"Knitphomania" is a term coined to highlight the rise in popularity of knitting. The embrace of this traditional craft comes at a time when technology is so common, many are rediscovering classic pastimes to rest their minds. Research has shown that the rhythmic and repetitive movements displayed whilst knitting can induce a form of relaxation, or meditation, which can help to treat conditions such as depression or chronic pain.

Whilst not everyone uses knitting as a direct form of therapy, the craft has undeniably relaxing characteristics—something that designer Kaffe Fassett is particularly enthusiastic about.

Kaffe moved to England in 1964 from his birthplace in San Francisco. The Beatles were hitting the headlines, England entered the European Championships for the first time and Kaffe was edging his way into textile design.

Photo: Kaffe Fassett with some of his textile work.

He began his career as a painter in London, coming to Britain on the advice of a friend, after initially deciding to bypass the country on a tour of Europe. He was told that England would be "good for him" and set off to find out what this meant. After visiting Italy and France, amongst other locations, he arrived in the land he had once thought un-exotic and of little interest to him. To his surprise, he discovered that it was "more exotic than any of those places".

England allowed Kaffe to explore heritage and humour that was as yet unknown to him. And, after, visiting a Scottish mill his passion for knitting was ignited. Here's a short video interview with Kaffe on where this interest led him. The full interview is available here.

I first encountered HTML back when MySpace was still cool. Tweaking the code behind my profile felt powerful, back when powerful meant changing webpage colours from white to black and back again.

And today? Well, Facebook is stuck in its blue and white uniform, affording no opportunity for super-basic HTML tweaks by non-coders like me. There's an Internet full of other opportunities, sure. I could code my own game! Make a website! No. I can't. My lack of knowledge is such that I feel like a poodle trying to make sense of a game of Scrabble. It's difficult.

Or rather, it was difficult. All of the above applied until last week when I attended Code in a Day, a one day course run by Decoded, London's newest coding school. It was founded in late 2011 by four people—an ad legend, a web evangelist, a wonder woman and a champion decoder—passionate to teach about coding. 

Decoded's ideas on this subject are straight and simple. Their motto is 'digital enlightenment'. Here's what they say: Code powers the web. People need to code. Everyone can learn to code. 

Still, I was a little skeptical of the promise of a one day miracle. I knew that most coders were self-taught, putting in hard hours late into the night. But, on the course, I quickly discarded my prejudices (plus those half-remembered HTML colour tags from 2004) and enjoyed the fact I knew nothing of coding logistics. Decoded didn’t expect me to. Everyone on the course was equally uninformed. Horray.

We began with a potted history of computer programming. Who was the first computer programmer? Ada Lovelace, the poet Lord Byron's daughter. Why is Flash—one-time maker of kooky webscapes—dead? Read Steve Jobs' letter on the subject. What is the game Angry Birds coded in? What’s HTML5? And so on.

After the history lesson, we got up to speed with the present. John Ridpath, our course tutor, guided us through a simple assembly of HTML and CSS. We moved onto JavaScript after lunch. We followed clear principles about how to conceptualise these languages. HTML is web content. CSS is web design. JavaScript is web behavior. Put together you get the visible, front matter of a website. And you feel like a BAMF along the way.

Decoded don’t just talk about code, they do it. So without even being aware of it, we were working towards creating a functioning web-app: something halfway between a webpage and a useful tool. Sneaky.

My final app is online here. The concept is to list swimming pools in my local area. The only problem is that it's not quite working, that’s why “Swim in Bristol!” is flashing up. This means I need to tweak the JavaScript, alter the code, fix the problem.

And in their characteristically helpful way, the Decoded team encourage people to do just that. They give course alumni access to their server, and a wealth of online recourses to guide the process. Coding might just be possible after all. But poodles definitely can't play Scrabble.

Made with years of love and memories, here at oh comely we can’t help but get a little bit soft-hearted when we see handmade quilts. The Festival of Quilts is a full decade into celebrating this age old craft, and are marking their first ten years with a very special bill of events this August 16th-18th.

