fave quote - ""It's a bit like showering under Niagara Falls," her publisher, Meg Swansen, says of Ms. New's book." debbie new featured in a great article from canadian paper the globe and mail.
it's not like we need a batch of new projects at the moment, but every so often, we get wistful when we see these patterns:
teva durham's tunic from a 2002 interweave knits:
and grace, which we found in a rowan book.
"Ms. Wilson was expecting a few dozen requests a month for the pattern, but the ripple turned into a groundswell, and she estimates that she has sold about 750 Rogue downloads." tech/knitting article from the new york times. (requires subscription - hello bugmenot)
"Now that it’s apparently Okay To Knit again, let’s show those basic knit-one purl-one pub-types what’s really possible with some needles, the occasional knitting machine, and hope in your heart!"
now if that ain't a call to arms (or needles....), we dunno what is. let's just say we're now enrolled to go to TAFTA in geelong, for a week in sept/oct for fibrous fun and sculptural goodness with karen searle. after a lil' chat with janet de boer, it turns out that there's bursaries available to students (how cool is that?). so, if you wanna go, here's the information.
we have a little love affair with gertrude st fitzroy - it's the home of organic bakery, who do the most amazing foccacias - potato and rosemary, olive, blueberry and kirsch, and then there's books for cooks, which is exactly, deliciously that, and then there's St Lukes, home of fabulous art supplies, and then there's artisan....
"Artisan Books will be commencing our 4th annual beanie exhibition and sale toward the end of June, with a special emphasis placed on the wild and wacky. We welcome knitters/felters to send in their entries before the start of June and will be allocating a $50 book voucher to the craziest creation. Please contact us at the shop for details." need a little inspiration? check out ana's latest creation.
beautiful knitting news article with some rare research and pertinent info to it - the ancient craft of knitting.... what a way to go - cashmere and ebony needles.
we love them crafty sites - check out portland's nevertwice and handmadebazaar.
we'll happily admit - we're not too fond of feathers as shown in this charming "smile HARDER!" patons graphic. we know that if we do go to hell, satan will be checking in on us with a basketfull of feathers to knit. on a weekday walk in the city, you'll see feathers scarves strangling the necks of office workers. the 100% polyester fumes of said accessory, accompanied by commercial radio, grey office cubicles, public transport ticket checks, and lunchtime mcdonalds, is surely contributing to the downfall of not just beloved melbs, but of the nation as a whole.
we don't have a problem if you're smart with the stuff, and know how to mix it with a few other things, as suzette has done. we're a little of a same mind as bartender toby ceccini, author of cosmopolitan. whether you have a bar, or a yarn store, what you stock determines the feel of the place, and your clientele. given the large amount of customers for a store that we've seen walk inside the door, head straight for the pile of feathers, demand to know how much will make a scarf (how long is a ball of string, madame?), hand over the cash, and walk out, completely ignoring luscious mohair silk mixes, hand dyed wools, natural alpacas, that fluffy white and silver glitter stuff that marilyn monroe would love to have if she were still alive, tweeds, a thick mix which would make great dreads, baby yarn in all the colours of the rainbow, sock wool that could also be cleverly blended with other yarns to cut back the fluff, give a new texture, and calm down a full on colour.... is it any wonder that we're not fond of feathers?
we can fully understand why people stock it (or at least, why they did...we have a feeling that feathers is starting on a downhill run saleswise....), and people knit with it - there's a comfort factor - you've seen it elsewhere, your friend has a scarf in it, you want one too. we just reckon it would be rather thoughtful to knit something made out of wool which should smell a little like the animal it came from, not a chemical factory, and if you get the right stuff, supports the australian sheep farming industry while you're there...warm and fuzzy inside and out.
there's going to be a big bead get together in melbourne over the queen victoria weekend, including the previously mentioned anlaby designs - info for the bead symposium.
another chunk of beaded goodness - the japanese beads knitting book.
knitter? sure. organized? ha! still, thanks to the organised knitter, we can dream. (danke calamondin).
cat bordhi (the "stephen king of sock books" thanks to socks soar on two circular needles) does a stellar review of debbie new's unexpected knitting. (danke dbd)
the results of the crafternoon (a bunch of souls getting together to do crafty things) on fulling:
1 - before, after.
2 - before, after.
the scarf - before, after.
results - lincraft cosy wool does indeed felt like the clappers. a highly recommended fulling wool for all your knitting needs. whatever you do, keep a wide berth from fireside, which was what the scarf with holes (we prefer the term "deconstructed") was knitted in.
the machine knit fair isle is very cool - given it was done in 15 mins, we're really loving the stuff, so much that we're thinkin' studying textiles in machine knitting (we can feel our fellow machine knitters i-told-you-so smirks from here...).
the start of the ramie top.
if we went out and bought all the circular needles that we'd need for this project (size 15, 12, 10, 9 and 5.5 mm) it'd probably end up costing more than the yarn itself...insane. that's the trick for sleeves and main piece - start on big, and graduate to small, which gives the lacy effect, and also stops the base from curling, which is a nice design feature.
a non knitting moment - we love the french wirework on silver and hall who is turn put us onto anlady, who has patterns for knitted beaded bags, (we love elizabeth...pink cardie with gold bead trim, gold bead bag...we'll keep dreaming...).
