My pink Raiun

My love of wollmeise continues to grow, with my recently completed Raiun in some fuchsia WM pure, give to my as a farewell gift by my lovely friend Renee (of East London Knit), when I moved out of London earlier this year. 

After some careful deliberation and research of open front cardigans, including some helpful input from one half of the podcast team ‘Imagined Landscapes’, Katie.  I chose Raiun by Kirsten Johntone, a Melbourne based architect/knitwear designer.

I’m just so pleased with it – the neckband is beautiful, provisionally cast on at the middle of the back neck and worked out in each direction, before picking up stitches for the body. I particularly like the shaping across the back, as the ribbing pulls the back in just a smidge.

Mods wise, I shortened the overall length – maybe 4m shorter than called for – and the final 2.5cm is ribbed the whole way across the body to avoid curling stockinette in the middle of the back. Finally, I completely ignored the instructions for the sleeves and just did my usual thing for fingering weight sleeves. I knit both the body and the sleeves on 3.5mm needles, so the fabric on the sleeves is slightly tighter (as I knew it would be).  I think that was the right decision as the body is a little drapier and the sleeves don’t bag out in the elbows.

I’m so tempted to knit another one…

Back to Melbourne

Whilst I've continued to post travel adventures on this blog, I've not yet explicitly talked about the biggest travel undertaking - moving back to Melbourne, Australia - hence our stopver in KL.

We arrived back in Aus at the start of June after a whirlwind final few weeks in London - finishing up at work, travelling to Greece and Cyprus, a trip to the Harry Potter Studio and a few final meals in London including afternoon tea at The Dorchester (truly a once in a lifetime experience).

We're settling in - new apartment, new job and setting up the spare room to accomodate my crafting supplies, including my overlocker (which I am in love with)!

Yarnporium

The Yarnporium came to town at the start of November, and what a small but glorious show it was!  Over 2 rooms of the beautiful Kings College (the Strand campus), as well as classrooms, a lovely array of yarn, notions and related accoutrement was laid out to tempt yarn lovers.  Organised by Yarn in the City (who also organise the Great London Yarn Crawl), the event ran over the course of the weekend, and included multiple classes as well as the marketplace – and I enjoyed the whole weekend!  From my Saturday morning shopping with my friend Alison, helping on a booth, taking a class and then helping with the pack up, I had a full on yarn weekend.

I took Renee Callahan’s ‘Brioche Next Steps’ class – I already knew how to do brioche stitches, but really struggled with the increases and decreases (don’t look too closely at the crown of the brioche hat I recently made for Geoff).  Renee’s class was enjoyable and well-paced – we covered a good amount of material, and the 3 hour session was the perfect length. 

Saturday afternoon I helped my friend Woollenflower (Jules) on her booth – it was such a nice experience to talk to people interested in her yarns and pouches (I just love my tartan pouch). 

Shopping wise, I bought some Smoke at Easy Knits (a custom blend for them from John Arbon), and some Frisky Sock from Debonnaire (in the loveliest midnight blue/black).  I picked up a Pom Pom Quarterly, some lovely Jul closures and a Christmassy project bag.

It was a great opportunity to meet some fun knitters – it’s always lovely to see London dyers like The Wool Kitchen and Travel Knitter, as well as designers like Helen Stewart and Stephen West!  And also a lovely opportunity to admire the knitwear – the building blocks shawl looked amazing in almost every colour combination, and there were some really amazing cardigans as well.  All in all, it was a great weekend, full of yarn and friends!

Embracing Autumn

Geoff and I took a wander around our neighbourhood over the weekend, soaking up some golden sunshine and revelling in the signs of Autumn.  

Golden yellows

Bright reds

Tinges of orange 

Damp.

All the sand in Rio

This year I’ve had the novel experience of watching the summer Olympics in the summer (although it’s winter in Rio, don’t get me started).  I’ve found myself torn, between watching the Olympics and soaking up the fleeting sunshine in London.  More often than not, the sunshine has won.  I’ve still managed to watch a lot of the Olympics – from the obvious swimming, gymnastic and track events through to snippets of team rhythmic gymnastics and the modern pentathlon. 

More importantly, I managed to knit my Sand Layers shawl while soaking up the rays, and occasionally watching the Olympics (which makes sense as the shawl was my ravellenics project).

It’s a very simple pattern, combining some slip stitch rows with mostly garter stitch, and yes, the rows get long, but it’s very simple knitting (which is not to say that I didn’t make any mistakes!)

