it's that time of year when knitting get togethers seem to be happening - on sundays, there's jazz and knitting (we're guessing it's not too far from wool baa) and we'll be going along to stitch'n'bitch melbourne, which sounds like it could well have its largest gathering tomorrow night.
it was all planned out - yep, go to marta's buy the rayon, and stash it for summer to make the dress. it's a 30% sale until the end of financial year. mad not to take advantage. we spent ages taking down the cones of rayon, comparing the colours, holding them up in a mirror, thinking colinette colour cominations... marta kindly let us know that the mighty magic ball method is a no go - rayon is the slipperiest devil to knit, and joining yarns? forget it. it's one of those things that we're just going to have to let go, and buy a dress like it.
whether an empire line dress in some freaky metallic fabric would suit us in the first place is the major question. we didn't love the idea. love is important. so we walked out of marta's with a pair of 4mm addi turbos.
at least it sounds like claire and suzette had fun though...erin scored with a summery cotton/rayon for a friend, and we both sort of lost it over the silk. it's under the counter (appropriate spot!) in a glass case. it's the softest, gleamiest stuff. it's also around $1000 a kilo. what you'd make with it, we're not quite sure, but it's the stuff of dreams.
"knitters gather for a good yarn" - my the puns are running thick this wintry time of year...check out the smh article featuring prudence mapstone freeforming. there's her knotjustknitting site too.
craft victoria's scarf festival starts today, with the opening night from 6pm tonight. press - the fun for the whole family "wool winds it's way into the city" and ms razer's "defiant group of radicals is out to unstitch global lethargy" we have the power.
we're guessing that helen won't be using the following copy elsewhere, and given it took a while to hammer out, here's the reprint in full:
For how long have you knitted, how did you acquire the skill?
i started knitting when i was about four - my grandma taught me the basics when she was doing the babysitting - along with all those other important housemotherly pursuits like cooking, sewing, crochet etc
when it comes to learning about knitting, it's not so much a one off thing of doing a class and that's it - there's so many different ways and techniques. i'm going to the geelong fibre forum for a week camp to learn about sculptural knitting from karen searle - a bit of a fibre arts genius.
When one knits/you knit publicly, what does this signify?
it's a time out from the everyday, a bit of a guilty pleasure and a chance to catch up with other people who understand how you spend too much time, money, and energy knitting. the biggest problem that i have when i go to meet up with other people is that no knitting gets done - you're too busy catching up, checking out what they're doing, reading the new knitterly books they've bought...
Is knitting more thrilling in contexts other than a rocking chair or CWA meeting?
we've yet to see extreme knitting take a hold in the same form as extreme ironing....although someone surely has got to give the odd knit one, purl one off a cliff a go.
it terms of people who are taking up knitting, it's a bit more across the board - the classic "it's not just for grandma". kelley deal from the breeders has probably helped things along with her knitting obsession. In an art context, there's been some more unusual stuff kicking around - such as ana voog's hats, debbie new's book "unexpected knitting" paves the way of letting go of the standard tea cosy and feathersTM scarf.
the internet has changed things for knitting in a major way. stitch'n'bitch groups have expanded (melbournes has around 150 members on its yahoo groups list), and debbie stoller's stitch'n'bitch book has sold over 100,000 copies, being a knitting bestseller book on amazon.com. Knitting weblogs, knitlists, and knit alongs (where groups form to knit the same thing and share the experience) are constantly increasing in number.
business is cashing in on the knitting trend - there's a new magazine in australia - creative knitting - which has an audience of around 13,000. yarn companies are marketing for the young hip audience - thick yarns that are quick to knit, unusual fibres like paper and rag which create more high fashion boutique type garments and patterns for items not normally associated with knitting - dresses, skirts, felted bags, shoes. wool stores are importing and offering new glitter filled huge needles, hand dyed yarns, self patterning sock wools and other unusual guff.
In your own experience, knitting an engaging hobby, an obsession or simply something to do with one's hands, mind and downtime?
all three. knitting has been work in a yarn store - it beats record stores hands down because the customers are generally female, practise good hygiene, and they want to buy. i've spent money, but i know others who have rooms full of yarn and patterns to knit, so i don't feel so bad. i've met a flatmate and gotten a job through people i've met knitting. i've knitted on public transport, in pubs, bars, coffee shops, movies, planes and houses, so it is a tad obsessive, but it's cheaper than therapy and beats smoking.
it's sale time - 30% off if you're paying cash at marta's yarns. hmm. she's open today. marta has those lovely addi turbo needles and the rayon to make the dress that we've been eyeing off. even though she usually only stocks single colours, rob point us in the direction of the magic ball method, so we could knit with every colour of pink, red, and whatever else we loved. it's very tempting to go, but sometimes, one has to face having enough stuff. for example: "'I never tell anyone to throw anything away." says Ward. "If you want to keep 572 knitting magazines, you have to provide adequate space for them.'" article about clutter busting from the financial times.
with info on their membership and classes, a good value trip to bendigo for the upcoming sheep and wool show and other assorted local guff, it's new beginnings for the melbourne handknitter's guild site.
