On the long long road to the Cotswolds, thanks to driving hubby and sleeping Cubling, I was able to pick up some knitting needles which reminded me that I still have a few crafty items in waiting for a post. Having knitted a good few items for friends and family, it was about time that Cubling herself should be thought of and in time for her second birthday, I knitted her a cardigan. It was ready a few weeks early and to be honest, I couldn't wait to put it on her, and so I did. It's still a bit wide (surprise, she's not exactly slim) but lengthwise, just fine. I'm not particularly happy with the yarn used - neither feel of the yarn nor my choice of colour. While I don't mind that it looks a bit christmassy, I realised that I went for the dark autumnal colours that I pick for my own wardrobe, rather than the light yellows and greens that are a joy to see on Cubling.



Nevermind, the cardigan was easy and fast to knit, and my first attempt at some embroidery, which went, well, mildly wrong. I'll call it personality the way the back embroidery is ever so clearly off centre. The little regular white/green stripes worked out better. The special thing about this cardigan are the bottom panels which are knitted first and then joined onto the main body - it's very effective and adds texture to the cardigan, and making the knitting of the otherwise plain stocking stitch / moss stitch a bit more interesting. It's a bit saggy around the shoulders for now, possibly because there's still a lot of space to grow into.



The timing is great though - these cool first days of spring, where Cubling can't be held indoors, just scream out for a cardigan in which she can move freely without getting cold. No restricting winter jackets, but the freedom of malleable knitware with which the explorations in the garden can be so much more fun. The yarn, if partly synthetic, is fully washable, so she can dig away without any worries from mummy even.

The pattern is from Alternknits, Cardigan for Clarke and Lily, size 2-3 years. Cubling's comment: "Cardi on!"

Here's a brief update on my Big Idea. Maybe not brief because a lot has happened. It will be the short version of events, even if that's not going to be short in the strictest sense.

To recap, Save the Children's Knit One Save One campaign was a shocking success. It involved knitting a baby hat and sending it with a message to Gordon Brown about our responsibility to do something about so many million children not reaching their 5th birthday due to entirely preventable conditions that cause their untimely death. The target of the campaign (in the UK) was 50,000 baby hats. We've now received over 650,000 and they keep coming. There is no money left to send them abroad, to be honest, we don't know what to do with them. Well, we do, they will go to other charities so the knitting wasn't wasted!

What the campaign illustrates is that a) you can sometimes capture people's imagination b) unexpectedly and in much bigger ways than anticipated c) knitters love knitting for charity d) there are many more knitters than anyone would expect.

I've been going about pondering how this creative potential could be engaged further. I found the website www.craftivism.com, joined charity knitting groups on www.ravelry.com. I talked to people. Save the Children will be 90 this year and during a brainstorm on how to use this anniversary to raise awareness of Save the Children's work and maybe even fundraise for the organisation, I came up with the idea of a book. The 90 recipies from 90 countries Save the Children works in was well received, the alternative of 90 knitting patterns less so, but I'm just too curious to find out if the knitting theme can pull off another surprise.

So I'm going to publish a book for the 90th anniversary of Save the Children with a knitting theme.

Now to the technicalities. I investigated www.createspace.com where you can self publish. They print on demand, they have a transparent pricing overview. The drawback is the actual production cost - a knitting book really needs colour, and colour books are expensive. The actual profit for Save the Children wouldn't be great. More complex is the issue that they pay by bank transfer into a US bank or by cheque only - no paypal option. So either I need to find a way to open a US bank account, or link up with my US colleagues, or bite even more into the profits by cashing foreign currency cheques (they carry a significant commission). I also learned that there's tax to be considered - any product sold is taxable income, createspace being a US company, this would be taxable in the US. There are ways to offset and reclaim, but it all means hassle and declaring it as personal income when really the profit goes to Save the Children.

