ArtYarn invite you to a day of free knitting and crochet workshops this Saturday

Artyarn’s latest project is collecting 7″x7″ knitted or crocheted squares to contribute to the SHED jumper project at the Pool Arts SHED Gallery, Tonbridge Road Allotments in Levenshulme.

To be part of this community project we welcome you to our open workshop day to make squares weather you are a beginner wishing to advance your skills or learn a new craft, or weather you wish to join us and build up our stock of squares with your speedy knitting and crochet skills.

When: 10am-4pm, Saturday 22nd November
Where - St Lukes, 1 Guidepost Square, Longsight, Manchester M13 9EA

The SHED jumper project will be launched on Thursday 18th December from 7pm , with mulled wine and Christmas treats. For more info please visit:

www.artyarn.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/knittingkings

You’ll probably be seeing a bit more of this over the next few weeks, but we were so pleased with it we had to post it straight away! There’s a larger jpeg, and a pdf version if anyone wants it - let us know. See you there for all manner of handmade goodies…

*update* … If you’re about to ask if there are any places left then we’re fully booked right now. However if you’d like to apply for our waiting list follow the application info detailed here … http://www.manchestercraftmafia.com/blog/?p=134#comment-77

Last night we zoomed up to Manchester Grammar School for the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair. Here’s what we thought of it…

Firstly, it was a bit tricky to find, though to be fair, we forgot to take the map. However being outside of the city centre meant parking was good, and really well organised. Manchester Grammar School turns out to be a stunning building, much as we’d imagine. Once inside we discovered plenty of other people had got lost too, but we all made it eventually so it wasn’t a big problem.

The welcome was warm and friendly with helpful staff. Though one security guard led us a merry dance trying to find the cloakroom which turned out to be just behind him (as we’d suspected all along).

Though the work was spread across several rooms, the route between them all seemed instinctive, so even those seemingly tucked away were still very easy to find. The fair’s signage was beautiful (screen prints) and clear. The school’s slightly less so.

The range of work was perfect - a mix of high end and affordable. We lusted over Alison Willoughby’s skirts (above) but didn’t want to (more…)

Yes your favourite monthly craft night is back.

Lo-fi DIY on Tuesday 4th November, 6-8pm at Manchester Craft & Design Centre.

Once again a cheap as chips £3.50 will get you a nice hot drink and something to warm those winter tummies. More importantly, the evening will be full of making merriment as we pick up our craft bits and bobs and get busy.

If you have something you’re already in the middle of bring it along and show us as you work. If not, as ever we’ll have a little something for you to try. We’re thinking something cosy to snuggle up with in the winter will be just the job. Curious hmm?

Feel free to pop in for a crafting quickie as you’re passing, or stay for the full two hours.

And if you’ve never been before don’t worry - whether you’re an absolute novice or a seasoned professional - you’ll find a friendly mixed bunch ready and willing to help, admire or just chat. It’s all about having fun, sharing ideas, and making new friends.

If you can let us know you’re coming that would be great, or for a little help for a first crafting project, or you might even like to offer us all a demo of what you do, please email nico@opheliabutton.co.uk

And we’ll do it all over again on Tues 7th December so put it in your diary. Same time, same place.
Image: cup cosy, SewSewCrafty

A few short news items…
First up - don’t forget to apply for our Christmas markets by 10pm this Saturday if it’s on your to-do list.

Secondly - it’s a busy old craft Saturday this week. You might be up in Rochdale for Knitty Gritty Goes Large but if not then pop by Manchester Craft & Design Centre for the opening of their new exhibition, Feast, celebrating all things crafts and culinary. And if you’re there between 2 and 4pm you can indulge in a spot of biscuit decorating and sample some free treats from the cafe.

Finally, please vote. Not for some PR spouting irritating bloke in a suit who couldn’t run the country for toffee, but for a lady in a mustard coat holding balloons. Make your vote count by supporting Manchester Mafia Member and illustrator extraordinaire Jo Askey with her entry for the Vaute Couture contest. It’s the best entry there is, not that we’re biased, so click and vote for her eco-friendly winter coat here, Jo’s is bottom right, the Mustard coat with black belt. If she wins you can remind her she owes you a drink next time you see her ok?

