Stuck in a book

Oh this book is such a treat. Bear with me because most of this post won't make much sense if you aren't from Salford, or Manchester, or 1978. Don't let that put you off the book, though, it's a must read for any fan of popular culture, youth culture, the DIY/punk ethos, or the film 24 Hour Party People.

I keep grinning away to myself at snippets of Tony Wilson's ridiculous banter, a mention of the Town Hall pub in Eccles, St Mary's Hospital, where it is claimed that proper Mancunians are born, and the confirmation, in print, that Mick Hucknall was never there.

To counterbalance this, I am sad that the gig was at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, as I have only sung on stage (with my school choir in the Sting rainforest musical, Yanomamo) in the actual Free Trade Hall. Now it's a hotel, anyway. And I'm sad that Tony (Wilson) and Martin (Hannet) and Ian (Curtis) are no longer with us to reminisce. And I only have 20 pages left to read :(

Craftseller

My lovely husband brought me a little present with the weekly shop on Saturday morning, the first edition of this brand new glossy magazine. Even better, it was presented with the thoughtful comment 'this is not because I think you need help to sell things, I just thought it was more interesting than getting you Hello magazine or something'. Ahhhh.

I really enjoyed looking through this magazine and hope it progresses to give lots more advice and support for those of us selling crafts in person and online. At the moment it's very focused on how to set up a business, and gives lots of patterns which the designers have given permission to sell - very unusual for a craft magazine! I don't think I'll be making anything directly from the magazine but it does have lots of great tips for suppliers and supplies, packaging, photography and presentation that I found really useful. I did get a bit huffy when I noticed the 'monster knits' tutorial for a phone pocket (on the bottom right of the photo) was very similar to how I remembered the DS pouch I made as a gift in 2009, but then I always have to remind myself that four people invented photography at about the same time and my monster was a home-made version of a well known Japanese creation so who am I to criticise!

Each of the projects are rated for skill level and most of them are easy, so if you do fancy having a go, I can recommend it. There is the usual blend of inspirational success stories from established craft entrepreneurs and advice from Etsy UK staff, too. There was a free gift of 'professional stickers' to finish off your crafty creations but I they were all pastelly colours and they wouldn't have tempted me to pick up the magazine any more than the content. I think a more useful gift would have been advice on how to design your own packaging and a link to some free collage sheets or fonts or similar but then, I am sure those new to crafting may have found a quick fix even more enticing. All in all, a good read, and I'll be interested to see if the magazine develops to cater for crafters at a more advanced stage of making and selling their own self-designed wares.

What's cooking?

The book...

The recipe (we used macadamias because we don't have any hazels right now)

And....

The results - yum!

With apologies for the terrible light at the far end of my kitchen, but you get the idea.

Ysolda Teague

Reading the latest edition of the alumni magazine from Edinburgh University, I discovered that knitwear designer Ysolda Teague studied on the same course as me! She graduated with her MA in English Literature 8 years after I did, however, but I too remember knitting in my lectures while no doubt my fellow students thought 'who's that granny over there?'.

I had completely forgotten about the option to study printing and making books as part of the course - tutorials held deep in the basement of the library. My own degree was combined with French, so I had fewer options to choose from, but my favourite module was 20th Century Feminist Fictions - we watched and critiqued the Alien films, great fun! As part of my French course I studied the linguistic development of babies and children, so it was a pretty broad brush approach to each subject. And of course Edinburgh was a wonderful place to live, work and study.

To find out more about Ysolda Teague, visit her online at http://www.ysolda.com/ - there are PDF patterns to buy and download for free, too. Unfortunately it looks like they are all knitted in the round, which I can't do, and you have to go through the knitty sign up process to access the free patterns, but fun to look all the same.