Knit and Destroy goes...BUST again!!!

Hello hello,

What are you up to this weekend? Christmas shopping you say, well, why not come down to the BUST Christmas Craftacular where you will find LOADS of crafty christmas gifts, and maybe even a little something for yourself!

I will be there, selling my knitted wares as well as Sugar Paper selling awesome craft zines and actual craft kits for you to take home and make, and lots of other awesome crafty folk selling their handmade wares, woooop!!! We heart Craft, and if you do, BUST craftacular is the only place to be this weekend!

Not only is there shopping to be done, but a pop up christmas party so you can get some tea n cake, as well as crafty happenings throughout the day including Knit and Destroy's giant knitted christmas decoration...it's 4 feet long so far, come along, knit a bit and help us make it into a super giant knitted chain!

For more info click the BUST picture above.

See you there! Kandy x

Tis the season....

To go to craft fairs fa la la la la la la la laaaa!!!

Knit and Destroy will be at 2 of the contry's hottest craft fairs this month, starting with We Make London this saturday... and here is your invitation!!!
I will be there with my Knitted wares along with lots of other great crafters..here's a peek at what sort of thing I will be selling...

These snaps are from my 1st festive fair of the year, Craft Candy which was in Sheffield last weekend and was muchos fun.

Hope to see you there!!! Kandy x

Exhibition adventure...

Hello,
Hope you all had a spooktastic Halloween, on the day itself I was up in Falkirk at the opening of the Winter Warmth exhibition! It's the first time my regular products have featured in an exhibition like this and I was super-excited. I decided to dress up for the occasion with it being halloween n all, I decided it was time for me to knit my first ever garment! I have had the machine and software for a while now I just needed the reason to make something and here it was. With some help from my sister on the garment construction side of things and a lot of hours on the computer designing it I got there. Here is me wearing the dress at the exhibiton..

There was a foxxx scarf there but it sold straight away!!! There was loads of other great handmade textilesy stuff there too, a lot of it very affordable so if you want to do a bit of fancy christmas shopping or just go and look at a load of lovely stuff then visit it.

Winter warmth exhibition - at - The Park Gallery and Callendar House

Callendar Park, Falkirk FK1 1YR

From 31st October 09 - 31st December 09

see website for more info.

Po-knit-ical - blanket of ideas

Having followed the ‘little red blog of revolutionary knitting’ for a while, I was super-excited to hear that the lady behind it all, Lisa Anne Auerbach, was coming to Nottingham, as was an exhibition of her work. Auerbach is probably best known for her slogan sweaters which she has knitted with topics from elections, to abortion and now Nottingham!
This exhibition was accompanied by a totally inspirational talk by the artist, which was where I found out about the ‘blanket of ideas’ project. The project involved bringing along patterns and short political texts to discuss while knitting up political squares that will then be stitched together into Nottingham Contemporary’s very own Blanket of Ideas.
In her talk, Lisa mentioned that she doesn’t attend knitting groups at home due to the dull topics of conversation ranging from television shows to television shows. This inspired her to set up her own one-off knitting circle where those attending were asked to bring political texts to inspire their knitting and encourage more interesting conversation.
I left the talk excited by the prospect of the knitting event on Saturday and deep in thought about what my knitted square could represent. I decided on using the ‘Jigsaw youth’ song by Bikini Kill as my inspiration, the lyrics highlight the fact that you don’t have to fit into society’s pre-conceived roles if you don’t want to, you can make your own way! My design was a red square containing a black jigsaw piece. With my pattern plotted out and my Mum now coming along with me, we set off for a day of knitting. The event was held at ‘The art organisation’ in Nottingham, and this is what welcomed us on our arrival, a group of knitters deep in conversation and concentration in equal parts!

We pulled up our chairs and got our knit...and chat on! The lady next to me was freestylin’ her knit, the design of which took the form of a burning cross (some anger at the catholic church there)the finished piece was amazing! Her friend was knitting a very simple piece about equal pay and another design was a dove stitched onto a plain background. These 3 pieces alone spurred plenty of interesting conversation! Lisa Auerbach was a great leader for this project, always chatting to newcomers in the group and really interested in what everyone was doing as well as having an interesting stories behind her own squares.

