woohoo! the $1 a ball SEX (sheesh...we can just imagine a few old ladies going for it with the sherry to come up with this one - the gonad free Stash Enhancement eXpedition, much like those suss looking bacon wrapped sausages from the 70's...) is happening the 6th July at organic wholefoods, 452 lygon street, brunswick (as in not the italian end, but east brunswick, away from the city on the 01 and 22 tram line - check the map).
we met up with janet when she was selling off her stash from her now closed woolstore at the handknitters mini wool show last month - after snagging a garbage bag load of wool, we were silly/besotted/knit mad enough to ask if she had more. she does. a whole ute load. we'll be posting closer to the date the sort of thing that she'll have available, but treating last time as a guide - small amounts (ie..not a jumper lot) of specialty yarn, a decent amount of white yarn in various guises (baby wool, loopy mohair) summer yarns (cottons and blends) and a total grab bag of more unusual hard to find things - sock wool, complete with the little bobbins of elastic inside and the like. all yarn is at least a season old, and well known brand names such as sirdar, cleckheaton, crucci etc.
to make it a worthwhile sunday outing, just up from janet's $1 a ball extravaganza is the knitter's workshop at 506 lygon (see previous entry). strangely enough, when we posted that entry, we just really, really liked the store. next sunday, we'll be in there - working! so, if you haven't been, now you have a really lovely excuse to come check it out.
also on - it's the monthly meeting day for the handknitter's guild at 211 moreland road (simply snag a 22 tram from lygon) ...we're definitely keen on going given how we need to get a grip fast on learning how to knit continental - one of the ladies we met at the mini wool thinger offered to give us an extended lesson there, so if you'd fancy meeting up with birds of a feather (apparently they also have an awesome stash on vintage patterns...mmmm...), you might like to get along there too.
so, turn up to organic wholefoods (it's a ruvly cafe which does a mean breakfast) from 11am with your cash, a nice big bag, and a little knitting to sit and have a chat with friends new and old. should the cafe situation get a little out of control or you arrive early (organics opens at 11) there's a couple of others around on lygon that are great too - we're keen on thangs (502 lygon) and there's also small block (130 lygon).
the govt. decision to make entry into museum victoria's campuses free for children and concession holders, and $6 for adults is a fine one - we're looking forward to checking out the holes surrounded by thread exhibition. smart curating in action by showing the history of lace, but also bringing in lorinda grant for a bit of modern work too. the melbs knitting.meetup is tonight - see you there.
for those interested in getting together in melbs, there's a couple of options underway that meet at regular monthly intervals - knitting.meetup.com and stitchnbitch melbourne. if you've been to other meetups and get togethers organised through the internet, the bonus with knitting meetups is that they don't seem quite so awkward, and it's just a nice excuse to relax, sit down with a coffee and get some knitting done.
"The head waiter told us all that knitting should be done at home and he told authur that he shouldn't knit because he is a boy, and he should get up and fight instead!" - from the castoff message boards, regarding getting kicked out of the savoy hotel. we thought the savoy was meant to be this uber posh, terribly expensive place to go - when we were in london, we didn't dare go in, but just ogled the swish frontage of the place.
love the idea of knitting somewhere like that though - guess that the closest thing we have in melbs is the hopetoun tea rooms - it would be fun to dress vintage style and have a grand get together with tea, scones, cucumber sandwiches and a bunch of people knitting.
just in case you've seen the australian creative knitting mag, and an added bonus for those who didn't - where did the cyberknitting picture come from? claire robertson does deluxe illustrations - you can find her at loobylu.com and clairetown.com. before going o/s for a while, we caught up with claire (her version | ours), and it was one of many reasons to move to melbs. one of the first things that we knitted on arriving here was a little hat and scarf for babies c/o debbie bliss. here's the hat on claire's daughter, amelia.
beautiful, and definitely not your bog standard design:
there's the pdf download of a wedding dress on interweave knits.
princess leia's head doughnuts are now a source of inspiration. dig the crocheted borg at ana's hats.
other movies as inspiration - sussdesigns made some simple cotton tops for the matrix guys to wear - the pattern is in
hollywood knits: 30 original suss designs.
we haven't seen the history of nyc epic gangs of new york, but after reading an article about the costume designer sandy powell, we're keen. from the article - "powell also kept in mind that people would have dressed to suit their lifestyles, and costumed them accordingly. "The women of the time would have been in corsets and full-length skirts, but in this particular world the women were as tough as the men, so it wouldn't seem right having them run around in crinolines. I needed to make them more mobile. So we chopped off the lengths of the skirts and gave them trousers to wear underneath. The idea is that they got whatever they could lay their hands on. People customized clothes to create a look." ".
in the article there's a photo of cameron diaz wearing a satin corset embroidered with flowers, with a kimono style top underneath. pictorial example coming soon of what powell is talking about, and the thought of converting it to knitting...whoa. it'd be full on, but gorgeous. scan coming...
the corset/top combo is a brilliant example of divide and conquer, a term picked up from "what not to wear" - book, bbc show w/ examples. a very fast tutorial for those considering knitting clothes - take it with a grain of salt - if it works for you, ace. if it doesn't, well, sally forth and enjoy yourself, you rebellious rulebreaker you.
do you have a decent sized chest? in order to look a little more in proportion and other good things, it helps heaps to wear things that are lower cut. we're talking vnecks, scoop necks, anything that will give you a decent expanse of chest without fabric. if you do have a top that doesn't divide and conquer, if you make it pale and whack a divide and conquer jacket over the top, you're set.
no boobs/wanting to look a little chunkier? you're lucky in that you can wear all the skimpy things in the world that don't require support (hello new summer (summer our butt, considering we're writing this cuddled into blanket, heater full bore) edition of knitty with tiny tops). there are whole books with knitting patterns for you - vintage knits (delicately made tops, and vintage pattern/petite women thing going on), and vogue knitting: quick knits (you want bulk? you got it!) are both fab.
a list on amazon close to our heart, because it encourages the knitter to educate themselves - do your own thing!.
