this is ...

... my darling pet, Tonic, who is sadly no longer with us (yes, there was once a Gin too). It has been several years but I haven't had a pet since and he is still so dear to my heart.

Thank you to Angela from Three Buttons for the invitation to participate in 'this is ...'. I'm really quite excited about it and have had this photo ready to go for daaaays. What's next week's theme?

fullhardy

Some time ago, before I started blogging in fact (how strange to be able to categorise the timeline of my life like that) I had a bit of a felting disaster. I remember that it was pre-blog precisely because someone said to me 'you could start a blog just to write about that'.

The project in question was the Fibertrends felted clogs - great pattern, no problem there. I was using some leftovers of Twilleys of Stamford Freedom Wool in deep red, light blue and steel blue. This is a lovely wool, soft, thick, great colours. I didn't have quite enough leftovers so I had to buy more of the steel blue. Therein lies the start of my problem.

I had test felted (technically fulled because it was already a knitted fabric that went through the hot wash) my original swatches and they had come up really well - a soft, thick felt. These were going to be wonderful slippers. So I knit them up, again, no problem with the pattern although the resulting clog was pretty bizarre looking and I got quite a few dubious glances (from fellow knitters no less!). Then I put them in the machine - top loader - hot wash with soap flakes and a couple of old towels I think.

So, did they felt up well? They did ... and they didn't. The red felted well, the light blue felted well and some of the steel blue felted well, but some of it didn't. Some of it didn't felt at all, leaving me with a pair of very disfigured clogs. You know all that stuff about matching dye lots, it would seem to apply when felting too. My only explanation is that the later batch of steel blue must have been treated differently before dying to the original lot. I have heard that cream and white yarns often won't felt because the process to make them so pale strips them of the little scales that are essential to the felting process, rendering them very machine washable. Perhaps this later batch was so bleached before dying with the same result.

Needless to say, it was a very disappointing experience and I haven't managed to bring myself to attempt them a second time. It's just too hard to have seen that good knitting time (and yarn) go to waste. Because yes, they did go in the bin, they were unsalvageable.

So the moral of the story is to test felt a swatch of the same dye lot that you are going to work with!! And that is the only addition that I would make to the book I Heart Felt by Kathleen Taylor which was kindly supplied to me by the publisher Taunton. There are some terrific projects in here - lovely felted pumpkins, a very cute baby hat with ear flaps and of course, slipper patterns (do I dare disturb the universe?) - as well as good general instructions and the admonition that swatching is mandatory!

vintage

So, pertaining to the last post, I had my last day at work this Monday past to give me time to organise the move and pack up the house. As a farewell gift my colleagues were ever so thoughtful and gave me this book - Shopping for Vintage by Funmi Odulate. Thank you so much FHIP friends!

What a great little book - information about designers and their decades, tips on vintage shopping and an international vintage store directory. Furthermore, many of the textile illustrations are fabulous.

What the term 'vintage' actually means, as opposed to antique, retro or second-hand has received some attention of late. Odulate defines the terms thus:

antique - any garments that pre-date 1920
vintage - anything that dates after 1920 and up to the very early 1980s
retro - mainly Sixties' and Seventies' casual wear
secondhand - anything post early Eighties (so not strictly vintage)

I had always thought that antique referred to items that were more than one-hundred years old (which makes it a movable feast really - as each year passes more things in the world are considered antique and as we hit upon one hundred years since mass production surely the numbers will soar). Vintage - yes, anything that comes after antique. Retro - hmm, more recent than vintage but not necessarily mutually exclusive and could be stretched out to cover 1950 to 1980. That is, a 1950s sunfrock could be both vintage and retro.

What do you think?

true blue

This is an Australian blog - maybe not quite true blue, perhaps more true periwinkle or true sapphire. Anyway, point is, I am Australian and this is my blog. I don't particularly identify as being "Aussie" - I never say 'g'day' and am completely disinterested in AFL. But I do spell recognise with an s, not a z; I knit moss stitch, not seed stitch; I cast off, I don't bind off; I go to the op shop, not the thrift store and in my craft lexicon there's no such thing as single crochet. My locally posts are about my local neighbourhood (note there's a u in there) which I love and where I have lived for nigh on 20 years (with a few excursions). Whenever I read the international news I am grateful for Australia's political stability, good free health care and easy-going lifestyle.

