Crochet pattern for Knitting Together project

I recently came across a lovely craftivism project called Knitting Together that uses simple, knitted finger puppets to raise awareness about loneliness. This wonderful campaign is organized by The Marmalade Trust and the Impact Alliance. It launched as part of Loneliness Awareness Week last month, a national movement dedicated to opening up conversations and building meaningful community connections. I had to write a crochet version inspired by the knitted pattern.

For details of how to take part please refer back to the campaign website. 

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I have written a 4 ply/fingering weight and a DK version - perfect for using up scraps. Patterns are not tech-edited yet.

Materials: 

*Small quantities of yarn for hair, face & body plus even snaller amounts for facial features eyes & mouth. 

*3mm crochet hook for 4ply version, 4mm for DK version

*Stitch marker to mark first stitch of each round 

US crochet terms and working in continuous rounds. 

4 ply version

‐‐---‐-----------------

Start in hair colour 

Either ch2 and 8 sc into 2nd ch or 8 sc into a magic ring

Round 1: increase in every sc (16 sc). 

Round 2: 6 sc hair colour, 4 sc skin colour, 6 sc hair colour.

Round 3: 5 sc hair, 6 sc skin, 5 sc hair. 

Round 4: 4 sc hair, 8 sc skin, 4 sc hair. Round 5: 16 sc skin

Change to body colour 

Round 6 (make arms): 4sc, ch15, turn, skip 1ch, slst14, sc8, ch15, turn, skip 1ch, slst14, 4sc. 

Rounds 7-12: sc16 Round 15: Long sc16 over round 13 to create to create double thickness final round. Finish off.

Add eyes, mouth, hair as required

DK version

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In hair colour ch2, 6 sc into 2nd ch or 6 sc into magic ring.

Round 1: increase in every sc, (12 sc). 

Round 2: 4 sc hair colour, 4 sc skin colour, 4 sc hair colour

Round 3: 3 sc hair, 6 sc skin, 3 sc hair

Round 4: 2 sc hair, 8 sc skin, 2 sc hair

Round 5: 12 sc skin

Change to body colour 

Round 6 (make arms): 3 sc, ch11,  turn, skip 1ch, slst10, 6 sc, ch11, turn, skip 1ch, slst10, 3 sc

Rounds 7-12: sc12

Round 15: long sc 12 over round 13 to create to create double thickness final 

Finish off.

Add eyes, mouth, hair as required

Stitch to Change at The Big Flock THIS weekend!

Jon and Clare of Birdstreet Yarn are the sweetest people hosting regular wonderful "Flock" gatherings of yarn people locally for several years now. And this weekend they are going BIG - with a Bristol Yarn Festival. Whoop! Whoop! And I've organised free Craftivism workshops for both Saturday and Sunday hosted by me and four other wonderful Bristol Craftivists equally as passionate about making a difference. I am beyond excited about inspiring thirty-two people to use their craft to take action about the issues they care about. 

Stitch to Change: a Craftivism Workshop – Bristol Craftivists 

Join Bristol Craftivists for a hands-on workshop where creativity meets activism. Through knitting and crochet, we’ll explore how crafts can make a powerful statement in tackling the issues you care about.

• Who’s it for? Open to all skill levels, from beginners to seasoned crafters.

• Duration: 90 minutes

• Why join? Be part of a growing movement using craft to inspire action, raise awareness, and build a community of changemakers. 

Let’s use our needles and hooks to start conversations, spread hope, and fight for a sustainable future. Free of charge & all materials provided.

And I'm making the workshop handout available here: 

PDF handout

Accessible versions:

Plain text Word document handout 

Plain text Text document handout 

A Book Review of How to be a Craftivist by Sarah Corbett

I realized I was a craftivist three years ago discovering "Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism" by Betsy Greer on a "new and notable in the 700s" display in Houston Downtown Library. Shortly afterwards I was fortunate enough to hear Betsy speak, on the topic, at our fantastic Houston Centre for Contemporary Craft. (I love this place and really don't visit it often enough!) I know we even spoke briefly but I really can't remember what I said now. It was something disappointingly inane because I was feeling so inspired by the talk. The book and Betsy's lecture changed the way I viewed my craft. Craftivism is "using your creativity to make the world a better place" (Betsy Greer, craftivism.com). I realized that I was making a difference and it was a wonderful feeling.

