Stainless steel and silk heaven

I've finally felt like working and with a commission as incentive, I ordered 5 cones of the gorgeous stainless steel and silk from Dairing.

As well, I've finally moved my knitting machine into oldest son's bedroom. It isn't technically his room any more as he lives in a shared house in Thornbury, but that's what I've called it! The knitting machine has been sitting idle in the garage since the closing of TSBtextile in Greensborough, so I was a little worried about the state it was in.

Really.....it was more about me than the machine. It's never been so well loved as I cleaned and oiled my way to finding that I'd put it together incorrectly......twice! It's now singing happily and I've finished the first scarf and working on the second.

I use the knitting machine because it creates the fabric quickly, but also, it is alot easier to simply create folds which give the fabric a 3-D bounce making it interesting. I create different sorts of folds, some just pick up stitches 5 or 10 rows below, sometimes I move the picked up stitches to twist the fabric. And this time with the last cone, I'll try something new.

As well, I'm trying to be efficient and recording what I do and how long it takes, always an interesting occupation.

Isn't January a funny time?

You think you have all this time to catch up with projects, jobs, friends, exhibitions and well....you find things half done. So, I've started quite a few things, but haven't really finished much.

I did finish this though:

I know, it's another shawl, but if you look closely, it's a new pattern and one I'm really happy with. It consists of actually picking up fabric and hooking it onto the knitting machine and continuing knitting, creating a fabric that moves and is more three dimensional. There is a first one, but it disappeared at Rose St. very quickly. It was beautiful in a really gorgeous cream cotton that I only had enough for one.

The other reason that I like it, is that this one seems to represent another step. I've been doing alot of machine knitting, but it's not something that I have ever done alot of, except, of course, when I had to learn how to use the machine, an intense 6 months. The shawl represents, for the first time a style that I feel reflects my aesthetic and a more professional approach to mistakes, and a more capable ability for fix mistakes.

It's as I've often said, the test of a skilled and professional person is not how well they do the work, but how well they deal with the mistakes.

I feel happy to have reached this milestone.

And, I did manage to go and see an exhibition: West Africa: Rhythm and Spirit at the Immigration Museum. Well worth seeing, as are most of the exhibitions at this lovely Museum. This particular exhibition is worthwhile just to see the two minute film showing a group of men and boys weaving. Breathtaking!

The Endless Garment or stalking Issey Miyake and Sandra Backlund

Today was off to orientation at the CAE. A chance to catch up with lots of people, but basically an administration session. Instead of going off to the Art galleries that were listed, I went off to the RMIT gallery for the exhibition 'The Endless Garment: The New Craft of Machine Knitting'.

The best reason to go to exhibitions is not to look at pretty pictures, but to be shaken, stirred, inspired, shocked, surprised............In other words, when you have an emotional response, then an exhibition is a success. This was such an exhibition.

This is all machine knitting from a variety of international and local designers. There are so many ideas to absorb, both for machine knitters and hand knitters.

I'm going to purchase the catalogue when it comes out. I highly recommend that you pop in and have a look at the exhibition.

There's a number of event as part of the exhibition, I'm particularly interested in the Public Lecture by the Creative Director for Issey Miyake, and, the talk titled Knit your building. for more details visit: Rmit Gallery

Exhbition dates: 12 February - 21 March 2010

RMIT gallery / 344 Swanston Street / Melbourne

Mon - Fri 11-5 / Saturday 12 - 5 /

What I was supposed to do in the holidays, or making friends with my knitting machine

With the long summer holidays and having made the decision to, again, not do any markets in February, I decided that I would try and develop a new product more suited to the warmer months. Upcycling t-shirts by inserting beautiful machine knitting is still thought, by me to be a good idea......

It's an idea that is still in the general swirl of my thoughts, but it hasn't quite made it to reality. I do have a beautiful op-shop t-shirt to work on, and I have been working on my knitting machine, but not on the same project.

I have created this.

A combination of my favourite machine knitting stitch, the tuck stitch, and long floats has worked out beautifully. I haven't pressed all the kinks out of the floats, I do like them.

I added 9 pearl buttons to each end, just to give it a bit of weight. (it weighed just 50gm with half the buttons on!) These were obtained from the lovely Anne in a swap, perspex for pearl buttons...I think I am very lucky. They finished it off just right, giving just enough of that weight to be able to tie the ends if wanted.

I'm about to start on the next one, having done a sample in what is likely to be the last of some gorgeous red mercerised cotton, that I've used in lots of projects. It's a stunning shiny red and I hope the pattern will work out right for this one. Yes, each shawl will have a different pattern. My knitting machine and I are friends, so I'm going to try all sorts of different patterns.....

I finally figured it out!

Saturday was the HWSG Christmas party and I'm always happy to catch up with all the wonderful people at the guild. So many people interested in all things textiles is just inspiring.

