Want to Run a Work Shop in your area?

WORKSHOPS:  TIME, COSTS  &  PLACE.........

• You arrange it.... Could be your local KINDY ...TOWN HALL SIDE ROOM...Any CHEAP light and warm space.  Alternatively we could meet in your own homes if you have a big covered deck or lounge area.

Cost:$15 per person (plus travel costs of 20cents per.km from Auckland's Bombay or Drury off-ramp)

What do you get for That?: 3 hours tutoring, all the wool or tutoring resources you need to get you spinning and a raffle ticket to win something sweet to keep you using  those click-sticks....and it helps to cover my travel costs.

Minimum of 7 people (just cause I like the old Seasame Street 7 song)

B.Y.O. Knitting needles if you have them. They are pretty cheap from the  op-shops, any yarns, fresh ideas, knitting disasters you want to talk about....Get KEEN and bring along a cheap op-shop find that you want to replicate or pull apart you re-cycler you.

(A small selection of yarns will be made available to get you started for free if you want.)

COME AND HAVE SOME INPUT INTO HOW YOU WANT TO.....                        

• EITHER LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO KNIT
• LEARN HOW TO USE A SPINNING WHEEL SO YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN FUNKY WOOL
• SPIN WOOL THAT IS AWSOME QUALITY....AT A FRACTION OF THE COST OF SHOP STUFF
• GET INTO SOME SAFE GRAFFITTI KNITTING
• FIND OUT HOW TO GO ABOUT DESIGNING SOMETHING TO KNIT AND WEAR
• MAKE A KNITTED SCULPTURE FOR HANGING ON YOUR WALL

This blog has been set up to encourage groups of people to get together for creative fun and experimentation with the click sticks. 

Here are some reasons you why might want to get together with other knitters, where ever you are

BECAUSE I WANT TO.....

• Plaster my mailbox/fence line with soft graffiti knits.
• Learn how to knit more than wiggly lines of garter stitch.
• Design knits that I like, and would love to wear, but that I can't afford to buy.
• Buy a fleece of wool, learn how to spin it, and knit my four kids a jersey each for less than 40 bucks.
• Meet other people who want to design, knit and assemble three dimensional fibre artworks so that that the artist within doesn't totally shrivel up and die.

FREE BABY HAT PATTERN

Thanks to you persistent SOULS who have been visiting this site...
I have not gotten around to writing up that bootie pattern yet, so to say sorry I send you this pattern of the baby hat in the picture instead. It is not one I made up, it is from a knitting book I found in the Waiuku Library... and I am writing it from off the top of my head where my memory lives. Those of you who have faith in my recall may want to give it a go. 
Remember to use soft-as wool, silk, cashmere, alpaca or similar so that it doesn't itch, and there by make the Small who ends up wearing it SCREAM. Also i used at least the equivalent to a double knit weight yarn, and because I am a lazy knitter I probably knit it on size 5 or 5.5mm needles.  

 


The pattern goes something like this............
Instructions:
TO MAKE THE RIM:
Cast on 79/99 stitches [79 for little head, 99 for bigger head]. 
Knit in plain stocking stitch [1 row plain, 1 row purl] for several rows [30ish] until the curl of the brim is well and truly looking like a rim on the needles. 
Continue in stocking stitch for 9/10 more rows finishing on a purl row.

TO DECREASE/SHAPE CROWN OF HAT:
With right-side facing, begin the decrease rows by knitting every 9th and 10th stitches together along the row until you get to the end. 
Purl back (wrong side facing), until you get to the end.
Knit every 8th and 9th stitches together along the row until you get to the end.
Purl back (wrong side facing), until you get to the end.
Knit every 7th and 8th stitches together along the row until you get to the end.
Purl back (wrong side facing), until you get to the end.
Knit every 6th and 7th stitches together along the row until you get to the end.
Purl back (wrong side facing), until you get to the end.... etc. etc. etc

Continue this decrease pattern until 9 stitches remain. Keep knitting these last 9 stitches until they measure 6cm's. 

To cast off, continually knit 2together every row. until no stitches remain.

To sew up the seam:

Make sure you sew the rim on the inside of the curl, then pass the needle through the work to continue sewing a tidy seam on the inside of the hat, all the way up to the top of the sticky up stalk bit. Turn through and pop on small's head. 

Go outside and get some fresh air with small.

Designing Knits For Babies From Scratch

Hat and booties.

I wanted to knit some booties but didn't have a pattern so what I did was draw the shape of the bootie side-on, then drew what I thought it would look like as one flat piece. They're really quick to knit and a good pattern for beginners to use if I can just work out how to write out the pattern in a way that others can easily follow and understand. (I'll try to find the piece of paper I drew it on and post it later).

Get 7 PEOPLE together for a CLICK-STICK workshop. $15each FOR 3 HOURS to play around with or share designing ideas.
If you can find SEVEN people and a PLACE to do a workshop, then you get to be there for FREE. You set the theme. Spinning-Knitting, 
There is no reason why we couldn't draw a design for a garment or sculpture and then nut out between us how to go about making up a knitting pattern for it, whether it is for something functional or fanciful.  

PS. The hat is not my own design BUT the booties are.

Knitted Tea Cosy with Flip-Top Flower Motif Lid

Tea cosy from hand-spun wool

Playing around with odds and sods, function and form, art and aspect..... its all part of the adventurous learning curve for something bigger and grander....Like say a collaborative work for entering into one of the NZ'S many exhibitions?????

Filling in time till the winter projects get going

Commercially dyed hanks of yarn

I am not a big fan of commercial dyes and therefore am not very enthusiastic when it comes to producing dyed wool. However I have a large quantity of commercial wool yarns that I sometimes need to dye to a specific colour for certain projects. It would be great to get together to do some eco-dying specifically targeted towards hand-spun or commercial wool hanks.

IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT WOOL AND HOW TO KNIT A SCARF

Above: Copper wire, stitched tapa cloth. turtle-shell sticks.  

Come and have a play with both traditional and non-traditional materials in an environment where we can all bounce some ideas around. Believe me there is prize money to be won out there by entering national Exhibitions.
Maybe join up with someone else to work on a sculpture-knit....
or just enjoy the company, while you knock out the things you've always  loved to knit.