The square Lisa was creating on the day was a lace knit design inspired by a story about a woman who was saved from an awful fate by her spider friends. This story came from a book of feminist fairytales by Barbara Wilson, an author who is best known for her great knitting books written in the 80s!

It was a great event and I really enjoyed the company, the conversation and the knitting, although I might have managed more knitting if I wasn’t chatting so much! As the pile of very varied finished squares grew you could see that the finished blanket was going to be a really interesting piece. Starting on November 14th The Blanket of Ideas will be displayed at Nottingham Contemporary, and I can’t wait to see it!

All Photographs by Alan Fletcher; Courtesy of Nottingham Contemporary

Hand knitting...for the knitted poem

Hello again,

Now i'm back online there's no stopping me! Here is a little write up of another crafty project I did while on my 'hiatus', and I know it's totally old news to most of you, but I'm too proud of myself not to tell everyone.

It started a few months ago when I read about the poetry society's knit a poem project, I applied then eagerly awaited my pattern....hoping it wouldn't be too tricky! It arrived via e-mail, a letter N that I chose to knit in green on pink. This was my first ever piece of hand knit intarsia (hence me being proud of mesen) and it wasn't without its complications.

First, I was knitting away happily, on the train about 1/3 of the way through my letter when I looked at my work and realised the N was coming out backwards. I blamed the fact I was knitting on public transport and the ticket checker for making me put my work down mid-row, that must have been why it was backwards! Actually, it was because I had started my patterning on a knit row instead of a purl row, and that made it all backwards, booo!!!!

The next attempt there was a lot more concentration, and despite discovering the train and ticket checker had nothing to do with the mistake, the second attempt didn't travel with me, I wanted it to be perfect.

What's that? I look pleased with myself?! Well I was, very! This is where most of the knitting took place, on my sofa accompanied by my other hand knitted creations behind me, they got me through the intarsia! And here is my finished letter, hooray!

And here is a photo of some of the poem in all its' finished glory. I think I can see my letter N near the top in the 'and trade of' piece of the poem!!! I think this was a great project, and a great poem (Dylan Thomas - In My Craft or Sullen Art) , Icertainly had fun knitting my square, giant knitted stuff is always a winner in my books! More of my adventures in hand knit soon. Kandy x

House moving hiatus...

Hello there!

Since I last wrote I have moved house, still sorting little bits out but most importantly we've (finally) got the internet back so I can blog again, hooraaaay!!! As well as moving house I have been knitting and crafting my socks off at several craft markets.

For starters...Never smile at a crocodile! I made this as a custom order for a 'little sister's birthday' I hope she liked it as much as I had fun making it...

Plenty of teeth in that croc's mouth...maybe a few too many?!

Knit and Destroy went BUST...

Eh up,
I know it's been a while, and this BUST craftacular write up is a bit late, but it's here... So, last time I did the BUST thing I went on my own which was OK, but this time I had company which was ACE. Seleena (my partner in craft) got a stall for Sugar Paper zine too selling zines, craft kits, bags n all sorts of other crafty stuffs! So, we took the train from Chesterfield and it was an early start, 7.45am train equals muchos giddiness, tea and top trumps!

Early morning cup of tea, with those dairystix, as long as you don't sniff the tea, it's not so bad!
Vampire hi-jinx, can you guess which Twilight saga vamp I am here?! Extra points for getting which scene it's from!
After the journey, that went quite quickly we arrived in the big smoke, got money on our Oyster cards like proper city folk then hot-footed it to the venue with our heavy bags o stuff. There were already people hanging outside when we got there, man, they really wanted those goodie bags! We had just over an hour to set up, and were informed just before the doors opened that there were HUNDREDS of people waiting outside, aaaaaaahhhhh. This is my stall before the doors opened, Seleena's stall is right over the other side of the room, that bit o turquoise between the 2 people sat down.

