Craft Update

Sounds like a good story for kids right? Oh no, no, no … this is no story for children.. it’s a story of frustration and terrible curses, a story of pain and suffering and self doubt. You see, I decided to learn to spin and guess what? I have no talent whatsoever with a spinning wheel.

Spinning is supposed to be relaxing apparently - but considering every muscle in my body ached from the tension of trying to get the fibre to do what I wanted and my jaw was sore from clenching my teeth and stifling a range of curses - I’m not sure that it falls into the relaxing category for me. It’s like learning to pat your head and rub your tummy for the first time.

Unlike Rumplestiltskin (seriously who would name their kid that anyway?) who could spin straw into gold, I’ve discovered I can spin beautiful soft Perendale and Merino into knotted, tangled lumps of ugly yarn! My yarn has the unique quality of being able to break on a single touch, even when it’s thick and lumpy. Let’s just say I have a whole new respect for spinners.

Fortunately I am pretty persistent, and with Morag’s (the saint from Vintage Purls that taught me to spin) patient guidance my spinning has improved somewhat. She was even kind enough to suggest that I try selling my first attempt as “art yarn”. She was also very sweet and gave me a wheel to take home so I could hone my skills. That yarn above is my first gaudy attempt at spinning.

Here’s my second attempt - slightly better but still not that flash and still super-duper chunky. I promise you I have improved since this point, I just don’t have a photo to prove it.

Spinning for me falls into the same genre as making yoghurt, foraging wild foods to cook and digging up shellfish to eat. It’s one of those lovely earthy things - that make you feel like you are keeping an old tradition and skill alive. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’d love to be one of those wonderfully serene earth mother types that makes their own soap, bakes bread daily and has chickens in their back garden - but of course I fail at all of them except the bread baking and even that is intermittent. But still I persist. In my defence, I do have a vegetable garden!

My small success this week was ordering this lovely quick knit pattern, Autumn online and making this hat for Leah in an evening.  My hat took a scenic skiing trip to Wanaka with Leah - it’s so pretty in winter. Hi Matt! sorry for putting you on my blog! Leah told me to.

The yarn is a soft and squishy yarn that my mother in law Courtney sent me from the states. Wool-Ease - Thick & Quick, and it certainly was both thick and quick! It knitted up very quickly indeed. Leah headed off to uni today wearing the hat and came home touting it’s praises for both warmth and awesomeness. So if you have to knit a hat in a hurry - this one might just be the hat you turn to if you have some super bulky yarn and fat 8mm and 9mm circ needles on hand. There is a nice little toddlers size too to deal to the yarn leftovers.

After making the hat in the super chunky yarn I could not quite face swapping down to the lace weight that I have sitting just begging to be used. Look at this gorgeous merino lace weight from Touch Yarns. I adore this yarn. It’s so soft, we are lucky to have such wonderful merino literally on our doorstep. I’m still pondering what I’ll do with the roughly 1000 metres that I have.

I opted for another chunky yarn for my next project in Sirdar Big Softie, a shade of pale blue (blancmange) for this blanket for a gift for a friend. Turns out that the baby was a girl, so I quickly whipped up some little flowers on a daisy loom that my mother loaned me. The daisy’s looked so sweet when they were done.

I have to say this yarn was a little difficult to work with, although as I got further through the blanket it became a little easier as I got used to the yarn.

My spinning, well lets just say I have shelved that for a little while, until I can sit and swear spin to my hearts content without so many interruptions. I bought this gorgeous bag of merino and silk fibre in a moment of enthusiasm, but I just don’t have the heart to ruin it’s beauty with my spinning, so I’m sending it to a friend who is a beautiful spinner and a smile in many of my days. The photo does not do it justice, it reminds me of sea foam, soft with gold, azure, eggshell blue and green.

I’ll be finishing that rag rug next, showing off some of my crochet, plus I have a couple of hat orders and a pair of gloves that need to be filled before summer arrives.

Welcome to the world baby Olive, I hope that blanket keeps you cosy.

I know I’ve been a little more absent from my blog this week which is unusual for me. So I am going to make some excuses. I’ve been obsessing about something other than food for the last couple of days and started making an old fashioned rag rug. Every now and then a craft project takes my eye and I just cannot focus on anything else until I’ve started it. I can’t help it, I’m like that. I’m a very impatient person when it comes to new projects.

I started this braided rag rug this week. Don’t worry all you lovely fellow foodies  I have some wonderful baking and cooking I can’t wait to share with you too. But I did want to show you all this.

First - I finished Nicky’s shawl and I forgot to share it on here.

I loved knitting it and I was really pleased to have it done for Nicky’s little boy.

I have some new yarn and I am going to be making this Tree of Life Afghan next.

