CCCI - Geelong Textile Fibre Forum

Saturday found me joining Kathy and her friend Daniel at the Geelong Grammar Campus for the Fibre Forum open day. Of course - we bumped into many like minded pilgrims from our S'n'b, as well as a few ravellers and I was very happy to bump into Doris (Lisa G's mum) from my first ever pub-knitting group at Bar 2060 in North Sydney (I think the group has now moved to another location as the pub was renovated and switched to very low wattage bulbs...) anyway... I digress...

I think our little group managed to see just about anything (except for the fabled Habu textiles that apparently were on offer) and I managed to walk away with only one purchase - a pattern book: Norah Gaughin Vol1. I'd already been in touch with Gusseting to grab one, but hadn't a chance to catch up with her to collect it... so really I didn't give in to the impulse buy nerve at all.... (yeah, I know, pure sophistry...)

My absolute favourite part of the open day (apart from bumping into friends including my tapestry teacher, Joy, we spent the week as 'Artist in Residence') was the knitting instillation I have dubbed 'The Womb Room' (don't worry none of us felt the need to return to the foetal position due to stress)

Squishy, red, knitted walls that envelope you and make you feel safe - 'womb' was just the first word that jumped into my head. Kathy and I both knit a row for this project.

(photos kindly taken by Daniel as I forgot my Camera...)
There was another knitting instillation in the next room completed by some elderly knitters in SA. (photos top row below) You can't quite see it, but one of the walls was full of knitted tubes about the size of sleeves. I could imagine people hiding behind that wall and putting their arms into those "sleeves" so they could wave to the world :)


We also enjoyed the "hogwarts" like scenery of the Grammar Campus. Yes, we really are just big kids at heart...

Everything is comin' up Milhouse!

Fringe!, originally uploaded by pierretheyarnsnob.

Thanks for the good vibes sent yesterday for my interview - I was a little bit nervous, but when I had this fantastic public art installation on my tram (as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival) I decided that it was obviously a sign that there was nothing to worry about...

And today I got a call to tell me I got the job!

I start on the 6th, so I have just over a week to get my sleeping habits a complete 180 so I am no longer keeping the hours of a vampire bat and can stay awake for my 9-to-5 :)

Don't forget that you should be leaving comments as part of my big 300th post give-aways!

I'll be doing one for the locals, and one for the OS 'tourists' (actually, do those from OS know that it stands for Over Seas - or is that a Oz expression seeing as we have coasts rather than borders??)

Edited to add this cool video that Damo posted to ravelry - if you're not a regular on the Australian Knitters boards you may have missed it

Geelong LYS

Direct cut and paste from a Ravelry forum post I thought I might keep here for ease of reference. (I have linked all of these to their ravelry LYS page - if they have one. When I have time I'll find some more detailed weblinks.)

Twisted Threads is right in the centre of town - in the main street in fact! It has just been taken on by a new owner and would have the biggest variety of yarns. It is the only store in Geelong that is dedicated to knitting and needlework.

If you are keen to go into the suburbs, there is Busy Bee Fabrics in Belmont is an outlet for Bendigo Woollen Mills and has lots of pattern books, and there is the Belmont Drapery across the road that also has some yarns (once you get past all the old lady underwear!).

Woolsy Trading Post is in Geelong West and is a stockist for opal and Ashford products.

After that you may choose to head down the Bellarine Peninsula - there is the Ocean Grove sewing centre which has a selection of yarns, Wildpurl at Port Lonsdale - which is a homewares store with a yarn section out the back, and Coloured Jules at Queenscliff - which specialised in Hand painted mohair.

If you are heading that way you may want to stop at Drysdale. Not actually a yarn store - but Shiloh is a small farm specialising in natural coloured wool that is grown, scoured and spun in Geelong. Quite possibly a good place to get some unique souvineer wool. You will probably need to make an appointment thou (and if you are keen it is right next door to one of the main Bellarine wineries)

Depending on when you are in town you may also want to check out one of the weekend markets on the Peninsula - There are a couple of stalls (including GingerKnits - me!) that sell yarn and crafty stuff.