So, what will happen when we move to Seattle next month? Yes, we spent a good 2.5 hours yesterday at the US Consulate General here in Melbourne applying for our visas. Tim has a 12-month contract at Microsoft Research and I am gearing up for my year as a dependent (potentially the most challenging aspect of the whole venture). Thanks to the internationally accessible nature of the internet blogging will continue, as will crafting. Locally posts will take on a whole new flavour.

Twelve months - goodness, in that time I may even get something done.

ps - if you're in the Seattle area and read this blog, please do let me know!

macramé

I was completely serious about antique macramé lace, although I may have gotten my centuries wrong. This is a picture of a towel with lacis insertion and macramé border from the 16th century taken from Italian Lace Designs: 243 classic examples by Elisa Ricci.

vol 8

A quick look at some of the forgotten arts in volume 8 of Golden Hands: the complete knitting, dressmaking and needlecraft guide. Macramé and needle-made lace are two occupations that haven't really experienced the recent craft boom. I have very vivid memories of macramé pot holders in my grandmother's house - vivid orange memories in fact. There are in fact some lovely examples of very fine macramé lace from the 15th century, some of which I saw at Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan (as well as lots of other wonderful lace - eccentric museum, eccentric collection, eccentric staff, loved it). Antique macramé lace must be an unusual thing though because I can't find any good references on the internet.

Needle-made lace is still practiced in Australia and around the world. I think that I have previously mentioned that I was a member for a couple of years of the Australian Lace Guild. They seem to be mostly into bobbin lace (or in Sydney at least they are) but there is some needle lace as well which is my preference.

Anyway, trusty Golden Hands being the complete guide that it is has chapters on both crafts.

My progress update - I have a finished object to show but alas, no camera at present. This was my reward project for having completed Tim's dad's socks and the tomten. I have decided that as a complement to general knitting it is necessary to always have a pair of socks on the go. They are very portable and great while travelling so in the past few weeks I have gotten most of the way through the first Gentleman's Fancy sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks in a (discontinued) Patonyle variegated blue on my new bamboo dpns. It's going very well.

And as the cold weather is upon us I have also started on some headwear but it's to be a present so I won't elaborate more than to say that it's from Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran Tweed in a lovely mossy green (#126 Highland) which was a gift from a lovely friend. I want to include some more in-process photos instead of just out-of-the-blue "look what I made!" This is a scanner photo and doesn't show the colour at all well but just to show what I've achieved since 2:30 this morning. The white scrap is my make-do stitch marker.

I have also had a close look at the instructions for Mavis - "worked in one piece from the neck downwards, the only seaming required is an underarm seam". Can't wait.

I have made some reading progress too - about one hundred pages into The Poisonwood Bible. I'm really enjoying it. I love a book that is responsive to the reader. Just when I was thinking, hmm, enough of this bit, part one ended. Perfectly timed.

ursidae

It turns out that baby bear is actually a panda! She has taken to sitting on her reading cushion (purple yoga bolster - finally came in useful) with her young beside her (toy panda) and reading a book to him/her.

This makes a lot of sense because mummy bear (that is me) currently looks like a panda:


Coping with jet lag is taking its toll - we were up between 2:30 and 5:00ish this morning. Those dark circles under the eyes aren't quite so cute on me.

the cure

... for jet lag is parenthood! Twenty months of broken sleep, irregular sleep, disturbed sleep, too little sleep and here we are, home safe and sound after fifty hours of travel (including an overnight stopover) and I feel pretty ok.

Our travels took us to Paris, and also Zurich, Bern, Milan, Goettingen and Quedlinburg, plus a very rushed afternoon in Singapore. There was lots of museuming, a couple of wonderful yarn shops, premium op shopping in Switzerland, books books books, food food food, sunshine, speaking foreign languages (I impressed myself with what I could manage in French), family, friends, airports, train stations, a small lost luggage experience and plenty of chocolate. Too few photos because I, oops, left the camera in Switzerland and it is still making its way home to us.

