and the more simple ones are called ‘Tourists’ since they are newbies.

The photos

These are taken in situ around town which is a nice touch, especially after hearing about the weather traumas they had to put up with during shoots.

Easy reading

The whole book is written in a really pleasant, engaging way, it’s nice to read and craft books aren’t normally bought for reading so in this sense Lauren has moved the genre on and hopefully it will pave the way for more ‘interesting’ future titles. 

And here’s what I don’t like about it:

NOTHING : )

This title is terrific. Do you like knitting? Are you wondering about it? Thinking about it? Want to own something knitted and scared of scouring the ever-growing collection of knitting books at your local bookshop? Well this is a good place to start And if you do use your kit to make your owned winged Cooey then upload the evidence to www.knitthepigeon.com for the world to see.

Just keep it away from Plarchie, Lauren’s squid who is partial to eating humans and most probably considers a pigeon as some kind of vou-le-vant.

Oh and if you are in a bookshop tracking the aforementioned title down, then I urge you to swing by the children’s picture book section too. Whilst in Foyles for the launch I spied this most inspiring of titles with really wonderful illustrations. Perhaps I should just give up on the robot and turn up at my friend’s place with my head no longer hanging in shame with this instead?

Stitch London: 20 kooky ways to knit the city and more by Lauren O’Farrell is out now published by David & Charles, priced £14.99. A percentage of which is donated to Leukaemia & Lymphoma research.