Our inspiration for the day, among lots of others, was a bag that was made, and I quote "from fabric 1/3 the width of its length" and "you just fold and sew here and just fold and sew here".

It was one of those simple Japanese style bags that I love. You tie the ends and it's a very versatile bag.

Well, over coffee later, could we figure it out? It has taken me days, but I've finally got it. Yeah!

1. First the paper. the width, 1/3 the length.















2. Fold the end squares across the diagonal, just so.















3. Just fold diagonally across the middle. This will show you where you need to sew to create a pocket.















This is the bag I made from a length of machine knit fabric. You can see that it fits all sorts of shapes. You do need to make it up first in something firm, but it works rather well like this. I've made another in slightly heavier fabric.

Just a bit of fun when I have tax to sort out......quickly!

Sculpture everywhere

Today is the first day of classes and the first class, this afternoon, is SCULPTURE. An introductory day, according to the very detailed course handbook, this class is 'Presentation of the history of sculpture and it's relationship with contemporary artists working with sculpture. Introduction to set project: cardboard sculptural form. OHS issue in a sculpture studio will be discussed.'

Lots there for me to think about. I also need to keep a Visual Art Journal, and if I'm going to take full advantage of the course, then I need to be putting something (drawing) everyday. I'm trying.....

Sculpture is obviously an important part of my work, it crops up all the time. This weekend I've been working on my entry for the Old England Outdoor Sculpture award, which I've entered four times, the first time I managed to win. This time I'm hoping to make a much better entry and have severely dented this by not having a clue what I was going to do and only having three weeks in which to do it.

I continue to work on totem poles, a metaphor that seems to resonate. This is the first large scale totem pole and will prototype the process. I machine knit a flat piece of fabric with 'eye holes' in it. Sew into a tube and using Paverpol, make it suitable, ie stiff and waterproof, for an outdoor sculpture.

The holes will be covered with 'eyes' that I'm hoping to crochet. I don't know how many I want to make so will start with 8 and maybe some fallen and broken totems.

I have no idea how they are going to stand up. That will be part of the prototyping process, and I'm hoping to be able to do some sanding to give some a more weathered look.

Exploring and experimenting

Tuesday was spent exploring my design capabilities when it comes to Web page design. I was pretty happy with it. So with some trepidition I went to my classes, and asked Elias' (esteemed teacher) opinion. He liked it, offered a couple of small hints, and I went home happy.

I now have a whole lot more to learn and make the actual buttons, links, etc. work.

Lots of experimenting with my knitting machine. I've made several layers and stitched them together.

I've then burnt holes in the fabric. After this, you would never clothe your special bundles in anything but wool. It was very difficult to burn and keep it burning. I actually had to work very hard to burn in one spot, and one of my fabrics had some linen in it. I was very happy with the final result as there was charing left.

I then tied it up, wet it and left it to dry to see what I might achieve if shibori were applied to the final fabric to give it an added three dimensional look.

I've also been creating miles of icord, well not yet. Will finish off this lot and create some in wool boucle. These are all for our special project for the Australian Sheep and Wool Show.

Machine knitting layers

I guess I need to report on the weekend. Lots of tennis for the boys, and watching by me. The Sunday market was busy with one of our best crowds. However, the general, but not all, consensus was that we were bit of a gallery....they weren't spending money. Thankyou to all who did. I sold a scarf and have a commission for another. This is lovely as both these mean that I can make some interesting scarves as one was a silk scarf and the other my sayings scarf, which really did need to be translated into something a bit more practical.

I've started playing with the idea of creating a texture by layering machine knit fabric that is loose with holes, maybe even creating more holes by burning! I will be careful and will purchase a fire blanket for my studio before proceeding.

I am very happy with the first sample, however, the second is too neat, though there are some interesting holes around the edges.

I need to use some different tones and see what I get.

Fabric and knitting

Yesterday was supposed to be hard working, get ready for the next market day, unfortunately, the day was eaten up with washing, cleaning, catching up with friends, ailing, as it turned out. I didn't get to do anything till late at night, so I decided to work on a project that had been given some reality on our trip to Harrietville.


At Red Ramia in Myrtleford amongst all the treasures they have there, and there are alot, were loads of Japanese fabrics. I bought this one.



The project I have in mind is to cut up the fabric, (sorry to all who care about the fabric as a whole) and attach to a length of machine knitted wool. Scarf length, so I can have a finished product and it is a good test. I'm then going to felt it and see what happens. I actually have no idea what I'm aiming at, just hoping for an interesting result.





Red Ramia is a wonderful shop in Myrtleford full of Japanese clothing, fabric, furniture, bits and pieces. In particular, I love the calligraphy brushes. All sorts of sizes with the most exquisite handles made of wood, jade, all sorts. They've now included Morrocan ware and will be making a trip to India. It's a large fascinating shop, well worth a visit

New product design

Have had an idea playing around in my head about making a simple but stylish backpack. This is my first attempt.