The Travel Knitter Tanami (camel and silk blend) is simply divine, a deliciously rich cranberry red, and pairs beautifully with the Kettle Yarn Co Beyul (yak, silk and wool blend), which is a pink dyed onto a non-white base, and the depth of the pink is fantastic – and slightly variegated. 

Surprisingly it didn’t block significantly longer (only a few inches at either end), but did grow in depth a good amount. I love pink and red together, and look forward to wearing this deliciously soft shawl all winter long.

Where I can be found

Making the most of the sunshine

Lying in the grass

Knitting

Easy reads

For as long as the sun shines...

The Ceremony of the Keys

Each night 40-50 people are let in to the Tower of London (for the grand total of £1 per booking) to watch as the Yeoman and beefeaters secure the Tower for the night, a series of steps call the Ceremony of the Keys and Geoff and I booked 10 months in advance to attend (yes, really, and that was for a Thursday night).

After a security and a bag check, Yeoman Watts (who later told me that he had only joined the ranks of Yeoman in the last few months) told us some stories about people have met their fate within the walls of the tower (generally in a gruesome manner) and then explained the ceremony.   After checking for the umpteenth time that our phones were switched off (imagine the embarrassment if your phone rang during the silence), the ceremony that has endured for the last 700 years began. 

There are 2 sets of wooden doors that are locked before the Chief Yeoman was visible to us, in a knee length red coat, tudor bonnet and carrying a lamp.  He approached a handful of armed guards, and answered the necessary questions before being allowed to pass.  He proceeded through a gate and was met by more armed guards, and after he waved his bonnet and announced that the Queen was safe, the last post was played by a sole bugle player before the Yeoman took the keys through to safety. 

It was a fantastic experience (that you are not allowed to photograph), and I would recommend booking in if you have enough notice of a trip to London!

Ultimate Craft

On occasion, I have been known to say that I miss Spotlight!  Which is sacrilege really - the yarn selection is mostly acrylic (not my thing) and you can get better fabrics at cheaper prices at the fantastic fabric shops in Melbourne.  However, sometimes you just need a spool of thread, or a black invisible zip, or something equally as mundane. 

Welcome to Camden, Ultimate Craft!  It's about 20 minutes from my house, and as it's open until 7pm most nights, I can easily pop down and pick up any last minute supplies. 

Full thread selection, lots of zips and buttons, decent fabric for lining, or contrast pockets, but probably not for garment sewing, and almost all acrylic yarn!  It's practically perfect in everyway.

Amongst the cool kids

Apart from the stunning collections held by the national institutions, London is home to a huge number of private art galleries.  And most of them are quite welcoming to all guests, even those who clearly aren’t going to be making a purchase! Geoff and I like to wander in, acting like we sort of know what we are doing, and avoid eye contact or any awkward questions. 


Sometimes these private galleries are easy to find, and packed with visitors.  Like when we saw the Steve McCurry exhibition at Beetles & Huxley, you know, he of the famous Afghan Girl TIME magazine cover.  We were three deep in front of the limited edition print, and there were people outside trying to take photos of the photo.  The remainder of the exhibition was equally as visually stunning – McCurry has a very strong eye for colour.

On other occasions the galleries are still easy to find, but the shows are not as intensely popular, so we can enjoy the pieces with clear space between ourselves and the next person.  Over the weekend we visited 3 small galleries, all on various side streets jutting off Regent Street (after eating burritos for lunch). 

Firstly, we saw the Ettore Spalletti ‘Every dawn, is first’ at the Marian Goodman Gallery.  Spalletti combines painting and sculpture to create large, mostly monotone, canvases that torque off the walls in different directions.  The cavernous exhibition space emphasises the vertiginous feeling, as even whispers echo around the room.  The most visually arresting work was two canvases, painted a summery sky blue, that came towards us, and each other, and as they reflected the blue light was luminous.

Over the road at Pace London, we saw another painter/sculptor, Keith Coventry and his exhibition ‘White Black Gold’, who created beautiful curves slightly raised from the canvas, either all white or gold, to create beautiful lines and subtle shadows. The curves are apparently the famous golden arches, but not obviously so, even when the canvas is cast in gold.

Finally, at the Stephen Friedman Gallery we saw a quirky exhibition, ‘Horizon That Appears Out of The Sleepy Woods’ was a collaboration of 4 artists; my favourite of which was a series of Scandi/folk art influenced art works where the woodland creatures came out of the artwork, and onto the wall.