The next few hours were a bit of a blur. People came and bought stuff and chatted and oohed and ahhhed at my knits which was great! Friends came to visit bearing birthday presents and donuts for me, hooray! It quitened down later on, less people like, but the music was banging ALL DAY, I was right opposite a speaker which meant lots of shouting, which coped with. All in all it was a fun-tastic day, I was shocked when I woke u/p the next morning with a bad headache feeling ropey, what's going on, am I ill?! I was confused, until Seleena pointed out that the last cup of tea I had had was on the train the previous morning, aaaaahhhhh. A few cups of tea later and all was well, I didn't realise how addicted I was!!!

Production, procrastination, prototypes...

I am super-excited for the BUST summer craftacular coming up in just over a week. The Christmas craftacular saw BUST's first ever UK craftacular event and it was the best craft fair I have ever done so I have been working hard to get prepared for the next one. The excited frenzy has created new products along with some classics from the first pages of my knit and destroy days. Here is what is going on at Knit and Destroy HQ right now...That mess on the floor isn't just piles of yarn, that is a load of exciting knitted stuff mid-production! As well as all this making for BUST, there are new knits being made for the latest colabbo with Lady Luck so watch this space!

And for info about the craftacular follow this link...

http://www.bust.com/Craftacular/BUST-London-Summer-Craftacular-2009.html

see you there x

Musee d'enfance et sac d'owl !

When I go to London, I like to go to museums. They are free to get in, full of exciting stuff i.e.dinosaurs, olden days clothes/stuff, gift shops... And in my books beat Oxford St any day!
I had heard rumor of a museum full of toys in London and finally went to the Museum of Childhood last weekend. Here are some snaps of my favourite bits.

I think I will have to go back next time I'm there. It's official, museums rule! http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/index.html

Kandy x

Not just Cool, Cooler!!!

It is an exciting time for me this week because my first ever written magazine article has been published, hoooray! When I say article, I mean a step by step guide to making a knitted sunglasses case. Readers of the awesome craft-zine Sugar Paper (written by Seleena and me) might recognise the project! This is the magazine all here, a surf n skateboarding magazine for ladies.

This is the craft project here, I like the background they made for it, mmmm sprinkles!

And this just makes it even more exciting that Katy from the Vivian girls has an interview in here too cos I heart Viv girls lots! x Kandy x

HOLIDAY!!

Ciao Bonjourno Gelato,

Knit and Destroy have been on our hols, thought i would share a bit of Sardinia with y'all, here goes...

Home for the week!

Second home for the week, under that shade brolly! There or in the sea. It was so hot, max 38 degrees.

Ye olde clock we made on the beach, I think it was about half an hour out, not bad!

Now this made me excited, a snack and a drink in one. Nutella snack n drink, if you like choc dips and iced tea you'll love this,YUM!

Local speciality bread, yep, getting all cultured trying the local food, but we're not forgetting our roots - see wilkos bag in the background!

This is what the sun looks like in Sardinia, cos it's so hot like. I had far too much fun with these biscuits.

Candy Floss rules!!!

And I don't just mean the edible type of Candy Floss cos that does rule, I mean the amaaazing craft fair hosted by the Sheffield based craft group 'Craft Candy'. The market was on today at the millenium galleries in Sheffield, the best craft market venue I have ever been to. Here is how the day went down... After a slightly rushed start to the day, I arrived on time and set up the stall, woo! Me, at my stall, all happy cos I was having a lovely day involving 2 proper screeching twilight conversations, one with real life swooning teenage girls (one had a necklace with a mini bottle with a piece of paper that said twilight on it)!!!