I teach crochet and knitting and I can see the positive impact this has on my students firsthand. I run a yak and yarn group where we hook items for local charities. I make items for larger craftivism projects to raise awareness of social issues. I buy local, independent and sustainable yarn whenever I can (that's a lot of buying). But I've realized I have become too comfortable with my definition of craftivism. So I supported and bought a copy of "How to be a Craftivist" by Sarah Corbett on Unbound because I hoped that reading this book would help me to become a more effective craftivist.

And it has been just the book to take my craftivism to the next level. It's a very practical book aimed at "everyone who wants to help improve our wonderful world in a beautiful, gentle and loving way". That's me! Yes!

The definitions at the beginning of the book are extremely useful. Sarah provides a valuable insight with her background in activism and the nonprofit sector.

I kept reading. So many ideas! Here's an excerpt from the book on Slow Activism. Read it! It's so good! The case study on #imapiece - jigsaw pieces crafted for the Save the Children "Race against Hunger" campaign was the one to convince me that craftivism can effectively tackle social injustice.

This amazing book has shown me that craftivism can be more effective and powerful than I'd realized. My advice would be to read the book, take it all in and join the collective too. Buy a hard copy here on the Craftivist Collective website or an Ebook edition here on the Unbound website. Then report back and tell me what you think! 

Listen to the Audio Podcast

Houston International Quilt Festival 2017

This week the International Quilt Festival is taking place at the George R Brown Convention Centre in Downtown Houston. I'm not a quilter but I can appreciate the artistry and skill involved. And I love quilts that tell a story or illustrate a specific social or political issue. I've never visited before but Nimblefingers, the yarn store where I teach, are vending at the show for the first time. So I organized a little trip for members of my Yak & Yarn group on Thursday, the opening day and I'll be working on the Nimblefingers stand on the day this blog post goes live.

This is a huge event with over 55,000 quilt lovers traveling from 35 different countries to attend. It's part marketplace, part quilt competition and part quilt exhibition. There are also a huge number of classes taking places. I headed first to the yarn sellers (they sell everything at the quilt show - buttons, fabric, frames, dyes, embroidery, bags, sewing machines...) just to see what they had going on and have a little squish: The Hen House , Threads & Ewe , WC Mercantile , Yarnorama  all from Texas and RedFish DyeWorks from California.

Then I entered the exhibition hall - a gallery of hundreds of quilts curated into 46 exhibits. So many of the quilts tell a story - collections highlight civil rights, feminism and more. As Thomas Knauer, the creator of the exhibit entitled "Between Me and the World: Identity and Activism Quilts wrote

"Quilts can certainly carry social and cultural implications. Here, they translate specific concerns into material form, and explore a wide range of issues—both personal and political. Ideas are made concrete, and a quilt becomes an expression of the complexities that make up a life in the world."

I'd picked this exhibit out beforehand from the brochure online and it just happened to be the first one as I entered the hall. I didn't know what to expect. Thomas' most recent quilts cover two issues - the epidemic of gun violence and his personal struggles with chronic illness. After looking at his collection, I could have left the festival. I had enough going on in my head at that point...

But I continued, trying to see as many exhibits as I could. I took a lot of photos hoping that I'd be able to remember more. I've limited myself to including just two other exhibits here which I found particularly moving but I could fill half a dozen blog posts...

The 70,273 Project is a worldwide collaborative art project. The quilts are made up of blocks of fabric marked with two red crosses on a white background to commemorate the reported number of physically and mentally disabled people killed by the Nazi regime between January 1940 and August 1941. Jeanne Hewell-Chambers is collecting 70,273 quilt blocks from around the world. Around 7,000 or one tenth of the blocks were on display at the quilt festival this week. The blocks will appear at Rochester, Lincoln and Durham Cathedrals in the UK in January 2018, to mark National Holocaust Memorial Day. 

HERstory: A CELEBRATION OF STRONG WOMEN was an amazing exhibit organized by Susanne Jones who had asked for submissions of quilts of a woman who had inspired them since women attained the right to vote in 1920. Quilts had been sent in from 8 countries. Susanne said I could take photos so long as I attributed the quilter and the collection. I picked out Nina Simone: A Theme with Variations by Sherri Culver because I love her songs and her voice. And it reminded me of the amazing crochet mural currently on display of Nina Simone in Raleigh North Carolina as part of the Love Across the USA community art project. It's funny how things lead back to crochet for me.