My new toy

It’s a truth universally acknowledge that a person who sews* must be bereft when denied a sewing machine.  Well, bereft no longer as I’ve recently come into possession of a JL110 -  a basic, 14 stitch selection machine, suitable for light to medium fabrics.

*aka sewer, which is not a pleasant word when written.

I’ve begun the break in/get to know you process with the as-yet nameless machine.  I started gently with a couple of pocket squares for Geoff.  Quite frankly, the ironing and cutting mitred corners takes far longer than the 4 straight sewn lines that are required.  I moved onto a drawstring bag for a friend’s knitting project, and finally some pyjama shorts for summer. 

The forays into sewing have required forays into fabric shopping, and it’s been a mixed experience.  I’ve tried the lovely shops in Soho (Berwick St) but those shops are full of crazily expensive, mostly ostentatious fabric (to match the crazily expensive rents for the shops no doubt).  I visited the shops on Goldhawk Rd but was intimidated by the lack of information on the bolts. I don’t want to ask about each appealing fabric, nor do I know enough to judge the fabric content by feel alone.  I’ve mail ordered samples but when ready to order (only a day or so after receiving said samples) the fabrics are no longer available.

 
Finally, I was turned on to Rolls and Rems on Seven Sisters Rd in Holloway/Nag’s Head.  A very neatly organised, but jam-packed store with a reasonably priced range of basics (different cottons, wools and jerseys) and some dance wear, as well as some muppet like faux furs. Ultimately, I’ve ended up ordering some ponte, some jersey and some cotton, and purchased some other cottons, zips, threads and lining at Rolls and Rems and have begun the process of rejuvenating my wardrobe.

To Handweavers we must go

Geoff, Lucia and I made a trip to Seven Sisters to go to the Handweaver's Gallery and Studio.  Mostly to buy some cotton for Geoff, but a good opportunity for Lucia and I to explore a different wool shop in London.  

'Wool' shop is absolutely not the right word to use - the array of different fibres was eye-popping.  In the back of the shop there were bags, and tubs of fibres coming from different sheep breeds, different varieties of alpaca and also silk, cashmere and other heavenly soft things. 

The main part of the shop is divided by book shelves, and offers amazing colours of yarn in many different fibre blends - including some seriously shiny cottons which were mesmerising. 

The 'gallery' aspect was the show of felted animal masks and figuerines, and my favourite was this beautiful blue and white bird mask. 

The sharp deliniation of the blue around the eyes and nose is lovely, but the I find the blending of the white into blue at the top truly lovely.

This is a shop which can be quite intimidating at first blush, the price tags are confusing (with prices, and amounts of yarn, expressed in weight rather than per cone, or per spool as you may expect) and you should expect to do some maths to work out how much yarn you are getting (the price tag lists the metres per kilogram).  However, the range of colours and fibres is unparalleled in London - the mesmerisingly shiny cotton being my favourite in the shop, though not the yarn that I bought!
 

I purchased 4 of the small 25 gram spools of merino/tencel - 1 black, 2 mid grey and 1 pale grey to make a cowl that I can wear with my brighter (aka pink) clothes.

It's hot cross bun time

While I miss having a full kitchen, stocked pantry and baking supplies on hand, it’s special occasion baking that I miss the most.  Geoff’s birthday involved cupcakes procured from Crumbs and Doilies (delicious, don’t get me wrong).  Christmas mince pies, cakes and the pudding were supplied by various high street retailers (M&S all butter mince pies being the clear favourite).  And now it’s time for hot cross buns.

Our favourite - a good amount of fruit, a little bit of peel and just enough spice

A couple of years ago I took an Easter baking class at the Gewurzhaus, in the Prahran store which has a generously sized classroom in the rear.  Taught by a German woman, we covered a variety of European easter baking.  I’ve made both the Torta Pasquale (spinach and egg pie) and hot cross buns many times since.

Piled high at Marks & Spencer

This year, as we are bereft of baking supplies and necessary kitchen equipment it will be procured hot cross buns all the way.  The M&S chocolate chip hot cross buns have already been recommended, with lashings of salted butter – they’re the ones in the blue packet.  There are plenty of other options – more than in Australia – such as apple (rather than mixed fruit), St Clements (orange) or fig and cranberry.  We have been trying the full gamut of options, starting from 27 Feb, which we agreed was the appropriate start date.

Ibid by Maria Taniguchi

Ibid. London is currently hosting a small exhibition of Maria Taniguchi’s work. 