If you’re North of Manchester next Saturday 18th October nip up to Touchstones Rochdale where their regular craft group Knitty Gritty takes over. Just the thing to experience a bit of felt making, contemporary crochet, wool spinning, yarn dyeing and Nitty Nora’s knitted garden… amongst other things.

Or just do like the KnittyGritties do and take your own knitting to ravel on with over a cuppa in the cafe. A fibreist’s dream…

Full details here - knitty gritty goes large

OK you can now spread the word like wildfire - if you know someone whose work would be perfect for our Christmas markets send them the flyer, we want to hear from them. Just whip the image above or download a pdf version here

And a big thanks to our lovely member Askey for the flyer

image: Jennifer Collier, Manchester Craft Markets Nov 07

It’s that time of year again, the Christmas markets are coming, hurrah!

This year we’ve been offered a home for our stalls in the beautiful South Gallery of the The Whitworth Art Gallery - the gorgeous windowed walled room overlooking the park, know the one? Then you’ll be as excited as us about what’s in store.

Details…
Sat 13th Dec: 10am-4pm
Sun 14th Dec: 12noon-4pm

**For a stall at these markets** check out the full details below and email us your application by 10pm, Sat 18th October
(more…)

We’ve done it again- another swanky bunch invites us in on the action. Manchester In Fashion have snapped us up for a workshop whipping up accessories from our collection of vintage haberdashery treasures. Buttons, buckles and lace anyone? Felted bits, brooches, cuffs and fingerless gloves?

If you do want to be part of our Vintage Style action you’ll need to get yourselves some tickets for the Manchester in Fashion event here. You’ll find us in Urbis 12-2 on Sat 4th October. We’ll be swiftly followed by a vintage clothing customisation session by Rags to Bitches so money well spent all in all.

If that weren’t enough we have some super special invites to giveaway to one of the most exclusive events in their programme (aside form our workshop of course). A pair of invites on offer to this event…

Hemingway or the Highway
From Red or Dead to Hemingway Design, Blackburn lad made good, Wayne Hemingway tells the story of a career that saw him go from geography graduate to fashion entrepreneur, and from Camden Market to winner of the British Fashion Council’s Street Style of the Year award three times in a row - and then get an MBE for housing design. An unmissable chance to find out more about one of Britain’s most remarkable creative entrepreneurs. This even will be held in the glamorous setting of Harvey Nichols Manchester (in the second floor restaurant), with complimentary refreshments.
Thurs 2nd October, 10.30am at Harvey Nichols Manchester (second floor restaurant, entrance on Cateaton Street). This event is by invite only

Ticket entry draw now closed. Well done to Janice - enjoy your morning with Wayne!

Our LittleBigPlanet workshops are fully booked already - wow! We have a few places on a waiting list though so take your chances, you might still get lucky. Email us as below with all the details and we’ll let you know if a spot comes up.

In the meantime do drop by the LittleBigPlanet pop-up shop, we popped our heads in today and oh my word we fell in love…  6 foot plush Sackboys, boxes of beads, free sew-on patches, badges and all manner of excitement - oh yes and some gaming too.

Sundays look good with a family day this Sunday 21st - balloon animals, face paints and all sorts of other family fun. Followed by the Sunday Session on Sun 28th - newspapers, boardgames, refreshments and chill out with the resident LittleBigPlanet DJ.

You can find the pop-up shop next to Starbucks in Piccadilly Gardens. Give Sackboy a big squish from us.

Can you imagine our response when we got the message… would Manchester Craft Mafia be interested in helping launch a new game for PLAYSTATION^®3? Um let us think about it for oh, 0.5 seconds. YES! When we’d finished jumping up and down we nailed the details and here we are.. come join us, play the game, have some fun, make some stuff. It’s going to rock!

