Handmade Living

I normally keep things light hearted on my blog. I figure there are enough places to go to hear about the state of the world, I spin and knit as escapism, and I know many others do the same.
However, sometimes it's not right to keep quiet about things.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in my post about how I choose to run my business, a company called ACM (All Craft Media). They were publishers of various craft magazines, and since the time of my original post have now gone in to administration.
They didn't pay their designers, or their staff, or their printers. They didn't deliver goods paid for, and have now left subscribers out of pocket for magazines that will no longer be published.
ACM is what is know as a Phoenix company. It was set up after KAL Media went in to liquidation 12 months ago. KAL went under for the exact same reasons, not paying bills and invoices. The owner of KAL is Kerrie Allman, she set up a new company (with her husband as Director), bought the rights to continue using the magazine titles (Knit, Inside Crochet, Handmade Living and Sew Hip as well as a few others. She then continued to run the business, with much the same end result.
Less than 12 months after ACM took over from KAL the business has been forced to cease trading. An administrator has been appointed to try to pay some of the creditors, collect any money owed, and to wind up the business.
Kerrie Allman meanwhile has gone on to set up a new business, this time with her Dad (Richard Rycroft) as the director. She has apparently bought the rights to some of the magazine titles. The knitting community, thanks to Ravelry, has got wise to her behaviour so  Knit (which was to be renamed as Yarnwise), and Inside Crochet have been abandoned. It would seem that she has however bought the rights to continue using the Handmade Living (despite the fact that the Editor who made it a success was made redundant), Sew Me/Sew Hip, and Modern Quilting titles.


This is where you guys come in. Please tell a friend about this. If you know someone who sews, who isn't very internet savvy, who might buy one of these magazines, please tell them. If you know that your local fabric, or crafting shop had an advertisement in one of these titles, please tell them about what has happened. If you know someone who might be approached to write something for one of these magazines in the future, get them to go and read here. The track record of paying invoices speaks for itself.

ETA- It would since appear that Kerri Allman hasn't bought the rights to the titles...
However, everything else in this post remains true. Please keep an eye out for anything that might be associated with her, you may not get what you sign up for...

Further Information (21st May 2012) The titles Inside Crochet, Yarnwise (aka Knit), and Handmade Living have been purchased by Tailor Made Publishing. They are apparently keen to move the titles forward in an ethically sound manner.

STATEMENT FROM TAILOR MADE PUBLISHING - 21st MAY 2012

“The recently acquired titles Inside Crochet, Yarnwise and Handmade Living will be published by Tailor Made Publishing from issues 31, 50 and 14 respectively. 
Sew Hip, Modern Quilting, Handmade Fashion and Simply Beautiful magazines are up for sale.

Previously published issues will not be available for sale from Tailor Made Publishing. Subscriptions to Inside Crochet, Yarnwise and Handmade Living will be honoured.

We are delighted to announce that Zoe Clements is to take on the position of Editor of Yarnwise magazine and Charlotte Brett will be Editor of Handmade Living magazine. The Editor of Inside Crochet will be announced within the next few days.

Tim Harris 
Director - Tailor Made Publishing”

The mother of invention...

I know quite a few American fibre artists, they keep making me jealous with their motorised drum carders. There are a multitude of drum carders that come with motors,  available over in the US, all of which would cost me a small fortune to import.
I spend hours at my carder so the idea of a motor to do the turning is quite appealing...

I'm off to try out a Louet motorised carder (the only sort I can buy in the UK) tomorrow, in the meantime however, I had an idea.

We picked up an old Singer sewing machine base at our local auction. Once I'd removed the machine (very old, worn and pretty useless), it's going to provide the power for my Minty drum carder. The main issue is making sure the treadle turns the licker in slowly enough, which is why the handle has been removed, and a wooden disc bolted on in its place. This acts as a gear so reduces the number of rotations on the main drum for every treadle. So far it seems to work, I've just ordered  new drive belt, as the old one was worn out, and the Pony bead poly-band I use on my wheels was too thin and stretchy, so there was a lot of slippage. 

If it doesn't work, well I can just unscrew the disc, and screw the handle back on.

Little birds, big personalities

One of the nice things about Wonderwool was chatting to people who read here. It would seem that my slightly mad little chickens have their very own fan club so I thought I'd better share a few more pictures of them.

They spend most of their time rampaging through the sheep field behind the house. They gave the sheep a few scares at first, but they seem to get along fine now. Give them a call though, and they scuttle back through the fence at great speed. They can pick up a fair pace if they use a bit of wing assistance. For such little birds they eat a huge amount, and every time they see you they expect a treat of some sort!

Boyo the cockerel does a great job at keeping them all in order. He takes great delight in finding something yummy and calling his favourites over. He doesn't really crow that much, but the noise the girls make more than compensates. For such little chickens they are incredibly loud, and they talk to each other almost constantly. 

The weather here has been dreadful for the past few days so they spent lots of time hiding in their house. We set it up with the door facing away from the prevailing wind, but of course, this week, the wind had blown down the valley, not up, so they've had rather a lot of rain blowing in. A wet and bedraggled bantam is capable of looking very miserable!

Wonderwool

A massive thank you to everyone who came and squeezed themselves in to my stall at Wonderwool. I seemed to spend most of Saturday stood out in the middle of the aisle, and it was great to see so many people oohing and ahhing over 3 months worth of hard work. Neext year I will see about getting a bigger stall so I can fit a few more of you in! I put my heart and soul in to HilltopCloud, and it was the first time I'd had feedback from people in person, I still have a happy little glow when I think about it! If you braved the weather on Sunday, then thank you for your patience, by lunchtime I was really getting chilly, and thinking longingly of a hot bath, and a warm bed. Now I just need to get ready to do it all again up at the Lake District and Woolfest at the end of June.

Wonderwool

I'm about to start packing up the van to take to Wonderwool Wales.
The shop is off-line over the weekend but I'll be back on Monday and hope to be able to add some new things for you (thought hopefully not too many!)

Cleaning Up

I'm having a day off today, everything is ready for Wonderwool, so I decided that a little time to relax probably wasn't a bad thing.
We've also had the building inspector here to sign off on the barn, so I escaped in to the sunshine to walk with the dogs. Once we got back I pulled out all the spinning wheels for their annual spring clean. The Traveller is hopefully going to a new home at Wonderwool so I wanted to give it a good clean and make sure it was spinning nicely for it's new owner. Over the winter it's easy not to notice the layer of dust and grime that develops in the nooks and crannies, but in the spring sunshine they were all looking rather grubby. They all had a wipe down, all the old oil has been wiped off, and they've had a fresh coat of Danish Oil to help stop the wood from drying out. They all look so much better for a bit of tlc, and will probably spin more smoothly as well.

I hope to see some of you at Wonderwool, and for everyone else, the shop will be updated when I get back and unpack.

PS. New postage prices come in to effect next week, this particularly affects European customers so if there's something you have your eye on then now might be a good time.

April Frost Showers

It's been a strange spring. March was stupidly hot, and April seems to have decided to take it's place. We've had snow, and quite a few very hard frosts. The seedlings that were safe in the polytunnel didn't take too kindly to the cold weather, and quite a few have been killed by the frost.
The other day I woke up to see my windows completely covered in beautiful patterns.

I wonder what May will bring?