Some lovely soft Aran weight wool, which was actually quite difficult to find here in Dunedin! For some reason Aran weight is really hard to find here in New Zealand, it’s just not that common. Double knitting would be the most common wool weight. I’m used to knitting with DK or fingering weight yarn or smaller so knitting with the Aran feels like I’m knitting with rope! I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually.

 Braided Rag Rug

For those of you that are interested I will post a tutorial on this when I am done with it. At the moment I just have a few photos of the beginning of my project, but I really wanted to share this with you.

I had two old sheets that I tore into strips, I also wanted to have some specific colours as contrast, so I purchased a few bits of fabric as well. Traditionally these would have been made with old curtains, clothing, socks, sheets, tea towels etc, anything that was not fit to be used as a duster.

I remember my great aunt having a rag rug sitting in front of her coal range. They were always multi-coloured since they were just made with the scraps. There are a lot of different techniques for rag rugs. I decided to go with the braided one.

I have a white main colour on my rug, so it was not hard to choose contrasts, I just needed to find something I liked!

I spent a couple of evenings turning everything into strips to braid.

I now have a massive bag full of one and a half inch wide strips of fabric and I’ve started to braid them.

This is going to keep me busy for a few nights!

I won’t be happy until it’s done and sitting on my bathroom floor. I’ll post some pictures when it’s done and share the technique with you all.

It’s a long weekend here this weekend - so I’m hoping to spend a bit of time pottering in my kitchen with all the fantastic autumn produce that is starting to show up in the market and to make a couple of late summer treats before berries cost five gazillion dollars a punnet.

If you have ever wanted to knit or be inspired to create beautiful garments with two sticks and some yarn, then you should take a trip over to Slip Slip Knit. It is written by the talented and stylish Mel Clark from South Seas Knitting. She stocks the most beautiful yarns on her site that New Zealanders would have trouble getting anywhere else.

There is also a wonderful selection of New Zealand yarns like Forever Green Organics for those of you outside of NZ. It’s 100% organic merino from New Zealand’s high country, and dyed with natural plant dyes in dreamy pastel shades.

I knitted this winter slouch hat for Isaac in this lovely organic yarn. My mother did the felted details.

Slip Slip Knit is mainly a knitting blog but it also has all sorts of snippets about Mel’s travels and day to day life. The wonderful yarns in her store are knitted up into garments and small projects. I find this particularly useful, when buying yarn online to be able to see a finished garment in the yarn is invaluable.

There are patterns galore, some for free and some for purchase, as well as some very handy tutorials for those of you learning to knit or more experienced knitters brushing up on some techniques. I’ve spent a lot of time just browsing through her site since I discovered it, there are all kinds of gems there.

The Raspberry Bed Socks Mel designed have been on my favourites list of things to make for quite some time. I am hoping to get a pair knitted before next winter. A little bit of hand made luxury beside my bed. They are knitted in the gorgeous Koigu Kirsti yarn that is available in her store.

Wouldn’t these keep your toes toasty on frosty mornings?

Image used with permission from Slip Slip Knit

If you are inclined at all to want to knit, do check it out, it’s a very inspiring blog to meander through and plan and purchase for the things you would like to make.

Something I have returned to, to keep my mind and my fingers busy since the loss of my son, is knitting.

I’ve rediscovered a passion for sitting with my knitting needles softly clacking and sliding yarn from one needle to another. There is something about the rhythm and the movement of knitting that is very relaxing.

As a child I loved to knit with tight, squeaky, acrylic yarn in lollipop colours that would hurt your eyes if you looked at them too long. Now I find comfort in soft fine plys, and take delight in the hand-spun miracles that others seem to be able to create.

I’ve also ventured into the world of the yarn dyer briefly, and found it hopelessly addictive. Unfortunately for me, I do not have the area and equipment to work with professional dyes, which are generally not food safe. But I have had a chance to experiment with food safe dyes, and I just love it.

My current project is a shawl for a friend who is expecting her first baby. I saw this pattern and was immediately drawn to the simple but sculpted shapes that the stitches made. I gave her a choice of several patterns that I thought I could knit, But this is the one she chose. I was secretly pleased, because this was the one that I wanted to make.

About half completed and I have to admit, I’m pretty proud of myself.

The Leaf pattern shawl is from Patons Heirloom 4 ply collection I’m knitting it in a cream Shepherd Baby Wool merino 4 ply. I’ll post a picture of the completed shawl, but don’t check back any time soon expecting to see it finished, it’s definitely a case of slow and steady, I want to be able to gift a mistake free shawl to a precious baby.

If you have a creative urge, but are not sure what to make, or how to make something, you must visit this site, a wonderful collation of lots of talented people’s ideas with tutorials on all kinds of things and printable’s for invitations, gift boxes and oodles of craft based items.  No excuse for nothing to do on a rainy day now!