latest haul is from the bead symposium over the weekend:
four(!!) packets of ruby glass beads. 1.5 (!!!)mm steel needles. lady from handknitters guild wrote pattern for beaded bag on brown bag from memory(!!!!). the stash is for making anlaby's "elizabeth" design.
the kite jacket in colinette is coming along:
something that took us a few rows to realise - even knitting in ribbing, it's important to knit with two balls of yarn, alternating rows, as we could see the start of colour staining - sometimes the multicolours in the rows of yarn match up, giving an unsightly blob of colour. kite is still small enough to take on public transport, much to the joy of an elderly greek lady who thought it was way too expensive, until we told her that the garment was for our mother..."your mother? she's worth a million dollars!". we're not going to argue with that.
joan has some shots of angelina live (requires windows media player and a decent connection) in the clips section of whiteliesdesigns. progress on angelina - we're up to the lace! no more ribbing! woohoo!
the circular needle at the bottom is where things are happening - the temporary cast on is off and we're racing (well...moving, at least). what we didn't realise is that we could've taken the cast on off at any time we were bored with the ribbing, but we guess one thing at a time is fine.
jen's lil' crochet critters comic and claire's japanese finds score bonus points for cuteness.
we've got a major jonesing for bags. why? maybe it's something to do with picking up "handbags - a lexicon of style" from the library. it's one of the most lush, detailed funky books we've seen about bags, which focusses on the modern designer stuff, shows a wide range of styles, and goes into the psychology of those lil' things that women feel obliged to carry around and pay exhorbitant amounts of money for. there's a couple that we're keen on adapting into knitted bags - chloe's leather tote:
and the exquisite gloria bag from french design duo jamin puech.
thanks to the sewing pattern sale on at the moment, we snapped up a vogue pattern which looks all designy too - hopefully that'll also translate into knit felty goodness. something a little more difficult to translate - so maybe we'll go into studying sculpture next year and try it out then - handbags from hardware store goodies.
angelina is getting a little hefty - it's time to leave this baby at home to knit, aside from meeting up with angeltina this afternoon at cafe banter. we've hit the lace part of the knitting - all the ribbing has been done (phew!), the bottom temporary cast on taken off, and the first few rows of lace done.
angelina's "mum" (mom, mother, et al...) joan m-m is in the press with "young women point the way in knitting trend". go joan! it's reassuring to see that following ones love can pay off, and that she has been able to have a lifestyle out of doing what she loves. (if like us you wanted to know what joan is wearing, it's a sorta summer version of angelina, masquerading as shelley's lace cardigan.
while we went to the handknitters guild expo with a shopping list of one 4mm addi turbo (no go - marta's is open sundays, so we'll pay a visit soon...) we caved into colinette from sarah durrant and bought the pattern for kite to knit for mum's birthday in september. she's in need of a wardrobe overhaul, so hopefully she'll be into the tones of venezia which are a lot more understated in the real life dyelot purchased compared to the web sample.
while we heartily congratulate derwent howard on another issue out, there's been a few "oops!" moments with the latest issue of creative knitting. a few garments have been sized small medium and large, which is fine, except there are no other measurements, no gauge, and no way of working out exactly how big something is meant to be. a tip - if you're submitting - please do give a recommended gauge.
here's the extra info for the "country cable cardigan" on p16:
Tension
20 sts and 26 rows equals 10 cm over stocking stitch on 4.5 mm needles
Small
Bust 98 cm
Length 55 cm 1 pattern repeat 6 cm if wish longer
Medium
Bust 106 cm
Length 67 cm
Large
Bust 116cm
Length 73 cm
the cardie comes from nundle woollen mills - contact them for a free shadecard. we also like the "time for a yarn" article about minxknits, also located in nundle.
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if you happen to be remote, bedridden or overseas, and are keen on getting a single copy of creative knitting sent to you, here's a handy option (that lyn mclean from customer service says they're happy to do, even if when we called, the lady we spoke to hadn't heard of the mag...). bendigo woollen mills offers a mail order service, with free postage if you order over a certain amount (roughly a jumper lot, depending on where you are in the world). if you also order a magazine with your postage free order, you just pay the cover price.
this thursday - city knitting from 5.30pm at the journal cafe, just in front of the new city library at 253 flinders lane, melbourne (between elizabeth and swanston). this sunday, knitting at cafe banter (previous details). into venturing a little further? beaniefest is coming up, and there's a great bus tour available from bushaus.
if, like kelis you want to learn to knit with personal help, there's a large range of options available. here's our lot to get you started, with an idea of pricing:
nice redesign of the karabella yarns site which has some lovely designs - for an inside view of how those designs are made up, alison offers "how a sweater becomes a pattern" in karabellaland.
couple of cute thangs found via the referrer logs - domestic goddess in training and supernaturale. we've been a little lax here because we've been super busy with work and upcoming assessment and general self induced anxiety and stress - sounds like we need to take time out to knit!
just churn out those 500 or so words, collect cash, and go. time for a yarn. keywords - kidman, diaz, scarf, group, london, castoff, yadda yadda. okay, maybe we're being a bit mean there - at least she introduced the public to louise weaver.
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