Craft/life blogging will resume shortly although I am going to have get imaginative with achieving images using the scanner.

Now, the cure for toddler jet lag? That would appear to be a different matter entirely, one that may just keep me up all night.

neuf

It is nine years since I was last in Paris. I wouldn't claim to know the city well enough to say that so much has changed (or not) but I have noticed some definite differences.

The first is the Vélib' scheme - free-use bicycles which are stationed all over the city and appear to be well used. Despite having lived in Amsterdam for two years and having ridden a bike everywhere without a helmet it terrifies me to see people riding the boulevards of Paris bare headed. Ah, if I were younger and more foolhardy perhaps ...

And the second is wifi - everywhere, including the parks. Yes, there are people lazing around on the grass in the Place des Vosges quite possibly reading this sentence.

en vacances

bollewangenhaptoet and family will be on holiday for the next few weeks (guess where!). I'll try and post a few photos from the road.

vol 7

Knitting - yes, I think that it is my favourite creative past time. I love to crochet and have recently been enjoying a bit of embroidery and sewing but really, it is knitting that I adore. And finally, in volume 7 of Golden Hands: the complete knitting, dressmaking and needlecraft guide, I have found something that I want to knit!
The pattern calls for an obsolete (thank goodness) 4ply - Bairnswear Babysoft Nylon - but I think that I will use the Grignasco Bambi which was originally intended for Lynda. I'm not sure that my resizing aspirations for Lynda are going to be successful with a 4ply so will use it instead for this adorable puff-sleeved cardigan. Codename? Mavis perhaps?

There are also some good knitting technique chapters in this volume, including how to knit 'slimming darts'. Just make sure that the neck opening is big enough to accommodate that hairdo!

prince dande lion

What a long week's worth of children's book illustrations! Thank you again Pip for the inspiration.

Being an blog from Australia, I wanted to include May Gibbs who is best known for her books about the gumnut babies, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Here are some images though from my 1953 copy of the lesser known Prince Dande Lion. See the big bad banksia men in the second of the line drawings?

Gorgeous illustrations, classic Australiana.

husk - collins street

the juniper tree

I've always known that fairy tales were grim(m) - children in ovens, girls in towers, wicked stepmothers - but they are even more so when illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Installment six in my week's worth of children's book illustrations - The Juniper Tree and Other Tales from Grimm, a queer book, yes queer in the old-fashioned sense of strange or odd.

Sendak is probably best known for his picture-story books Where the Wild Things Are (like) and In the Night Kitchen (dislike). I find these illustrations unsettling.

footscray fortune garden

We attended the opening yesterday afternoon of Elaine Su-Hui Chew's 'The Footscray Fortune Garden'. The exhibition is an installation garden, constructed entirely from two-dollar shop plastic flowers and plants, all purchased in Footscray. You can wander around the 'garden' or stop for a bit on one of the plastic stools provided. There are questions about nature and symbolism, abundance and fantasy, identity and transience but mostly it's about happiness. walking into the gallery puts a smile on your face - highly recommended.

We were a bit hesitant about letting baby bear loose on the installation for fear that she might engage in some overzealous pruning but our fears were unfounded - she completely ignored the flowers and plants and instead was fascinated by the plastic stools. She worked out that they were stackable and ran around the room, gathering all the stools and making one great stack (or at least attempting to). As this defied half the point of stopping to sit and look we did have to contain her in the end.














Photographs from here and here on the Trocadero Art Space website.

I have to admit - I think that it was the first time that I had ever been to Footscray, which is probably even closer to the city than Balaclava ... but on the other side. Anyway, it was fascinating - incredible mix of people and cultures and shops, bustling and alive. It's so easy to forget that you don't have to travel far for a completely new experience, that in your own city there are always places to discover. Also highly recommended.

vol 6

With volume 6 of Golden Hands: the complete knitting, dressmaking and needlecraft guide I thought that I would focus on the dressmaking chapters, partly because some friends have expressed an interest in pattern drafting and garment construction recently, partly because I've neglected it so far.
The dressmaking chapters are very detailed with plenty of instructions on how to sew into the bias, make French seams, lay out pattern pieces, and notes about fitting.