Heading south from Geelong along the coast you may want to check out some of our famous surf beaches, and while you’re there it would be the perfect oppotunity to check out Pear Tree Yarns in Torquay. Pear Tree also sources local producers and is scoured and spun in Geelong - and has some products to die for.

One last thing to mention - the National Wool Museum (external link) is located in Geelong and definitely worth a visit for any knitter. I don’t recommend you buy any yarn there thou - it is incredibly overprices (I think it has something like a 70% markup!). Save your pennies and go round the corner to Twisted Threads!

We did it in public...

Knit... of course - what were you thinking? (Quite possibly that you did it too!)

Today, being world wide knit in public day (or wwkip for short) was celebrated in Geelong in style. The original plan was to knit outside at the Beach House cafe down on Eastern Beach, but the weather didn't want to run with that plan. Instead, we took over the inside of the cafe - taking up prime position next to the fire.

We took a while to sort out what we were going to do, so it was last minute that I posted it to the official kip website. We had a couple of new faces so it was worth doing.

A few people had left by the time I got the camera out, but the people I caught in attendance were (l-to-r above) the-other-Meg, who showed up in a great hat and scarf which immediately let us know she was a knitter, Gillian in her lovely colinette-tagliatelli cardigan, Kathy wearing a one-piece patons inca jacket, Gwet, who is working on a sideways-knit-blanket-top from a Rowan Book, Trish who is working on a beautiful blue shawl (detailed in a pic below), my Mum who I dragged along at the last minute, and one other lovely lady whose name I cannot remember for the life of me (can someone help me out??)

Below, the-other-Meg is counting her stitches...Trish is apparently famous enough that she hides from the paparazzi behind her knitting...

Gillian and Kathy proudly wearing their Finished Objects...
We all had fun - How bout you??

A green afghan*...

This here is one of my current WIP - a wedding afghan for friends of mine. This is it exactly at the halfway mark - only 40.5 squares to go (no-one mention the border, okay!... or that the wedding that this was for was in March!) My friends selected the yarn, colours and pattern from a bunch of colour cards, stash samples, books and magazines I took over to their place, and understood there was a very big possibility it could be running a bit late....

It was originally supposed to be the cable blanket from Jo Sharp contemporary knitting, but I decided the pattern was written by a numpty, and ripped out the third of that pattern I had knitted (after starting it twice because I decided the pattern was badly written). The stitch pattern was making the finished product look a little card-boardy, so I decided to go with good ol' fashioned garter, and keep the diagonal colours as per the original pattern. To reduce the need for seeming, I decided to work a variation on your standard entrelac to get a nice looking blankie without the need of any starter triangles.

This is worked in Bendy 12ply Rustic - have to say that although it is supposedly the same yarn, with the same fibre content in different colours, the lighter colours (particularly the cream fleck) is so much softer than the darker colours. Anybody have any idea why this is???

Needless to say, this is a fantastic knit for rainy days in front of the heater! Now that the weather has turn crisp and chilly, a hellava lot more work is getting done on this project now :)

And because I had the camera out, I thought it was time for a couple of Pierre pics.

This is his favourite place to greet guests as they come in the front door (which is just behind the right of the couch)

It is rather kitten like the way he bounds up to the back of the couch and runs back and forth along the narrow cushion until a guest will pay attention to him.The next thing that happens when we have guests, is that the toy sitting on the couch there gets dumped in their lap, because, of course, the guest is there solely to play with P!

And I took these pics while I was running a few errands today - 

I absolutely love these kimmidolls, but this red-headed one is my favourite (her name is Seiko, meaning success - also the name of one of my Japanese exchange student pals) However, I just can't justify spending $20 on a doll, no matter how cute. 

So when I saw these little key-ring dolls for 7 bucks I got all excited... 7 bucks isn't much, and a key-ring you use for your keys and see it all the time and does more than sit on a shelf and looks cute....

....except there is only a limited number of characters in the key-ring line, and Seiko isn't one of them :( Guess it just wasn't meant to be...

And finally - I just got back from the Geelong S'n'B for May - it marks my knitsaversary as being a part of this group! I loved finding this group - they cannot replace my rubi'n'lana knitting buds in Sydney, but I feel lucky to have found such a great group of friends locally.

