Knitting by Zen

The local knitting guild here is something I no longer have much to do with. I say "much" as some of my friends and mentors hang out there so I do occassionally go and hang with them, and "no longer" as I was a part of it last year, but for the most part I find it pointless and I already have a knit’n'natter that I go to each week usually.

Wednesday nights, Everest Cafe, 5:30pm - 9pm. 

So I have braved two meetings in the past few months for various reasons, and it reminds me of why I’m not a part of it. Jokingly, today I nutted out the kind of Guild I would *like* to be a part of:

• Friendly and welcoming
• Egalitarian and co-operative
• Organised and forward-thinking
• One where I can learn, and I can teach
• Craft-centred rather than people-centred
• No garments made of feather yarn allowed
• Responsive and accountable in what it takes to be in the guild (so some level of prestige in being there!)

I also want to be finished uni, engaged to my lovely partner, the best midwife possible and comfortably rich .

Here are some photos from some of the crazy knitters I hang out with:

Lucy and me: Lucy isn’t crazy. Yet.  

Me and V and our awkward head angle:

Me and Mel:

Mel’s stand:  

Garments that need no caption (oh how I wish You Knit What?? was still around - you’d have had to see it up close in its slightly fluffy feather yarn glory to understand, and to also see that my camera was very kind to the purple and orange eye-popping one!):

V is happy to have yarn and is not afraid to sniff, weigh, and threaten with it:

And then there were the cupcakes, and I kid you not, the cacti:  

I received my new colour card from Bendigo Woollen Mills today. It’s always exciting to get tactile items from the mill - especially when I buy lots of stuff from them! I have to say though that I’m kind of confused. Do I keep my cards for cotton and the boutique-y kind of yarns still? Are they being phased out?

And what is *with* the colour selection for the new yarns? There are a very large number of shades of pink, purple and red but one yellow (insipid, pastel kind of corn colour), a smattering of greens (and *wail* my favourite shade has been discontinued!!!!! Venetian in Classic), two somewhat-oranges (or is it 3? The Butternut looks like flesh…) and a couple of blues.

It’s also hard to see what colours are new - the last colour card I had had the new colours underlined. I will have to take to my new one with a pen I guess. It is interesting to see that the bulk of the selection is Classic (much more sensible to be able to machine-wash ones woollens, yes?).

I love BWM, don’t get me wrong. Love that it’s Aussie wool and that it’s made in Australia. I buy a lot from there to make lots of garments, and for stashing and for presents But yeesh - what is with the pattern selection? There is not a single one there that makes me think "yep that’s for me". They all look like somethng my mother would make. There is nothing wrong with that except my mother no longer knits. There are LOTS of Australian knitwear designers around the place who could quite happily design clothes but ya know - even updating the shots would go a long way to encouraging the new, younger, hip ‘n’ happenin’ crowd to get into them. I know that BWM doesn’t make lots of $$ from their patterns but it’s a good way to showcase them. And I’d like to think that at 28 I’m no longer the odd one out in being a knitter.

I’ve just gotten back from a long trip away in Sydney

and wow was it fun and kind of sad. One of my aunts has been quite ill for most of last year and I took the chance to visit with her which was bittersweet - she looks so much older than she was the last time I saw her, and she looked frail and ill… but underneath was still that fiesty woman I love and take after.

In preparation for going away, I dyed yarn and got the bug back!! so keep an eye out for more of my yarn around the place. I also painted a shawl that I bought off a friend (yes, Mel again!) and wow it is gorgeous:

I wore the shawl to the formal dinner we attended during the two weeks away, and it went with this dress:

(Sadly no shots of it on me in all of its glory - will have to steal someone else’s shot of it!)

Some of my yarn has recently been turned into secret socks (not yet released but damn fine on my toes thankyou very much!) by Mel at Stranded in Oz:

I can’t post any more photos as the detail is all Mel’s but let me just say that this pattern is fabulous for my feet, and probably very easy to knit. It has an amazing toe and fantastic detail and the yarn is a Custom Dye, only available as a kit. Keep an eye out on her site for the kit and others that I’ve been custom dyeing yarn for - 99% her work of course!

