March Meetings: Celebrating Women EEWI Style

We're going to spend our evening Celebrating Women EEWI Style this month.   Come along on 19th March prepared to share the stories of the women - living, dead or fictional - who you want us to celebrate, whether they are famous our not. We know we're pretty marvellous ourselves, so we'd like some volunteers to stand up for 5 minutes and share the stories of their inspiring women. And if public speaking isn't your thing, that's fine: we'll collect your stories and tell them for you.  We'll also have a wee quiz.  7 for 7.30 start, St Margaret's House, Old Ford Road E2.  All women welcome.  Guests sweetly asked to donate £3 to cover costs.  Refreshments available, though to please bring along nibbles/ wine/ soft drinks to share if you wish.

We'll also have a draw for couple of complimentary tickets for the Country Living Magazine Spring Fair  to give away too.  The Spring Fair, held at the Islington Business Design Centre, is somewhere to stock up on new ideas for home and garden and discover independent designers, small producers and craftspeople from across the British Isles. Very lovely and just another good reason to come along for some fun.

Oh! Mustn't forget our coffee morning in all the excitement.  You'll find us is at the Oh! Cafe at Oxford House, Derbyshire Street on Friday 22nd March from 10.30am.  Do come along and support this local social enterprise that helps disabled youngsters learn new skills, and have a cup of coffee and a chat.  Plenty of space to bring your knitting too if you fancy.

Look forward to seeing you all, lovely women of the world.

Mwah.

Knit & Natter

Hello ladies!

Just a reminder that tonight is Knit & Natter night! Bring along your unfinished knitting projects, your crochet and your paper-craft - or anything else you have on the go. 

We are meeting tonight: Wednesday 27th February from 6.30 – 8.30pm.

We're meeting at The Coborn Arms, 8 Coborn Road, Mile End, London E3 2DA. Click here for a map.

This EEWI-inspired group is open to anyone who feels like popping in with a project - knitting or otherwise. It will be a casual meeting, and everyone is invited – not only knitters! Bring along your stitching or paper crafts, or simply join us for a few drinks and a good catch-up. New knitters are welcome too.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

fabrications

Massive thanks to Barley Massey who so generously let us share her Imaginarium at Fabrications this morning to finish working on our imapiece messages to the G8 conference. It was so good to have the space to work, drink tea, be grateful for how lucky we were, and reflect on the fact that malnutrition is still the underlying cause of a third of child deaths worldwide.  Annie reminded us how important it is just to stop and...

We did, and decided that as well as sending our finished pieces off to the Craftivist Collective, we will also send a piece each to our local MPs.  There's also a petition to sign here on the Save the Children website.

There's no doubt that having a light and airy place to sit down and sew mindfully, even though some of us have fairly basic skills, was a huge benefit.  We're really lucky to have such ethically minded traders close by.  Great work, all. And don't forget that Barley runs lots of classes: we can vouch for the fact that she'll give you a warm welcome.

making music, consciously crafting

Oh my stars! Well done to the gorgeous pUKES for instructing attentive EEWI ladies in the art of uke playing.  It really is a wonder how much you can learn in an hour.  There was an actual ensemble performance of a song too which was amply applauded - pretty amazing and if I ever work out how to upload it you might even be able to hear it again.

While there was much plinking and plucking at one end of the hall, there was equal attention at the other where we were sewing our imapiece quotes onto our jigsaw pieces.  Some people managed to finish theirs entirely - very impressive - whereas others will be putting the finishing touches to our work tomorrow at our coffee morning at Fabrications.  Come if you can and join in.  We'll show you some of the  messages when we finish the final stitches and let you know what happens next.

VG and star the lot of you.

some ukes, some stitches and a slice of cake

We're setting some challenges for you at our Tuesday 19th February meeting .  We've invited members of the punk band 'The pUKES" to come along and teach some lucky people the ukelele, perfect for any of you who have a new year's resolution to learn a musical instrument!   There are only 12 ukes available, so if you have access to your own uke, do please bring it along so more people can join in. We're on the hunt to borrow more if we can - but no guitars please.  We're also offering a little craftivism.  The #imapiece project supports the Save the Children race Against Hunger campaign which urges our Prime Minister to  use his presidency of the G8 conference in 2013 to help to do something about the 2.3 millioin children who die each year because they do not get enough food.  The idea is that you send an embroidered message on a fabric jigsaw piece.  We'll bring the jigsaw pieces - all you have to do is sew your message.  You don't have to be an expert sewist but you may want to keep ithe message short!  This is a really lovely little project and we very much hope you will want to join in. 

As usual we meet at 7 for 7.30pm at St Margaret's House, Old Ford Road, E2 9PL.  Tea, coffee and light refreshments available, including wine (donations invited).  Visitors are asked to make a £3 donation towards costs.

Our coffee morning is at 10.30 am on Friday 22nd February at Fabrications in Broadway Market.  Fabrications is a shop/ workshop run by Barley Massey who has offered us space in her lovely Imaginarium to have tea, coffee, our own cake (so we know it will be good!) and some jo;;y company.  You can come along for the chat, bring some knitting or finish off your jigsaw piece.  Just turn up and join us.

night of the backcomb

It;s hard to chose.  Should it be this..?

Or this...?

Ruth looking fab

Or maybe an updo?

Thanks a million to the brilliant and wonderful Claire Hair who had us enthralled with her magic comb and dextrous fingers and now we all want to go mad with the hairspray.  And to Ruth for being the perfect model, and for judging your tips on decluttering.  If you're still struggling to liberate yourself from the junk, you can see a list of the tips in our pages - link here.  You'll feel virtuous even if you only get as far as reading them.

Good luck and let's see those hairdos at the next meeting.

Knit & Natter

Hello ladies!

If this snow is putting you in the mood for some knitting and a jolly chat over a pint of your preferred drink, do join us for our monthly Knit & Natter. We are next meeting on Wednesday 27th February from 6.30 – 8.30pm.

We're meeting at The Coborn Arms, 8 Coborn Road, Mile End, London E3 2DA. Click here for a map.

This EEWI-inspired group is open to anyone who feels like popping in with a project - knitting or otherwise. It will be a casual meeting, and everyone is invited – not only knitters! Bring along your stitching or paper crafts, or simply join us for a few drinks and a good catch-up. New knitters are welcome too.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!