*if you don't know the relevance of THE green afghan, you need to get a hold of Yarn Harlot's book of short stories :)

Sick Sick Sick!

Ugh - I am home from school for today because I am the snot monster from planet mucus!

The absolutely worst thing about taking the happy pills, is that you can not take anti-histamines or pseudo-ephedrines* or any of those other lovely drugs that help you wake up and/or sleep when you have a cold or flu.  So now my head feels like it is trapped inside a high-pressure bubble, my body feels like a whole herd of heffalumps has trampled me, and my brains have been replaced by boogers. There is no way I would make it through 7 hours of classes today plus the 3 hours of train travel - which just makes me feel even lower :(

I am going to anoint myself in vicks and drown myself in ginger honey tea and completely indulge in Dr Phil and Oprah, and then, perhaps a little Simpsons DVDs - and perhaps I'll be able to make it to the Carlton Hotel tonight for the monthly Geelong S'n'B. I could do with a girls night out, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

If anyone has any other good home remedies that work and don't involve gall-bladders of cats or something similar, please, please share!

*Pseudo-ephidrines are actually no longer available in the state of Victoria because they are too easy to turn into speed. So even if I wanted to be norty and mix my drugs I wouldn't be able to. Perhaps I should hang out in some dodgy alley til I find a dealer for speed! 

This little piggy won’t be going to market…

…this week, anyway!

My Pop has generously offered me space on his craft market stall, and this Saturday was the going to be the first time Pierre the Yarn Snob would be appearing in a real marketplace. However, life has interfered somewhat, and my Pop has spent the last couple of days ill in hospital, so the market this weekend has been cancelled. He’ll be going into theatre tomorrow to have a small procedure done under a local anaesthetic, so please send some get well vibes his way – especially tomorrow morning!

This means that I have plenty more time to sort out some sort of inventory – I was going to take along some handspun and handpainted yarns, as well as some stitch markers (ie- the sort of stuff on my etsy site), but will be knitting rather frantically to get some other stock happening as well (I am thinking scarves, hats and mitts may do rather well!) I have also ordered a spindle and will be attempting to ‘spin the old way’ whilst I am at the market. I figured it would be a good way to attract a few people our way and if there is enough interest I may look into adding them to the store too.

Yet another s’n’b!

Last night Gwet (one of the gals from the Black Sheep Café Knitters) and I headed down the coast to Torquay to gatecrash their knitting night at the Pear Tree Café. It was a fantastic night – there is two seating areas in the café, and the knitters completely took the back area. It reminded me very much of SSK at Bermuda café in Sydney – a rather casual affair over coffee (and very yummy bailey mouse chocolate cake) with wide range of knitters (alas, no men though). The Torquay s’n’b is a weekly event, so I am planning to get back there.

Not co-incidently, the home of Pear Tree Yarns is just across the way from the Pear Tree Café, so I had a chance to chat to the owner, Sue, about her company. Pear Tree yarns are rather scarce in the market place and this is because it is a one woman show. Sue is rather passionate about how she does business, and is trying to manufacture ecologically sustainable, luxury natural yarns, entirely processed within Australia (local to Geelong, if possible). She had some of her current stock, and new lines of yarns out last night – and I have to say they are gorgeous! There was a gorgeous yarn that I thought was cria (baby alpaca) but was actually a long staple 13 micron merino (if that doesn’t make any sense, the finest cashmere is usually about 13 microns – so this is wool on a par with that). I hadn’t tried Pear Tree Yarns before because I didn’t realise they were such high quality. Sue is in the process of setting up direct internet and mail-order sales, but in the meantime I think Taryn over at Purl Yarns still has some in stock.

A quick note on vintage hues…

Remember when I did my review on vintage hues I mentioned I wasn’t sure how it would felt (or full, for the pedants out there!) – Queen of the felted bowls, Olivia, has given it a go and said it made a nice but rather thin fabric – she has a solution for coming up with a thicker resulting fabric, so if you are interested pop over to her blog.

geelong knits

just got back from my first knitting meet up in geelong(i took my mum along).

have to say knitters everywhere are fantastic people - oh so welcoming :)

the trip home - Pitstop 1: Canberra

Following a fantastic farewell the RandL group gave me on ANZAC day, and a sleepover at Lara and Mark's (which included a singalong toMonty Python's the Meaning of Life ) I hit the road, aiming roughly in the direction of Canberra.

