Use Your Stash

Sometimes it can be hard to use up your stash. Fear of messing up something lovely, fear of choosing the wrong project and of course if you give it away, will they appreciate this thing of beauty you have had stashed for so long, lovingly cared for. I say, use your stash! Don't be frightened. I'll bet, if you have a stash, and you did not add to it, and kept using it up, it would take a long time before you hit the bottom of the barrel.

I have a stash for everything. I now know that I am not the only one who has these kinds of obsessions. But these stashes do come in rather handy if I feel the urge to be creative, and this happens on a regular basis.

There is of course the yarn and fibre stash, which seems to have reached critical mass. As I use something, another yarn or fibre comes across my path to replace that which has been consumed. It is very convenient when a project is completed in the evening and the fingers are still itching to knit or spin.

I have an ever expanding paper stash. I love paper, what is that about? This collection includes purchased and original one off's designed and made by the youngest member of the house. It is really great to have on hand when there is a birthday or other special event as we love to make cards and wrapping paper. Also a preschooler in the house means collage is always on the agenda.

And then there is the fabric. Many years ago when I moved house I got rid of my fabric stash, can you believe it? Sacrilegious! I went though a time when sewing was not high on my priority list of things to do and decided to offload. Gradually, over the last few years, this stash has been growing again, hoorah! I find it very hard to resist a lovely bunch of fat quarters, they remind me of mixed lolly bags we got as children, full of delightful snippets and surprises, each one enjoyable. Fat quarters are great, not only for quilt making but they come in mighty handy for bag making.
These two bags were made from 2 fat quarters, the lining for one is the outside of the other and vice versa. I added some wadding, quilting stitches and used white fabric for the handles. The decorative stitches on my sewing machine came in handy to embellish the handles. In the time it would take to drive to the shop, wander around wondering what to buy as a present for the twins' birthday on Saturday, I made 2 cute bags. My idea was that the girls are the same, but different.
The fabric is from Prints Charming. I also made tags with the girls initials by scanning the fabric, adding an initial, reducing, printing and laminating.
Altogether a successful enterprise, and all made from stash. So go on, I dare you, use your stash, you can always get more.

So much to blog about, so little time....

I cannot believe it has been 2 whole months since I last posted here. So much has been going on, not the least of which has been computer issues. What did we do before computers? We had a lot more time I say. I have spent days fixing, tweaking and then nuking computers.
I have been running a business from home for the last 17 years and in that time have collected a few computers. Of late I have found myself using my laptop more, as I could have it in my kitchen and not all the way at the other end of the house in the office. So I had three computers lying dormant and one tiny laptop handling the bulk of my computer doings. But about 2 weeks ago the laptop started to suffer from the "blue screen of death" on a regular basis. Nothing is worse than being right in the middle of something and then whammo, blue screen and crash. I tried to fix it by removing software, doing a system restore, and of course backing up and removing as much of the hard drive as I could. All to no avail. Nothing left to do but to give the computer an enema. It took all day to get the thing up and running again, but I did it. I even gave it a new name. I name all my computers.
I decided to give the laptop to the husband so he can have it all to himself. He can put his program, music, emails, favorites on it and I won't be bothered by them anymore. You see, as part of this "spring cleaning" (I know , it's summer now) I also moved my daughters bedroom into what was my office (much bigger room) and put my office into her old room. In the process, have decommissioned 2 computers, leaving one for me to have all to myself. My new office is much closer to the kitchen, so I can keep an eye on things, and work at night if I want to.
All this moving stuff (digital and physical) has given me a lease of new life. I have offloaded so many things that were just not being used anymore, and filled my recycling bin to overflowing with obsolete paperwork and instruction manuals. I cannot count how many power cords we had, and transformers, where did they all come from? I had a great pile of old software, mostly free stuff, that had never been used. The old fax machine went to heaven (who sends faxes now?) It feels great to have 2 new rooms. It feels so good to declutter. Now I just have to sort out the rest of the house.

