Inspirational Knitters and Spinners

A Coloured Sheep Shawl

A nice Sunday at the Port -- sock knitters coming out for a peek at the new yarns on a rather cold and grey morning. Thank you for coming by.

My favourite part of the day? A visit from a lovely 93-yr-old knitter who's decided to knit A Coloured Sheep Shawl. Wow -- that was inspiring. She advised she hadn't knitted that type of shawl before and is looking forward to it. I just love that she was willing to have a go at making it! How cool is that? Isn't knitting a fun craft?Itg brings together people of all ages to share their experience and enthusiasm.

Sock knitter spotted: first socks on the needles -- and stuck? Yup, that's what happened on Sunday. A look at the needles revealed that New Sock Knitter was actually right on target and had done the waste yarn for an afterthought heel correctly. Sometimes you just need someone to look and say, yup, that's the right path. This, among many other reasons, is why I work at my market once a week. Whilst chatting and looking at stitches, she asked me -- what's the latest thing in the USA for kniters?

I had to think a minute -- for yarn, the big thing is 'tonal' yarns -- blends of colour on colour at varying degrees -- similar to hand-dyed semi-solids. My theory is that the commercial yarn companies are trying to get their yarn to look like hand-paint. Some of these new yarns are quite attractive and worth a look, like Kollage Yarn's Sockalicious. I've added 'moonstruck' to the new sock yarns for sale at SIOz. Why 'moonstruck'? It's the most striking and universally wearable colourway in the range. Check out Stranded In Oz Silk Sock for my hp version of this yarn.

And what's back? BLING. Yup, sparkle is in -- metallic glam mixed into some of your fave yarns. There's a whole bunch of 'em from all sorts of companies -- including sock yarns. Tinsel for your toes.

One forecast I've read says novelty yarns are back. Errrrr. I'm not so sure how that is going to play out over the year, but I'll be interested to see.

Back to the drafting I go, M

For a Friday From the Lounge

Yup, here I sit, in between hopping down the hallway then back up the the lounge room. Got one of these on my leg before arrival in Australia. It's better than a hard cast (mine's not exactly like the pic, as it has a giant moonbooty platformish heel) but you get the idea. The velcro bits get stuck on everything. And when it's hot, it isn't very nice.

But at least I am home and have been wading through the mountain of work that awaited me.

Weather for this Sunday at the Port Markets is supposed to cooler than last, for which I am grateful.

Corntastic Yarn Update and bits and pieces: Have loaded the new stock of Kollage Corntastic. It's one lovely yarn. If you don't see a colour you want, I am happy to order more colours, so feel free to email with requests. In addition, there are some new sock yarns (the first arrival of Sockalicious -- I have re-organised the sock yarn category on the site for better perusability)

Kollage Corntastic $9.95/50gm hanks