This was a quick stay - long enough to hang out with Lucy and Hubby-lou, Dilby and Huey for one last night before heading out early the next morning in order to make it to Wangarratta Woollen Mills for a bit of shopping.

Knowing that this would be my last visit to Canberra for a few months, I put the feelers out for an s'n'b - and Bells stepped up to the call, organising a pub-knitting night at Tilley's just for me.

The turnout was small, but intimate - and as you can see, alcohol was close at hand. I was delighted to share exactly why the phallic sock was such a phallus, and was very excited to meet Hubby-Bells. (Apologies to him - he asked why I was moving interstate and I think he got stuck with bitter-ex-girlfriend conversation. No wonder he was so quick to suggest he take this picture of us :)

A big thank you to Bells for organising this one - it is great to know that you can find fellow knitterly friends whilst travelling for a few rows and a few drinkies.

Of course, I enjoyed being able to spend time with the Lou's - as you can see below, Huey had grown quite a bit in the two weeks I was back in Sydney - he is now a lot less spidery, and a hellavalot more Sumo (in the cutest possible way!)

In this picture he is the perfect fit for the baby kimono, which I thought would take him months to grow into.

He had also outgrown his ribbed baby booties, but thankfully, the clogs still fit him.

It has nearly been another two weeks since I saw him, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has yet again doubled in size!

I was really glad the clogs still fit him, as here we have clogs MachII - with a matching Huey, Dewey, and Louie Cap.

THE STATS
NAME: Baby Clogs MachII
PATTERN: Slip-on from 50 Baby Bootees to Knit By Zoe Meller
YARN: Cleckheaton Merino Bambino (held doubled)
YARN SOURCE: Lincraft Belconnen
NEEDLES: knitpicks options 4mm
COMPLETED: 22 April 07

NAME: Huey Cap
PATTERN: My own
YARN: Cleckheaton Merino Bambino
YARN SOURCE: Lincraft Belconnen
NEEDLES: Birch 3.75mm DPNs
COMPLETED: 26 April 07

> And of course - I had to make something cool for Dilby to go with that super-funkified-reversible-double-knit-weasley-sweater, and what better than a "tebby-bear" hat (his words, not mine). My sis completed one of these last year and gave me her light blue leftovers, which was just enough to make a smaller hat for Huey. Perfect for when the boys go to their Teddybear picnic in June.

I followed this pattern to the letter, and as you can see, the 2yo size is large enough to fit an adult - and I am now very tempted to make one for myself.

THE STATS
NAME: Tebby Bear Beanies
PATTERN: Patons booklet 1217: Designer handknits for tots
YARN: Patons Loopy Mohair and Totem
YARN SOURCE: Lincraft, Hornsby Craft and Wool Nook, Malvern Button Shop and sis's stash
NEEDLES: knitpicks options 4 and 6mm
COMPLETED: 26 April 07

I am hoping to post semi-regularly this week (I have a couple of other FOs to share) to catch up with the rest of the trip home (such as the woollen mills... drool!) but I have just recieved a package from the States that contains my Sea-wool, so excuse me while I go smother myself in that unique seacell smell!

I stand corrected!

(If you are new here, please read this post, and then Click on the skullcandy banner at the top of my sidebar so I can get free stuff!)

In my review of Men who knit and dogs who love them, I made the comment that I thought that Eastern knitting was the Same as continental knitting. Ginny pointed this out in the comments, but I also received this email from L, one of my fellow North Sydney Pubknitters which provides a detailed explanation which is so good I had to share:

I was reading your blog today and saw your comment about Continental
(Eastern) knitting in your review of the book "Men who knit and the dogs
who love them". Just thought I should point out that Continental and
Eastern knitting are not the same. Continental knitting is where the
yarn is held in the left hand, but the yarn is wrapped around the needle
in the same direction as when the yarn is held in the right hand.
Eastern knitting the yarn is wrapped around the needle in the opposite
direction to what is done in Western knitting. So in Eastern knitting
the yarn does sit on the needles "back-to-front".