And then there is the crafty stuff. I love to make things, and I am glad to say, so does my daughter. We make something together every week, whether it is sewn, painted, glued, knitted, felted or cooked. One day we decided to make some monsters to keep away the scary ones. She was so good with these, first time sewing so I gave her a plastic needle. She chose the buttons and one of them even got a handbag. There is some info on making these type of things here and some free patterns here.
The kindy teacher also gave me a bunch of wooden pegs to make people with so we dived into the stash. She made more than this, but had to give them to the teachers. The hair is made from "unspinnable" fibre, the globby bits than you sometime get. I keep them in a box for occasions such as this. If you need some help to make some of these yourself try here or here.
All of this on top of Christmas knitting, which of course I can't show you in case you are the intended recipient.

Viva la Knitolution!

I never did the "student protest days" I was far to busy studying. So it was a new experience for me when a group of my friends and I were evicted from a cafe.
A group of us have been meeting every Monday night a Exomod Cafe in Beaufort Street Mount Lawley, we all have coffee and cake, great conversation, and we knit. The group has been meeting there for about 4 years and I am told they were the only ones there on opening night. We number 10-15 (sometimes more), it is informal, no membership, just turn up. They have kindly reserved a couple of tables for us until recently. There seems to have been a change of management, and it appears the new owners didn't take kindly to a large group frequenting his premises and spending large amounts on food and drink. Strange huh?
I only overheard the argument the preceded our eviction, the owner shouted something like "this is not a community centre!" and "you people cost me money as you sit here all night and don't order anything!" This last comment amused me considering that there were at least 5 cups of coffee and 4 plates of cake on the tables. I had in fact downed one coffee and was considering another. He also accused us of "drinking from Thermoses". I am aware that one member brings a bottle of water with her from time to time, but she always ordered her short black and cake. The owner stormed off after yelling " we don't want your kind here!" pointing furiously with his sausage like digits at one of my friends. At this point, we stood up en masse and left.
When my daughter was still a baby, I met weekly at a local cafe with a group of mothers who had children the same age. Would he have thrown us out? This sad little man doesn't seem to understand that people meet in cafe's for coffee and a chat, or to read the paper, watch the world go by or in this case of this place use their internet connection. I cannot count the number of people that sit there for a long time with a laptop nursing one (if any) drink. Cafe's are in effect "community centres" There are what gives life to our area, a place for people to feel part of the community, any one will tell you that's what we like about living around here. After all, why should I go out for a coffee, when I have perfectly good stuff at home? I go out to be with people.
I have met friends at this cafe at times other than Monday nights, brought my family (immediate and extended) on the weekend for a light lunch and had the odd business meeting. But no more. I will not be going back there in the near future.
I think it is sad. I have really enjoyed the coffee (and cake), this place is open late on a Monday, and it's plenty light enough for me not to drop any stitches. We have (for now) decided to meet just up the road at Cafissimo (corner of Chelmsford and Beaufort), but they close at 10pm, and we would prefer to have somewhere that was open a little later.
For now, "Viva la Knitolution!". Thank God I don't have to burn my bra any time soon.

Parlez-vous français?

I don't yet, but I will soon. I have just downloaded 135 French lesson to my iPod and surely by the end of it I will be françaising with the best of them.
A few years ago (before the arrival of our daughter) the husband and I were lucky enough to find ourselves in Paris for 4 days. My limited French helped us get but I have always wanted to say more than thank you, sorry and excuse me in this magical language. There is just something, well, sexy about anything said in French, don't you think?



There is of course an ulterior motive. I have been stalking la droguerie and lusting after a certain book of theirs. Its not a big shop, you can see a picture of the front here, and their website does not really do them justice, but as far as design goes, they got it right. The French do have a certain style, no? There seems to be an understated elegance, a quietness if you like, to French style. Even the likes of Jean Paul Gaultier who has created some pretty LOUD stuff in the past has an undercurrent of good design. If not familiar with his work, check out The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover if not for anything else but the costumes designed by the man himself.