So I returned to Lulu. Lulu offer payment by paypal. The also offer e-book publishing - this means that I can publish the book as a download and avoid all book production cost. The only cost to the downloader is that which I set as a "royalty" (read donation), minus 20% commission which Lulu takes. The drawback is that there's no real book, the plus is that this is the best way to create an affordable book without any initial outlay of costs. Of course, Lulu also offers real books by on demand publishing. The price is comparable to createspace, with the only difference that I personally can buy a bulk order at a cheaper unit price and sell on locally in shops / amongst friends. I can do both the downloadable version and the real book version. Tax implications remain but as Lulu's services have always been international, there is lots of information and it doesn't look quite as daunting.

So for the moment I'm inclined towards Lulu. I haven't found any other online on demand book publisher that doesn't require an initial outlay of a significant sum before a book is published, although I'm still open to look at other providers if they do exist.

Encouraged by the cheap option of a downloadable book on Lulu, I sent out my first request on the Ravelry charity knitting group, asking people for patterns they would be prepared to share for this project. So far, it seems that I'm asking the wrong people. While supportive, charity knitters seem to use free and simple patterns, they don't tend to design their own that they can give away. So I may have to go the route of asking pattern designers if they want to get involved, or going around charity knitting websites that offer free patterns. While this is more work, it's also exciting and gives me new ideas. I'm even thinking that the book could be on charity crafting and portray initiatives, what they do, and become a resource of charity crafting.

This was only the first approach to charity knitters, there are many doors that I plan to knock on. However if anyone who reads this has ideas, knows an interesting website on this subject or even has a knitting / crochet / sewing pattern they would like to contribute to this book, please do get in touch! Comment box is below, alternatively send me an email: knit @ cartside dot co dot uk (as ever, remove the spaces, and replace dot with and actual dot).

Did I say it was a brief update?

The week before last I got enthused by an idea that I had and an email reminded me that this idea was noted and Cartside had been signed up to actually make it a reality.

The international children's rights charity Save the Children will be 90 this year. Throughout the year, there will be celebrations and activities to mark this special year, all with a view to raising the charity's profile (which is particularly needed for their UK work which is little known) and raising funds.

I'll be contributing to this by publishing an online book and looking into a 90 second video competition. The book idea will take priority because it seems easier to implement. The original idea was to collect 90 recipies (maybe from countries Save the Children works in and with a bit of information on what the charity does in that country), although I'm also considering the idea of collecting 90 knitting patterns with ideas of knitting for charity, maybe with pictures of 90 of the 550 000 baby hats that UK supporters of Save the Children knitted for the "knit one, save one" campaign. Considering the generosity of knitters and the international knitting communities that could be linked into, it would be interesting to see if this idea would sell well. Above all, I'd like explore avenues of charitable giving connected with knitting. Recipies are a safe bet, I don't like the idea as such so much because it's been done a lot of times before, although I like the thought of linking country of origin with information on Save the Children's work. Above all, I want this book to make lots of money, so whichever of the two ideas is making that happen will be made into reality.

As to the technical side of things, so far I've looked into online book publishing sites. Lulu is the one I knew of anyway and my own book is published there. However, it's not clear if Lulu is the best choice - with the pound losing in value, and Lulu being US based, it may mean that UK customers have to dish out more money for a book and wait longer for delivery. I assume that most buyers would be from the UK. A quick internet search came up with two other sites, createspace and booksurge, both subsidiaries of Amazon. They seem to be roughly one company, and offer the option of marketing the book through Amazon (with a higher percentage of the sale going to Amazon of course) so that may be useful. I like the forum of createspace, and the name of the service, so for the moment I'm leaning towards them.

I take the process of publishing a book for charity as a learning opportunity which I'd like to share on this blog. Have you ever published a book online, and if so, which platform did you use and what did you think of it?

What are your thoughts, should I go for a 90 recipies book or a 90 knitting patterns book?

