jo sharp is a western oz knitwear designer and manufacturer of some really luscious yarns who has a new batch coming out late this year in australia, but those lucky kids o/s in europe and the u.s have already got their mitts on it. knittingfever has the new yarns for yr gawking.
doing a little search of knitting news around the world, there's some pearlers....
"The knitting craze sweeping trendy Melbourne cafes appears to have spread to Shepparton judging by the outstanding response to the 2003 Guardian Angel Knitting Project. " craze? sweeping? trendy melbs cafes? yeah. right. hmmm. perhaps if we substitute "journalism craze" "infecting" and "desperate media" it's a little closer to target. full story.
there's an article about wal mart in the u.s. and how stores can compete against them...an issue becoming increasing closer to home. Big W, of all places is now stocking knitting pattern books (and no doubt, plenty of feathers, too!) and advertising through editorial in related mags such as good taste (woolworths have their fingers in both goodtaste and bigw pies, of course.) the problem is, stocking a full set of knitting needles isn't enough, because in a smaller store, customers expect the full range of knitting needles, the full range of the yarn they want to use, the full range of patterns, and the full range of pattern books at the cheapest price possible in a small store. that's a big ask. pertinent bit from the article - "He suggested that retailers should offer different merchandise from the standardized Wal-Mart—or complementary merchandise that Wal-Mart doesn’t carry to go with what they offer. As an example, he said, if Wal-Mart sells yarn but only two sizes of knitting needles, a local business could carry a complete selection of knitting needles.
He also said a local business should have exceptional product knowledge, “so that the customer comes to you to find out why it doesn’t work the way they want it to work when they’re doing their knitting,” reliable guaranteed services and the lowest possible prices, although “you don’t have to beat their price.”"
full story
proving that knitters do indeed lead interesting double lives - "Presiding over two of the largest communist spy networks in the late 1940s, Bentley earned her KGB moniker, "Clever Girl," by arranging clandestine meetings with U.S. government officials and hiding documents in her knitting bag."
full story.
interesting chunk o' news re: euro designer julien mcdonald:
"After a degree in textiles at Brighton, Macdonald won a place on the MA course at the Royal College of Art, where his flair for creating the wispiest of cobweb knits was spotted by Karl Lagerfeld.
“At the time, I was only 20. I lived in a one-bedroom flat in Finsbury Park and I knitted the most expensive Chanel couture dresses by hand, sat on my single bed. Those dresses were bought by the most incredible women in the world.
Karl saw my talent from a young age. He taught me about dressing, about sophistication, about the elegance and the beauty in a woman. Nobody understands a woman like Karl.” "
from the age.
the reason for the gap between entries is just that there's a bit on at the moment, and it's been a wee bit important to take time out - including time out from computing machine screens. the last couple of days has been spent going back to school - that is, lace knitting school, with margaret stove as teacher. she was an incredibly organised, talented tutor, who was great for catering to all levels. after all, she had us - on the under side of menopause, first stab at lace knitting, and giggling like a schoolkid at every mention of the term "faggoting" (which does have specific meaning in knitting, but we're sure that brian from queer as folk has erm...other ideas...). on the flipside were some truly talented knitters - carmel hanna (dubbed hardcore hanna for her involvement in the handweavers and spinners guild, entry and pattern in australian yarn art etc...) and the like. lace knitting was a good thing to do and practice, and going into a project like ez's pi shawl doesn't seem like such a huge undertaking now.