Readers by now should be familiar with the ongoing Kerrie Allman debacle.

First Magknits, then Hipknits. The first major publishing company Kerrie setup as KAL Media Ltd was liquidated in June 2011 with debts of £201,000. This was phoenixed into All Craft Media (ACM) which was forced into administration in May 2012 with debts of over £175,000.

More history can be read about here, here, and here.

So, getting back to the setting up of the company Handmade Living Magazine Limited by Kerrie’s father Richard Rycroft. On 25th July 2012 a name change was registered with Companies House changing it to Craft Magazine Limited.

You’ll remember that The Craft Magazine Shop was the company who bought the following titles:

• Sew Hip (now known as Simply Sewing)
• Handmade Fashion
• Modern Quilting
• Simply Beautiful

and who are additionally publishing

• Handmade Wedding
• Quilting Collection (a “bookazine”)

and the owner was named as “Derek Barnes”. The company who sold the titles to Derek Barnes advised that titles had not been sold to Kerrie or any of her family. A prominent blogger (PomPom) has been contacted with information that Derek Barnes is not only a relative of Kerrie Allman, but is also deceased.

It was already known that Kerrie’s mother (Shirley Rycroft) and sister (Jenna Rycroft) were working for Craft Magazine Shop. Kerrie herself had been commissioning articles, photographs, and offering people jobs with the new publisher. In addition, the editor of the magazines, a Jenna Smith-Clarke, has been identified (from the photograph in the magazines) as Kerrie’s cousin Nikki Bladon.

So, if you are considering engaging with Craft Magazine Shop in any capacity (printer, advertiser, contributor, subscriber) please familiarise yourself with the previous operations of Kerrie Allman and her family, because she is involved with these publications even if she has hidden behind family members.