Saturday, May 31, 2008

Revisiting Swinging 60's London



My latest hat was inspired by a lovely old vintage 1960's crochet pattern, I tried to re-create the same look with knitting and Carnaby Street Cap is the end result. I used Patons Jet which I absolutely adore, so soft and the colours are wonderful. It is available for purchase from my Etsy shop and I will be adding some more over the next few weeks and of course I will always take special orders if you have a particular colour favourite.

Now onto another matter, Bendigo Woollen Mills Camille, am I the only person totally disappointed by the lack of fashionable winter colours in this range? Judging by discussions on Ravelry, I certainly am not. Anyone who was a knitter in the 1980's would remember these colours and yes they were the height of fashion then, but certainly not now! I sold off my 1980's stash complete with my batwinged, boat necked patterns many years ago and I do not wish to visit that era again, thank you. A quick walk through the citys shopping malls will show you that greys, blacks, browns are the staple winter colour but not one of these appeared in this range sadly. *off soapbox now*

till next time,
happy knitting.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A New Project Bag

You may remember a previous post about this bag and how I just had to have one too, well here is my version of the Yurt Bag.


Here is the knitted base before felting


after felting


the knitted top piece which is left as is


I used Cleckheaton Vintage Hues #1269 and loved how it felted and the colours of it worked well with the sampler stitches used for the top of the bag. This is definately my new take everywhere WIP bag, it is the perfect size for needles and yarn. I have been inspired with the Vintage Hues felting properties to make some felted hats so stay tuned.

till next time, happy knitting.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

I Am a Yarn Snob

Yes you read right, I am a bona fide dyed in the wool yarn snob! I'm not one that has to knit with the most expensive wools or import the top of the range wools but you guessed it, I love wool. I have always avoided acrylics and nylons but below you will see that all that changed this last couple of weeks.






They were all orders and you guessed it they didn't want them in wool, so I have been knitting my way through acrylic and nylon for the past couple of weeks much to the amusement of my fellow knitting coven members who also know of my love of wool. I was especially nervous about the kitty hat as the customer sent me the ears that she resurrected off a previously much loved hat and wanted them added to my aviator hat, I don't think I have ever been so scared of what a persons reaction to my knitting would be as I was this time. Fortunately she loved it, phew!!

Some of the northern members of the Tassie Knitters group at Ravelry met up on the weekend for some coffee, knitting and lots of chat, it was so cool to meet everybody and one person in particular Susie M had the most amazing bag in which she kept her knitting in, I came away inspired to make my very own Yurt Bag. She is such a talented artist as a trip to her blog will show you and I am sure inspire you too.

I NEED TO FIND THESE TWO LADIES
Can anybody remember the knitting online store Ozyarn (not to be confused with Ozeyarn, which is still alive and well)?? I am on a quest to find the two ladies who were behind this website, Jennifer and Judith. They had a lovely pattern for an alpaca earflap hat which I have incorporated the use of their fair isle graphs into my own version of this hat. Now as I sell my knitwear I would love to be able to sell this hat too but as it is their graphs I have used I really need to get in touch with them to get their permission first as it is most likely copyrighted. If anybody can let me know if they are still knitting or blogging somewhere that would be great or maybe you know them personally I would love to get in touch with them.



That is about all for now till next time, happy knitting.