I hope you've found this slightly off topic post interesting... most people I know who crochet and knit are interested in other crafts. Have a super week y'all!!

Listen to the Audio Podcast

Six CALs for Fall 2017

I thought I'd do a little CAL round up this week because we have a few starting this month including my very own - the Back To School Sweater CAL!! I just LOVE a good crochetalong . Check out my post 5 Reasons to Join a CAL in my blog archives! 

1 Back To School Sweater CAL
I'm hosting this CAL (the accompanying blog hop is already underway) with Helen of Making at Number 14! It starts on the 16th of September and runs for 8 weeks until 17th of November. All the details are on my CAL page on my website here. You can chose to make any crochet garment and a few enthusiastic folk have started already!!  We're using the hashtag #BackToSchoolSweaterCAL to share our progress on Instagram and there is chatter in Fay's Crochet Circle Podcast Ravelry group here. 

2. Spotting Clouds Top CAL
Clarisabeth from the Crochet Cakes Podcast is hosting a Spotting Clouds Top CAL. This top is designed by Christina Hadderingh who designed the extremely popular Hotel of Bees Shawl so I know the pattern will be well written because I've made this shawl. It started on 21st of August and runs until 14th of October so there is still time. You could make this one for your Back to School Sweater CAL... that's a possibility!! The details and chatter are here in the Podcast Ravelry group.

3, September Shawlalong 
Hannah from the Cozy Cottage Podcast is hosting a shawl crochetalong called the September Shawlalong which runs for the months of September and October. I'll definitely be joining in with this ...  and I may well be double dipping with the next CAL on this list. But I am also very tempted by the crochet version of the Wonder Woman Wrap designed by Clarissa Browning who also designed the knit version. And I still haven't made a Blurre Shawl and I really want to.  The chatter thread for the shawalong is on Ravelry here. Hannah is also going to be running a Tunisian Crochetalong with Claudia from the Crochet Luna Podcast and I believe Claudia will be talking about this in her podcast this weekend. Another CAL to look forward to!

4. #CAKECAL
Emma from  the Potter and Bloom podcast has a shawlong (well it's actually a stolealong rather than a shawl) with a pattern that she designed herself Liula which runs through September and October. Emma's stole is a beautiful stitch pattern and uses a color changing cake of gradient yarn hence the name #cakecal. Here's the chatter thread in the Potter and Bloom Ravelry group. I just watched Emma's most recent podcast and the CAL will run for an additional two weeks to a month to give everyone a chance to buy their yarn. 

5. #HiddenTempleCAL

Rohn Strong has a crochet sock CAL running in collaboration with Happily Hooked Magazine which started just yesterday, September 1st. There is a Happily Hooked Crochet Along group on Facebook to join. The design looks lovely. I am a total sucker for crochet socks so I might have just have to join in while I wait for my CAKECAL yarn!!

6. Welcome Blanket CAL/KAL/QAL

This CAL/KAL/QAL (is a quilt along called a QAL?) is already running and the dates to get your blankets sent off by has recently been extended to November 4th. The blankets are currently being displayed at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago. When the show ends all of the blankets will be given to refugees and immigrants to welcome them to the US. We moved here five years ago and were made to feel very welcome in Texas so I feel that this is a good craftivism cause to participate in. Further details (and patterns) are here. I'm using one of the designs but rather than crocheting squares and joining them together I am making a tapestry crochet blanket in two colors with tassels at the sides (see the photo).

Anyway I'd love to know if you're joining in on one or more of these CALs and if there are any more CALs going on please add these in the comments for us all to see. Have a wonderful week everyone!!

Listen to the Audio Podcast

The Craftivism Manifesto

My name appears at the bottom of the Craftivism Manifesto as a contributor. Yay! I discovered the Craftivism movement around two years ago finding Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism by Betsy Greer on the "new and notable in 700s" display stand in the downtown Houston Library. Sometimes you read a book and it subtly changes the way you think. And then things are never the same again. Reading that book changed the way I thought about my craft.

I am maybe getting a little ahead of myself. I know my mum is going to ask me what this is, just as I had to explain to her what a podcast was. The word craftivism derives from the combination of the words: craft + activism = craftivism A craftivist is anyone who uses their craft to help the greater good.