To quote Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts (what a mouthful), from Knitter's
#40, "When wrapped from front to back for both the knit and purl
stitch, the leading side will be on the front of the needle (Western
knitting). When wrapped from back to front for both the knit and purl
stitch, the leading side will be on the back of the needle (Eastern
knitting)."



Mary Thomas's "Knitting Book" (first published in 1938) also discusses
English knitting (yarn in right hand), Continental knitting (yarn in
left hand) and then Eastern knitting which "is formed by reversing both
the movements of the yarn and the needles as worked by the Western
methods, so that the Plain or Uncrossed Knit Stitches are made through
the back of the loop...".





From what I understand from this, Continental and English knitting create the same fabric, albeit in different ways. Eastern knitting is actually a completely different technique that creates a different fabric - rather like double knitting creates a different fabric from other colourwork techniques. L will be bringing Mary Thomas's Knitting Book along to pub knitting on Monday so I shall be sure to check it out.



And on the topic of pub-knitting, Monday night will be my last public stitch'n'bitch in Sydney. If anyone in the vicinity wants to drop by, please do! We meet from 7pm upstairs at the Station Hotel opposite North Sydney train station (funnily enough!)



I'm preparing for a very busy week - apart from pubknitting on Monday, all my possessions will be packed up and put on the back of a truck on Tuesday, on Wednesday the 'Randall' knitters are throwing me a bit of a party, and thursday I will be starting my Drive down to Canberra(I know it's not an s'n'b night but anyone want to meet for a coffee?) , stopping for the night before hopefully making it all the way back to Geelong on Friday.





Of course what good is a road trip without a little yarny goodness? I got in touch with ACS, and plan to stop at the Wangaratta Woollen Mills - they don't do tours (doh) but I hear they have a backroom just like Bendy!





As you can tell, I am a rather chatty person, so in my email to ACS I invited them to stop by the blog, and also asked for permission to use content of their websites when I do product reviews. I received the following feedback, that makes me feel warm and fuzzy :)

Hi Meg.

Thank you for your enquiry via our website/s. I have taken a look at your blog site, very nice and comprehensive. Please feel free to mine our websites for info etc. We have just released our 2007 ranges which are making their way into stores all over Australia and New Zealand. We have led the swing back to natural fibres over the last couple of seasons and we are all happy with the results, naturally soft and light yarns.

Kind regards and happy blogging,


PS re Shadow tweed you can look up stockists via the Patons site once you have moved, until then Spotlight should have stock of the yarn and book.

Regards,
Stephen Hooper
Marketing Assistant





How fantastic to get this sort of feedback from a yarn manufacturer!

However, I was actually inquiring about stockist for the new cleckheaton yarn I have my eye on- Vintage Hues. Has anyone seen this yet? It's another bulky weight yarn with long colour repeats, but this on is 100% wool. I'm guessing it would be very similar to Twilleys Of Stamford Freedom Wool. And look at that packaging - they definitely are not being shy about Noro-esque.

Kniterature - Men who knit and the dogs who love them

(Thanks to everyone who has clicked the skullcandy banner - if you haven't yet please do. The banner is at the top of the sidebar.)

Title: Men who knit and the dogs who love them
Author: Annie Modesitt,Drew Emborsky
ISBN-10: 1579908748
ISBN-13: 9781579908744
Format: Hardcover
# of Pages: 144
Publisher: Lark Books (NC)
Published: 2007
Book Source: Dymocks
Price: $39.95
Skill level/Audience: Beginners to Intermediate

I wanted to like this book. I REALLY REALLY wanted to like this book. But expectations set by the title were not met.

When I nabbed it in Dymocks, I thought - what's cuter than a man that knits? How bout a man that knits and has a dog?? I was looking forward to anecdotes a la Franklin, Brooklyn Tweed and Guido Two-skeins (oh - and of course, David)

In the bookshop, I saw these one sentence blurbs, and thought they were highlights from a larger interview or article which would tell you more about the "Men who knit". Sadly, when I got home I found these "purls" were the only wisdom from the Men who shared their knitting experience with the author, and they are sporadically and infrequently scattered throughout the book. And as for the "dogs who love them" - not one of the male knitters so much as mentions a Fido.

