HRYC
Knitted Christmas: bits and pieces
It's Friday evening, i'm sitting on the couch thinking about putting up the Christmas tree. By way of procrastinating, I thought i'd take a quick look at Ravelry....
Balls Up! by General Hogbuffer - a free pattern with heaps of designs to choose from.
Knitted pocket gnome by Jenny Propst (also a free pattern, hooray!)
Stjarna by Karolina Eckerdal (and yes, it's a free pattern!)
and it's not Christmas-y, but this cowl is so amazing, it's making my hands itchy. Alas I can't cast anything else on until i've finished the sleeves of my Hart cardigan. Into the queue it goes instead. Christmas holiday knitting, perhaps?
Sanquhar Cowl by Wendy D Johnson
If you do need some time out, or some time to get knitting done, feel free to come by the Petone shop on Saturday and hang out with us. I'll be furiously working the aforementioned sleeves, so will welcome any distractions in the form of helping you with your projects!
x Tash
Christmas Window: Grand Arcade
Our town shop Christmas window: inspired by the Paper Bag Princess, one of our favourite childhood books. As with the World of Wearable Arts window, it will change and evolve over the next few weeks leading up to Christmas. If you fancy winning yourself a sweet prize, you can vote for our window in the Wellington City Council competition.
Mouse knitted using Ysolda's Mousie pattern
Petone Twilight Christmas Parade
Friday 28th November sees the first ever Twilight Christmas Parade traveling along Jackson Street, and we'll be open late for the occasion!
Not only that, but we'll be celebrating with another round of super tasty Good Buzz kombucha, tasty treats and some fancy specials.
The parade kicks off at 7pm, and Santa's Grotto will be open down the road until 10pm. The street will be transformed into a (Summer) Christmas wonderland when the fancy street lights are turned on at 8.30pm. Bring the kids along, do some Christmas shopping, and enjoy a relaxed evening out and about.
Designer Interview: Mary-Anne Mace
As part of our yarn review of Zealana Kiwi, I thought it the perfect time to introduce you to Mary-Anne Mace, a New Zealand designer who creates beautifully elegant patterns. Her latest pattern uses Zealana Kiwi Lace, and if you read to the end you can find out how to win one of three prizes - two prizes of a pdf copy of The Emperor and the Scarab, and one prize of enough Kiwi in the colour of your choice to make The Emperor and the Scarab, plus the pattern. Hooray!
Hello! Tell us a little about yourself:
I grew up on a Dairy farm in Waikato - A fairly common life for a Kiwi kid in the seventies - feeding calves, pet sheep, milking cows, riding motorbikes, getting slathered in muck and generally being wild were among my favourite activities.
Big Flower, little flower shawl
I moved to Christchurch to attend University. I worked, travelled, earned more degrees until eventually I quit all that when my first child was born. I re-visited knitting to keep her little self warm in these winters that are so much colder than the balmy north. My mother-in-law insisted she teach me how to spin, so I learned, quite reluctantly, with two children trailing bits of carded sliver around her lawn. Much to my surprise I found it quite addictive. I started dying yarn and fibre to get the effects I wanted, until eventually I joined the Christchurch Guild of Weavers and Spinners and fell in with a bunch of similarly addicted fibre nuts. Learning to spin taught me how different fibres behave, and how twist effects the knitted fabric. I especially like to be able to produce a yarn that doesn't pill or fuzz up alarmingly like so many modern commercial yarns do. And that is why I like Zealana yarns so much!
You use a lot of Zealana in your designs - particularly Kiwi. What is about this yarn that speaks to you? (it's one of our absolute favourites, too):
Initially I was attracted to the Zealana colour palette, especially in the Kiwi range. Slightly heathered, with a possum halo - Zealana's colours look like they grow out of our wild and uniquely New Zealand landscape. Absolute dying and spinning perfection with the vaguely muted colours I love! I've knit shawls and garments in a variety of Zealana yarns and have found them to be quite soft but robust - no pilling or shagging - my most hated bug-bear of modern commercial yarn!
How did you get started designing patterns?
If it weren't for the earthquakes, I would probably never have started designing. I visited the cordoned off city centre early on and noticed how quickly the weeds took hold in the ruins. I realised then that the recovery would likely take years, but the weeds only needed a short growing season. Growing up in the country I've always admired plants and trees, and I found it strangely comforting to observe how the natural world took over our stricken urban environment. While others may find the proliferation of weeds adds to the feeling of neglect in Ch Ch, I admired the weeds and their tenacity. The idea to create a shawl depicting weeds came to me out of the blue, but made perfect sense at a time when not a lot made sense at all. I wanted to design a shawl that celebrated the raw beauty of nature, particularly weeds, that pioneer of destroyed places.
Regenerate, featured in knitty Spring / Summer 2014
One of your patterns was published in Knitty this year - how exciting! Did you design specifically with the plan to submit to Knitty, or was it more serendipitous?
