Threads of Moirai: 13-23 March Castlemaine State Festival 2015

Since moving to Castlemaine I've come together with a bunch of talented local textile artists and started a textile collective, check out the Cobolt Textile Collective here. Our first group exhibition has just opened as part of the Castlemaine State Festival 2015. If you happen to be in the area, come to our opening party on the 17th March, invite below. 

For the exhibition I've been enjoying experimenting with finer-than-thread metallic yarns, degumming and spinning wild silk cocoons and getting Victorian silk spindles made for me as part of my piece. It's always amazing how much you learn from devising and executing any art project. This steep learning curve is the thrill of making art.

In response to our theme on the Greek Myth about the Three Fates: Namely Clotho, spinner of the thread of life, Lachesis the one who allots the length of that thread, and Atropos who severs the thread; I started to knit cocoons. I was inspired by the Urodid Moth Cocoon which is an amazing piece of natural architecture found in the Amazon - see it here.  My knitted cocoons attempt to take the form of this beautiful cocoon. They are knit on tiny double pointed needles in stainless steel and silk/wool yarns and linen/copper yarns. These fibres have a memory so that they will hold a 3D form, they are super fine and presented a few challenges in the knitting. 

This little one is knit in a superfine copper filament. It's almost invisible in some lighting. 

Enclosed within my knitted cocoons is the real spent cocoon of the Cricula Silk Moth, a wild silk moth cocoon from Indonesia. 

I eventually managed to de-gum these cocoons in order to spin them into silk which was quite a tricky process, not much information available online on degumming wild silk cocoons but I had success with a little tiny bit of caustic soda and washing soda in water.  I had a local Master turner make me these wonderful Victorian Silk Spindles which were a pleasure to whirl on. 

The cocoons hang from a flat handstitched circle of pressed Cricula silk cocoons.

Here I am ironing and stitching these together over the course of a day. The golden cocoons are a wonder to work with and the spun fibres shimmer with natural golden threads.

And if you're wondering how they take their shape after coming off the knitting needles, there's a little final magic with a balloon which is quite fun to do.

--

The show is on until the 23rd of March. Shed 5. Castlemaine Woollen Mills, 1 Walker Street, Castlemaine.

--

Check out the wonderful work of my fellow textilers in the

Cobolt Textile Collective at www.co-bolt-textiles.com

Knitting for Baby

I haven't been able to post as much as I'd like to because I just haven't been able to put down the knitting and sewing needles long enough. Our new baby is due in about three weeks and I've built up an adorable collection of baby knits that I've been dying to share with you all.

I'm especially in love with the patterns by Elizabeth Zimmerman who is just such a genius and writes patterns in such a casual way that you end up having to use your own nut and invariably learn a whole lot along the way. Great for relatively new knitters like me.

Can one baby have too many booties? In my quest to find the perfect bootie pattern I ended up trying five different patterns. My favourite is definitely the Elizabeth Zimmerman Bootees pattern from "The Opinionated Knitter"

Noro Yuzen yarn Wool/Silk/Mohair

Eki Riva Casual Baby Alpaca

 Second favourite knitted booties pattern is the Purl Soho Baby Moccasins pattern. I added little needle felted dots to them like I have been doing to everything of late...

Eki Riva Casual Baby Alpaca

 I found these two top down cardigan patterns a lot of fun to knit. The first is The Babykit for Melker by Pickles. I loved their colour choice and so did the same. It turned out to be the perfect size for a newborn and can't wait to dress the little dumpling in it!

Eki Riva Casual Baby Alpaca (my favourite yarn for babes)

I made little fabric covered buttons to match

Second cardigan is the Baby Sweater on Two Needles by Elizabeth Zimmerman in her brilliant Knitters Almanac. It has a little ceramic button that my partner made so it has a bit of him in it too which is nice.

What baby can be without a beautifully soft baby alpaca bonnet? This was such a fun pattern and quite ingenious too I thought. It's the Purl Soho Baby Bonnet. So adorable and so lovely and soft in  Eki Riva Baby Alpaca (again!)

 I'm quite proud of this little wool playsuit which is my take on the Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Leggings pattern again from the Knitter's Almanac.

I found the rise in the crotch way too long even from a fully cloth nappied baby bottom so I cut through my knitting, salvaged the yarn and added the stitches back on the needle to continue knitting upwards. I added a long rib top and continued up the back, splitting the stitches into two straps that have three button adjustments so hopefully these will last baby a couple of seasons.

Well thank you for indulging me and my baby knit obsession. I can put it down to a combination of hormones, nesting instinct and a little bit of anxiety that I may not be able to pick up the needles as much as I may want to in the first few weeks/months of baby II's arrival. With three weeks to go, I may even add to the collection, I'll keep you posted.

How to make knitted Easter bunnies

This is a great craft project to do with the kids this Easter holidays. I've seen this in an old Waldorf crafts book, it's really simple and great project for Spring. It involves no knitted shaping, you just start from a square of fabric and the rabbit shape is formed by the simple sewing up and stuffing.

Step 1: knit a square in garter stitch or stockinette stitch or for a super fast rabbit cut out a square from an old woollen sweater. A square about 18cm (7") width makes a large bunny as shown, the little one is made from a square approximately 12cm (5").

Step 2: Sew each corner up about one third of the length of the edge...

Step 3: Stuff the cavity with wool, putting a bit more stuffing in the top as this will form the head.

Step 4: Sew up the hole by gathering the top and bottom of the hole and stitching the sides of the hole together...

Step 5: Form the head by tying a length of yarn around tightly at the end you would like the head to be.

Step 6: Sew the limbs in place by sewing the front two legs together and folding the back two legs forward and stitching them to the body to keep them in place.

Step 7: Make some ears, stitch some eyes and a nose and finally attach a small pom pom or ball of yarn to form a tail. The ears can be made from cutting out a piece of felt, knitting some up or using a folded i-cord or other piece of cord or ribbon. Improvise and make your bunny uniquely yours. Happy making!

Other craft activities to do with the kids this easter holidays:

- Egg blowing and dyeing

- Making nests

- Making your own chocolate easter eggs

The long awaited cycling cap

One of my many new years resolutions was to finished this long awaited saga of a knitted cycling cap that was a March birthday present for Andrew. The first couple of attempts didn't quite cut the mustard, the first being too small, perfectly fitting my one year old, the next not quite right either, that one went to my partner. But finally this month I stitched sealed and delivered the cap and can now hopefully get on to the rest of my unfinished knitting projects gathering dust and losing their relevance in the bottom of a basket. I have my fingers crossed for more snow because there is a very warm Norwegian brioche doubled sided alpaca scarf that was supposed to be a Christmas gift for my partner.

The pattern for this brilliant hat is designed by Tony Limuaco aka The Yarn Monkey, and can be found on Ravelry. It's a really interesting knitted construction and such a joy to knit something so clever. Over summer it was the only hat my toddler would wear, I think it was because he had so many compliments about it! I reckon I'd be very wealthy indeed if a) I had designed this pattern and b) could hand knit it on an industrial scale!