So then my next thought was that patterns were knitted by men, or that male knitters had a big input into the finished objects shown in the book - but a quick look at the list of test knitters shows that there were a surprisingly large amount of female names listed...

Which left me with the idea that, perhaps, rather than models - real knitters were used for the pictures... but I'm not sure. First of all, the author thanks all the models (male and canine) for their assistance. And look at how this guy is holding his yarn... You be the judge.. So I get my major gripe with this book is the title is very misleading. Perhaps "Sweaters for Men and Dogs designed by a Woman and a Man-who-c******ts-but-doesn't-knit" wouldn't have sold many books but it would have been a helluva lot more accurate.

So - lets re-assess our expectations and consider this as just a pattern book.

First of all - it contains the "learn to knit" section. Most of what I have learnt is from books and illustrations - and I have no idea what is going on in these diagrams

I can knit both English (western in this book) and Continental (Eastern) and I have never had my stitches sit on the needles back to front. I understand that Annie Modesit has a rather quirky way of knitting, and says that there is no right or wrong way of knitting - but it feels here that she is trying to justify her special brand of knitting as a traditional style. I wouldn't recommend the lesson in this text to anyone wanting to learn how to knit.

However, what this text does do well is explain how to size both people and dogs. It has clear diagrams and tables that allow the knitter to ensure that they can knit a garment that fits.

Which really only leaves us with the patterns. From my extremely scientific survey of approximately 5 men, the best quote I got about these garments is that "only a man incredibly comfortable with his sexuality would wear these". This is mainly a comment on the colours used - for example, this item wouldn't be worn by any man I know. Or even any woman I know...

However, even if you could get past the gaudy colours (that would still look out of place at a psychedelic 60s drug party) - the construction still a very simple drop shouldered sweater. (although the model in this picture does have yarn woven through his fingers - is this one of the fabled "men who knit"?)

This colour combination of this sweater made a hungover Lara reach for painkillers - however, I would quite like this knitted in subtler colours.

This sweater was the all-round favourite. Again, the colours are a bit bright for most men I know, but they aren't completely out-there. Yes - there are a lot of matching Man & Dog sweaters - needless to say, the sweaters look a hellava lot cuter in the dog version. However, I think the men's toe-up socks are great, but didn't need the matching paw-covers for the dog.

If you are keen for some great knits for your pet fido, this is a great book. This dog bed was one of the winners-

- and quite possibly would make a nice interesting throw cushion for a couch as well. There is also a great pattern for dog toys, and several of the doggy sweaters are quite dignified (however, the doggie "saddle-bags" were a bit crazy)

Grab "men who knit and the dogs who love them" if you are keen for some cute patterns for your pup, otherwise I'd suggest you give it a miss.

If you are looking for some great men's knits, I would suggest you hunt down a copy of Patons new Jet book - in fact, if you're female (or a gay man) I'd suggest you grab just for the eye-candy of the models. I haven't seen it in store yet, but the preview on the Paton's site will have me keeping an eye out! (although I am not entirely sure chunky cardigans for men are ready for a comeback) Below is the news from Patons - notice not one mention of the sweater-curse...

Book 1266– Jet Mens
There is nothing more special than hand knitting a sweater for the man in your life! Patons Australia has received many requests for contemporary mens hand knits. In response, our design team has produced the Jet Mens Book 1266 containing 20 hand knitting styles – to suit all hand knitting skill levels from easy through to advanced knits. You’ll find sweaters, cardigans, vests and jackets – from the ever-popular classics through to styles reflecting the latest fashion trends. Sizes range from XS to XXL.
Patons Jet knitting yarn is a relatively quick to knit 12ply blend of 70% Wool and 30% Alpaca – for luxury and softness. Patons recommends Jet is knitted on 5.50mm knitting needles.
To add to your confidence with the Patons Brand, we offer a free help assistance telephone service – from 9am to 3.30pm Monday to Friday EST Australia. Our toll free number is – 1800 333 642. Any query can be answered by our professional design and knitting team. The Patons quality is assured – trust Patons – to help you knit for the man in you life.

And a photo from a lazy weekend

we invaded Fink Chocolate Cafe in Lane Cove with our needles and yarn. As we come into colder weather I'd suggest you stop by for the bestest hot chocolate north of the harbour.

