Craft Forward
Sometimes an unstable friend from your wild recent past (a phrase I’ve co-opted and am still using obsessively) suggests a weekend morning activity so wholesome that you approach it with a sense of trepidation. Surely one of you will totter in, running on fumes, utterly hungover from the night before - or at the very least burst into flames the minute you cross the threshold?
Last month Matt and I went along to one of Craft Forward’s knit clubs. Craft Forward is a community initiative led by Elena Lo Presti, who started the Blankets for London initiative in 2020. The free workshops are such a welcome, inviting place to learn how to knit, especially for those of us who haven’t picked up a pair of knitting needles in about 20 years.
Everything you work on in the sessions goes towards the Blankets for London project.
Matt and I had the loveliest 3 hours with the kindest, most supportive group of people - who were so welcoming.
Despite my granny square being somewhat malformed due to my own inexperience (at one point I tried claiming that I wanted to ‘give it a booty'), its heartening to think that over these hour, a group of total strangers worked together selflessly and to collaborate in supporting those in our city facing homelessness.
Give them a follow to keep up with the next upcoming events! Elena very kindly gifted me a set of knitting needles, and ever since then I’ve been working away at a blanket of my own. Picking up a new skill always feels so rewarding - and as I joked to Matt, now I've had the opportunity to knit "for good" I'm also now able to knit for evil (making blankets and garments for myself).
To that end, I’ve also discovered the cutest little yarn shop on Stoke Newington High Street - Knit with Attitude. I treated myself to some copper needles (the perfect amount of ‘grippy and slippy’, according to their lovely and well-informed team) and thoroughly enjoyed all the witty puns and names of the colours they had in stock. Matt treated himself to some gorgeous white wool in the colour ‘Betty White’.
Very excited to be fully embracing my granny era.