These are some animal illustrations by Katy Holmes (no, not the one married to that Tom Cruise), they all had sleepy looking eyes and were v.cute.http://www.katykatyholmes.blogspot.com/

This stall was pretty and the lady looked like she should be in dee-lite, Amaaaazing. http://charleydreams.blogspot.com/

This was the stall next to me, this lady had made a book about how to make resin jewellery, and she gives money to Greyhounds, ACE! www.pennydog.com

And this is the things I bought, mmmmm, stuff! Pictures from Katy Holmes, Knitting bag from plain jane textiles http://www.plain-jane-textiles.co.uk/ and badges from Ms Moll and Lola pop http://www.lolapop.co.uk/.
The next craft candy fair isn't due until November but if today is anything to go by it'll be a good 'un.

Kandy x

Candy floss!

Calling all people of Sheffield (and anyone who can get to sheffield this Saturday) there is going to be an amaaaazing craft fair this weekend hosted by Sheffield's top craft group 'Craft Candy', here's the details on this lovely poster...

I will be selling my knits here, it's free entry and it's attached to the 'winter garden' which is like a giant greenhouse that houses some pretty awesome trees and flowers, so come down and say hi!
For more info including a list of all the vendors go to their website: www.craft-candy.org

New skillz...

I have learnt a new craft skill...basket weaving!
When my Mum first asked me to go and do basket weaving with her and my sister in Grindleford I wasn't sure. I soon came to my senses and realised any new crafting skillz is a good thing! We had a fun day of it, the lady who took us was ace, she has already woven her own coffin, she said "it's a bit lopsided though so they'll have to put my shoulders in at a bit of an angle, but it doesn't matter cos I'll be dead" she was awesome!
Here is the day of basket weaving in pictures...

Family - excited about the day of craft ahead!

Half way to being a basket!

Concentration! This bit was well tricky!

Mum, pleased with herself and her basketry skillz

Nearly there now!

The finished basket, hooray!!!!

Hogwarts..(down south)

So, I told you all about the up-north M'boro adventures, now for the down south leg of the journey.
Along with Seleena, the other half of Sugar Paper zine, we took the crafting to the Hogwarts Jamboree in Londin in the form of felt owl and pygmy-puff making and it went down a treat with all the Harry Potter fans. Here are some happy new owners of thier very own handmade pygmy-puffs (aka pompoms with eyes and feet, woo)

This girl had never made a pom-pom before!!! But she was well crafty (see hand stitched felt snitch hairclip) and made a lovely little fella.
This little 'Luna Lovegood' (sporting a home-made 'buterbeer cork' necklace) got hooked on the pompoms and made herself two! The second one is in progress on the floor there. Unfortunately we haven't got any pics of the felt owls, but they were amazing too. Thanks to Holly Horcrux for putting on the event and inviting us down.

Our friend Nick also made a pom-pom (toy) for his new kitten, hours of fun were then had, here is the photographic evidence that, craft + cats = good!!!

More sooon, Kandy x

Middlesborough...(up north)

Well, what a weekend that was, let's start with the trip up North.

After a very early start we got to Middlesborough with time to spare, so we stopped off at a tiny roadside cafe called 'Lynne's pantry' for a cuppa and home made scone before arriving at the town hall crypt for a fun filled market day!

Mr foxy having a sleep curled around the tree there in the very green 'nature' section of the stall!

And here's the 'crafty' corner with knitted paintbrush and pencil brooches as well as Sugar Paper zine and other crafty bits!

There were plenty of lovely things on offer to buy at the designers marketplace, my favourite were 'showpony' who had come down from Glasgow, they had a range of screen-printed goodies, my favourite was this tea towel.

It all wound up at about 4 so we packed up and headed home. Feeling sleepy on the drive home, we stopped at Wetherby services, a coffee and biscuit later we returned to the car feeling refreshed and ready to go. Unfortunatly Wanda (my car) wasn't feeling the same, she just didn't want to start! She wouldn't even get going when a friendly passer-by tried shaking her then pushing her round the car park, eeeeek, time to call the breakdown people and start panicking about getting to Hogwarts tomorrow! Fortunately, a breakdown dude came and fixed Wanda up with a shiny new battery, that was all she needed! It was a long and eventful day, but we had fun and taught a very enthusiastic lady what a 'zine' is...so I'm happy!

More soon, Kandy x