A gift in flowers

A few years back I began a Knit a Year project in Halton. One of the groups I met was the knitting group "Wednesday Woolies". The Knit a Year idea (knitting your moods each day for a year more info here www.knitayear.ning.com) largely fell of infertile ground within group. As we got to know each other a little better it became clear however that at the core of the group was the idea of giving. Be it knitting a jumper for a grandchild or knitting clothes for premature babies. Knitting and giving seem closely linked in general. A recent request I made for words knitters associate with knitting brought up words like contribution and friendship. It seems important for people in the group to knit for their own serenity but having a sense of its purpose also seems important.

With this in mind myself and one of the group members chatted about the idea of knitting flowers to get us through the winter months. But what would we do with them then? Who could we give them to? Hospices often can't host real flowers so a gift of our knitted flowers seemed like a sensible solution. The knitters knitted and sent me their beautiful flowers, as individual and delicate as the real things. The flowers now wait in bouquets ready for our visit to the local hospice.

More knitting  and life know how in our new book www.blurb.co.uk/b/5700567-creative-yarns

Behind the sensational

I was musing this morning on the news regarding Baroness Jenkins and her supposed gaff about poor people being better of eating porridge than cereal (not enough room here to get into the fact that we are dupped every day by manufacturers and shops who sell us these versions above the cheaper alternatives. Will save that for another day.). The media have jumped on this and concentrated on the implied snobbery in her statements. I think we have to ask why the media present us with certain parts of a story. Baroness Jenkins was part of a commitee of concerned MPS and Lords who decided to look into food poverty, write a report and start a discussion on it. Instead we are distraced from the report by these sensationalist headlines. With this in mind I set off to find and read the report. Several pages of google searches later I had trudged through repeats of the snobbery charges and got to the report. I've pasted a few bits of its content which I think are the things we should be concentrating on.

"We heard stories and gained first-hand

experience that led us to the conclusion that

the rise in the use of food banks does indicate

a deeper problem in our society; the ‘glue’

that used to be there is no longer there in

many instances. It can be described as the

commodification process with people seen as

commodities, and the transactions between

them are regarded simply as the exchanging of

products rather than relationships between two

human beings"

"So it is that right across the country, in towns and

villages, in urban and rural places, where there

would appear to be little deprivation and in places

of high deprivation, people have found ways to

try and put in place systems to help those most

in need. The phenomenon that has caught the

imagination most is food banks."

"We want to celebrate this and to reflect on our 

hopes of livingin a country where people do share

values andvirtues centred on a sense of interdependence,

underpinned in all we do by recognising the

intrinsic worth and value of humanity "

"We also want to avoid the easy mistake made

by reports such as this which all too easily

‘blame’ some groups and point the finger at

particular institutions. We do want to say some

hard things to different groups and there are

lessons to be learnt by all. It cannot be right,

for example, that in the twenty first century

we have so many people who appear to have

little or no food and that children and adults

are going hungry whilst many others (including

some of our large institutions) waste food in

scandalously huge amounts."

"We want to encourage all in our society to look

to our values and virtues and to begin a much

larger and deeper conversation about how

we live together. This conversation will have

consequences for the way we talk about other

people. For example, do we blame those who

have little or nothing or do we find ways to help

them? Do we criticise those who work in our

government departments or do we encourage

and allow them to work with discretion and to

find human ways to communicate and interact

with those they serve?"

"There are people in this very position right

now in this country although, for fairly obvious

reasons, we cannot put an exact number on

them. All we know, from our observations

gathered throughout this Inquiry, is that there

are too many people in this group. We also

know that even if families have enough, just

enough money to prevent hunger, this most

basic of objectives is made that much more

difficult if a family has only a very limited range

of food on offer, little or no ability to prepare

and cook food, and no facilities to cook that

food, or if there are other fundamental crises

afflicting their lives"

There follows lots of insightful writings on why people find themselves

 at food banks and then a few facts the most shocking of which I think is:

"Between 2003 and 2013, the price

of electricity, gas and other fuels increased

by 153.6% in Britain, 76% in Germany and

58.8% in France."

