Another week, another bazillion things....

 

Time seems to be whizzing past much faster than usual...just gulping up the weeks. 

In the last week, there have been good things, great conversations, random acts of kindness, joy, optimism, new opportunities ....and exactly the opposite of each of these things.   Life's a funny old thing, isn't it?  It's drought and flood... and sometimes it's just like Melbourne weather.

 

 

 

 On the weekend, I went to Canberra to teach at Addicted to Fabric (and took a rather cool pic from the boarding gate) .... and then I only thought to take photos towards the end of the class on Sunday, just before I was due to fly home again.

 

Below, we have another beautifully-made hat by another newbie sewing gal.  Nobody would have guessed that she's only sewn a few square things before... look at those beautifully-sewn curves!

 

I loved seeing hats being worn while equipment was packed up at the end of the day. 

 

This "I'm just going to make a hat for gardening" hat (above) looked way too stylish not to be worn for something more social.

 

This hat (below) was made with fun socialising in mind.  Sewn, finished and trimmed within class-time, it was worn out of the store with sartorial flair!

 

(If you're a little bit inspired by the recent spate of hatty blog posts here, and available to do a class on a week day, you should come along to the Perfect Summer Hats class that I'll be teaching at GJ's.  Learn to make hats in time to whip up a few for summer!)

 

As always - there has been fondling and fiddling with yarn.  In the last week I've finished something that I started in May and nearly finished something I started last week.

 

Having begun this Cardigan Rose about four times before I got it past the armholes - and all the while playing yarn-chicken and being distracted by the girleen's swimming lessons (or whatever fleeting, shiny thing) - I  pretty-much gave up on following the pattern and just made things up after that point.  After a few months, I tired of the project (and too many people commenting on the fact that the yarn matched my hair) and just wanted to finish it...so just kept knitting... ignoring all the mistakes and distracted-while-knitting roughness. 

 

My knitting is so rough in this particular garment, it's almost a waste of this gorgeous yarn.... but it's very soft and snuggly and is full of handmade love.  It's for a gorgeous 1-year old, who won't be criticising my stitch tension.

 

In need of instant gratification and a bit of a cellulosic yarn fix, I pulled out the crochet hook and some Prudence Mapstone tencel loveliness.  I'm making another Summer Lace Tank Top.  I love how quickly this comes together.

 

In other news, I finally have an answer to the question of have I found somewhere to move to when the lease runs out here, which every person and their dog has been asking me for the last month or two.  Last week, I did, and we'll be moving in a few weeks time.  The lease runs out here in mid-November.

 

When I was walking back to the car from the estate agent's office, I saw this in a window of an op-shop.  Just the thing I need for this next stage of balanced, family life....

 

 

Our new home won't have a showroom or classroom, but it has an enormous garden.  The girleen and I have been planning which vegetables we'll be growing this summer.  We're excited.

 

In the last week, I've also been trying to work out which of the showroom bag, hat and garment samples I'll keep and which will have to be sold.  We don't have space for them all and I'll be having a sale as soon as I sort them out.  A brief experiment with eBay didn't inspire me to go down that path again - and turned me off any admin time spent on any other online option - so I'm afraid it'll be in-store only.  Stay tuned for details.

 

And this week is a whole new one.... I wonder what it holds?

Ok, so maybe we'll call it "You KNIT girl!"...



There has indeed been sewing and pattern-writing going on here, including a secret project and a new pattern, but there's nothing ready to show here yet.

 

Instead, here are more photos of me swanning about in dodgey home-made knitwear.

 

 

 I actually finished sewing this one together on the plane to the USA in May, and have worn it a lot since, but I only photographed it today.  It began back here....

 

The pattern is a tweaked and improvised version of Teresa Dair's "Mayhem Jacket" from her fabulous Spring/Summer Knitting eBook. 

 

This one is made in a combination of a 6-ply tencel/acrylic blend and some laceweight wool, which I happened to have in exactly the same colour (methinks I like that shade of red).  I wanted to rough up the texture a bit and make it look truly desconstructed.

You can twist it around a few different ways, wear half of it inside out....

 

 

It's amazing, when you think you're being really interesting and arty and stylish, wearing a cardigan with a fascinating twist in the back...

 

 

 

...just how many people will tell you that you've got your cardigan all twisted up at the back.

 

I think I also blogged the beginning of this one (yarn-winding two shades of blue together).  I machine-knitted a few huge rectangles and then took about a month to sew them together.  Yesterday, I felted my new favourite jumper....

 

I also remembered to photograph the purple in my hair before it fades again.

 

This is not a knitting blog...

 ..and yet... here you see more knittery.

Between revamping beret patterns, I've used the knitting machine as think-music.  Without a map ( I never take notes) I tried to remake the red jumper (sweater) that I accidentally destroyed a few weeks ago. The original was an improvised version of Teresa Dair's Vaganza, from her book "I Knitted My Way".

 

There were a few minor...errr... quirks... in the sleeve and tail departments.

Which means that the optional split or knot detail is limited to knots....

 ...which is actually quite fine and comfy.

The longer tail works well when worn in the "shrug" variation... (it's a tad Matador, don't you think?).

 

 ...and the back, with its sometimes-neckline-sometimes-back-detail works just fine.

Quirks and all, I've been living in it.  Melbourne has turned COLD!

 

A few finishes

With all this book-writing and Quilt Market organisation (and a spot of teaching thrown in) on my part, this poor little blog has been neglected.  So too has my reading and knitting. 