 

I teach people and see their joy in mastering a skill, I run a craft group and we make things collaboratively for local charities. I make gifts for people that I care about - sometimes they even like what I make for them!

Back to the manifesto. You can find this on Betsy Greer's website (btw Betsy is godmother of Craftivism). I am not going to read the Spanish version. I am learning Spanish but I'm just not that brave yet.

Here are links to two additional recent craftivism items:

Betsy was interviewed by the marvelous Vicky Howell super famous crafter and broadcast personality, who lives in nearby Austin, Texas on her Craftish podcast series so check that out here.

And I spotted a recent article in Molly Makes (wonderful British craft magazine) Making Good: Five Ways to be a Craftivist - an interview with Sarah Corbett the founder of the Crafivist Collective in the UK.

Enjoy! And do let me know if you're thinking of yourself as a craftivist now! Comment below or contact me on Instagram or Twitter. I'm @craftyescapism

Here's the Audio Podcast

 

Hooky hat wearing weather

Hats have dominated the last week or so. I had my first Yak & Yarn meeting of the year and had a tip off that a new member had made numerous hats (while I was away she emailed me to ask if she could bring them to my house - this was a bit of a giveaway). I had to stop making my second Take Two Crochet project and hook up a few hats for the homeless to show willing. She made sevens (yay!) and I managed three. I'm not competitive, honestly! 

 

I received an e-newsletter from the inspirational Betsy Greer, the godmother of the Craftivism, who I have met in person and written about here. She interviews fellow craftivist heroes on her blog (love it!) and sends links to related projects. Anyway, one of the links was to the Pussy Hat Project so I've found some pink yarn in my stash and selected the crochet pattern with the cable ribbing. I'm just about to  join up the sides with crab stitch, my favorite seaming stitch, which is functional but decorative. And I should meet the deadline to mail it to Washington for the march. I do like taking part in a Craftivism project for a good cause.

I love seeing something in the crochet world go viral in the world of non-crafters. Right now  it's all about the Messy Bun Hat or Ponytail Hat. Last week a non- crafter was in the yarn store where I work looking for yarn for a friend to make one for her. I've also spotted it coming up on my Twitter feed. I have short hair but if I can see my daughter looking gorgeous in one of these free crochet patterns: It's All About the Messy Bun by June Nemeth!

Anyway, I do hope you're having a wonderful week y'all whatever you're crafting!! If you don't want to miss my blog articles and you're reading on your desktop computer please do sign up to receive an email with a link. It should be top right. And I'm on Twitter and Instagram too. If you've been making hats this month please do let me know in the comments below!

Review of Yarn the Movie

I hadn't expected to be able to watch this film at a local movie theater but yay, Yarn the Movie came to Houston TX this week as part of the Houston Cinema Arts Festival. A friend of mine shared details of the upcoming film to my Facebook page. I would have completely missed it!

This documentary, made by Montreal-based Icelandic director Una Lorenzen interweaves the stories of four inspiring artists who work with yarn. The film is as visually gorgeous as I'd expected. It starts off in the best way possible with Icelandic lopapeysa sheep (I love sheep, don't you?) and then moves from Iceland to many different locations worldwide showing examples of the four artists' fantastic work. I was already familiar with two of the featured artists: Brooklyn-based Polish crochet graffiti artist Olek's and Japanese artist Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam who makes amazing giant crochet playgrounds. The film also features the charistmatic Icelandic graffiti artist Tinna Thorudottir Thorvaldar and Tilde Björfors, the founder of the Swedish circus company Cirkus Cikör. The best part of the film was listening to these amazing women talk about what yarn meant to them. There was too much to digest in just one viewing so I'll be putting the digital pre-order on my Christmas wish list.

There was a discussion afterwards with Mary Goldsby, founder of Urban Yarnage, a Houston-based group of knitters and crocheters who design and develop fiber street art projects. The audience, having just watched the film, were eager to hear how they would go about yarn bombing Houston. Last year I was lucky enough to see their Buffalo Bayou project created in celebration of International Yarn Bomb day June 11th 2016. Gorgeous!

 

 

I'd love to know in the comments below if you've seen the film and what you thought!
 

My Review of Hook to Heal

Have you ever read a book and felt compelled to place post-it notes in it because you know you want to return to many of the pages? Hook to Heal makes me want to do just this. It's a creativity exercise book that offers suggestions for using crochet to improve all aspects of your life - exactly my kind of thing!