"And yet: Britain’s wages haven’t kept up.

Between 2003 and 2013, wages grew most

in Canada (36.5%) followed by the United

States (30.2%). Wages in Britain grew by

28% and in France by 26.6%. Wages grew

most slowly in Germany at 17.7%."

The report then goes on to state that the trickle down models, which 

assertained that as the general wealth of a country increases we 

all get richer is no longer working. The rich are getting richer 

and the poor are no longer benefiting.  It also calls for long term 

solitions which go beyond a single political term and agenda.

And then come the recommendations. One of the most profound of these in my mind is one which echoes thinkers from years ago such as E. F. Schumacher

who wrote "Small is Beautiful" or the writers of "A patterned Language".

"WhileFeeding Britain has the overall goal of a

hunger-free United Kingdom, this goal can

only be achieved if its strategy is based up

from the local town to city and then to region.

We believe that, as it develops, it is crucial

that this body develops a life of its own that

is independent of government and with the

ability to rise above other sectorial interests."

It goes on to reiterate the need for local and trusted known points of contact.

The Report very much sees hunger in britain as one element of a larger picture.

Alongside its suggestions around food it also states that:

"We believe the establishment of Feeding

Britain, alongside a higher National Minimum

Wage and a fairer and more reliable benefits

system, can help to rebuild our national

minimum to ensure we live in a ‘Zero Hunger

Britain’ – and thus bring together the two

parts of Beveridge that harness the virtues of

public and voluntary action."

It goes on to outline a number of practical solutions like "Social Supermarkets" 

where surplus from supermarkets etc are donated and sold at 

a highly discounted price. It also calls on supermarkets to increase the

percentage of their profits  (ie cash we plough into them :our spending to buy back goods we help produce and sell and their profits, my words not the reports)

into emergency food scenarios. This will then free up the food bank

organisations to spent charitable donations on tackling deeper underlying issues.

The report then goes on to discuss and provide recommendations for the wider issues which lead to

people needing to access foodbanks such as increased energy bills, 

poorly ran benefits systems, low pay and the lack of education in cooking healthy food. 

All in all its a well considered report which avoids the high brow speaking

you usually get with these kind of things. 

Its the combined efforts of people in goverment who have taken this on above and beyond what they usually do. I am as sceptical as the next person about

most of those who govern our country but think its a mistake to shoot down those

who seem to want to put their head above the parapit and help. Be we rich or poor we all make decisions to help our fellow man or not. I wouldn't be suprised 

if after getting such a media bashing Barroness Jenkins doesn't go back to her mansion and revert to buying handbags and shoes.

 The full report is here if you want to read it without my selections which might be biased towards my particular interests.
 http://bristol-cathedral.co.uk/images/uploads/Food_Poverty_Feeding_Britain_FINAL_PDF.pdf

Find more photos like this on Knit a Year

Sketches in knitting

Photograph a place, knit a version of it, place back on place. A few little sketches in wool. Waiting for anexcuse to try it on a bigger scale.

A quick sketch of lacey rubber made at Peddle Power Festival. Imagine what could be done with more hours, planning and loads more inner tubes.

The Fiverr Project 1 -Chapter 1

Beth Barlow Fiverr work in progress created by Refugeek

Kevin, a fellow  actors in the play I've just been in told me about the online site Fiverr. It is a place where you can buy specific skills, (mainly creative) online for $5 a piece. You commission a person to do a specific task like write the words "Bum Head" in bubble writing or work a sketch up into a different format.

My first reaction, which is probably a conditioned response, was to ask why people would do these things for $5, was it exploiting them?

We chatted about the different values of $5 in different countries and what it might buy in India compared to here. Also the fact that people use it as a way to get further more lucrative work.

