All the Cool kids are Knitting

Belonging to a knitting group has, against all the the odds, become trendy.

Be cool with wool
French company Wool & the Gang has re-packaged the idea of knitting your own clothes as uber-cool and trendy. The company's DIY knitting sets comprise of yarn, wooden knitting needles, knitting pattern, sewing needle and customisation material. The knitter then has a choice of cotton, wool and alpaca materials, whilst the kits range in proficiency levels from beginner via intermediate to experienced.

The knitting kits vary in price and style, from a Tala tank top for EUR55 (three balls of 100% Peruvian Pima Cotton), Tween Spirit children's jumper at EUR89 (four balls of 100% Peruvian Baby Alpaca), to (Mahal poncho at Eur159 ( 14 balls of 100% Peruvian Pima Cotton and 8mm wooden needles). There is also a choice of colour for each set, ranging from three to seven different colours.

The kits have a trendy, minimalist look and are supported by video help, blogs and social networking pages (eg Facebook) where knitters are encouraged to show photos of their final designs.
Knitting communites
Knitting has seen a resurgence of late, spurred on by events such as London's iconic Ritzy cinema offering special film showings for Knitflicks - a social knitting group who watch films whilst they knit (with the lights on), designer Missoni's A/W 09 knitted fashion collection and celebrities such as Madonna, Kate Moss and Julia Roberts revealing that they 'knit to relax'.

The social element of knitting ties in with Mintel's Inspire trend called Horizontal Communities. This trend describes how communities that previously were built on vertical assumptions of where you were born, are giving way to new horizontal associations based on interests, work or hobbies. Such as knitting. Knitting has been made more sociable and acceptable through being able to reach young people through social networking sites and interactive websites, and creating wide ranging groups going across age, demographics and geography. Retailers need to sit up and take notice, especially as the onset of dark winter evenings may see growing interest in this trend.
— September 02, 2009

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Tea Rating

We carried out tea and biscuits rating with my housemates in which everyone rated each tea and biscuit out of 5, but didn't know which they were drinking.

There was then a biscuit dunk off where each biscuit was dunked as many times as it could before breaking off into the tea.

The whole event was very amusing, and my housemates definately enjoyed all the free tea drinking and biscuit eating!!

KAte

Granny Pants

Making granny pants look sexy...

Kate

Cat Granny

haha found this when researching.

Kate

Best Vintage

Best Vintage has stores in Belfast, Manchester and Leeds and has a vaast collection of Vintage clothes for everyone in some of the major cities in the UK.

Kate

Vintage Warehouse

Although its only situated in Nottingham and is an independant store (I think!? possibly one in Manchester but I'm not sure if its the same company) this place is a vintage GEM!!

Even by the pictures, its clear to see this place is packed with clothes and character and has provided me and my friends with many fancy dress costumes (80's shell suits and 80's footballers-great retro footy shirts!) and with some sick retro clothing.

The best thing about this place is the price! cheap as chips and perfect for students. This would definately be worth a visit when visiting Notts.

Kate

Cow Vintage

Cow vintage clothing is based in Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield and is therefore the perfect place for students to find the best vintage bargains. With their student lock in with free beer AND a 10% discount, this great vintage store attracts the student population with ease and therefore perfect for the mag.

Kate

Beyond Retro

Our large-scale stores are packed full of thousands of one-of-a-kind vintage garments, handpicked from all over the globe, and spanning the decades from the 1900s through to the 1990s. With a century’s worth of vintage clothing to rifle through, you’re guaranteed to find a bargain!
Our eclectic and talented staff - made up of vintage clothing historians, performers, illustrators, designers and musicians - make Beyond Retro a creative hub which attracts fabulous individuals from all walks of life!

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This shop looks amazing, selling vintage clothes from all kinds of era's and styles. There are stores in Brighton and London and this could definately feature in the magazine as somewhere to go to get the best vintage clothing.

/Kate

Pop Boutique

The first Pop Boutique store opened in 1994 in Oldham Street ,Manchester in what is now referred to as the Northern Quarter. We had been running vintage clothing shops since 1983 and wanted to create a shop that didn't just sell vintage clothing but all manner of things your everyday vintage junkie might find interesting and even buy.The tumble weeds blew along Oldham Street as Manchester's Northern Quarter was in its infancy but the shop quickly gained the loyal following that it still has to this day
We decided it was time to expand and opened the second "Pop"in London once again choosing an up and coming area . We chose Seven Dials not far from Covent Garden and opened in Monmouth Street in 1996.We now have six shops and plan one more in 2010.Pop Boutique’s aim is to bring you fantastic vintage product at great prices and ever changing fashion on the POP label. Enjoy!!!

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Found this site when searching for places to buy vintage clothing as we want to feature an article on where to get the best vintage granny gear in our fashion section. However, having looked at it, it may be a bit too modern to pass as granny?

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Kate

http://adore-vintage.blogspot.com/

This a really nice blog I found when searching for vintage, I especially like the old photo's of the bloggers family.


Kate

Grannies Inc

We came across this Grannies Inc site in which actual Grannies from all over the UK knit you a personally designed Beanie. This again links together Grannies with students as they are a big fan of the granny beanie. We contacted Grannies Inc who are glad to support us in our magazine project by sending us the photo's above and answering our questions.