I think that at some point in our teenage years as we've been working out just what our look is (oh ok, and in later years) making our own clothes seems like a great way to get just exactly what we want. I myself was put off by all the jargon on the sewing patterns, the ill-sized dimensions, the fact that the finish wouldn't be what I had come to expect from commercially produced fashion (raw edges, unh). I even did a pattern-making and a dressmaking course once, way back when, at CAE.

I really like the idea of Thread Den - a 'sewing lounge' - although I haven't made it for a visit yet (North Melbourne, tad inconvenient for this south-of-the-Yarra girl). The concept though is great - sewing machines available for hire, assistance on hand, classes available and apparently a full set of Golden Hands.

I've mentioned before that I rarely wear shirts or blouses because they invariably gape across the front - not a good look. It would be great to learn how to either draft or adjust a pattern so that doesn't happen. Oh yeah, maybe one day.

The current craft update: I have been really busy finishing things. This is partly because I have had too many projects on the go at once for too long and have had no satisfaction from seeing things come to fruition which is eventually quite discouraging. Jeremy has been blocked and seamed - just the collar to go, ends to weave and then some embroidery. I have actually been working on the baby ballerina sleeves - hooray. The felted jumper bag is going slowly.

And according to my complete-two-start-one formula, Tim's dad's socks + tomten = new project time. Subsequent posts will reveal that my maths is not very good (I'm up to sewing on the buttons already).

tomten

A while ago I mentioned 'the whole EZ thing' which is an illustration of something that I have come to realise about myself - I can be really resistant to new things (or at least, things new to me). I think that part of it is a fear that I won't be able to master said thing so I just don't want to know about it. Elizabeth Zimmerman is, of course and rightly so, a knitting legend and there is a knitiverse of her work and patterns and knowledge out there. Perhaps I just found it all too overwhelming because when I got my first inkling of her work, that resistance swelled on up. Yep, 'the whole EZ thing'.

Slowly but surely, however, I allowed myself to learn a bit more, to look at some of the books, to visit Zimmermania and although I still find her style a little brusque I would count myself among the converts. So it is with great pride that I present my first EZ project.

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Modular Tomten Jacket taken from Knitting Without Tears.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon in shade 148; 100% wool; four skeins.
Needles: 5mm
Start to finish: Sunday 14 October 2007 to Monday 14 April 2008 - this was such a quick knit, I was finished on 2 November 2007, about 19 days of knitting. The rest of the six months has been taken up with finishing - seaming, choosing buttons, making loops for fastening. I need to lift my game.
Comments: Such a great pattern. I love the construction and doing it in a variegated wool highlights this. As I didn't want to put in a zip or knit a button band, I knit an extra panel and affixed it just inside one of the fronts so that when the jacket is done up there will be no gaps for the cold to get in. I took EZ's advice (really, how could you not?) and did some short rows across the back to make it just that little bit longer.

As usual, it was the finishing that let me down, timeliness wise. I think that because the size of this is way too big for baby bear at present (no worries, she's growing fast), I didn't feel any urgency to complete it. But then it just sits around, an unfinished object and weighs on my mind.

It did take me a good while to decide on the buttons - ultimately, black wooden toggles. At first I wanted rustic bamboo toggles but had trouble finding appropriate ones and was then talked out of it anyway (good-o). The colour changes in the jacket are already a feature, the toggles didn't need to be. the fastening loops are i-cord (three stitches or four? can't remember).

A couple of disappointments with the Kureyon though - there was a lot of debris in it and quite a few joins. Oh well, I just picked it out and knit over them. Terrific that I was able to join balls though with a quick spit and vigorous rub between my palms.


I would still really like to do a round of double crochet along the front but have run out of yarn. So if you happen to have a good few metres of spare Kureyon 148 that you would be willing to part with - please let me know.

illicit sox

This pair of socks was my treat pair of socks – my reward for having finished two projects . They are a special thank-you gift for our friends in Tasmania where no doubt they will shortly be wanting something to keep their toes toasty. Unfortunately, I don’t think that a finished treat project can count as a finished project towards the ‘complete-two-cast-on-one’ rule because otherwise I would never get ahead.