Today I was asked to introduce myself with an item that has special significance for me or tells something about me. Of course it took ages to settle on an item. I"m not one good at decision making when there is a choice. I thought about picking a running shoe, which holds significance because running made me turn around my weight and fitness issues, turning from borderline obese and ever-last-to-be-picked-for-sport-teams to a slimmish marathon runner and aerobics junkie, losing a third of my body weight in the process. But I don't run at the moment so thought it inappropriate. Next came a jar of rhubarb jam, made with rhubarb that I'd grown myself, representing the satisfaction of growing and enjoying the fruit of a year's gardening. Then there was the handpainted Mexican wooden monster which I bought in San Cristobal de las Casas, which stands for my travel itch and the most interesting trip undertaken so far.

I settled on this:
I'm not a mad knitter who spends nights finishing an item. But knitting has many meanings to me. It was a skill passed on to me from my mother when I was very young, passed on to her by her mum, and I'll make sure to pass it onto Cubling. It's about learning from each others, across generations, as so many skills used to be learned. It's simple yet can be complex, it links and transforms. It is beauty and the satisfaction of working with yarn, often spun and died by similar handycrafts. It uses materials which are sustainable (well, if you choose to). Knitting is never about the efficiency of using time for maximum financial gain. Rather it takes time, persistence and hands. The product of knitting keeps loved ones warm and protected. The joy of making, creating, and seeing something grow slowly but steadily is extremely satisfying to me. Knitting links people across cultures, continents. I'll never forget how I was taught by a Somali woman how to cast on her way, how we all learned from each others, shared skills in a supportive and warm environment, across language barriers. I've seen the positive effect on mental health that knitting has, how it balances people, empowers them to make something beautiful in lives which are determined by external circumstances and powers and which have little space for beauty. The generosity of knitters who I've come across is overwhelming. Knitting will never be a profitable activity, it's all about the love of the handmade, the love of making and transforming, of connecting and caring. It's an antithesis to our world of consumerism and time is money attitude. It is slow, domestic, universal, and female (although I'd be very happy to see more male knitters!). Personally, I like the relaxation it gives me and that it's portable, and it's the one thing where I don't get competetive with myself - I only knit when I feel like it and as much as I feel like it.

What do you like about knitting?

Oh, and here is a Christmas knit I forgot to add. It's a bag I knitted for A. who I hope likes bags... I really liked knitting this one. The pattern is Lemon Zest from Emma King's 25 bags to knit (a book with lovely bag patterns) and I had photocopied the page, then bought colours from memory only with the description on the sheet. When I revisited the original pattern I was surprised at the difference. And I was very pleasantly surprised that I preferred my version. It was a hard bag to give away because I really liked the result, but I'm simply not a handbag person and A is a very worthy recipient.

This is what was on my needles before Christmas: I came across a pattern for gloves and somehow a yarn that I had picked up in Germany was crying out to be made into just those very gloves. The colour and style spellt Cubling's auntie all over, so that's where they are now. The pattern is "Sage" fromfrom Fun & Funky Knitting: 30 Projects for an Exciting New Look, I used Rowan kidsilk haze for the frill and RY Cotton DK As a main yarn. Knitting my first set of gloves was daunting but really easier than expected and quite satisfying to see the progress finger by finger. I messed up ever so slightly when making up, so the two gloves ended up not entirely identical.





Cubling's cousin had been a tad neglected as far as knits were concerned. So he was definitely due a lovely something, even if he really got it for his second birthday rather than Christmas. The cardigan that I had picked looked fabulous on the page, with a lovely tweed yarn from Rowan. When I bought the yarn, I tried our local yarn shop, Marjorie's. Marjorie doesn't do Rowan. She believes that cheaper yarns are just as good, and she also won't sell you a pattern without yarn. To be honest, I don't know how the shop is still there with that kind of attitude, but she's an institution and must be doing something right. She did sell me some lovely yarn for my project so I compromised. It was my first date with self striping yarn and I loved the colour effect. Until I got bored of the pattern which was rather dull. I do like the finished piece, but still tempted to knit something using the recommended Rowan felted tweed yarn that looks just oh so cosy on the picture in the book. The yarn I used is an English tweed yarn, 100% wool, can't remember the name just now as I can't remember the name of the pattern, but it's from a reasonably well known baby knit book stocked at a Glasgow library frilled edge crossover jacket from Debbie Bliss' Baby Style: Home Accessories and Irresistible Knitwear Designs for 0-3 Year Olds.