Not just for the dedicated quilter, the ‘quilter curious’ are also welcomed to the quilt festival, as Birmingham’s NEC turns into a treasure trove of hidden haberdashery gems. The festival’s offerings this year include; live quilting, super-swish supply shopping, workshops, lectures, evening events and of course, quilting experts on hand to swap tips and share stories.

The star of this show is an exhibition of international and local quilters which we're hoping to pop along to. But having poked our nose into their full programme we've also hand-picked a few of the extra events, twinkling out at us.

Hats are the dress code for all quilting socialites as day one’s 10th Birthday Tea Party kicks things off with tea, cake and a great view of the festival’s award ceremony. Sing a Song of Quilting is a way to learn a brief history of this art. And not ones to refuse a natter over freshly brewed coffee, Region 14 of the Quilters Guild’s Coffee Morning also caught our eye. Events also run for the smaller crafters, starting from age four up to sixteen.

A celebration of uniqueness and imagination, we can’t wait to see what another ten years will bring. Vive la quilting.

Sugary biscuits and a nice sit down are usually what's advised after giving blood. Leigh Bowser, creator of The Blood Bag Project, suggests a similar after-care treatment for her crafty donation.

Leigh first put her craft hat on when her niece Chloe was diagnosed with a super-rare blood condition, Diamond Blackfan Anaemia. To put it into numbers, Chloe requires transfusions every four to five weeks for the next ten years. The average person is only able to donate blood once every three months. On realising Leigh herself was unable to give blood — and therefore unable to support Chole in her treatment — she decided to raise awareness of the importance of blood donation through craft.

Using the traditional blood bag design, Leigh's website allows you to download a template (blood) bag for your arty imagination to run wild. By designing on blood bags, Leigh hopes the message will hit home as to how important it is to donate if you can. As well as unlocking your own creativity and crafter satisfaction.

Looking at submissions so far, there has been a lot of the out-of-the-bag thinking. Some of our favourites include; toy soldiers, buttons, feathers and even Super Mario themed bags. Leigh's target of 100 individually designed bags is now exceeded, and she holds regular workshops in and around Huddersfield to keep awareness going — check their Facebook page and website for dates.

An exhibition for all submissions will run for two days in September 8th-9th at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield and we can't wait to see just what people have been up to; sewing, sticking, painting, gluing, gripping and knitting for a very good cause.

We think it's a fabulous way to get brains ticking about this condition and to motivate people into thinking about giving blood. So if you've been looking for a good reason to put your craft foot forward, head over and support Leigh's goal. B.Y.O.B (Bring your own biscuits!)

Pretty paper dolls joining hands in one neat and far off row is a good way to think about Cat Morely's blog community, Cut Out + Keep. Full of creative people from across the globe, making and sharing step-by-step craft tutorials, Cut Out + Keep lets you wake up to see which new projects have been posted while you've been asleep.

We spoke to founder Cat about having a job that never gets tedious.

Where did the name Cut Out + Keep come from?

Cut Out + Keep was the name I gave my first ever blog. I loved the idea that people might like to "cut out + keep" (or bookmark) tutorials from my blog to make themselves later. The name stuck as my blog transformed in to a community for everyone to make and share projects. And today it feels more appropriate than ever.

Have you always wanted to create things?

I've been crafting for as long as I can remember. I recently found a huge box in my parent's attic filled with creations I'd made when I was little. I'm not sure what the very first thing I ever made was, but two of the most memorable creations are; the Spice Eggs four eggs decorated like the Spice Girls for Easter and a comic book series about a couple of criminals called Spitgroan and Smellfighter. Both creations had been kept pristinely over the years in that box in the attic!

Cut Out + Keep is a truly flourishing community, what does it mean to you? Tell us about a moment from the community or its journey that has inspired you.

The growth of the site has been really gradual, so it's sometimes hard to get a perspective on how large the community is. I always get so excited when a friend tells me they were speaking to someone who's heard of the site - especially if they're in a faraway country. One of the most amazing moments for me was recently through a new feature called, Crafter To The Stars where I'm making projects for my favourite celebrities. It's so inspiring to see something I've made worn by my heroes and real life stars.