Help a gal out!

After Pierre ate the original headphones that came with my ipod, I went a hunting for a replacement.

I decided to buy some skullcandy earbuds for 3 reasons:

1 - the were a funky pink colour
2 - they donate funds to increase breast cancer awareness (if you buy the cool pink headphones)
3 - they have this cool warranty - no matter how you destroy you headphones they will replace them for half price.

Anyhoo - I use the headphones mainly when I am spinning, as I like to zone out and listen to audiobooks. The earbuds I got were noise-cancelling, and incredibly comfortable...

Until Pierre got to them...

...and created this carnage...

I am in contact with skullcandy at the moment to organise a replacement, but while cruising round their site, found that they were having a promo - but their banner on your website, have 100 people click on it, and get free headphones. Considering my run so far, I think I could do with all the headphones I could get...

So see this banner (here and in my sidebar) - click it. If possible, leave a comment here if you do so I can try and keep count of how many clicks I get.


And I also need help...

...to find a new stitch'n'bitch in Victoria. I'm keen to have one inGeelong (I'm thinking pubknitting) and haven't had any luck finding a group there yet. I may have to start one!

But - I'd also like to meet some of the Melbourne knitters - or gate-crash other groups in Victoria. So if your a Victorian knitter and you stumble across this, please let me know about any knitting groups. If I've missed a crucial website that has this info on it - please point me that way!

gatecrashing in Canberra

As you have probably guessed, I am down in Canberra hanging out with Lucy-lou and her newly grown family. Hubby-lou was kind enough to hook my laptop up to his network in order to let me blog and surf the net and all other manner of fun computery stuff...


Well, first things first, I know you are all dying to see pictures of the adorable baby Huey - shown here napping on his sheepskin with his big brother Dilby.


Huey is a teeny-tiny ball of adorableness (he is still a tad bit small for a 0000!)- he has spidery arms and legs (very long and oh-so-skinney) and hasn't quite grown into his skin yet so at times it looks like gorgeous pink elephanty-type wrinkles around his elbows and knees.

And here is Dilby, who turned two last weekend (although he is usually a ball of hyperactive dancing and laughter, it appears he is beginning to show signs of the dreaded 'terribles'.... especially when it is time for his nap) This is the boy at his adorable best - helping me out by modelling my newly finished Shadow Tweed Cable Raglan (stats are a bit further down!) As you can probably tell - Dilby is a bit of a joker most of the time.


Being in Canberra, I took the opportunity last night to gate-crash the S'n'B in Civic. There were LOTS of knitters there (I found out that there were a couple of extra ring-ins like myself) and ended up staying quite late. The picture on the right is of Bells, who celebrated her 1 year blogiversary yesterday and me, showing off my new project - which uses up some of my ebay bargain Cashmerino SuperChunky . This picture was kindly taken by Jejune and emailed to me last night.



And speaking of Jejune - here she is with her problem child, Lulu, who appears to be attempting to reclaim wool that appeared to already been processed. Perhaps Jejune should show Lulu the picture of Huey and Dilby on the sheepskin so she gets the idea of can happen if the sheep don't have their fleece sheared off... And Bells has magically jumped into this picture too...



Of course, I did meet lots of other great knitters too - including Dotter (mentioned quite frequently on Jejune's blog) who I am suspecting if concocting a plan to kidnap Pierre...



...and Taph - who I ended up staying out past my curfew because we were having such a great chat (considering this was only our second face-to-face meeting, it was a fantastic chat and allowed me to talk through a couple of issues I am sorting through at the moment. Just one of the reason I love the knitting-blogosphere so much!)



...and the self proclaimed Caffeine Faery, who shares my passion of literature, pop-culture and vampire slayers, and well as being a knitter...



...and Brenda, who I don't think is a knitter but was happily cross-stitchin'n'bitchin'



...and many others who's names have escaped me since last night (I got lost getting out of the carpark, and then finding a fuel station, before being pulled over by the cops for a breath-test and having a rego-check done... with all that happening I am surprised I remembered the names I did!)



And without any further ado...