The mums and toddlers group at Kingsway Court Health and Wellbeing Centre has been knitting for three weeks now. Maggie, the volunteer knitting tutor, got everyone onto two needles. We received a beautiful collection of donated yarns. Everyone got right into knitting and some mums excelled and have already competed beautiful projects. It's a shame we have to take a break right now, with everyone so keen to keep it going. For now, we need to find funding to do so and pick up the threads in January, but thankfully there are some options available to small community groups and it should only be a matter of time until the knitting can continue. If any proof is needed that the group had fun, how about this: we forgot the time three weeks running and overran. Here's a small photographic journey to Scotstoun and back, enjoy:


wool wool wool


helping out

While I'm still pondering how those with charitable intentions can use their knitting or other creative skills to help others, today I'd like to tell a wee story of a group of knitting mums.

Part of my work involves organising parental support groups (we call them mums and toddlers groups), aimed at asylum seeking and refugee mums of children under five, but open to anyone interested who has preschoolers. The reason for setting up these groups is that asylum seeking parents face very specific challenges. They are often isolated and take care of the children, nevermind the impact on their physical and mental health that the circumstances that led to them fleeing their countries has. In Glasgow, they are housed in high rise flats in areas which are not safe. The children hardly leave the flat, neither does their mum. Dad (if around) may attend college. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work and get only 70% of income support, so money is short. Children lack outdoor play, social play with peers, activities which may cost money. They are also often unable to attend nursery education (which is a statutory provision for 3 and 4 year olds but due to different access procedures for asylum seeking children and other barriers, there are children who never attend nursery education before they start school - this of course disadvantages them especially because they start school with very little English skills). The parental support groups are there to get mums together, out of their flats, children together, give both some space to play and do something positive that recharges batteries, gives ideas, helps make contacts with other mums, helps with everyday problems and generally makes everyone a bit happier.

These groups are extremely enjoyable. There is a creche, a weekly activity for parents, a drop in baby clinic where health visitors answer questions and weigh babies. We organise, encourage those who are reluctant at first to come along. We signpost if parents come to us with problems that cause them headaches - in almost all cases, these problems can be solved easily but for someone who doesn't speak much English and doesn't know their way around, they can be very daunting indeed. Of course there's great satisfaction in being able to help with practical issues. Over time, the group also helps themselves. New friendships have been formed, parents helping each other out when they struggle, informal babysitting, welcoming newcomers by those who've been there a while. Mums who were shadows of themselves, crippled by fear and depression, have laughed and are reconnected with who they really are.

The activities we organise (in consultation with the mums who attend) range from crafts to stress relieving massage, beauty treatments, exercise, tips on parenting and ideas on how to play with children to cooking and having parties. I've learned as much as anyone else, there's a true spirit of sharing.

Most recently, we started knitting "classes". Well, it's not really a class. We do have a tutor, a volunteer even, who is a passionate knitter, retired, formerly community educator and local resident. I'm there to demonstrate a few stitches too, as is my colleague. When we started, about half of the group had no idea of knitting. After 90 minutes, everyone had knitted a square. Those who already knew how to knit, had become what is fancily termed "peer educators": out went the supportive: you're doing great, keep it going, doesn't matter if you lose every 3rd stitch, in came the: gimme that, lets unravel it and start again. Mind you, not in English, but in Somali, but the nonverbal communication was pretty international. And sure enough, one mum taught the two sitting next to them, and me a few things about knitting. We had fun, real fun. The joy of making something with your two hands and a couple of simple needles and simple yarn, something that may become a scarf or a baby hat or a cardigan. Something to be pround of. Something to show around. Something to sparkle in a very grey flat on the 16th floor. We'll be knitting for a few weeks to come because everyone, whether a longstanding knitter or a first timer, got into the spirit of it.

