2016: Exhibitions: WARM and The Royal Melbourne Show

Some of these landscape squares were knit by me! 1000 pieces, 250 Victorian hand knitters
SEAM's WARM community knitting project

Hasn't time flown!
I've got a few things I'll share here so I remember what I did for next time, and some lovely things I've been part of that deserve to be remembered in this space.

I've continued to dabble in machine knitting, and emboldened by my Dairing 2/3/Four, I made the matching Two/3/4 top, a sideways knitted tank in the same thin cotton/stainless steel/silk mix, with neck, arm and hem edges left to roll. 

I took my time joining the side seams by hand, and thoroughly enjoyed the process. I had difficulties with keeping my cast on edges loose, so I joined them to each other and the result is a modern asymmetrical top that I adore. I entered it into my local show, The Royal Melbourne and was rather chuffed to receive a third place against some rather talented, and very experienced competition - definite beginners luck!

No luck was involved in Mr MaciNic's results, he's a very talented artist over several mediums and was placed for some lovely woodworking and took the blue ribbon in the rather obscure printing technique, Intalagio.

The Blyde River Butts image was taken by the equally talented Jenny Rennous_oh_Glennus in Africa and then printed:

Intaglio is a rather time-consuming technique using an etching press and plates.

In detail, it involves converting an image to digital and then using photopolymer plates. These have the image inkjet printed directly onto the plate and exposed to uv light. The plates are then washed with water to remove unhardened polymer, Inked and wiped, same as traditional Intaglio, and passed through an A3 sized benchtop press onto dampened cotton rag paper. 

In September he wanted to try copper drypoint next, and he has. I have some rather fetching octopi etchings, hand coloured with watercolours, and a study of our somnolent dachshund.

I was also fabulously fortunate to stumble across the WARM project, a community knitting project where Victorian hand knitters were asked to knit from designs, specific to the project, designed in Victoria by Georgie of Tikki. I contributed several pieces. A large scale image of a rejuvenated open cut mine was then created to open conversation on renewable energy and the environment. Why? Because we've forgotten how to warm ourselves with wool.

It was rather lovely to see the installation at the Art Gallery of Ballarat and to be able to take my grandma. She's an amazing crafter who is still knitting and crocheting for charity, at 93.

It's currently touring, and I believe it has just left the Ararat Art Gallery after spending time at the Geelong Wool Museum. Details can be found on the SEAM page.

Dairing at the Dressmakers Do

2016 Dressmakers Do : Party time in Melbourne town

Lace LBD

Machine knit Dairing 2/3/Four

Listening to the fabric : felted grey wool jacket

Another occasion to frock up and celebrate all things made by hand with some very talented sewists, this time at the #DressmakersDo organised by the lovely Nichola of the Handmaker's Factory and Leisl of Jorth.
I went for a textural, black and grey outfit; three separates that I know will get plenty of wear in my Melbourne wardrobe.

First up is my classic black lace sheath dress - some may recall that I made and wore this to the very first Frocktails in 2013. Yes, it's the same lace dress, and I still adore it. It has it's very own blog post here: Everyone needs an LBD 09/2013

still haunted by that flash, but what a delightful introduction it was to some lovely and talented sewing friends!

To add some warmth for my travels, I made a grey coat with the most fabulous felted wool - it will have it's own post soon.
For some interest, I thought an avant-garde top knitted in stainless steel, silk and cotton might be just the thing.
Meet Theresa Dair's Dairing top 2/3/Four.

As an overlay (also great with a black tank)

I really like Teresa Dair's design aesthetic. Textural pieces, often knitted with non-traditional threads, in non-traditional gauges, which can be worn in a multitude of ways. It's very similar to my favourite Japanese pattern designers and when made in shades of black, perfectly me ;)
And from the back in its shawl cardigan view:

Crafting friends really are the best.

I found the Dairing 2/3/Four kit in a Raveller's destash, mentioned on Instagram that I was contemplating dabbling in machine knitting to make it and received the most generous offer of a loan of a knitting machine. (thank you again x)

gratuitous dachshund shot. Yes, he 'helped'...

The hand knitters guild market gave me an opportunity to observe and meet some machine knitters, as well as to meet the talented Teresa Dair herself and get some hints on converting the pattern to being machine knit.
The machine knitters guild (MKAV) in the form of the lovely Christine encouraged and guided me through the skills required and I set to work.

For anyone who, like me, has never dabbled before, it's both as easy, and much more time consuming than I had imagined. The actual processing of each row is very quick. The set up, double e-wrap cast on, troubleshooting and eventual cast off was a steep learning curve.

My swatch - used to determine the amount of stitches to cast on, and how many rows to knit.
I underestimated my sleeve length.

The machine is not unlike my overlocker - adorable when behaving but a bugger to rethread and troubleshoot - I don't 'know' it intimately enough yet, so troubleshooting has been a lot of retracing of my steps and cursing.

After 187 rows, the 2nd sleeve was done! So was the cone of thread....

I then used my sewing machine to attach the 4 pieces (Four pieces is a direct reflection of it's name 2/3/Four. I also have Two/3/4 in the same yarn/threads).
I finished it and wasn't sure if I liked it.

I then had to unpick the left sleeve, you may see it's tight in the photo. This was painful.  It was necessary as my 'loose' cast off was still far too tight, exacerbated by the fact that I'd inserted it upside down. I couldn't move my left arm. The cuff on the left now stretches out horribly after 10min of wear, despite blocking ;( I might add a flared cuff extension to both arms, maybe...

new friends and old ;)

Updated newsflash: I do like it ;) It's missing in most of my DressmakersDo photographs as the venue was warm, and as lightweight as it is, the silk & stainless steel is warm as well. What struck me by surprise is how very soft the fabric is! I really was anticipating it being more sculptural, however it's a delightful soft top.

Project page on Ravelry is here

Photowall props for the Win!