Submitting the design to the hugely popular online knitting magazine knitty.com was always in the back of my mind, but I had no idea whether I could achieve my vision. This was my first design so I began with pencil and graph paper – lots of paper! I called the shawl "Regenerate" and decided it was pleasing enough to submit to Knitty.com, but didn't really expect them to be interested as I guessed they would be inundated with submissions for each issue. To my surprise they liked it. I offered to knit one in handspun merino and they loved that even more. When the Spring/Summer 2014 issue of Knitty went live I was so surprised to see it on the front cover!
What is your current design inspiration?
Plants and creatures, particularly insects continue to inspire me, and this is fairly obvious in "The Emperor and the Scarab". I'm constantly amazed at the versatility of the knitted stitch to express shape and form, and I've only begun delving into lace knitting. I am equally inspired by colour - the colour of the landscape and the colour of yarn. The unique colours in handspun yarn for me is pure eye candy! Over the coming months I would like to design a large project inspired by my favourite landscape of all - the Canterbury High Country, with the moody yellows of the tussock and the looming clouds of a brewing Nor'Wester.
And lastly: if you could meet any knitter, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
A designer whose work I have admired for many years is Kate Davies. I love how she accompanies her work with a strong narrative regarding her inspiration, and as a former academic, she delves into the historical origins of knitted garments. She models her own designs in her beloved Scottish countryside, and I find her presentation down to earth and accessible. I just ordered her latest book, and cannot wait for it to arrive!
Win!
Ok, so you fancy winning either a pattern, or a pattern plus the yarn to make The Emperor and the Scarab? All you need to do is comment on this post with which colour Zealana Kiwi Lace you would make your shawl in, should you win. Easy! Comments need to be posted by 5pm Monday 1 December (hey, that's my birthday!) and the winners will be drawn at 10am on Tuesday 2 December.
Patterns will be notified by email, and patterns will be sent via Ravelry.
Yarn Review: Zealana Kiwi Fingering
It's that time again! We go through the hardship of knitting with a particular yarn, and share our thoughts with you!
Zealana Kiwi Fingering
40% merino | 30% possum | 30% organic cotton
Structure: two ply, with each ply made up 4 x 2 ply singles
Weight: 4ply / fingering
Presented in: 40g / 124m balls
Recommended needle size: 3mm
Colour: Fern 07
Disclaimer: I started this review already loving this yarn, so there is a substantial bias present.
First things first: Kiwi Fingering is a little different to its sibling, the lace weight. It has a much more ropey appearance than the lighter weight, with a very distinct twist. Lovely and rounded, it makes for a bouncy fabric. The twist doesn't make for a nubbly look, though, it all smooths out for a nice even surface.
The cotton content gives an interesting difference in feel to the rest of Zealana range - it adds a robustness that makes it wear a little harder than those with predominantly wool content. But the cotton, oh the cotton! While it may be a surprising thing to throw in the mix with merino and possum fibres, it works brilliantly. It helps contain the fluffy possum-ness so it doesn't get quite so lofty over time. It also breathes when the weather is a bit warmer, so you can continue wearing it through the summer months as well as in winter.
I honestly don't think you can get any better when it comes to a 4ply yarn. It has everything: excellent stitch definition, great drape, it feels amazing, and it wears well. I used a 3.75mm needle for my swatch, and it makes my heart sing at the looser gauge. While it is labelled a 4ply, it tends to the heavier side and could even be substituted in projects calling for sport weight yarn (be sure to swatch!).
One thing I do recommend: rewind your balls before you start work. Kiwi is notorious for falling out of the ball it is presented in, and turning into a horrific tangle. So rewind by hand (or with a ball winder) to save yourself some stress later.
Spot the little stitches that are sitting higher than their counterparts above and below.
If you look closely at the swatch, you can see something odd happening in the middle. I was knitting it at Knit Night and got bored (as you do, I was having a serious lack of focus that evening) and passed it on to Hannah, one of our regulars, to have a go. Which turned up something fascinating - it shows really clearly how Hannah's tension is different between the right and wrong side. Even after blocking, the slight difference in stitch size is still there.
So, how to figure out if this is something that affects you? Do up a gauge swatch using a yarn with good stitch definition (like Zealana Kiwi). Start off with two needles the same size, and see if it works out to be even. You're looking for little ridges between the rows, to see if your knit and purl stitches come out different sizes. If they do, play around with a smaller or bigger needle size for the needle which does all the work on the wrong side.
Obviously this isn't a problem with knitting in the round, as you're always knitting on the outside. I have had some conversations recently with people who have discovered their gauge changes between knitting in the round and then switching to do magic loop or use double pointed needles. It's really worth taking the time to sit down and figure out if you are one of those knitters - it'll make a small but important difference in your finished objects.
To follow: Shelley's review, an interview (and giveaway!) with Mary-Anne Mace, and some pattern suggestions. Hooray!