LittleBigPlanet^TM Customise Your World Workshops
Mon 29th Sept & Weds 1st Oct

6-9pm
City Tower, Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester

As part of the launch of the game LittleBigPlanet, Manchester Craft Mafia invites you to customise your world.

Make your own soft plush creatures and characters to become friends with the game’s hero and heroine Sackboy^TM and Sackgirl^TM; and get practising your customisation skills by personalising a t-shirt. Sew it, stick it, accessorise it, print it, slash it, zip it, buckle it, beautify or hash it.

We will provide everything you need, or if you have clothing and accessories of your own you’d like to revamp, bring them along - we’ll offer some materials and suggestions to help you on your way.

BOOKING

Sorry the sessions are now FULLY BOOKED
To be added to the waiting list email:  ask@manchestercraftmafia.com saying which date, your name, age, number of places, and contact telephone number.

Here’s a peep into the space we’ll be in, and you can see what else is happening in Manchester for the launch here
We also saw this, we thought you might like it!

What is LittleBigPlanet^TM? (more…)

Hooray at last we’ve got one of our own. No more need to jump train down to hidden corners of London. The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair is coming.

It really does what it says on the tin. A huge number of leading contemporary makers and designers will be selling their wares as well as talking about what they do, and discussing commissions. We’re promised a wide and tempting array of ceramics, jewellery, interior textiles and products, fashion accessories, glass, metalwork, wood, furniture and well a whole load of other stuff.

Apparently prices will be anywhere between £10 and £10,000 so definitely something for everyone (from you and I, to the WAGS!)

The fair can be found at The Manchester Grammar School, 23-26 October, admission £5. Full details including a list of makers, opening times, map and transport information etc can be found at www.greatnorthernevents.co.uk

Organiser Ann-Marie Franey says, “We want people to begin a love affair with contemporary craft”. Hell yeah!

Images: Thomas Plaskitt, Jane Blease, Alison Willoughby, Audrey Hays

Since we guys here in Manchester haven’t yet had the fortune to have a whole book published all to ourselves, we’re waving flags and banners and jumping up and down with glee for our fellow craft mafia friend across the pond, Jennifer Perkins, who goes by the ingenuis business name of The Naughty Secretary.

She, on the other hand, is author of a swanky new book, for anyone fancying a stab at jewellery making - particularly of the upcycling / repurposing kind. If you have some lovely stuff lying around that you haven’t yet found a purpose for, this could be your salvation.

You can get the book from her site naughtysecretaryclub.com or Amazon. Or maybe even a real life shop (remember those?) And if you make anything in there show it off at the flickr pool - we want to see what you’ve been up to!

It’s a heady day at at Manchester Craft Mafia towers. Not only are we gearing up for tonight’s Lo-Fi DIY, we are also super-duper excited about having two members featured in an International Gift Guide for Kids.

If you need a little something for the tots in your life follow etsy’s example and visit lovely Ladysnail for a rather marvellous Robotington, or Sallyent for a groovy back-to-school pencil case, specs cases; or a cute plush dachshund for your little one to dash home to at the end of a hard day’s graft.
(Etsy is an American site so it’s listed in dollars, but it works out at roughly half eg $10 is approx £5)

It’s back…

LO-FI DIY
Tuesday 2nd September, 6-8pm. The Social at Urbis.

(Reception entrance, the sharp corner end opposite Starbucks / The Printworks)

Our Lo-fi DIY social crafting night returns this Tuesday. This time we’ll be trying Urbis on for size. Their chilled out cafe The Social will be our home for the evening and they’ll be offering a perfectly proportioned Lo-fi drink and snack deal to keep us sustained throughout.

Like last time you can bring whatever you’re working on, or turn up empty handed and we’ll give you all you need to keep twitchy fingers happy. And if you have any spare materials in your own stash you’d like to share feel free. Someone else will love it!

Whether you’re a seasoned professional designer or you’ve never made a thing in your life this event will feel like home. Everyone’s welcome, it’s all about having a good time.

Remember it’s the entrance at the sharp point of Urbis, opposite Starbucks.

