Camp Bestival and In The Loop

We've been quite for a while, not because we disappeared and took it easy but because we've been travelling along the south coat - more specifically to the In The Loop conference in Winchester, followed by Camp Bestival, where we hosted the UK's first festival knitting tent. More of that later....

Our first port of call was Winchester for a really special three-day knitting conference. Speakers ranged from r Martin Polley discussing Sportsmen and their sweaters: Using knitting patterns as historical reference (a favourite with the crowd due to the use of a certain undies ad featuring Freddie Ljundberg), to Sabrina Gschwandtner, Jennie Atkinson, Jane Waller and Rachel Beth Egenhofer's knitting/technology work. We were treated to a splendid array of subjects, plus got to meet the speakers, recent graduate artists and other delegates. There were many familiar faces to Gerard and myself, and hopefully we made some new ones too. Some of the talks and presentations meant more to us than others, and we were disappointed with the preponderence of machine-knitting and mass market knitwear presentations, but on the whole it was a brillaint three days. Some work by a couple of recent graduates will be shown at our I Knit Day in September and we hope to be giving our own presentation next year! If you can make it to Winchester it is well worth stopping by to visit the knitting refernece library, and, in Southampton the Montse Stanley collection which partly inspired the conference in the first place. One of the highlights for me was when I skipped out at lunchtime and did my now traditional charity shop crawl - came away with a few choice books, including Patricia Roberts Knitting Book 2. Best of all though was a market stall with a huge box full of patterns - they weren't cheap but I got them anyway and have quite a few nice 1930s and 1940s ones mixed in amongst the other stuff. They can be seen at the shop, where we are still deciding exactly what to do with all of our old patterns. After a terrible night's camping (nice campsite, shame it was next to a dual carriageway!) we opted for the posh option and stayed in a hotel for the rest of the stay!

That wasn't an option for rest of the weekend though, as we drove along to Lulworth castle to set up our Camp Bestival knitting tent. When Rob called way back when to ask if we'd like to do it we jumped at the chance. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! But not everything we do is a success, and there were thoughts that perhaps this could be one of those forgettable times! I'm ever the pessimist! Gerard, on the other hand, just believes everything is brilliant (he's right, of course) so all he needs to look to the heavens for is more beer (pictured). Who wants to knit at a festival anyway? Well, by the looks of it, quite a few people. The knitting tent was packed all weekend and we pretty much covered our fabulous Great British Sheep in glorious knitting. This was a genuinely family-friendly festival and the kids got so into it that the sheep now has an amazing finger-knitted necklace. But it was incredibly reassuring to see so many young people, including some very tiny ones, who could already knit, and especially the number of boys who didn't shirk from getting involved. it's interesting that they haven't (yet) received any of the stereotypes or hang-ups that quite a few men seem to encounter when they come near a ball of yarn and some needles - that said, we must pay respect to all the blokes who got down and knitted with us too. We had a brilliant team of volunteers who worked their bloody socks of all weekend and we thank them.

This was a really different festival -such a great atmosphere all weekend, mainly helped by the number of young 'uns running around. As Wayne Coyne (Flmaing Lips) said during his Saturday night headline slot, "I can't believe how many kids are here! All you people under 10 years old I want you to remember this moment and when you're older, turn to your parents and thank them for being so fucking COOL for bringing you to a festival like this!" How right you are Mr Coyle. It was loveliness all the way, and we even met up with some friends from The Shellac Sisters and regulars at the shop and knitting group too.

One of our main reasons for creating The Great British Sheep and taking parts in events like Camp Bestival are to get people knitting. We don't care how 'cool' it is, how old the knitters are, how crap you are at it, just as long as you're making stuff it doesn't really matter. It was great to see so many people getting involved and we must've taught well over a hundred people their first casting on and off. We just hope they take something away from the knitting tent and keep it up. It was certainly a resounding success and we're looking forward to doing it all over again next year.

And, if you really must say knitting's cool, then....we did have Kate Nash (pictured) along for the afternoon on Sunday and she gave the knitting tent a mention on the main stage during her set too. OK, so knitting is cool after all.

We could write so much more about the weekend, but at our age our memories don't hold much info. instead, take a look at our pictures for more...

Selling out

There's been a bit of a trend by advertisers recently to use knitting in their campaigns. We're all for it, even if they play up the 'kookiness' of craft or the traditional ideas of those who knit as opposed to the real situation. Yes, old people do knit, but it doesn't mean there aren't millions of other people of all ages taking it up and making stuff too! Some of these ads have been controversial amongst knitting circles for their subliminal images of knitters, who they are and what they represent, whilst others have taken them as a sign that the craft is growing ever more popular. Surley there aren't enough knitters for the ads to be aimed solely at that particular demographic! So, why use knitting in your ads - we have to assume it's still quirky enough that admen think it'll grab the attention. Considering some of the requests we get at IKL this is probably the case...sadly I don't think we ever quite live up to the image they expect of us. Below there's a few ads that have used knitting in the last few months alone....let us know what you think.

The latest to come our way is this brilliant poster from a French newspaper showing Jack Bauer knitting a gun - it's an ad for Tv on demand so the idea is that he won't have to wait any longer for 24...and for those who care, no, I don't think he is actually knitting, he's holding those needles all wrong!

The Shreddies ad, featuring the 'knitting nanas' caused a bit of a storm - we think it's sweet and funny, but aren't too keen on advertising Nestlé in the first place! You can watch the TV advert here.

Staples TV advert (2008)

Vodafone posters (2008)

Young at Heart film poster (2008)

Love - The Musical poster (2008)

If you see any more let us know, post them here in the comments.

The KNIFTAs..(formerly the CREAK Awards!)

Never mind the bloomin' Oscars...there's a new award show in town (sort of). After our recent post about the dirge of bad knitting on the telly we've decided to create a forum where those who can manage to knit and act at the same time are rewarded for their efforts.


So, we give you the first ever KNIFTAs (Knitting in Film and Television Awards). We need your nominations as follows:

Worst knitting/crochet/craft scene

• the criteria covers everything from a so-called actor- type pretending to knit/crochet when clearly they have no idea what they are doing, to simply, bad knitwear on screen.

Best knitting/crochet/craft scene

• opposite of the above; this award will go to the turn who shows that knitting and acting are possible at the same time. Extra kudos will be given if the knitting is a symbolic metaphor for a deeply meaningful moment…

Best knitwear

• I think I know which film might win this one…but the title says it all. Nominate the film that contains a piece (or pieces) of knitwear you just couldn’t take your eyes off!

Oustanding Contribution award

• you can’t nominate for this, but we’ll be recognising the efforts of someone to keep knitting on our screens too…

It’s all a bit of a laugh and we’ll be announcing the winners later this year…you never know we might even have a ceremony at I Knit Day if we get enough votes!

Rules (sorry there has to be oneor two) - all nominated films must have played in UK/US cinemas, or been shown on UK/US television in the last year or two. We’ll watch all the nominees and our judging panel will rate them…

For movie inspiration you can check out our own ‘knitting in films’ page. Post your nominations here or on the Ravelry I knit group message board, where you also argue/discuss the other nominations. I hope we can make this a funny little awards ceremony!