I read Hook To Heal over the holidays and thought I'd share a review with you. It's written by Kathryn Vercillo of Crochet Concupiscence, a specialist in the area of the health benefits of crochet.

 

Each chapter covers a different area such as "facing fears", "mindfulness crochet" or "giving back" and starts with Kathryn’s own experience and research as a graduate student studying Integral Counseling Psychology. Then she shares exercises for using crochet to work through some of the issues related to the area.

There are a grand total of 100 exercises to try! As I read through the book, I could put the exercises into three categories:
1 "Yes, that would be useful. Wow. I'm going to try this." <Insert post-it note.>
2 "I've done this before and there are even more suggestions for me to try here. Excellent! <Insert post it note.>
3 "Oh no, I don't want to try that. Even the thought of it makes me feel uncomfortable. Why am I feeling so uncomfortable? I must examine this further." <Insert post-it note.>"  

I particularly like the exercises under the Self-Esteem topic on turning negative crafty talk into positive affirmations. I practice yoga and have tried unsuccessfully over the years to meditate, attempting to observe and chase negative thoughts from my mind. I just can't do it and it makes me feel even more of a failure than when I started out! I find that replacing the negative with positive is so much better for my self-esteem. And reading Kathryn's crafty spin on this is just marvelous!

Affirmations are also the subject of a current craftivism project "You are So Very Beautiful" by Betsy Greer, godmother of Craftivism and Mary England. (I've written about meeting Betsy in person here. I'm a big fan.) Betsy writes that:

"Craftivism is about healing ourselves as we stitch, and then healing the world with the product, so this project is about taking a microstep to help other people, to let them know that they are so very many wonderful things. And to remind ourselves that we are so many wonderful things."

Handmade signs are being left out for free in Baltimore, Vancouver and London on February 9th. Find out more about the project on Betsy's Craftivism site.

Anyway, back to Hook to Heal before I get too sidetracked! I can see this being a really great book for people who already crochet and find it relaxing and want to get more out of their craft. I can also see this being a good book for people looking for a new relaxing hobby because the exercises are suitable for beginners to the craft. And finally the book would be a useful resource for those who practice crochet as therapy in a professional capacity.

Head on over to Createspace or Amazon (paperback or Kindle) if you want to get your own copy!

Craftivism lecture by Betsy Greer

I attended a lecture by Betsy Greer, the "Godmother of Craftivism", last month at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Betsy gave a slide show with an explanation of craftivism followed by a number of diverse global examples, large and small, and then gave suggestions of how to find a way that we could practice craftivism too. Here is Betsy's super website if you haven't already been there.

I first found out about craftivism, the movement that Betsy started 12 years ago, in Houston's main public library downtown picking up her book of the same title on the "new and notable in 700s" display stand. Since reading the book I have recommended and bought it for several friends. I have paid attention to other crafters with #craftivism in their tweets, subscribed to her newsletter, contributed to the manifesto and reflected on how I could make a difference through my love of craft. 

Her lecture was on the final day of the Crafting a Continuum show which contained many thought-provoking exhibits. My absolute favorite was by Mark Newport (http://www.marknewportartist.com/) a knitted superhero costume that questions gender roles and masculinity in contemporary culture. I was delighted to see his work featured on the show flyer and found an immensely amusing video on YouTube of Mark knitting dressed in one of his hand-made suits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX8MxiV3zqE

Peyton Heart Project

I wanted to let you know about a collaborative craft project that I found out about recently. A dad from Conroe, Texas lost his 13 year old son, Peyton, in October 2014 to suicide. Crafters are now trying to help end the stigma surrounding suicide and mental health issues in honor of Peyton through the #PeytonHeartProject, created by Jill Kubin from NJ. They make and leave crochet, knit and yarn hearts in public spaces with an upbeat quotation for people to take away.

Peyton's dad shared the Peyton Heart Project's Facebook page on the yarn store page which I manage and his words have been playing on my mind ever since.

Here is a recent newspaper article and the Facebook page.

I made my first hearts using a fantastic heart crochet pattern that I've used before from Simply Crochet magazine issue 27. I read that over 1,000 hearts have been shared worldwide to date. I've seen many posted to social media with the #peytonheartproject tag and each one makes me smile.