One of the things I really need to work on is expanding out my contacts within the various communities out there…. A while ago I set up a group for stitchers in my local area, but as yet, have had little interest. Of the current 5 members, only 2 people are remotely vocal, and I’m one of them! How on earth do I attract more members? I did a similar group (but for knitting) when living in Dublin, but managed to tie that into the Stitchnbitch branding, and in less than 4 years, the membership of stitchnbitchie stands at a relatively vocal 287 – and they say knitting in Ireland is a dying art! It certainly seems that needlework in Birmingham certainly is!

I am a member of Meetup.com, but as yet have not utilised their  facilities.  This is for several reasons. 1) I object to having to pay for their services (and therefore possibly have to charge members to attend meetings), and 2) there are no more stitchers on that list than the 5 I already have on my own, FREE, yahoo group. I’ve also checked out the nearest local stitching group that has been set up, and no one seems to attend those either.   What is it with stitchers?  Do they not want to meet others with the same interest?

Well, yes I am still out there!

Not an awful lot of crafting going on recently and certainly nothing to show for myself, at least today.

I’ve nearly completed my second balloon on the Hickmott design, and will be posting a photo soon. I did start knitting a scarf for the Simon community in Galway, but decided that the wool/needle combination wasnt good enough to produce something warm and wearing enough, so I ripped it out. I may go looking for other wool on the weekend to see if I can find anything more appropriate. I have needles up to 5mm, so can take something quite chunky I think.

Found the following blogs recently Tanglledangel and Teaandcakes both from women on Stitchnbitchie. I am so jealous of the stashes they get!

My ipod died the other week, and I replaced it with a video ipod. Still on the look out for decent podcasts, and Isobel for one has a list of Knitting podcasts that I might check out. Always still on the lookout for cross stitch ones though!

wip0028, originally uploaded by Nordie.

How far I’ve got in the last week or so on the Hickmott “Balloon” kit. Only a couple of froggings, from where I’m not paying attention, but we’ll get there.

Meanwhile, I’ve had to stop myself getting too excited and dropping all current WIPS in favour of knitting a couple of scarves! At the moment, scarves are all I can knit, but there is a charity drive that the Irish Stitchnbitch crew are starting to take part in on behalf of the Simon community, who are one of the charities to look after the homeless in Ireland.

Another round of tab closing….

I found a copy of “The Art of Embroidery: Inspirational Stitches, Textures and Surfaces” at a website called The Book Depository. UK based, many of the books are cheaper than the equivalent on Amazon.co.uk (they also do a comparison with Amazon), as well as offering free P&P. At £15.00, it’s a good £9 cheaper than Amazon are selling it for!

Cameoroze has a stitching blog here. I’m sure I’ve come across her years ago, but cant remember where – I think perhaps over at About.com. She also has a Stitcher’s Studio.

Speaking of about.com, I really did enjoy being on there – at least I used to. I even considered applying to be one of their editors back in the day. However, I spent some time there doing some research a few years ago, and my spam rate shot up like nobody’s business. I backed away from about.com, and after a few months and some hard work with the spam filters, the spam rate dropped back down again. Coincidence? mebbie. mebbie not. I haven’t spent an awful lot of time on about.com since, just the odd click or two, but I back away again as soon as I know where I am. I certainly don’t post there or do much navigation around the site, which is a shame as there is a lot of stuff there, including free charts.

I’ve found another podcast called CraftSanity, which has an associated blog. Each edition has decent length interviews with people within the Crafting world.

Episode 43 is an interview with Melissa Alvarado and Hope Meng who, along with their friend Melissa Rannels, co-own Stitch Lounge.

Episode 49 is an interview with Heather Holland-Daly, a cross stitch designer. She has her own website Monsterbubbles, and I was particularly interested in seeing how she presented her work, especially in light of the “How Much?” post I made last week. I found the website to be very pale – pink and green, whilst good for a logo (and I like the logo!), I think is a bit wishywashy. Her “Gallery” and “Stuff” is cluttered and out of date, and the pictures of her stuff makes me want to buy either the completed item, or the kit to do it with, I cant see any option of how to buy direct from her, or which internet/Bricks and Mortar shop I need to go to. (And the thumbnails in the gallery – just plain annoying! grrrr!)

Episode 53 has an interview with Carol Sauvion, the executive director of “Craft in America” which was shown on PBS recently. I’ve heard decent things about it, and wonder if it’s ever going to be shown outside of the US. (I see the DVD is available from PBS’s website – and, unfortunately perhaps for PBS – at Amazon.com for $8 cheaper).

Before I left Ireland, I set up StitchNBitchIe, the Irish Yahoo group for Stitch N Bitch. On the weekend, they took part in the World Wide Knit In Public day, and a summary (with pictures!) can be found here, thanks to Lien (who I’ve never met!)

Right, think that’s enough from me for the mo! (I’m getting tired and making more and more mistakes!)