I digress. After many trips to the la drogerie website, a lovely friend of mine mentioned that she had the book and would I like to borrow it? Are you kidding!!!! So I have it now, in my hot little hands, and its all in French. The pictures are of course in English, so I can enjoy them, but as learning French is something I have always wanted to do, this is the perfect excuse. Yes, I know that conversational French is not really going to help me read a knitting pattern, but that's not the point. It's always fun to do something new and challenging, visit www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com and you too can be speaking the "language of love."

The Quest for knowledge

Further to my last post about gaining knowledge from the internet, my quest for knowledge continues with some help from the internet, Elizabeth Zimmermann, WarpGirl and Melita.
I am the kind of person who loves to try something new, challenge myself, get out of my comfort zone. I have been known to get a little "ansy" when there is nothing to get my teeth stuck into. It is one of the things I have loved about being a photographer. There is always something new to try, a new way of doing or a new way of seeing. I cannot remember the last time I was bored as there a so many things on my "to do" list. I really want to learn to play the piano, paint a really big canvas (or six), learn French and I want to learn to weave.

After my sock knitting frenzy last year, I moved onto lace. It has become a bit of an obsession with me, and right now, at this moment, I am "laceless" i.e. no lace on the needles (apart from a long languishing sock that doesn't really count because I am not happy with it). I am prowling Ravelry with fervor, hunting for just the right project to launch into. The reason for the lace hiatus has been these:

Firstly a Garter Stitch Kimono, the pattern can be found here.

I made a couple of changes, like eliminating any seams for one.
I am about to become a "Great Aunty" for the first time. I can't believe my nephew if going to be a Daddy! I did not knit anything for my daughter when she was a baby, I regret that. But this has been a good opportunity to wet my feet, to try a couple of new (for me) techniques.
I have had my share of disastrous knitting projects in the past, and they were all garments. I could never seem to get the fit right. This is partly due to my not paying much attention to that little paragraph about gauge/tension, not wanting to use (or being able to afford) the recommended yarn, and lastly, my own need to change what the perfectly clever and talented designer has done in the first place. My attempts at knitting garments prior to this year all finished with lots of tears and consequently put me off knitting anything with seams or sleeves for a very long time.
Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to attend my first ever knitting retreat organized by the lovely Knitting Inspirations ( photos of the weekend can be seen here). I came away from the weekend determined to make a garment. It seems I had been approaching it all wrong. Well not really wrong, after all there wouldn't be thousands of patterns out there if it was wrong would there? No what I really meant was wrong for me, as I am a control freak. My friends WarpGirl and Melita are both devotees of the Top-Down Raglan and introduced me to this method. Both suggested that I start with something small, so I made this:

It's a top-down raglan dress for my 4 year old.The yarn was a kettle dying experiment from a while ago, I just loved the colour, but did not have enough to make anything in my size, this project was perfect. Knitting top-down means you can use up all of your yarn, or make the project according to the amount you have. I also made the cardigan pictured at the top of the page for me using a very simple calculation. I got my starting measurements from a cardigan I own, did some maths and a few weeks later I had a very warm new garment that fits.




Still on the top-down raglan road I have just finished making another kimono style wrap cardi for my new "great nephew".

This one is made from self striping sock yarn, I have a bit in my stash and after knitting a couple of self striping socks, I was over it. This is a great use for this yarn, I made the whole top from one ball and have enough left over to make a pair of boots for the new feet.

So thank you Elizabeth, Melita and WarpGirl, without your help, I could not have done it.

I really need some lace now though, nothing to do except hit Ravelry (again) to find the right project, or maybe I should just design one?

