Happy Arrival of MakeDoMend

Just a quick post to urge you to pop over nextdoor to makedomend and their latest adventures, We're at last off the starting blocks and we're launched on the world, bringing creative workshops to a clamouring crowd of creativists. We've got beginners' knitting classes, corsage classes and crochetforward which is a step up for the chain gang. So off you go!

Just take a peek

I know I've been rather absent from blogging but I'm a bit inundated in orders for Christmas so...until we're past that important date, I'm going to send you off to my other home of makedomend. We're very excited about our plans at the moment as we're launching on Thursday at the gorgeous venue of 40 Winks in Stepney. I visited this wonderful hotel and was completely transported to another fantastical world. I hope that we could organise some workshops to take place in this unique location.
Anyway, please visit makedomend and maybe think of booking a workshop. There's heaps to choose from beginning with crochet, knitting and sewing to beading, customising and, I like this one, bunting making. Go on, treat yourself for 2010.

The backroom bites back

I loved this story when I read it last week in the Guardian. Carmen Colle is a supplier of fabric and crochet to, among others, Chanel and is taking the company to the courts to sue for 2.5 million euro damages for copyright infringement on a crochet pattern. Chanel is counter-sueing and the case is in appeal at the moment.
Carmen Colle is not a woman to be messed with. The fashion houses depend on such people to produce the garments and materials that will best express the designer's vision. The 'petits mains' are the mainstay of any company and are overlooked and undervalued in many cases. Many of these people have years of experience and skill which cannot be easily replaced and to know that such talent goes into couture clothes makes them the valuable artifacts they are.
Colle is unique in that she began the business after a career as a social worker in order to employ deprived and immigrant workers and offer them opportunities not often found. The company, World Tricot Designs employing women from poor neighbourhoods, is on the brink of closure if the counter-claim from Chanel is upheld. Listen to the interesting and at time's depressingly familiar story of David and Goliath at World Vision . I wish Carmen all the luck with her fight for her company and her reputation.

If you go down to the woods - Amelia's Magazine

Some love it, some hate it. Twitter. Been in the news a bit this week, what with the spat over Stephen Fry and so on. Aside from that, I like it for the occasional little pearl for chaincreative.
Today's little gem is courtesy of lovely Claire at Monty (you need to go there to see her new A/W designs anyway) and her tweet about Amelia's Magazine. As an online resource it's wonderful for paths less visited. As their editor says, ' Amelia’s Magazine online is now the place to come for exclusive articles on the best underground creative projects in the worlds of art, fashion, music, illustration, photography, craft and design.' The issue I was particularly struck by was the fashion designs of knitwear designer, Marie-Louise Vogt. I cannot perfect further on the article at Amelia's so a visit there is essential. Suffice to say, I'll give you some picture tasters to set you on your way. As you probably know by now, here at chaincreative we love crochet and fashion and to see Marie-Louise use it so effectively gives us a reason to smile. Next time you hear someone say they don't know where to go next with their crochet, tell them to visit Amelia's and Marie-Louise Vogt.