THE STATS
NAME: Shadow Tweed Cable Raglan
PATTERN: My Own
YARN: Paton's Shadow Tweed
YARN SOURCE: The wool inn at Penrith
NEEDLES: 6.5mm clover bamboo 80cm circulars, Knitpicks Options 7mm
COMPLETED: 05 April 07

And here it is on me - this is a great comfy sweater for around the house, although it is fairly casual, and I know there are a few errors in it, I think the yarn is such great colours it hides mistakes and is very forgiving. I have worn it (almost) non-stop since I finished it yesterday morning. And for those of you playing at home, Dilby is wearing the super-funkified-reversible-double-knit-weasley-sweater I gave him for Christmas. Still a bit big, but it was the first day cold enough to pull it out of the wardrobe... so Hubby-lou decided to give me a thrill and pop it on him.

The Katoomba LYS

A few weeks ago, David invited us to visit his LYS - Katoomba Wool & Needlecraft...

We weren't really sure where we were heading, but Katoomba isn't all that big, and we knew we were in the right place when we saw this cute sign in the middle of the footpath...hee hee hee - a knitting sheep (I wonder if he is knitting in cotton???)

Just in case we had doubts, we found the trail of yarnbaskets to lead us right to the door...

And inside - all sorts of treasures and delights. If I had to describe this store in one word it would be "essentials" -

The store has all the yarn lines, in all the colours from Australian Country Spinners (Patons, Panda and Cleckheaton) as well as Naturally. There was also quite a collection of British yarns such as Twilleys of Stamford and Sirdar.

Although not the main focus of the store there was also some luxury yarns, such as quite a bit of Jo Sharp in stock, but not quite the entire collection. And there were also a few novelty yarn s (however, the store was not overrun with them.)

As far as the fruity new vegan yarns (such as bamboo, soy, maize or corn, and hemp) - they haven't seem to made it to this store - yet!

My guess is that a lot of the custom for this store comes from 'traditional' knitters who may not adventure away from machine washable 8ply wool crepe...

The flavor of the day for us was the Twilley's of Stamford new yarn, Freedom Spirit. I think 3 of us walked away with enough for a garment out of this fantastic yarn (I have already completed my bolero!)

Of course, one LYS is much like another if you don't get any personality from the staff. Jan - the owner - was on hand to help us with all our queries. If you listen to Sticks&Strings, you have probably already met Jan, as David interviewed her for one of his earlier shows. She is every bit as loverly in person, and, I discovered, has great taste in dogs...

Yes - that calendar in the middle there is a whole year of Papillons! And she owns two Papillons herself, quite possibly distant cousins to Pierre...

If you are driving up the Blue Mountains I would recommend popping in and saying hello to Jan. She is incredibly chatty, and didn't mind us bringing our take-away coffees into the shop while we browsed. (For some of us it was the first caffeine hit of the day, and we really needed it!)

Shadow Tweed Sweater

This is what I have accomplished so far with my shadow tweed - front, back and sleeves knitted separately and then joined in the round and shoulder shaping completed via raglan decreases and a v-neckline put in.

I made the pieces of the jumper slightly smaller than I would usually and am completing a sleeve/side seam gusset to make up the extra width - yes, it was intentional. I wanted long colour repeats, and wanted to experiment a bit with the construction. I have grafted in one of the side gussets, and only have to complete the other to have a finished garment. I am thinking this will be a great hot chocolate, on the couch, in front of the telly, pouring rain outside kinda jumper....

New blog - welcome Sally

Sally - the unofficial leader of the Rubi and Lana group, has finally given into her blog-envy and created her own at pompoms.wordpress.com. Please pop on over and say "hi!"

Sally is also playing with Shadow Tweed at the moment, making a jacket from the Patons booklet. She made the comment that this is the first time in 20 years she has used a pattern, so hopefully she will have lots of wonderful, one-off designs to share with us when she gets into the swing of things (hehehe - put you in it now, haven't I Sally!)

Canberra knitters

I checked out the Canberra knitters blog, and looks like I'll be able to make it to the S'n'B this thursday evening (the 5th) at Starbucks Civic. Look forward to catching up with you all again!

I am actually heading down to Canberra tomorrow, and I'm not sure what interweb access I will have while I am away, so if you don't hear from me for a week - don't worry. I'm living life!