Craft Up Your Life

By Hazel Last edited 186 months ago
Craft Up Your Life
bollocks%20and%20kit%5B1%5D%282%29.jpg

Sharpen your needles, steal your granny's best wool (we recommend a hearty 8-ply) and get ready to cast-on. Hot off the heels of the extravaganza that was the annual Stitch & Bitch Knit Crawl in June, the next few weeks are set to be a haven for lovers of all things craft.

Here we have listed the best of the best so that you can organise your life accordingly. Be warned though – if you plan on showing off how hipper-then-hip you are by taking your hot date to a craft night, be sure to check that they are into (or at least open to the idea of) craft. They may abandon you after 10 minutes and leave you to your own devices. Trust me, we learned the heard way.

6th SeptemberI Knit Day

Royal Horticultural Halls & Conference Centre, SW1P, 11am – 7pm

This year's first ever I Knit Day will welcome hundreds of knitters and crocheters to the only dedicated yarn show in the capital. Also, the winners of the KNIFTAs (that’s the Knitting in Film and Television Awards) will be announced this event.

10th September - Hearts For the Heartless

The Castle Pub, Walthamstow Village, 8pm – 11pm

As part of the E17 Art Trail , this D.I.Y. craft event is open to everyone, as they believe that art and craft should be available to all no matter the level of their experience, expertise or knowledge. It's about passion and love for creativity!

27th-28th September - The HungaMunga Festival

Gallery Cafe & Bethnal Green Working Men's Club E2

Everyone’s favourite craft night, HungaMunga host their first two-day festival. Headlined by Stanley Brinks, The Wave Pictures and Nizlopi, expect a weekend full of arts and crafts, live music, comedy, knitting, sewing, drawing, collage, an art bazaar, vegan food and whole lot of PVA glue fun.

And although knitting seems to have been the driving force behind this craft revolution that has taken over our fair city, things are a changing people, and it’s time to swap those knitting needles for something a bit smaller. Yes, you heard it here first – Cross Stitch is the new Knitting.

For example, take a look at these bad boy Interior Anarchist – Urban Cross Stitch kits that we found at the Bricklane’s Backyard Market on Sunday. Dedicated to raising the image of cross-stitch from twee pastime to modern graphic medium, these ferocious kits contain everything required to create your own contemporary hand crafted cross-stitch image. Fancy your own Banksy or Invader on your wall but don’t have a spare £400,000? This may well just be the ticket for you. And if the thought of stitching in all those little boxes gives you the shivers, you can buy finished, mounted and framed pieces off the Random Monkey Design team, however that’s just going to spoil all the fun.

So enjoy your crafts these coming weeks, and may the cross-stitch revolution begin. You better be quick though – you only have until Saturday to bid for this ‘exclusive’ Gordon Brown cross-stitch pattern that we found on eBay. Go on, you know you want to.

By Brendan McKnight

Image courtesy of Random Monkey Design

Last Updated 02 September 2008