Building

OK, so this has nothing to do with textiles but, it is a momentous day. It's taken us around two years working with the architect, picking a builder, getting permits, dealing with neighbours and signing contracts, not to mention all the thinking before that! Today, they started on our extension.

We're building out the front of our house and adding a big family (read television/movie for all the boys) room, a double garage below for our cars and STORAGE SPACE. This is a very expensive way for me to get some storage space for all our accumulated collections, or more precisely, to get all the cricket bags, tennis bags, and their attendant equipment out of the house. There will be a beautiful terrace with views over to the Eaglemont hill, and, we can watch the cricket at our local cricket club!

It will take around 6 months and we're all looking forward to the changes.

Oh, and I got my haircut today, into a light fun bob sort of thing and I'm enjoying the feeling. Sorry, no pictures, you have to ask me for coffee for that!

It can't be a mistake!

Remember this:

Well, I've turned it into this:
















I love it! I've spent hours on it and the colour transitions have shown up really well, the pattern is interesting and I have enjoyed the whole process.

What's wrong? you may well ask......

I've been merrily knitting along, my only thought being that it will be lovely and swirly. So having finished it....there is no more yarn....it doesn't work as a scarf. It isn't long enough to tie, or swirly enough, or, or, or

The only thing I've come up with is a cross between a wrap and a capelet. All it needs is a pin. I need reassurance. I am going to take it along this weekend to Harrietville. A weekend away with like-minded (well, some of them, I am a bit strange!) spinners and knitters. I will put it on the show and tell table and ask for opinions....

I am NOT pulling it out!

Kreativ Blogger (Award) - blush

The lovely Kat has named me in her list of bloggers to honour. I'm blushing as this is the first time anyone has done anything like this. I love reading her blog http://thestoryofkat.blogspot.com/ and she's a lovely crafter with gorgeous bits and pieces in her Etsy shop.

Anyway, all I have to do is to tell you seven things you might not know about myself. (Deep breath, you don't have to tell things you don't want people to know.....), and, to also honour another seven bloggers in a similar way.

Seven things about me:

1. I didn't learn to swim till I was 21, and I didn't learn to ride a bike badly till I was 28. (Not sure if they're things you should admit as an Australian.


2. I always had deep desires to both paint and write. I now have done both, but not in the deeply romantic way that you might think.


3. I would love to play a musical instrument, but I have no idea what.


4. I'm only ticklish under my feet. I can release this information because my children are too old to try 'Let's tickle mummy'.

5. I like driving cars. Not driving them fast, just trying different cars. At college, I got to drive a kombi van, lime green V8 monaro (classic!), a brand spanking new datsun 120y and a few others. I did think, while I remembered this, that maybe the guys that should have been boyfriends should have been the guys that let me drive their cars??

6. My favourite movie is 'Local Hero'. I just want to go and live in a small seaside Scottish village.

7. I got my driving licence when I was 18 and the first place I drove to was my Grandma Bennett's house, about 15 minutes away. Thinking about this reminds me of how much I miss her.

I would like to nominate the following bloggers:

1. Ixchel Angora Bunny & Funky Fibre Art

2. Art journal

3. Dr Bones knits

4. Saint Verde digest

5. ii-ne-kore


They all inspire me, one way or another and this is just a little thankyou, and two more blogs, relatively new to me that I'm falling in love with:

6. Advanced Style

7. t does wool

Spinning Cassette tape and other tangles

Last Saturday was Experimental Spinning and the topic we were covering was spinning audio and video cassette tape.

I've been a bit remiss with blogging about this one, so I'm going to rectify the situation. However, thinking about this spinning raises more questions than it solves.

We didn't have many of us spinning, so were not able to explore alot of options. I used audio cassette tape and plyed it with some white top. I wrapped, around it and with it and was satisfied with the result. We did decide that to be really effective you would want thick bright coloured slubby yarn!

Some of the questions that were raised were:

1. What use would it really be, apart from 'because you can'?

2. It was reasonably soft, so would it make a hat?

3. If washed and left, would it rust AND dye the wool? (I HAVE to try this!)

Other interesting things were:

1. You need to do an awful lot of spinning to use up all those no longer used cassettes we all have lieing around the house.

2. There are lots and lots of bits in cassettes, once you pull them apart. Useful spools and potentially interesting tiny bits. (Could you glue them to glass?)

3. Don't pull apart an audio cassette tape before you spin. Cut the tape at one end and spin from the cassette, otherwise you could end up with a mess.

I now want to do some knitting with the resulting yarn and the tape on its own. I want to see how strong it is as a knitted fabric. Perhaps another sculpture or two is in order......

Drawing in the Botanical Gardens

As part of orientation week for the DVA (Diploma of Visual Arts) is a day drawing in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens. Last year was rather daunting, as while I had done drawing classes, I was (and to a certain extent still am) extremely reluctant to draw in public. However, if you're going to sign up for something you might as well do it right!

Drawing is extremely important, the basis for everything that follows, an artform of itself, and it forces you to LOOK. During the process of a drawing it's fascinating to suddenly realise how closely you are looking and what you can see that you certainly didn't notice when you started.

There was significant improvement. For a start I did TWO drawings, though not completed, were taken as far as I was going to on the day. I felt far more confident. And I tried a different approach, 'encouraged' by the drawing teacher I had last year, to start working tonely with graphite, rather than with lines. I quite liked this and look forward to trying this out in the Life Drawing classes I'll be doing this year.

PS They do look better photographed rather than in the flesh!

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.....