I am knitting some socks out of Tofutsies at the moment and they are GORGEOUS and lovely and I am enjoying knitting:

The yarn is Tofutsies, which is stocked here in Adelaide by Mel at Stranded in Oz (her business name cracks me up every time - a lovely outspoken knitwear designer has to have something unique and interesting and descriptive, yes?!!). The yarn is soft and squidgy and gorgeous in the ball, but when you knit it up the white part of the yarn seems to receed and the rich colours come to the fore. The yarn is available from Mel only in Adelaide at $24.95 a ball, which is a bargain given that that ball is 100g and goes a long way! The colour range is amazing and the yarn is environmentally friendly. Have a look at her Sock Club for a bi-monthly fix of yarn!

By the way - if you’re after any kind of yarn other than wool, Mel is the person to see. She dyes an interesting range of wool and other yarns (bamboo, banana leaves, silk, soy etc) and they’re so pretty! But my yarn diet continues so I won’t fall into any of them just yet!!

I also bought amazing Happy Boots:

and caught up with my Mad Aunt. You might notice that our glasses in this post are similar… nay, *the same*. That’s right - we live 1500km apart and didn’t even mention new glasses but lo! we have the same ones! I swear sometimes I was born to the wrong sister .

  (click here for a bigger image)

Erk - it’s hot here. Not a lot to blog as I’m supposed to be studying for another exam (1 down, 2 to go!) but I wanted to post a recipe for yumdelicious wheat-free treats I just made and et:

Rind of one orange
2T poppy seeds
1/3C of rice flour
1 1/2C almond meal
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, separated

Mix all of the first 5 incgredients together. Beat the egg whites til really stiff, and then separately the yolks. Mix the yolks in, then fold the whites through. Roll teaspoons of goodness together, then put on a baking tray and smush flat. Bake for 1/2 hour at 150C, cool and eat. Try not to eat the whole lot.

In exam-mode knitting, I cast on Juno Regina the other day in orange 3 ply, and it is so far darn cute and lovely. I needed to knit another scarf as it has been baking hot here the past week or so, and I’m not knitting Tubey or Clapotis in weather like this.

I am lusting after some Scout Swag again - this time with sterling silver!!! 

I’m moving house this weekend because I’m INSANE and between exams, as you do. New address is a post office box, home number is the same, and mobile stays the same as always - I’ve had the same one for 11 years now.

Hip/back/pelvis is slowly recovering. I am due to go back to work in a few weeks, which could be fun (and yay! disposable income again!) - I need new shoes like these, or these sometime soon me thinks. Oh and a new laptop to replace my nearly 7 year old one.

This is my repost of my response to a thread on a knitting list I partake of, about stash organisation:

1) Do you buy yarn for a specific pattern or do you see yarn and fall in love with it then buy it in the hope that a suitable pattern will emerge? (this is me!).

2) Do you fall in love with a pattern from the USA and then struggle to find an equivalent yarn in Oz (even after swatching)?

3) Do you buy yarn from the USA? If so, who do you find to be the most reliable and with the best freight charges?

4) Do you sort and store your yarn by colour, ply, synthetic/non synthetic or how?

5) Do you store in plastic/paper bags or loose in boxes?

6) Do you keep a written record of what yarn you have? I’m about to do this so that I won’t have to drag everything out from under the beds, out of cupboards etc in order to know what’s in my stash.

Organising your stash is very personal. Do you think in terms of colours? Or in ply? Do you have enough yarn in your stash that you can browse through it when a cardigan or wrap pattern catches your eye, and use what you have there, or are you like me and more conservative in your stash, so major projects require shopping but you always have lots of 8ply on hand for a scarf, shawl, stripy project or scarf? Do you keep odd balls left over from a project, thinking you’ll use it later (usually for stripes, or tea cozies or throw them away? Do you use acrylics and nylons and novelty yarns in the same way as you do wool and cashmere and cotton? Do you have fiber and fleece to store as well as yarn?

You can buy plastic storage tubs for many spaces from Kmart, Target etc and even Bunnings. These are great for moving stash around or storing it in one place, and you can always stick a plastic sleeve to the outside with a simple sheet on it describing the contents. Put it on the side facing you so you can browse easily. Or get a polaroid camera and take a photo of each yarn and stick it on to the side - smarter to do if you swap yarn around regularly.

Sort the yarn how you want to be able to search for it. If you have more than 2 balls, get some plastic ziplock bags and put them into the bag, then label the bag with what it is, and what you intended when you bought it. So one of my bags might say "8 x 50g balls navy cotton, Bendigo Sept 2006, tshirt or camisole". Put the different types of yarns together into piles and then into the plastic tubs - try not to overfill as you want to be able to toss through each one without having to empty stuff out.