well, it's meant to be out:
but after scouring the better part of inner city melbs (our treat after doing a few business things today), we'll just let creative knitting magazine find us. with any luck issue five is featuring the illustrations of loobylu, the writings of harveygal and a scarf pattern from yours truly. ok, for some folk the term scarf pattern is an oxymoron, but we've been assured that some people love the things, so much that ck is doing a scarf issue.
we're so happy to see this waratah gone:
the handknitters guild are piecing the whole thing together - squares of australian images - and raffling it off both at the mini wool expo and the craft expo at jeff's shed - more info about both those as it comes to hand.
the following pink dress is the beast from simple knits for cherished babies. simple? sure. time consuming and hellish on tiny needles? you betcha. it was knit with a really lovely mercerised cotton - thought it was heirloom, but we haven't seen anything like it since. seeing as we don't know of any incredibly young girls (or willing boys), it seems like a good donation to the handknitters guild for expo sale.
we're not quite sure what to do with the scarf:
it's the previous attempt with roving, only this time handknit. literally. if you haven't tried handknitting - that is "knitting" without needles, knitting with thick stuff (roving, rope, etc) is certainly helpful. we're tempted to full it a little, just to get the fibres a little stronger, but we're not sure about the look and weight of the whole thing. only one way to find out...
turns out both tina and yours truly are being a tad slow with angelina - members of the patterns of the past group doing the knit along are talking about the neck...heck! we're still on the sleeves:
tina still has a fair chunk to go - she hasn't started the sleeves yet, but that's ok...her angelina (or angeltina, as we like to call it...) is being knitted in a bendigo woollen mills wool/cotton/lycra mix "harmony" (a pink shade - perhaps the carnation or a newer shade that bendy has - old shade card..), which is more a spring knit. the mohair number in burgundy is more a wintry thing, so we're keen on getting it done.
something we didn't know before...our lace knitting skill before embarking on this project equals a grand total of one partly done pi shawl. tina admitted to a doily...so it's a good thing we're on a list with the creator of the pattern, plus of bunch of faster knitters who are hopefully just as hapless as us when it comes to lace.
surely, she's just forgotten or something. we were selling small crochet hooks on ebay, and our buyer hadn't sent payment. so we check up on her. we get a very polite apologetic email with a newslink to verify the info she gives us - her house has burnt down, she's lost two of her children, and she's currently using a friends computer to send the email.
no matter how we react to situations like this, it always seems wrong. we felt stupid sending an email back going terribly sorry...we'll send you the hooks anyway if you just give us an address. we've sent the hooks off along with a batch of vintage rayon that sharon gave back to us - it's a beast to knit with, but apparently great for fine crochet work. just hope that it's useful and of some comfort to the lady we sent it to.
we must've started the fuzzy feet last may, as a present for a friend. we're going to finish them before next weekend. it's a little amazing that we managed to get a photo taken as research for a portrait:
and even do the (new win. about 100k) painting itself , but no fff. this week is the week.
a great little tutorial - how to unravel a sweater. a very neat idea when you're short on cash, big on ideas, or just want to try something out on cheap wool - it doesn't come much better than thrifting. some beautiful recycled yarns on ebay. both these resources found on yarn tomato.
it's on again this sunday - a little knitting get together at cafe banter - here's the previous details. yes, it's mothers day, but crafty mothers (excuse the pun) could always negotiate for their loved ones to take 'em to cafe banter for lunch, the knitters could stay on, and the others could go watch the footy or whatever they normally do of a sunday arvo. everyone wins.
we're in love with the concept of the little jacket that's knit in one piece, designed by elizabeth zimmerman (her knitting workshop book is our current bedtime reading) - the baby surprise. we don't have any babies to knit for, but they seem to have a habit of popping up out of nowhere, so there's no harm in being prepared...we're too busy with other projects to knit at the moment, but we've subscribed to the knit baby surprise group and noticed that they have a 10 day knitalong...this sounds great. hopefully, we'll be able to do the next one.
a genius idea - do debbie new's scribble lace on the adult surprise jacket - thought up by lisa at blogdogblog.
the mini wool and craft expo organised by the handknitters guild would have to be one of the best community organised knit related get together things we've ever been to. mark it down in your diary and keep it free - sunday 6th june 2004, 10am to 3.30pm at brunswick town hall (sydney road brunswick - catch a #19 north coburg tram from elizabeth st in the city). there's free entry, door prizes, a chance to contribute to an attempt at the worlds longest scarf, a 12pm speed knitting competition, knitting lessons, and lots of vendors showing off their stuff under one roof:
martas yarns
sarah durrant
yarn barn
wendy dennis
plus heaps more including the infamous $1 a ball wool sale (however, if they are a bit more than that, don't kill the messenger, but they will be fabulously cheap), and other yarns, fibres, books, keepsakes, garments and craft demonstrations. so, it's truly worthwhile going, save up yr pennies beforehand, and be sure to bring a large bag!
erika knight must have been reading our mind or something. knitting with wire, knitting with plastic bags, knitting with ruvly pink guff...and knitting with ribbon, as shown on the cover of her new book. we love the photography, and the homely, designy feel of the thing (very donna hay meets knitting), but it all feels a tad useless - when are you honestly going to wear (and wash) ribbon slippers?
another one on the ribbon front which could be put to slightly more practical applications (bottom of a summer top, perhaps?) a ribbon laced vintage lattice pattern.