Click *here* to see what happened last time

Our blog is changing, only a tad, and in a good way. We’ll be bringing you more craft news here to save you looking through the calendar.

First up did you know Manchester has a plethora of public knitting groups?

Tonight, and every Monday, you can find The Knitting Club at the King’s Arms in Salford. They have collaborative projects on the go all the time, often for charity. Recently the guys and gals have been creating a knitted chandelier for the pub, and are planning a momentus public knitting project out and about in September. You can of course also just take your own work to grow while you’re there. The Snug, The Kings Arms, Bloom Street, Salford, 7-9pm

On Wednesdays you’ll find the wonderfully elaborately named Miss Spiritual Tramp’s Knitting Club hiding out upstairs in Odder on Oxford Road. And, to let you into a secret, they don’t actually mind if you don’t knit. You can take your crochet, or to be honest, any other craftyness you’ve got on the go. They’ll just be glad you popped by and had a chat.Every Wednesday, Odder, Oxford Road, from 6pm.

Alongside those you’ll also find The Chorlton Knitting Crew clicking away in corners of Chorlton once a month and of course, where would the world of public knitting be without Stitch n Bitch - tons of them, find your nearest one here
I bet you know of more - list them below in our comments box and let the world know…

Bag by Charlotte Topliss, Miss Spiritual Tramp’s Knitting Club

Last Tuesday saw our first Lo-fi DIY night. The idea was simple. Anyone who wanted to could turn up and make stuff. Stuff they brought with them, or stuff we brought for them.

Big thanks to Robson & Mason, Folksy and Karen Jinks for providing us with some great materials to share with everyone who turned up. Alongside our own marvellous Ophelia Button who brought boxes and trinkets galore for us to tinker with, and did a fab job of organising the whole shebang.

We held it at Manchester Craft & Design Centre on the indoor lawn of the marvellous Yard Birds exhibition. And, because it was a straight from work affair, they made tea for us too, lovely people that they are.

Being the first one we didn’t entirely know what to expect and were delighted with the number of people who came, the variety of amazing work they brought with them, and the enthusiasm with which everyone got stuck in making, chatting, comparing notes, and offering tips to each other.

What did other people think of the evening? Find out here and here.
Fingers crossed Lo-fi DIY will turn into a monthly occasion - watch this space…

Congratulations to one of our new members. Not only has Nell just joined us, and opened a brand new studio at Manchester Craft & Design Centre, she’s also been awarded the prestigious Textile Society’s Art and Design student bursary.

Nell’s textile based work explores the relationships between humans and nature in urban contexts. Nell makes clothing, accessories, stationery and homewares featuring fresh, urban inspired blocks of bold colour. Pop into her studio if you’re passing, you’ll find her upstairs. Or visit her online shop at www.nell.etsy.com

You may have noticed we’re partnering up with other Manchester cultural people here and there to pump up our collective volume.

Urbis and Manchester Craft & Design Centre have been on our menu so far, and now we have a new friend in Ladyfest Manchester.

Ladyfest is an international festival promoting women in arts and music. Their Manchester family live here

Our first taster of collective action with Ladyfest comes this Sunday 20th July at their fundraising garden party and BBQ at The Rampant Lion, Anson Road, Manchester, from 3pm onwards.

As well as live music and an international DJ, they’ll promise “lots of surprises, BBQ, Games and mayhem” You can find full details here.

One of our lovely new members, Green Eyed Monsters, will be wearing the craft mafia badge for us there, selling her impressively varied wares. One of her new loves is creating beautiful soft handspun yarn.

You might already know her retro children’s character themed clothing and accessories, and she also promises to be unveiling some shiny new stock too.

Keep your eyes peeled for more Craft Mafia and Ladyfest collaborations later in the year.

So we have some new members, quite a lot in fact. We’ll introduce them in more detail as the weeks go by but in the meantime here’s what you really want to know - what’s their stuff and where can you buy it? your wish is our command.

Just click below for a little retail therapy…
(recession, what recession?)