Can you tell us about three of your favourite projects?

My all time favourite project is the Rainbow Cupcakes, which people still add versions of. There are over 100. Another favourite is a Chipfork Necklace, shared by London jewellery designer Tatty Devine - it's so quirky and cute and a great representation of the projects on the site. A recent favourite is the Illuminated Love Canvas. Which is a really simple idea but looks absolutely amazing. I can't wait to make one for my bedroom!

We all cherish that wonderful feeling of getting a parcel in the post; a present wrapped up in paper and addressed just to us. But, sadly, all that seems to come through the letterbox with our name on it are bills and the occasional card.

The lovely folk at Not Another Bill are determined to change this unfortunate situation by sending their subscribers surprise gifts each month. They work with designers and brands or they simply pick something canny from a vintage market just for you. A subscription is £15/month. Below is a selection of some Not Another Bill presents.

Photo: A necklace from Studio Fludd, inspired by alchemy.

Photo: Historic folding maps from this antiquarian seller. 

Photo: A dust sweep from the Swedish company Iris Hankvert who employ visually impaired craftsmen to make their goods.

Our friends over at Huck magazine have a wonderful little competition going on. You see, they went to interview surfer-artist Thomas Campbell at his Bonny Doon studio in North California, and he gave them two beautiful handmade flowers to giveaway. They are cheery and pretty, and we'd rather like to hang one on our wall to brighten up the day.

To win one of the flowers, send a postcard to: ATT: Ummm... TCOLondon, 71A Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4QS. All bad and boring postcards will be accepted, especially those that feature cats! Don’t forget to include your email address, postal address and phone number on the back and make sure you get it in by June 1st. For more information visit the Huck website. 

I'm nothing if not ambitious. When I opened my pack of Cass Art Robobauble Christmas cards I zoned right in on the most difficult one to make - RoboSanta.

The Christmas cards are printed with five different designs to cut up and make your own Christmas baubles from. Theoretically you are just glue and a pair of scissors away from original and artistic tree decorations. Art, craft and correspondance in a slim, festive envelope - irresistible to us. The cards don't have actual difficulty ratings on them but the RoboElves, RoboAngels and RoboChrismasPudding must be easier. Surely?

In retrospect it might have been more sensible to start small, with the RoboAngel say. That isn't how I roll though. When I'm faced with a packet of Christmas cards that you can transform into Christmas baubles it is go hard or go home. I want to make the biggest, gaudiest, most complicated bauble available.

Photo: Some of the Robo-Christmas creatures you can try your hand at.

Really, really what I should have done was to send the RoboSanta Chrismas card to a friend. I should have sent my affection and Christmas wishes, the joy of making and a bauble, to a loved one to enjoy. That is presumably what artist and musician Matthew Robins had in mind when he designed the cards. But, no, I was greedy. I called it scientific research but actually I just can't walk away from an opportunity to make a big mess.

I could give RoboSanta as a gift. My friends are very polite, I'm sure they would pretend to be thrilled. He isn't very presentable though. My Pritt-stick had dried out so I had to make do with a tube of Uhu. It is impressively sticky but it does get everywhere. By the time I had finally finished RoboSanta I had backed myself into a corner, surrounded and entrapped by an impenetrable cobweb of glue. Lots of that cobweb still clings to RoboSanta who, I notice now, only has one foot. No idea where the other one got to.

Photo: My very handsome RoboSanta (without one foot).

Don't get me wrong, I had a grand time. I spent most of my childhood engrossed in overambitious craft projects so I felt right at home. I just know that I'm the only person who will truly appreciate my RoboSanta. My friends will be the receiving their cards intact instead. Then they will get to share in the messy, frustrating, satisfactory festive fun.

The joy of these cards is in the journey rather than the destination. They certainly perk up the routine of card sending. Pick up your own pack of Robobauble cards from Cass Art stores around London.