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Showing posts from October, 2011

Unravelling the NHS

If you follow me on twitter you'll already know I have a healthy interest in politics. Our current government is slowly and steadily dismantling our beloved NHS (National Health Service) from one with full public accountability to one which is more dependent on profit margins rather than evidence based medicine. THIS MAKES ME VERY ANGRY. There's a lot of despair at the moment, many of us feel our government is not listening to us, the people, or experts in the field such as the British Medical Association or the Royal College of Nurses. Yesterday our unelected second house, the house of Lords, voted through the government's ill-advised health reform bill. We all felt hopeless, then I read this blog post . You should read it too. Many of us are working out what to do. How can we reverse this disastrous decision when essentially the democratic process is failing us. "The NHS reforms did not appear in either the Conservative or Liberal Democrat manifestos. They w

Ally Pally 2011

I've been working at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace for the last few days. I'm a bit zonked after three full on days of yarn selling so here are the photos I took. Knitted bunting at the entrance Ghanaian Kente weaving demo, check out the length of those warp threads. Where I've been working. Lovely MillaMia stand with squishy merino and very cute and contemporary kids knits.... ... in a brilliant range of colours. Some super work in the graduate show. I love the colours and texture Maria Sanvito has created here. www.annaemme.com (website should be up at the end of the month) More Marisa Sanvito creations Check out the crochet (sorry, didn't get the name of the designer. If you did please let me know, thanks) I loved these knitted birds by Alice Wolfe Islamic textiles. This is Tunisian fabric. And as always that superb view of London that greets you when you stagger out of Alexandra Palace into the dayli

Stitch London?

On Wednesday evening I took a lovely walk across Hungerford Bridge to the Royal Festival Hall... ...well to be accurate, Foyles Bookshop which is under the RFH, for my friend DeadlyKnitShade's book launch. It was pretty exciting, so much so that the Queen and her corgies came too. Lauren's book, Stitch London , is inspired by and based on London and is packed full of quirky knits which capture the knitterly side of our fabulous city. Here's the author busy signing her book and giving a speech, in which we all cheered the marvellous news that Lauren has been cancer free for five years. Not a bad way to celebrate not being dead. The cakes were ace, decorated with balls of yarn and tiny knitting needles, they tasted good too. I must admit I still don't have a copy of Lauren's book but it is so much fun with great photos and of course the projects. You even get yarn to knit your own pigeon. Coo. Cake & Clare aka DragonflyKnit Part of the money

Not knitting?

In my self imposed knitting break I had to find other things to do to fill my time. I love reading but over the last few years knitting has eaten into my knitting time. Rather than going to bed a little earlier to read I'd be browsing Ravelry or knitting just a few more rows... So no knitting meant lots of reading. I also realised I wasn't keeping track of what I have read this year so I think I'll start another post to keep a log of what I have read. I'm currently reading a Victorian crime novel based around a part of London I know very well. The MSF office is on Saffron Hill, so named as saffron used to be sold there and it often gets a mention in the book, though I'm pretty sure it looks fairly different now, with the 60's style buildings which line most of the road. As for the books, I get most of mine from charity shops though have splashed out on a couple of brand new novels. I'm passing some of the books I don't want to keep on through p