Yarnstorm Process

Most of my contribution to the Sussex Neighbourhood House yarnstorming installation process was done with my voice. I put on my brightest blue clothes--handknitted and crocheted wool of course--and appointed myself as the team's "spruiker". We handed out heaps of invitations to the birds of happiness workshop; leaflets for Coburg Carnivale and copies of the Neighbourhood House program. That and catching up with the various crafters and installers as the day went on was great. Meanwhile I was knitting away on big needles to fill in any gaps. We even had one woman who insisted on joining in on the spot. She promised to bring back my knitting needles and her work today.

This is the only bit of actual installing I did . . .

. . . hand-knitting stitched around the supporting stake of our little tree. It felt good to echo the organic form of what was there. Today Leigh and Amanda added a little bird to it, plus lots of other birds and other goodies too.

I think this is the most links I've ever had in a post here, but that's the point really. A project like this is just full of links.

Live in Coburg

I'm off to Coburg Mall this morning to help install the yarnstorming. I spent a couple of hours last night and this morning making up some extra bits of hand-knitting to supplement the great work done by the kids.

This is knitting up close and personal. I use my fingers as the knitting needles, so there's nothing between me and the yarn. The only drawback with this approach is that I am literally attached to the knitting. Where I go, it goes. There's no way to put the knitting down until it's finished. So I was confined to my armchair for the duration of each ball of wool. My record this morning was 100 grams in about 35 minutes. I was hanging out for a cup of coffee and needed to finish before I could put the pot on the stove.

A Hug by Any other Name

I wore this little darling on Saturday: I'd had a bad night and felt rather vulnerable. What's more it's been unusually cold the last few mornings. I'm not quite sure what to call it . . . I guess it's a little capelet really. I've knitted it from my handspun merino-silk yarn--one of the First Editions colour blends. The design is a simple stocking stitch circle with garter stitch bands and yarn-over increases. I love it. It's warm and light and soft and easy to wear. It's one of those pieces that is sure to improve my day every time I wear it.

I need to sit down with a ruler, pen and piece of paper, to measure and write down my pattern, so I can provide it to the growing list of people who have asked for it. Like so many of my experiments, I made it up as I went along. Meanwhile it's nice just to enjoy the textile hug.