I was intrigued. I wanted to explore the process for a few reasons. Firstly I'm really interested in global trade compared to local. Its a dilemma I wrestle with. On one hand I believe that supporting little business just down the road feeds back into the local economy and makes it stronger. On the other I try to support fair trade and give to charities oversees.  I still haven't decided if its better to trade globally or go back to a more community based way of getting the things we need.

The second reason was to understand how this kind of site can create or destroy every day connections. When I was in school I was part of a scheme where you got a pen pal from another country. For a few letters it was very exciting to be talking to somebody sitting under a different piece of sky. We were living then in a world which was a lot more insular. The internet was still a thing of the future and all our knowledge of the wider world came from TV, books or magazines.  We probably spent more time talking to and doing things with a close set of friends. We bought things we needed from the local shops or went into town on a shopping spree. Sites like Fiverr open up our world and possibilities and I was interested to see what effect that might have on our interactions.

So a few kind creative folks have agreed to take the $50 I gave them, abide by a short set of rules and set off on a brief journey. The artists brief was to choose a shelved idea and try and get it done using Fiverr. The deadline is short. The finished work will be displayed as part of the "Connections"  Liverpool Internationals exhibition at Artwork, Northwich. The exhibition will include artists thoughts along the way, examples of what they managed to procure and my musings after completing Chapter 1 of the project. There may well be a Chapter 2 where we try to apply the online systems to a real life scenario to see what happens. If you want to be kept up to date on how you could get involved in Chapter 2 e mail me at bethbarlow@bethbarlow.com

Credits: Contributing artists, Simon Kennedy, Carys Anne Hughes, Beth Barlow.
Fiverr Artists: Names to follow
You can look at and download the rules and artists pro forma we are using here 


Fiver Chapter 1 at home in Artwork, Northwich in 2014

Made by Numbers

This project was inspired by a call out for a Ruskin open. It asked for an painting of an Urban or a rural environment. I live on the outskirts of a town. On one side of the road is town, the other spreads into countryside. The countryside side of the road is contentious space at the moment. New legislation means that more farmland can be built on. Those who are anti this feel that that it will spoil their villages, disconnect us further from nature etc etc. Those who are for it see it as a chance to own a house or get facilities close by. It is one of the few issues I sit on the fence on.

I was intrigued by this idea of a place between Rural and Urban. An OR space where the boundaries blur. Most borders in the world are contentious places.

So I set about creating a series of paintings of the local construction site. Here will stand a new crematorium.

An example from the internet

The paint by number style came about after several reincarnations of the same painting. I chose its sterility over the more paintrly styles. I am now pondering on the idea of paint by numbers too. A tiny bit of research unearthed this desription of it.

"Propelled by postwar prosperity, increased leisure time, and the democratic idea that anyone might paint a picture, paint by number became a popular pastime in the early 1950s. Each paint-by-number kit included two brushes and up to ninety premixed, numbered paints ready to be applied to numbered spaces on an accompanying
 canvas or board. As the spaces were filled in, the gradual revelation of a picture surprised and delighted." http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/Paint_By_Numbers3/
The whole act of creating a fine art painting in a paint by numbers style throws up all sorts of ponderance.
As I draw I choose the lines from the photographic image more carefully than if I was sketching lines in for a traditional painting. If somebody was going to colour this images instead of me they would need it to be right. They wouldn't be making choices and adapting the image as they go along. They would simply be following the pre written instructions.
As I start to paint I embellish the image. Adding blocks of colour which are not in the original line work. My paint by numbers experience is non authentic in this regard. I am still making creative choices.
I leave some of the spaces in the painting uncoloured and add numbers to show more clearly the idea of paint by numbers.

Painting before the numbers go on Spring by Beth Barlow

I have toyed with putting in measures to alter this dicotomy. To make it more authentic I could include more line work in the first instance. I could preordain my colours before starting. Or I could fake that authenticity by adding in more lines once I have finished.  But after some thought I think I like the conceptual disquiet in the painting. If you look at the painted area you see detail, look at the unpainted and it is more vacant. If you took up a brush and decided to complete the image it would either look incongruous or you would have to start improvising detail, make creative choices, become creative in a way.