One week, I visited one of the mums. In her bare livingroom, on the shelf above her simple gas heater which served as the mantlepiece, in the centre of  this little shelf beside her family photos, was a decopatched vase which she had made in one of our meetings.

There are boxes filled with handknitted baby hats piling up in our meeting room, awaiting to be sent to London and from there, on to international programmes across the world. In total, 600,000 handknitted baby hat have been received so far, 100,000 of these are filling a London basement because, frankly, there are more hats than can be reasonably distributed at this moment in time. I would estimate that there are at least 1000 hats in our meeting room, with more coming in each day.

The response to the "knit one save one" initiative, part of the child survival campaign of Save the Children, has been overwhelming. There are uncountable people out there who put their two needles and yarn together and started knitting. One small parish alone, in a small town northeast of Glasgow, collected 1,100 baby hats. The aim was for 50,000 hats, just to put things into perspective. There was no sense at the scale of support that this campaign would get, and yes, we were all more than a little bit awestruck by baby hats everywhere. The idea was: one person one hat one message to Gordon Brown. The reality is more like: one person twenty hats no message to Gordon Brown. People don't feel comfortable lobbying and writing to politicians, even if all it takes is one short message on a postcard. They do like to make things for the less fortunate ones in our world.

The problem with the quantity of hats is that it actually costs money to send them to the countries where they are needed. To reduce these costs there is a policy that they are to be taken in the luggage of workers posted out to international locations where they are needed. There are many more hats than luggage space at the moment, so I'm sure lots of hats will have been sent by post, and those that are surplus to requirements will continue to accumulate in offices for the moment. In panic we are shouting out - please no more hats! In delight the knitters ask, what can we do next?

Even if we currently have more hats than needed, are drowning in them and cracking jokes about the hats invasion, and the hidden costs that are ignored (like me picking up hats 20 miles away, a 90 mins return trip by car, our postage costs, the staff costs of sorting the hats and distributing them), the campaign more than anything achieved to engage people who may not have the means to donate money or the inclination to write letters to men in suits - which is of course what Save the Children really needs and asks for to make a lasting difference. Of course, baby hats alone don't save a child's life. Of course what we really need is free health care, free education, stable and uncorrupt governments, working democracy and fair trade so that child mortality can be tackled in serious. Yet my heart is touched at the enthusiasm of the knitters; the sheer number of people who are jumping at the opportunity to do make something that will physically connect with a child born in some other and less fortunate place. I know all too well how special it is to knit something with the person in mind it is for. It is a beautiful thing, a special connection, and not one to be taken lightly.

So the question of the knitters remains, what can we do next? I'm not sure but maybe Soulemama may come up with a few answers in the next few months. She's just started a project called Mama To Mama. For the moment, it's about mums sewing baby hats for mums in Haiti. I'm watching the Mama to Mama space with a sense of anticipation. I've experienced how much creative fervour there is and it would be great to create more opportunities, creative outlets, real connections.

Phew, it's done. I spent about every evening last week trying to make Cubling a Halloween costume which she could show off at a toddler Halloween party. I knew what it had to be - she's mad about In the Night Garden so it had to be Upsy Daisy. The ready made version was sold out - a good excuse to get out my sewing machine. Not bothered with measurements and patterns (I don't have the patience to read them, partly because I don't actually understand the language of patterns, partly because I'm rubbish at transferring descriptive text onto real projects) I had the fabulous idea of using one of her tops to cut out the flowery top and I roughly followed a very simple skirt pattern to make up the skirt.