What You can learn on the Internet

I originally learnt the knit stitch from my mum BUT when I wanted to learn how to knit, I turned to the internet. I consider myself lucky that I live in a generation were I can learn anything from my computer. Try it, go on, Google anything that you would like to learn and presto, someone has an on-line tutorial or U-Tube video. My first venture into "serious" knitting came with a decision to make socks. Not knowing anyone who had the required skills I turned to the World Wide Web and discovered a whole community of knitters out there willing to instruct, share and encourage me on my new venture.
Getting started can be as simple as watching a few videos online like this one here. It didn't take long, to discover Cat Bordhi, a goddess of sock knitting she has some great videos like this one.
Then I needed to make the jump to Toe-Up construction and found Wendy D Johnson, another another sock knitting genius. I used this pattern to make the socks picture above.
It was not long before I found a couple of groups who meet locally to chat, drink coffee (or beer) and knit. They too have taught me so much, but I would not have found them without Google.
And then came spinning. Yes, the people in my local spinning group got me started but its mostly Americans who I do not know that have taught me.

Just recently I made this yarn:

It is Polwarth from Southern Cross Fibres in the colour Katoomba. I thought it needed to be Navajo plied to preserve the "stripes" and whilst I have struggled with this technique before, a visit to this video was all it took to help me on my way.




Next I had a problem with a bat.
Not the flying kind, but this kind:

50% Merino 50% Bamboo 100% heaven from Hanks in The Hood. However, I was wrestling with it until a quick Google found this video from St Seraphina problem solved, now I have 600m of lovely yarn for my trouble.





It is sad that many skills are not being passed down the generations as in years gone by BUT now we have got access to more free information than my parents or neighbors could have ever taught me.

Think I see weaving in my future and will be googling that when I am ready. Or maybe Italian lessons and then there is what to cook for dinner and how to secure the wireless network in my home......

Passing The Baton

I don't know exactly when I first had a go at knitting nor do I know when I learnt to crochet. I think knitting didn't come until I was a teenager, but crochet has always been there. My mum was always making something when I was growing up, textiles were on the menu of course but she also painted, potted, made pictures with shells and of course there was macrame. Does anyone remember that? Every now and again one of those dread hanging pot plant holders will surface at a garage sale, just when you think they are extinct.
I wonder at the craft crazes that occur from time to time, where do they go? Whatever happened to Hobbytex? I remember a time when it was everywhere. It is still around as I found out, and not nearly as expensive as I remember. I am not about to launch into an obsession with fabric paint for now. I can't stand the smell.
There also was a time when every second person I met was doing China painting. My mother-in-law was very busy with this pastime when I first met her (circa 1981) and my Grandmother was also partial to covering pre-poured off-the-shelf pieces with flowers, flowers and more flowers. I have a lovely little jug she made for me when I first left home.
Folk Art rose to popularity, and declined. I could not find a guild in WA. There was a group that met at the same place our spinning group meets, but they have ceased to exist owing to lack of interest. I have a wooden cot for a doll (mine when I was a child) that would look lovely with some of those roses painted on it, no-one wants to do that anymore.
Scrapbooking is the new macrame/hobbytex/china painting/folk art. It is everywhere, whole shops dedicated to the practice. Even the large chain stores have whole sections with pretty paper and embellishments that announce "Joy" and "Celebrate" and "Love" and the like. These same stores used to have fabric for sale, but sadly it seems, no-one sews anymore (except me).
My chosen craft (knitting) is seeing a bit of a resurgence at the moment. I think it has a lot to do with the internet. Not only can we purchase yarn and not otherwise available in Australia, we now have access to places like Ravelry, a great way to connect with like minded people all over the world. I think this connection is what helps feed the obsession. Joining a club or going to classes was at one time the only way to learn new skills, see other people's projects, and well, just share your ideas/thoughts/need for another skein of 100% Merino laceweight. Clubs come and go, classes only run for a certain amount of time (and can be expensive) but the internet is here to stay, and only getting better. Podcasts and blogs about knitting are growing exponentially, some are good, others not to my taste but this sharing of information is keeping our craft well and truely alive.
In the spirit of all this, I have started to teach my 4 year old daughter to knit, crochet, spin and sew. We make felt and paint yarn and fiber too. The projects have been small so far. For example, we dyed and spun the yarn for some laces for the baby boots above and NooNoo is sporting a one-of-a-kind designer hat these days. I am doing my best to pass the baton, as my mother passed it to me.