Cross stitch is cool

I was at what I can only call a "craft meeting" on Tuesday with a small group of interested young women. It was a little bit Womens Institute-ish, but very pleasant. We had a couple of drinks and in between gossip, we discussed our "projects", as everyone there worked in an office of some sort and kind of wished that they didn't. While my sister sat next to me, sewing a small picture of a blue elephant onto some canvas, she bought up the idea of "public embroidery" which she found on the internet here: www.ulrikaerdes.se/public_emroidery

Needless to say, I was blown away by this. It's so cute and so positive and if that wasn't enough, then there are plenty of other women getting political with their stiching: Bitterstitch and Radical Cross Stitch are both great resources for feminist bent textiles.

If knitting is more your thing, then try the self-titled "Knittivists" of Glitty knitty kitty. It's partly a personal blog, but there are some interesting bits in there, and it's worth a look. And if you want to get involved there is a the Cast-off Knitting club here: www.castoff.info.

It's all a bit strange, but I think I like it.

Katherine Whitehouse
Creative Director