Structural knitting

'Structural knitting' is what we've called one of the articles that we're (Experimental spinners and friends) entering for the Australian Sheep and Wool show group competition. The theme is 'Spin a yarn' and we're sending around our five articles for each person to work on, accompanied by a book.

For this piece we've obviously been inspired by Sandra Backlund, well, I have and if I'm convening this, I'm going to have one of her pieces in. Megalomania here I come!

I started the structural knitting off, and will pass it on to the next person today. I can't wait to see where it goes and to add more, further down the track. We have till the end of June to finish these and we don't know where they'll end up. What fun!

Woolybutt entry

I finished my entry for the Woolybutt Summer competition. I'm quite pleased as the challenge was a tricky one for me.

Having only 2 balls to play with, the article had to be small. It also had to be useful, as they're being given away. I thought I'd do a little top for a girl. Another challenge, as I don't really do cute!

I started knitting from the top with moss stitch, then some holes to thread an i-cord tie through. I'm hoping that this makes it adjustable. I knit this flat, but decided to sew down the front leaving a gap, when the bottom moss stitch commenced.

Icord ties were add knitting them on the edge as I went. I made two hearts (thanks Tammie) and added them to the front. The smaller one wasn't so neat, so I overlapped them. Ooops, no that was a design decision!

Anyway, Lorraine now has my entry. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole display. Should be great as there is some lovely work. Well done, everyone.

Small surprises

When your own troubles and triumphs seem trivial compared to others' maybe it's in the small and insignificant where we can find simple pleasure.

While looking for buttons, I came across these two. I don't know where they came from but are quite a surprise and puzzle.

This, I'm pretty sure has a very thin layer of opal sandwiched between, what seems to be, plastic! I didn't know that they made buttons with opal, and I wish I knew where it had come from.

This second one I'm less sure about. Having found one in my stash, I then went looking to see if there were any more. It's harder to tell, there doesn't seem to be any layers in the construction, but it's just uneven enough to raise some doubt.

I'm not even sure where to go to find out more.....maybe Buttonmania. (www.buttonmania.com.au)

Victorian fires

Seems impossible to write about anything else. I woke this morning to a death toll of 150, it is up to 173 as I write. For those waiting for news of loved ones, friends and neighbours our hearts and thoughts go out to them. For the rest of us, we go about waiting for news to trickle through, hoping nobody we know has been caught up in these horrific fires. We all know people who live in Gippsland, Bendigo and, (for me in the northern suburbs of Melbourne), Kinglake and everywhere else.....and the fires are still going, threatening new towns, more people to worry about.

Donations to the Red Cross: www.redcross.org.au

The Art of Gardening Sustainably

What have I been doing in all this heat? Nothing you might say, but you would be wrong....I have been weaving some pieces for the above exhibition. The exhibition is to support Sustainable Gardening Australia, and is being put on at my local gardening centre, which, instead of the usual coffee shop, has a gallery, run by Meredith Plain who is a ceramicist. One of her amazing birdbaths (with frogs) is in my garden and I would have one of her dragons, but that is a long story.

I've chosen the theme of recycling, so all the knitting needles are orphans from the opshop, which is where most of the buttons have come from, recycled plastics, and the neverending spool of nylon wire. Who knows what I'm going to do when that runs out.

I've given you a little sneak preview of the six works. I'll post the full lot when I have pictures of them hanging, but if you want to see them live....



The Art of Gardening Sustainably

An Exhibition to spread the word about sustainable gardening and raise funds for SGA (Sustainable Gardening Australia)

7th February to 8th March 2009

Exhibition opening: 6 to 8pm, Thursday 5th February
To be opened by Mary Trigger, Chief Executive Officer, SGA.

Bolin Bolin Gallery at Bulleen Art & Garden
6 Manningham Rd W., Bulleen. 98505155.
www.baag.com.au

SGA (Sustainable Gardening Australia) is a not-for-profit, non-government organisation whose mission is to promote the benefits of sustainable horticulture. (For more information about this ground breaking organisation and gardening sustainably go to http://www.sgaonline.org.au/).
Funds will be raised by donating Bulleen Art & Garden’s normal commission to SGA; small artist contribution donated to SGA (which would cover exhibition & opening costs which will be met by BAG); and sundry other donations.

The Gallery

The exhibition will be held in the Bolin Bolin Gallery at Bulleen Art & Garden, 6 Manningham Rd West, Bulleen. (For more information about Bulleen Art & Garden, go to http://www.baag.com.au/ or www.baag.com.au/gallery/)

Sponge cake hat

Some relief from the weather. It's a bit cooler and is only getting up to 37deg C today.........

I did realise, yesterday, that I hadn't shown you the sponge cake hat. Well....

Remember this.

I turned it into this.

Then I did this, as well.

I decided I wanted to knit a sponge cake hat.

I have a very old pattern, early 50's, late 40's, which I've used before which uses stocking st and reverse stocking stitch to create layers, and has a very flat top. So I thought I would use that to create this hat.

I love it. It's just what I wanted and is suitably fun and suitably practical. It's now for sale on Etsy, as is the very large skein of the slubby stuff.

Esme Johnson Prize

I've finally sent off my fingerless mittens to Yarn magazine. It's way to hot to be thinking about mittens. (For all you who don't know, we're on the.....I think it's the fourth day of 40deg C with minimal relief (down to 35deg C on Saturday) (38deg C is 100deg F)) I haven't posted on Etsy for a couple of days, so it's a great effort to get these off.

I was very happy with the final result. They are beautiful and just what I wanted for this project.

They definitely needed blocking. The pictures really show you what a difference blocking can make.

One of the things I also did, for my own curiousity, was to time how long it took me to knit the second mitten. Having the pattern established, I thought it might be interesting.

It took around 5hours and 40minutes. (I used my mobile phone stopwatch to time me, so it's a bit too accurate!). This means that to knit these would take around 10 to 11 hours. Not taking into account the time it takes to block, then sew on buttons, this is a long time. I have done a rough costing, but I'll leave it to your imagination. How much do you earn an hour, or would like to earn an hour?

I know I've said it before, but the moral: if someone gives you something handmade, treasure it, it's a priceless gift of love.