A series of 8 large paintings of bricks, each just pencil lines and black paint.  

 Image copyright Ibid.

Mesmerising and suggestive of movement, despite capturing something so solid. 

  Image copyright Ibid.

Free, until 2 April 2016.

Unravel 2016

Last Saturday I met a group of 8 friends from Loop to make our way out to Farnham, Surrey, for Unravel a knitting show.  It was a 50 minute train ride through the commuter belt surrounding London, in a carriage with plenty of other knitters, so lots of exclamations of ‘I love your jumper’!

Emma and I enjoying the photo ops

 

While on the train we plotted and planned and 2 clear groups emerged – the group that wasn’t planning on buying much but was there to enjoy the day out and the group that had serious purchases in mind – sweater quantities were contemplated. I fell into the minimal purchasing group – which I stuck to, more on that later.

We arrived at the Farnham Maltings just in time for the doors to open, and we joined the decent size queue.  It moved relatively quickly, particularly as I had won a pair of tickets from the Yarn in the City podcast (thanks Rachel, Allison) and then we were off.  As with any largish group, we fragmented, heading off to the different rooms.  I think there were 5 or 6 separate rooms, including 1 large hall area, with vendors spread through out.  Mostly yarn companies, there were a few designers/magazines with stalls as well as a stall for the Brinkley Looms.  Brinkley Looms are weaving looms that operate unlike any other loom that I have seen – to warp on you turn the frame and then you insert the reed, which looks like a square rolling pin.  Tempting because the warping is my least favourite aspect of Geoff’s weaving (it’s also the only aspect that requires my participation). 

Some welcoming yarn bombing

 

Pre-lunch was wandering, touching, planning.  There was a little yarn purchasing – but come lunch time most people had limited hauls, but big plans for the post lunch burst of shopping.  Lunch was at Loch Fyne, which is a chain restaurant in the UK (but a good one).  We enjoyed a very good value set lunch with wine and lots of chatting, as our original London group was bolstered by further friends we ran into during the morning.

As well as shopping, I enjoyed opportunities to try on sample garments, chat to designers whose patterns I was knitting and find out about upcoming releases like John Arbon’s Knit by Numbers in 4ply (to complement the existing 8ply offering). Another treat at Unravel was that Jules (aka Woollenflower) was a stall holder, so I spent most of the afternoon chatting and catching up. 

 Some amazing handspun available at Unravel

A smaller group for the train ride home – a couple of the minimal purchasers had left directly after our long lunch; a couple of those purchasing more were keen to stay until the close of play.  My purchases were 2 balls of self patterning sock yarn (yes, I can buy that anywhere, but for a reasonably price and no postage it was a good deal) and the Tiny Tails from Easy Knits with a complementary solid skein of their Deeply Wicked yarn.  A colourwork shawl is in the works.  Some spinning fibre from John Arbon Textiles and a couple of spinning tools. 

Golders Green

Geoff and I set off on Sunday morning to explore a suburb area just to the North of us – Golders Green.  Sundays in London aren’t known for being terribly lively, as most businesses don’t open until midday.  However, Golders Green is an area that is quite densely populated with Kosher eateries and shops, so the place was quite busy, even before 11am.

We had read the Time Out guide and had a plan.  First stop was to stock up on provisions for lunch, and the (long and arduous) walk home.  We hit up Carmelli Bakery (the first Time Out recommendation) and bought biscuits, which are sold by weight, and bagels heavy with smoked salmon and cream cheese.  There were some delicious looking salads, but not particularly portable, so we stuck to the sandwiches. There were a number of kosher bakeries and delis, and most impressively a kosher Korean BBQ restaurant!

While on the high street, we wandered into a fabric shop – an unbelievable mix of glitter eyelash yarn, African wax print fabrics and the most vibrant display of embellished ribbon.  I will need to make a trip back here!

We walked over to the secondary high street, past a fairly impressive Catholic Church, St Edwards the Confessor and sat down to an unfortunately mediocre coffee at Piacare (a Time Out recommendation).

Our walk home, through the West Heath, started in Golders Hill Park, which is also home to a funny little zoo (yet another Time Out recommendation).  We saw kookaburras, a giant owl, birds that looked like small emus, donkeys and deer.  Also in the ‘zoo’ were some giant dinosaur sculptures.  The park smelled like Spring, and certainly looked it with daffodils blooming all over.  We ate our bagels, obeying the signs not to feed the animals. In summer I think this part of the Heath would be very busy, as there is a great childrens play area there as well.