outcasts

Contemporary Art Fair

kurlyknits — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:00:30 +0000

Congratulations to the designers, knitters and artists who exhibited on the jelly stand at the 3rd Reading Contemporary Art Fair this weekend. It was a fabulous event which just gets better every year. Here are a few images for those that missed it.

These beautiful crochet pieces above by Alison Friday were delicate and ethereal. How perfect, I thought, for the wardrobe of eerie Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. www.knittingforart.com

Sue Clarke’s miniature boxes with figure, pebble and twig all dressed in finely knitted ‘cosies’. I love the play with scale and purity. The wool just adds to the warmth with the gentlest touch of human nurturing. See more on her blog at http://halfandhalf.posterous.com

Ella Austin was exhibiting two of her newly designed knitting kits for Intrepid Fox and Tawny Owl. These cute little characters can be made with the contents of the kits containing hand-dyed yarn, buttons and stuffing. Click here more details on Etsy.

London, Paris, New York, Rome…..Reading

knitting for art — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:52:13 +0000

Rome

- http://travellersyarn.wordpress.com/tag/lana-della-vecchia/

Paris

- http://knittingbandit.typepad.com/knitting_bandit/2007/08/
paris-shops-3-4.html

New York – http://www.knittycity.com/blog/home

New York

London

- http://www.iknit.org.uk/knittinggroups.html

Butter Market
image from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Butter_Market,_Reading.jpg

Why to visit a knit cafe……….

links (Reasons why to knit)
bitch n stitch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stitch_%27n_Bitch

yarn bomb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarn_bombing

knitted graffiti
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knitta_Please

knitting clubs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knitting

Why visit ours
beacause we worth it! as the strap line goes

A bunch of talent, in fact to much talent for one room, designers, beginners, experts, helpers, planners, organisers and artists.

Some thing for everyone……..some one for everyone

As of late we had a venue change

(art pad Jelly to Coopers(pub) now back to art pad Jelly)

It was cold and now its warm, so all knitter and crocheters welcome back.

Ravelry link to Reading Berkshire knitters- Outcasts.

The cafe is on the 1st and 3rd of the month…….6:30 until 9;-)

An Italian Knit Night

alabamawhirly — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:15:35 +0000

An Italian Knit Night

Tonight, Wednesday 18 Jan, is Knit Night from 6.30pm until 9 at jelly ArtPad (that’s the one upstairs at 42 Market Place) and it is also the last Knit Night for Barbara before she returns to Milan – so that makes it Campari O’Clock?

In other news, to try to be more organised or otherwise known as “less-confusing” from forthwith the 1st and 3rd Wednesday evening sessions shall be referred to as Knit Night, the 2nd Wednesday daytime sessions shall be Purl Day. Thank you to everyone who responded to our request for help locking and unlocking and blogging. So as Barbara departs, the team of Alison, Mel, Ella, Laura and Suzanne are joined by Gillian and Pat. Thank you all.

Ci vediamo alla serata dei lavoretti a maglia!

Ciao

Aunt Elsie’s Christmas Do

half and half — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:17:45 +0000

As the Outcasts have been hanging out together since 2003 – knitting, making stuff, and doing random things – and as Jelly has a lovely new, very old premises – formerly known as The Coopers Arms at 29-31 Market Place – we thought that we could make the Christmas bash extra special this year and invite our favourite makers of beautiful things to take part …

Warming up for Winter

alabamawhirly — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:37:03 +0000

It was chilly and getting dark in Coopers at the last evening knit session so from the next session (2 November) we will return to the jelly at 42 Market Place on the first and third Wednesday of each month.

The daytime knit session (2nd Wednesday of each month ) will actually be in The Coopers this month for a change.

Keep warm, keep knitting

A special treat of Llamas

alabamawhirly — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:44:01 +0000

Have you seen this?

It is a safe link so don’t worry, it just involves llamas and typing

drawing knitting

half and half — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:04:01 +0000

I’ve been interested in combining knitting and drawing for a while, and so I’m keen to find other people working in similar areas. The image above is by Haley Lowther, and I saw it at Manchester Met’s BA Embroidery show in 2007 – and it’s stuck with me ever since. Her actual knitting was on an enormous scale – huge, huge pieces, photographed on a hillside and looking like contour maps – like you’d walked into a geographical drawing. The piece above is one of her drawings – also enormous – on paper which hung from ceiling to floor. They were based on the patterns of stitches and were made with all sorts of implements and paints/inks. So the lines were gloopy and fat, or spindly and delicate. And the image was so vast that it seemed to surround you and cut out everything else around.

I can still remember the work clearly, but the only reference I have is this one postcard. I’ve tried to find out what she’s doing now but she doesn’t seem to have anything on the internet . . .

Shetland Wool Week Envy

alabamawhirly — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:54:58 +0000

Wish I could be there but then I get to spend time instead with my growing teenagers on their birthday 10/10.
Knitted presents anyone?

Heritage Weekend

alabamawhirly — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 10:05:37 +0000

These past few days (from Thursday 8 September) you could have found us in Jacksons Haberdashery and Wool Department as part of of the National Heritage Open Days – as from Emma’s earlier post here, we were on hand to help people with knitting dilemmas, help new knitters and just have a general chat – sounds like a perfect outcast day.

A special big thank you to all the outcasts that came to help with running the sessions including Melanie Nabarro, Debbie Orr, Kira Moffat and Emma Bradbury. Not forgetting the hard work bringing the pattern booklet together by Pat Lewis and the wonderful designs. Here’s a sneaky few shots from the photo day.

There booklets are a limited first edition run of 100 only, containing 8 patterns to knit and crochet:
* Classic Cloche
* Garden Twisty (crochet)
* Choker (crochet)
* Brioche Stripe
* 40′s Cherry Brooch
* Evening Out Gloves
* Mabel Bonnet
* Heritage Bag

They will be on sale, priced £6, this coming Thursday 15th September, 6-9pm as part of The Vintage Catwalk in Market Place, Reading. Alternatively leave a comment here to reserve a copy and we will be in touch to organise getting the booklet to you.

The BIg Knit 2011

kurlyknits — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:47:39 +0000

Dust off your needles for the return of Innocent’s Big Knit campaign for 2011. This year they are planning some shiny new little hat patterns for their innocent drinks – all in aid of inspiring even greater involvement to raise money for Age Concern.

Image courtesy of Innocent Drinks, Big Knit 2010

For full details, patterns and great galleries go to http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/bigknit/index.html

The deadline for sending hats to Innocent is 14th October and little hats will start to appear on Innocent drinks in Sainsburys and Boots from 16th November.

Happy knitting …