Experimenting with hemp

After all my plotting and planning for some suitably summery knitting, I ordered some hemp and cotton yarn from South Seas Knitting. It has now arrived in my hot little hands, mwahahahaaa...

Hemp for Knitting Allhemp3 (4ply) and Allhemp6 (8ply)

Habu Textiles Non Twist Cotton Boucle (2ply)

 
I have a cunning plan for the Habu cotton, but as I've used cotton yarn before on occasion, I was more excited about trying out the hemp!

I have it on good authority (thanks Mum) that hemp yarn softens up a lot after washing and wear, so I wasn't alarmed by the stiff rope-like texture of the Allhemp yarns. I gave the skeins a wash and let them dry, so that the yarn would be a bit softer and more pleasant to knit with. A word to the wise: unless you're washing a skein of yarn very gently, do tie some extra bits of scrap yarn around the skein to keep it tidy. I didn't bother, and the vigorous washing resulted in some pretty stubborn spaghetti monsters...

Now ready to get knitting, I got out my stitch dictionaries and played around with a few open, lacy stitch patterns. Two skeins of the 4ply hemp are going to become a scarf or shawl for Willie, so I tried striping some of the stitch patterns to see what happened.

The colours are 'Aubergine' and 'Chocolate' - an unlikely combo!

I like this 'knotted openwork' stitch with the two colours in play.

We'll need to do some more sketching and thinking, but narrowing down the stitch pattern choices is a good start. :)

The other 4ply skein of hemp will become a hair-tamer for me. I've been trying to come up with a stitch that looks like the black, bobbly seaweed that's common on New Zealand beaches. The colour of the yarn ('Licorice') reminded me of it, and it's a nice summery image. I'm having trouble getting the bobbly bits right, but I think I'm getting there. I still have a few permutations to work through, and I'll probably reduce the width too.

The 8ply hemp yarn, on the other hand, has already become a hat! It's nice and slouchy and airy, just what I was going for. It's also nice and simple. :)

A hat, not a mutant green jellyfish (honest)...

Oh look, a knitting post

Although I'm working on a laceweight merino scarf right now for a new design, my mind has been on summer knits of late, as the weather warms up...

Two of my knitted shawls made it into my reduced Melbourne wardrobe: my Bright Side, and my trusty black Damson. They've been very useful on windy days, but I suspect it will soon be too warm to wear wool around my neck! I like to have something to keep the wind and sun off (plus I just think shawls look cool), so I've been plotting to make a lacy lightweight shawl or two, and a light summer top.

Cotton, linen, and hemp are the classic fibres for summer knitting, and I've found some lovely cotton yarn at my LYS Morris & Sons, in a ton of pretty colours. I also have my eye on some Habu cotton and Hemp for Knitting yarn on the South Seas Knitting website. They're going on hiatus soon, so I'll have to get a move on and make my mind up! Holland Road has a gradient-dyed cotton I'd love to try, called Wolle's Yarn Creations. Also, Melbourne's Dairing stocks a lot of interesting fibres, including some blended with stainless steel. I definitely need to go and check them out.

There are some neat patterns out there for summer knits using these cooler fibres. Click the pics to go to their Ravelry pages...

Plover Summer Beach Shirt by Melissa Schaschwary

Gemini by Jane Richmond

Celine by Cecily Glowik MacDonald

Spearmint Tea by Kateryna Golovanova

Aethercopter by Jocelyn Tunney

I really want to make the Plover top and the Celine hat. They look like they would suit me and be really practical. As for shawls, I have a couple of design ideas sketched out, one for Willie and one for me. ;)

On the move

So, I'm moving. Willie has accepted a job in Melbourne (at a law firm), and he starts in early September. Whoa, we're moving overseas!

But first, we need to get rid of a ton of STUFF, and figure out what to take and what to put in storage of what remains. Luckily various relatives are keen to take some of our furniture. And Willie has a 'Planning' spreadsheet a mile long. ;)

I've been to Melbourne once, last year, and it seemed pretty cool. A bit like Wellington but bigger, and with better public transport and funny accents. I was impressed with the NGV gallery and wished I had longer there - guess now I will! And the state library was pretty fancy. We're not sure yet whether we want to rent an apartment in the central city, or a flat further out (maybe Fitzroy or Brunswick). Here's a pic of us being touristy on Brunswick St, home of the fun op-shops and eateries:

I need to find out which choirs etc would suit me - looks like there are plenty to choose from! And brush up on my audition skills, i.e. polish up some songs that show off what I can do, and keep practising sight-singing. Hopefully I can find a good teacher over there too. Robert's keen to "make the most of me" while I'm still here, so I'll be doing some more solos at St Mary's in the next couple of months. I'd better get practising...

Market Day Madness

This morning Willie and I went along to the Wellington Underground Market, which was having its annual 'Wonders of Wool' themed day. Willie was there in his capacity as second-opinion-giver, sanity-checker, and lunch buddy, and we had a blast!

First up, I located Frances' stall because I was keen to buy another spindle. It turns out she went to primary school with Willie briefly! Small world...

I tried a couple of different spindles, and ended up deciding on a little 'turkish' spindle, because it's a completely different type to my top-whorl. Should be interesting to learn how this one behaves, and how it affects my spinning. I also got a wooden wraps-per-inch gauge, which will be useful for measuring the thickness of my finished yarn (which I need to know for deciding what to knit from it). And the rainbow merino fibre totally had my name on it. ;)

Frances' online shop is Spindles By Sourkraut on Etsy - but you have to be quick to snap up a spindle, they always sell out fast.

Next, I found the Little Wool Co. corner, and picked up the two cones of 'Walnut' 4ply I've been hankering after for a Stasis Pullover, plus two skeins of 'Lime' for a Cria cardie. The skein of 'Amethyst' had to come home with me too - it's a really intense pink/purple that will be great for a scarf or shawl or little cardie...

Then it was time to sit down and have a cuppa and a bite to eat, before having a browse at the Holland Road Yarn Company's stand, which had lots of lovely imported brands I'd never seen before. I snagged a squishy skein of Three Irish Girls merino for the cabled hat I'm working on the design for, and I completely failed to resist a skein of Fyberspates silk/merino laceweight (the colour is 'Treacle Toffee', yum)! I think it might become a Barley Sugar cowl...

Tash also wrote out directions for getting to the HRYC's knit night via bus, but alas, it falls on Thursdays, which is choir night. But she's trying to get a Saturday morning group going too, which would suit me much better. I shall have to make an effort and head out there, to the wilds of Petone!

Out of yarn error

Progress has been halted on my Chickadee cardie. I finished the left sleeve (adjusting the number of repeats for my freakishly short arms) and began the right sleeve, but ran out of yarn 1/3 of the way through. Never fear, I have another two giant skeins, but they're in Wellington. I didn't think I'd make this much progress while in Whakatane, so I under-packed!

With a dearth of ready-to-go knitting projects, I started my first cross-stitch project in years, using this pattern: Periodic Table of the Elements. Knowing me and cross-stitch, this will be a long-term project to chip away at.

I've also been pondering my next big knitting project, which I think might be this pretty jersey: Stasis Pullover.

I love Brooklyn Tweed patterns, and this is such a sweet, old-school design. I think some of The Little Wool Co's heathered 4ply wool would be lovely for this. Time to have some fun with sample cards!