Boy did I get it wrong.
I was so proud when I did the flowery top in just one hour:


Until I tried it on and realised that I had to cut a large chunk of Cubling's head off if she was to fit into it (don't worry, no children were harmed in the making of Upsy Daisy). I had also not taken into account that the fabric I used was considerably thicker than that of her top which I used as a pattern. I did get her into it, but after a day of wearing it, the seems were bursting.

Next was the skirt. Tricky because I had to apply colours and didn't really know anything about measurements. But I was brave enough to just go for it. Until my sewing machine let me down and refused to give me a proper seem. I ended up with lots of hand sewing, and consequently it took me about two extra evenings to get it all done.



As you can see, it looks reasonable spread out on the floor.

When I put it on Cubling, there was lots of last minute rescuing to be done, plus she refused point blank to wear her hairpiece. Nevermind, it was Upsy Daisyish enough and daddy looked quite cool with the hairpiece.
One of Cubling's pals had even brought Upsy Daisy's boyfriend Igglepiggle along. And Cubling didn't object to hugging and kissing him and generally carrying him around:



Aaah, so sweet.
Now I only need to figure out how to do images without a black border.

If I can get the sewing machine to play along again I'd do better next time around. I'm trying to say that there's hope for me yet.

We've been back from Ireland for ages (well, just five days really) but I've been busy. Putting up flatpacked bookcases, babysitting for a friend, and plotting lots of crafty ideas for Christmas. Plotting Christmas in general as this year we'll be having the family over (Opa; grampa & granny; auntie, uncle & cousin) and although we've been in our new home for almost a year now, there's still a lot to be done until then. Things move more slowly when with child.

So the battleplan for the next few weeks is pretty busy and while I'm excited and motivated to tackle it, it seems almost impossible to get it all done nonetheless. And it's not all Christmas - there's a Halloween costume to think of. I thought I'd go the easy way and buy it but it's out of stock and now the thought of sewing it has made its way into some loops in my brain and got stuck. Time to dig out the sewing machine. Which reminds me I still need a sewing machine stand/table/desk or whatever they are called.

Anyway, cardmaking materials are almost complete, I'm on the 5th of 11 flatpacks, and have really exciting knitting projects going (which I won't detail as they are presents and I surely don't want to give anything away).

Some amusing little insights into the mind of 18 months olds (on the eve of month 19):
The other day, Cubling picked up her favourite teddy, said "shshsh" putting her finger over her lips, put him into the buggy, fetched a blanket which she put over him, then tried to put the harness around him (I helped with that). I asked whether teddy was tired and was going to have a sleep, she nodded emphatically, confiming this with "ahaa!"

Her jealousy of other babies (held by mummy or daddy) has extended to a book - Baby's busy day, one of her current favourites. Tonight I wasn't allowed to hold it. There's a photo of a baby on the cover - too real a baby for mummy to hold. She got incredibly angry with me when I didn't get why she started crying when I picked up the book. I mean, a seriously angry face with stamping feet, clutched fists and air slaps, never mind her new anger shout.

Her language is developing slowly. She now sometimes repeats simple word (only English) after they've been said. She still points unrelentlessly at items to get us to say their names. Above all, it's about turn taking. She'll point out her eyes, saying "eyes", then demands "daddy" (wanting to touch his eyes) followed by "mummy". No matter what we do, we all have to do it in turns. If she sees a star in a book, she'll start humming "twinkle twinkle". Sometimes when she wakes up she will call my name rather than cry. It melts my heart, it feels like a massive milestone (because so far she would always cry as soon as she woke up, no playing or singing by herself, babbling to herself or whatever else some babies do).

Funnily, she has identified a letter. A small "h". She calls it "moo". Consistently. Just like she calls every pond, river and even the sea "quack quack quack". And as she makes these connections, she is also excited about matching - a photo of mummy with real mummy, a pair of shoes, an elephant with another elephant and so on.