 

The top I began on New Years Day was looking like being a WIP forever, but thanks to interstate flights (and delays with flights), I managed to get a lot of it done last weekend.

 

 

The yarn is a hand-painted linen from Prudence Mapstone (purchased at one of the craft shows last year.... or the year before...?).  The last time I used this yarn was with crochet.  Knitting was a much slower affair, but I wanted the challenge and the opportunity to enjoy working with this luscious yarn for a long time.  (I just hadn't counted on it being over 3 months on the one project!)

 

The pattern is L2 by Lidia Tsymbal, available on Ravelry here. I've bookmarked a few more of the patterns by this designer.  I like her style.

 

The last push to finish this top was my reward - guilt-free knitting in the evening - for finishing the sewing for the new book.  The samples are now all packed up and awaiting international courier pick-up.

And now I'm all inspired by a zillion different knitting patterns and ideas.  Teresa Dair's Mayhem jacket has captured my imagination, and I'm planning to start playing with different sized needles and yarns to create texture. 

I just have to finish a bit more writing and organising first...

Away from it all

I'm just back from a few fabulous days away with old friends. 

Kid-free.

Work-free.

Almost internet-free.

A tonic. 

A de-fragging programme for my poor old brain.

 Of course, there was outdoor machine-knitting.

 And trying to make sense of my friend Bella's new aquisition...

 She does amazing things like knitting garden twine.  (She's the sort of girl who usually weaves trees and vines.  This is small, delicate work for her.)

There was a shifting population of friends coming and going, and there was a lot of sitting on verandahs with beers (them) and crochet (me). 

(The rum wasn't mine, either.)

 

I've been looking at this yarn and this pattern for months, and finally had the headspace to start it.

Bella worked with more rustic materials...

...and this fantastic old book, with its amazing hand-drawn how-to diagrams.

Bella and I were hopelessly outnumbered by menfolk, so we sat around doing our textile crafts, while they cooked for us.

 

Theses were almost written about the best way to cook eggs on a barbeque, as 5 blokes prepared the breakfast of the century.

Simple adaptions to the tools in the rustic kitchen were fashioned when only home-made mayonnaise would do.

There was the serene art of yabbying in the dam.

And possibly too many yabbying experts on the job.

And there was me... yabbying while simulataneously wrecking my wildly inappropriate soft leather boots.

 Rupert, the dog, was fetching anything fetchable.

 And there was much feasting.

A mid-morning Bloody Mary tradition was firmly established.  (Insert menfolk, discussing the merits of different brands of tomato juice and balances of lemon to tabasco...)

 Most importantly, there was fine, fine company, and lots of time to relax and enjoy it. 

Now, it's back to life, work and reality....

Discontinued stock sale ....and Oh, I finished the socks!

The studio showroom was a-buzz and a-rustle today, as stock was rearranged and red stickers were stuck.... 

I want my shelf space back, so we're going to have a serious clearance of all the left-over online shop stock.

That's a 40% off everything with a red sticker sort of serious. 

It includes Clover brand bias tape makers (tutorial HERE), fabric markers and yo-yo-makers (video tutorial below, by yours-truly).

The sale also includes self-cover buttons (school fete coming up, anyone?... hair-ties needed?), zipper pulls, rajah cloths and bag handles.  We're also putting out whatever patterns we have in OLD PACKAGING (old branding) at 40% off, including purse kits and there are some large wire-formed o-rings.

We'll be continuing the sale until next Thursday (6th September) so you'll have time to make arrangements to get in to Northcote.  It's in-store only (you'll find us HERE).

In other news, I finished the socks I've been knitting (for what feels like three years)....

...and they're too big for me.  Rather serendipitously, I was planning to visit my Dad for Father's Day and hadn't otherwise organised a present....  

How thoughtful.... hand-knitted socks.

A knitty sort of Sunday

On Sunday, I had a mostly-kid-free day.  My initial thoughts were that there was a lot that I could do to make the most of the time without distraction.  

Instead of doing any sort of catch-up on things, I made a conscious decision to ignore the impulse to do anything that I felt that I should.... and do exactly what I needed to do. 

RELAX... (knit)

 I caught up with lovely friends for coffee and cake and then spent the afternoon with my knitting machine and an audio-book. 

Heaven. 

I could feel my tired, over-stuffed brain defragging.

There was even time to linger in another little slice of (textile) heaven....

 I'm a bit besotted with my new book.  Teresa Dair's design aesthetic is so completely up my alley, I sighed and pored over every one of this book's silky, matt pages.

Yes... I can totally see me swanning about in all of it, too.... feeling fabulous and textural and ever-so-clever because I made it myself...

 Of course, I haven't made any of it yet....
...but that's hardly the point of a gorgeous and inspiring book, is it...?

And until I can justify any more yarn purchases, I won't have any of the amazing Dairing yarn to create the textures needed for the full effect.  In the meantime, I have pure wool.  LOTS of pure wool.

 I took inspiration and went a bit freestyle with this idea....

As I wait for it to dry, instead of blocking it smoothly, I'm stretching and distressing the edges... messing things up a bit.  There is no steel in the yarn to hold the memory of this torture, but it's creating a lovely drapey shape with tendrilly corner bits.

You'll no doubt be treated to much swanning and poncing when I finally get my body into this one. 

I'm looking forward to seeing Teresa ... and her yarn... (WHO SAID THAT?) at Grampians Texture next year.  She'll be teaching workshops there too.

In the meantime, if you don't hear from me, I'll be knitting furiously, to make room in that yarn stash of mine....