Free copy of Through the Eye of a Needle

If you remember, back in August I reviewed a new book by John-Paul Flintoff called Through the Eye of a Needle that is all about John-Paul's attempts to approach self-reliance through trying to make his own clothes.

The Green Shopping Catalogue currently has a very special offer running - if you spend over £30 with them they'll add a free copy of Through the Eye of the Needle to your parcel when they send it out. You don't have to do anything special when you place your order - the elves at the other end will do it all magically.

I'm sure you'll find plenty of goodies to catch your eye in the Green Shopping Catalogue (and rest assured that they're all earth-friendly), but if you're stuck for ideas then you could always take a look at my book :D

Not just on one day a year

CSV are hosting another "Make a difference day" this year - lots of ideas to get involved, including a really simple pattern for a knitted i-pod cosy. The patterns says you need 50g of DK but I've done three from one ball, and look like having enough for a fourth. This makes it a great way to re-cycle all those little scrappy ends that you just don't know what to do with

Morsbag marathon

This morning I have come up with a bit of a bonkers idea. I am going to a garden bloggers event next month and I was thinking that it would be nice to give everyone a bag of goodies to take home, as if they'd been to a conference - only far more useful and less environmentally damaging and commercial.

I have some ideas for content (although any more ideas would be gratefully received), but was nearly thrown by the bags. Where do you get 30+ eco-friendly bags without paying a fortune?

The idea I have come up with is to turn the scrap fabric lying around the house into morsbags. I have been planning to do it anyway, but this would give me a deadline - the event is 24th October. I'm not sure of the final numbers, and probably won't be for a while, but currently it's in the region of 30. If I had 30 bags that would probably be enough for everyone (some people are coming as couples and could share, so a few less wouldn't matter).

I am set up as a morsbags pod (all by myself, very unsociable!) and have ordered 30 labels. So the challenge is this - can I make 30 morsbags (having never made one before) before 24th October? It's almost one every day.... I will keep you posted!


***Update: I'm not getting anywhere with this. I don't know enough about sewing and there's no one to help me at the moment, so I will have to give up for now and try something else.***

Iris von Brandstatter

I went to Leicester to sign copies of my book yesterday, but the highlight of the event was meeting Iris von Brandstatter, a phenomenal artist who makes - among other things - handmade jewellery (or jewelry, if you're in the US :)

Iris is very eco-conscious and uses a lot of recycled items in her pieces, and also fairly traded gem stones. All of her gift boxes are made of recycled materials. It was hard to choose, but I bought the necklace shown above. The intriguing charm is apparently a metal insignia used in the Japanese (or possible Korean) tea trade to indicate which type of tea is contained within a crate. I Googled it this morning, but couldn't find out what it might be called, or what this one might say - so if you have some ideas then let me know!

The other side of the charm is just as gorgeous -



If you'd like one of Iris' designs then these are her details:

Herman Friendship Cake

This is Herman, the first full-sized cake I've ever baked. Herman arrived with us via a neighbour - he's a Friendship cake, designed to be shared out among friends and neighbours. Herman arrives as a starter that you keep alive and nurture so that he grows. After about 10 days, Herman is large enough to divide up - you bake with part, keep a part to continue Herman and pass the surplus on. I only have the instructions to keep my Herman alive, not make one, but if you follow the link above there's a recipe for a starter and for several different Herman cakes.

Our Herman cake contains cinnamon and raisins, and although I don't generally like fruit cake, Herman is really tasty. He's turned out just the right sort of crumbly, with a bit of a crispy crust, and you can eat him just as he is - he's not too sweet, but he doesn't need to be iced either.

I used 3 eggs from our chickens to make Herman, so there's a home grown component too! Whether my Herman success was beginner's luck remains to be seen, but in the meantime we have homemade cake this week!

Book review: Through the Eye of a Needle

When I went down to see my publisher and pick up copies of my book they very kindly gave me a copy of one of the other books they're publishing at the same time - 'Through the eye of the needle', by John-Paul Flintoff. Had they not done so, I would have bought a copy anyway, because the subtitle of the book is 'The true story of a man who went searching for meaning - and ended up making his own Y-fronts' and I thought I would pick up some tips about making my own clothes, which is something I have been thinking about for years (since I hate buying clothes) but haven't really got around to trying (because I can't draw).

When I started reading it I realized that I had the wrong end of the stick, to a certain extent, but I wasn't disappointed because the book is a good read and follows a path I can relate to.

It's divided into two parts, and then into lots of short chapters, which makes it ideal if you have to read in short bursts (on the train, in the doctor's waiting room, under the covers with a torch). In Part 1 the author wakes up to some of the ways in which his life has been unethical and unsustainable - including jetting across the Atlantic to have two suits made to measure which he never wears and were almost certainly made by sweat shop workers.

He then undertakes several activities which are, at a first glance, completely unrelated: engaging a personal shopper, trying out various religions and outsourcing his life. He investigates political parties, examines economic theories and learns out environmental issues such as climate change and Peak Oil. At the end of the first part, he comes to a conclusion that will be familiar to many who have followed a different path to enlightenment - if you're not part of the solution then you're generally part of the problem.

In Part 2, with the same energy and enthusiasm and a certain amount of clandestine activity (according to the book, his wife does not share his passions), the author starts down the path to self-reliance, making shelves and killing rats. He discovers permaculture and starts making his own clothes - some from scratch and some repurposed from old material. He embarks on some major experiments, encouraging the inmates of an old people's home to get involved in craft projects, and trying to rediscover the (almost) lost art of making yarn from nettles.

By the end of the book he has made a complete outfit, including underpants, but it's not the point of the book. The point of the book, in all it's slightly batty glory, is that we have allowed ourselves to become disenfranchised, removed from the things that really make us happy in life and constantly spoonfed the idea that we're all fairly useless and need lots of things to be made for us in order that we might continue to exist.

'Through the Eye of a Needle' is a thoroughly enjoyable read, but don't expect to finish it in a hurry - as soon as you begin Part 2 your head will be filling up with Things You Can Do, craft projects to try, and you'll be jumping up to get on with them. So whilst it won't tell you how to make your own clothes, it will inspire you to find out, which is a much better thing :)

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'Through the Eye of the Needle' is officially published on 17th August. If you can't wait, you can order directly from the publisher via the Green Shopping catalogue. From 17th August you'll also be able to buy it from Amazon or order it from your local bookshop.

Say it With Seeds

This morning I have been making some 'Thank You' cards for the lovely people who wrote reviews for my new book - The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z. If you click through you can read them in Amazon's Product Description section (they also appear on the back of the book).

Each one is being sent out with a packet of home-saved seeds, in home-made seed envelopes made from scrap paper :D