Latest line drawing's waiting to be filled in:

As Painted

As Photoshoped

Photoshoped to Death

Films about paint by numbers

The March

The simple part of it is that there is a pattern for you to knit your own knitted marcher who can march for a cause of your choice.
After mainly hanging around in my front garden.....

The Marchers went off into the metropolis of Northwich to march along Whitton Street as part of national Yarn Shop day. The flags they all bore started off blank but but the end of the day people had added their ideas about thinks they would bother to march for.

The marchers have become slightly distracted from marching by a new commission. 4 of them are being employed to make up the numbers on a project called Knit A Year. With a little assistance they will be knitting their moods and blogging about it on www.knitayear.ning.com . You can witness their exploits and if you want to talk to them you can sign up to become a members of the knit a year site. Usually flexible in their personal traits and views they will be taking on characters inspired by the Knitting project for the next few weeks. They will then be appearing as part of the Inspired By Knit a Year exhibition at The Brindley Arts Centre in Runcorn in November.

What a motley crew!!

 The Marches time with the Knit a Year Project is coming to an end. They have knitted, blogged, staged a mini exhibition and now they are all set to feature in The Brindley Arts Centre Exhbition running from the 29th November to 10th January.

After hanging around in their undies eating cheesy wootsits for a while the marchers gained a new purpose when they attended a demo against Fracking in Frodsham. From a facebook post 42 people said that they would like a knitted person to represent them and say NO to fracking. Unfortunatlely the numbers took me by suprise and I could only locate 7 marchers. It would be great to have one person per request so if you fancy knitting a person to donate to this cause the pattern is below.

Marcher Pattern

Equipment

Whatever needles you can spare. (You will use them to support your finished marcher)

Neutral colour yarn of any kind

Big eyed needles to sew it together

Head

Cast on 10 stitches

Knit each row

Knit 27 rows

Cast off

To make the head shape

Sew together the cast off and cast on edges

Choose an end of the tube to sew up first

Using running stitch sew up and pull tight to gather it into the top of a head shape

Turn inside out

Stuff the head

Sew the bottom of the head up in the same way as the top. Leave a tail of wool to attach it to the body.

Body

Cast on 20 stitches

Knit Each Row

Knit 35 rows

Cast off

To make the body shape

Sew together the cast off and cast on edges

Choose an end of the tube to sew up first

Using running stitch sew up and pull tight to gather it into the top of a body shape

Turn inside out

Stuff the body

Sew a stitch in bottom of the body where the groin will be which pulls the front and back bottom together. This should leave two holes for the legs to go in like you get with a Barbie doll.

Arms

Cast on 5 stitches

Knit each row

Knit 40 rows

Pull thread through stitches on needles and tie off tight to create a pointed hand

To make the Arm shapes

Start at the hand end

Fold the arm in half and sew together close to the edge

The arms are too thin to turn inside out so they stay this way around

Legs

Cast on 7 stitches

Knit each row

Knit 40 rows

Cast off

To make the leg shapes

Start at the foot end

Fold the arm in half and sew together

Turn inside out

Stuff

To make the foot turn up the end of the leg and sew it to rest of leg with a few stitches (tip. if you sow through what will be the bottom of the foot and go back to here with your last stitch you can hide the cut thread ends under the foot)

To Sew it all together

Sew head on first (try to get the seams all at the back)

Sew Right arm on to body so that it hangs down

Sew left arm on to body so that it is raised in the air

Push each leg into the holes in the body and sew all around.

Push one needle through mans head, down back and out of well …his bum

Sew left hand around the other needle and then push the end of the needle into his leg …EKKKK.

Use his banner stick to feature a banner for anything you think he should march for, world peace, fluffy bunnies, more cake and less homework …..