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: the classic basic Patons sock pattern.
Yarn: Grignasco Strong Print (4 ply) in Multi Blue/yellow/pink; 75% Merino Wool, 25% Nylon; two balls; purchased at Clegs.
Needles: op shop 2.25mm aluminium, still not nice to knit with. I have purchased a bamboo set and will use them for my next pair.
Start to finish: January 2008 to 6 April 2008
Comments: Again, the basic sock pattern – a basic and enjoyable knit. The bands of colour are much wider than with the self-patterning yarn but I still like the effect.

The next pair will be Gentleman’s Fancy Sock (take a peek at this pair) from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks.

sara

Sara is a lovely little girl who recently turned one. She is the daughter of one of my dearest friends (from way back in high school days) who, with her two beautiful children, is certainly one of my models for motherhood.

This little jacket is made from the 100 per cent silk egg-shell coloured knit that I bought for $1.50 back in January at the Strathbogie Summer Festival. Usually I unravel second-hand knits in order to re-knit with the yarn but I loved the texture of this one so much that I decided to just use it as a fabric instead. It was quite tricky going with the sewing at times - parts of the garment are very thick and the silk hardly holds together in its knitted form when you cut it. So to start, I outlined each of the pattern pieces to be cut from the fabric with a very small stitch on the sewing machine. Then I was able to cut the pieces out without worrying about them unravelling. There were a few seams where both the machine and the overlocker skipped a bit, particularly where those bobbles are.

The lining is taken from a Thai silk skirt that I bought at Savers in Brunswick - $7.99 perhaps? As the silk knit fabric was quite loose, I chose the black to go underneath and give definition to the stitch pattern.

The pattern - and this is a proud moment - is one (albeit very straightforward) that I drafted myself from Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting for Children's Wear and Babywear. If you want to try some pattern drafting I recommend this as a good place to start.

This is another of the items that I presented as part of my refashion display at the Stitches and Craft Show. A 100 per cent silk jacket for a child for under $10. Oh, and did I mention that it's machine washable? That's my first test for fabrics that I reuse - they go through the wash on a cold cycle, possibly in a lingerie bag if I'm feeling very kind. That way I know that the finished product (assuming that my hand work holds up) is up to the same treatment.

Happy birthday Sara!

moomin, mymble and little my

My week's worth of vintage children's book illustrations continues (after Pip's example) with Tove Jansson's The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My from 1952.

I read this the other night to baby bear - the story was too long and complicated but wow, at 18 months she was fascinated by the pictures, remembered the book and wanted it the next night as well. Perhaps it was the cutouts on each page so you can peek forward to the next illustration and once you've turned the page look back towards the previous (and even the one before that in places). Very graphic, strong lines and planes of colour - a wonderful book. I bought it in Finland in 1999 as a present for myself.

french art deco

Where does the time go? March was quite a big blogging month for me - I try to post every four days or so and here it is a week has gone by. After the flurry of crafting activity in the lead up to the Stitches and Craft show I am slowing things down a bit and concentrating on my uni studies. Who would have thought that health economics could be so fascinating? Not being a business-minded person I have always shied away from that monolith 'the economy' and anything to do with it. But economics is proving to be very interesting, particularly in the context of health where the idealised competitive market model doesn't hold for all sorts of reasons.

Anyway, on to more important things like wonderful fabric design. You know sometimes you see an image and it just lifts you up inside? That's what this design, 'Wallflowers' by Atelier Martine, does for me. It's a printed velvet from 1923 and is taken from the book Art Deco Textiles: the French designers by Alain-Rene Hardy. I saw it first at the bookshop on Easter Monday when I was perusing and very nearly bought the book then and there for this one image. Good sense prevailed though and Monash Uni library delivered the goods. This design makes me want to draw and paint and colour in. I want to trace it onto fabric and make a huge fabric panel. I want to repeat print it and make a little girl's summer dress. I want to ...

And it's not just me - I've also done a colour printout and a couple of the blokes here at work have commented "what a lovely image". Hmmm? What - I'm blogging at work? Yeah, oops.