Using the weaving technique on the knitting machine, I've knit a piece of fabric as long as I could. I did run out of yarn and the machine started to kick up a fuss, so this is more in the line of a crochet hook holder...longer, longer....but it works. I've sewn it up and felted it.

Unfortunately, photography has let me down and you can't see the rich texture or colour, however, I love it and will be making a full sample, for me, next.

I've also had a bit of a thought about spinning. I have so enjoyed the last few days spinning that I really need to design yarn for particular projects. I look at the commercial yarn stash and am becoming more frustrated with it, as it doesn't have the colours or textures I want. Some serious stash busting is required here to get rid of that unwanted yarn!....

Tubular scarves

I've been continuing work on Knitting the Kimberley, and though it's a slow process, I am extremely happy about the result. I've reached the half way mark, I call it the 'trees', made up of twisted stitches and bobbles and am working on the 'sky', which is varying the shell stitch. All these are from my favourite book: Creative Knitting by Mary Walker Phillips. This will continue to crop up through my knitting as I still haven't quite found anything like it.

Anyway, I thought I'd better do something quick, so I've had a play with my knitting machine, which hasn't really been getting much of a workout lately. I decided on tubular knitting and three varying size tubes, one inside each other. I like the result, though it's perhaps not quite long enough. I might have to do one very very long thin tube to get the length. That's daunting, as the shortest tube is 500 rows.

I have been learning though:

1. ALWAYS read the manual, it tells you all sorts of really interesting and useful things.

2. Be patient when fixing mistakes and refer to No 1.

3. I need to sort out my knitting machine, small equipment and manuals. If I knocked one more thing on the floor, I'd have gone mad!

Some more yarn!

Finished the camel yarn and plied it with some brown wool that I had also spun. Needs to be washed properly, but I'm quite happy with it. Unfortunately, I need to scour the yarn, hopefully it doesn't ruin the camel.

I also machine knit the merino I had. Wasn't enough to do a textile picture, but I will felt it to see what happens. It did prompt an idea for a scarf. Machine knit a scarf length, block it and then embellish it with handspun. Could be fun!

Machine Knitting Handspun

Bouncing around my workshop, a little undirected, I felt the urge to spin....problem, all bobbins have something on them. As I want a felt background for my next textile picture series, I decided to felt some leftover English Leicester single (still on bobbin- there is method to my madness) and try and machine knit with it then felt it. It was still quite greasy, so I don't think I scoured it before spinning, only washed it.

It did go through the machine with only one break. I think I need to clean the brushes and make sure I go quite slowly, or, of course, use cleaner wool!

I did felt it, not fully, and I'm quite pleased with the result. Next I'll try the leftover merino for a more serious effort.

I then did manage to spend the rest of the evening spinning camel. I'm spinning a fine slubby yarn and keep changing my mind about whether I'm going to ply with it or not. I do want to then do an upmarket version of my necklet.

Disappointment and other stories

Disappointment ended my weekend with absolutely no sales from the 9"x5" market. I was really happy with the way the stall looked and the new items I had on, but, I guess a combination of a small crowd and ???? just meant no-one bought anything. I am at a bit of a loss to both explain and know what to do next. I have a few ideas about changing the display again....in particular, finding a way to display all the scarves without taking up table space???, but I just have to hope that after the election and just before Christmas people will spend in December.

The weekend actually started quite well with Saturday being the day that the Spinning Certificate students handed in all their work for assessment. Four of us spent a good, but not onerous part of the day doing this. It was just great and the work is fantastic and the exhibition of work in December will be stunning...and I haven't yet seen all the final pieces. It makes all the hard work worth while, and it is a real disappointment that it won't run next year.

I will show some of the new work that I managed to finish. I'm very happy with my new set of textile pictures. I did receive some very good responses to these and I think I'll just keep going with them, even though I haven't sold any yet.

My next mission is to try Craft Victoria! Wish me luck!

Getting to know my knitting machine!

I've had to start a new set of work. This is a bit strange as I haven't finished any of the other works yet. With next week being the week before the market, I will spend that time finishing off what I can, and, hopefully, I'll have a variety of work to add to my market stall.

So I've started working on another set of textile pictures, this time working with the textures and ideas around the 3D5S trip to Melbourne Cemetery. Working in the same way as previously, I'll use the knitting machine to create fabrics and add them to a canvas. I've found a slightly different shape at riot: a long rectangle.

The back fabric is going to be more textured and I'm trying to master Lace knitting on the machine. It's seems just like Tuck knitting but with an extra bit on the machine, that I don't really know what it does! Anyway, I achieved a very nice pattern and will easily be able to do three.

I also would like to use up some handspun scraps. (Is any handspun a scrap!) so I need to use them by weaving them in on the knitting machine. I haven't done this for quite some time, and I'm not sure I'm doing it correctly. It is however, virtually impossible to find any information on this technique, if your own instruction manual feels slightly inadequate! I'll get there, but I must go in search of a really good technical book for my machine!