Shop Opening

Oh the frenzy of preparing for a shop opening, was up until midnight last night finishing the last minute touches of pricing and tagging. Then the morning started like it does in a country town; generous and dreamy, which suited my fatigued pace perfectly.
While the morning light streamed in through the front window, gifts of home made cupcakes, champagne and locally grown wine arrived, a further testament to the generosity of country living. Thank you Pia & Gordon, Martin, Mandy & Tony, & Diane.





















Products will be available online soon; and keep a look out for workshops coming up.

MY NEW SHOP / GATHER

This has been a work in progress for a while now; as this bird has been busy gathering. My obsession for all things wooly and preferably wild in that mix has led to an ecclectic range of tactile things for knitting, and collecting, in one little shop. This is my new shop and studio in the heart of Napier; in an old & unashamedly shabby art deco building. We tackled the internal restoration of this space with weeks of hard, gritty labour, and are finally ready to open on 14th April.


I look forward to revealing more of the space and products in the coming days.

The Australian Ballet

Infinity is a the new performance by the Australian Ballet, a trinity collaboration with contemporary dance companies; Bangarra Dance, Sydney Dance and Chunky Move . I was delighted when Costume Designer, Jenny Irwin invited me to design 9 costumes for the Bangarra performance. I've worked for Jenny before, creating a costume on the Bangarra Dance 'Bush' performance, so this time it was great to get a complete costume segment for the 'dancing fish' in Inifinity.

The performance was absolutely AMAZING, this is such an exciting ballet, it shouldn't be missed. My costumes are quite dimly lit on stage, so I couldn't see a lot of the detail work in the dresses, but 2 of the dancers did wear them for the curtain call, which was a bit of buzz for me.

Here are images of my costume on stage:



and here are images of costume in the studio:







Inspiration for the "fish" - found on one of the many isolated beach walks in Hawkes Bay.



Backstage Images of the Costume fittings.

Melbourne Sale

Pop up shop SALE from the Lightly space. It was a great turnout, needless to say, there is nothing left. Between some Huxtaburgers , the new production of the The Australian Ballet, and Goldenfields; we popped up the shop on Thursday evening, and pulled down the empty racks on Saturday afternoon. Thanks for coming Melbournians.

POP UP SALE!!

A long awaited SALE is coming to Melbourne next weekend. For those loving customers who have been waiting for this, it runs for 2 days only, on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd of March; MAKE SURE YOU DON'T MISS THIS ONE; as you know this only happens every 3 - 4 years, and its priced to clear; so up to 75% off. Because my collections are only made by hand to order for retailers, there's never any 'leftover' stock from a season. However on the odd occasion there's one or two extra styles made from each collection, and there's the samples, and the one-offs that don't make it to the sample rack. This is a treat indeed, as there are some pieces here that I am heartbroken to part with. But I need to make some space to create MORE!!
The Sale is a Pop-Up Event, 3 Glasshouse Road, Collingwood. I look forward to seeing you there.

The Handknitters Yarn Guide

Received a press copy of my first authored book The Handknitters Yarn Guide published through Rotovision.





It's an extensive reference book on knitting yarns, and will be available between March and May 2012, but can be pre-ordered through Amazon.
In Australia, through Murdoch Books & New Zealand Allen & Unwin.
Its also available through other distributors.
In the UK through Search Press, and the USA St Martins Press.

The book is 200 pages filled with information about 180 knitting yarns covering all the specs and character of each type of fibre, and fibre blends. The yarns were knitted, studied and documented covering stitch definition, draping, pilling, resilience, durability, colour retention, feel, breathability, moisture resistance, wicking, fire retardancy and sustainability. The pros and cons are listed and there's quick tips on usage and care.

Each yarn is separated into weights of super-fine, fine, medium, bulky, and super-bulky, and categorized into ply weights. There's useful tables of recommended needle sizes and how much yarn you would need to make a jumper of different sizes. In the back of the book there's more useful information of calculating yarn substitutes for when you want to try other yarns than suggested in a knitting pattern. A glossary covers and breaks down all the technical yarn terms such as guage, wraps per inch, yarn spins, and how to read yarn labels.

If you need to know more about knitting yarns, how to choose them and what their best suited for this book is extremely useful. It covers wool, mohair, angora, cashmere, camel, alpaca, silk, cotton, linen, rayon, bamboo, soya, hemp, ramie, tencel, nylon, polyester, acrylic, boucle, chenille, ribbon, eyelash, flamme, ladder, vicuna, qiviut, yak, bison, possum, corn, milk, nettle, kenaf and seacell.

Remix Magazine

I've always loved the shoots in this magazine; and was browsing through one the other day at a cafe, and spotted my Hirsute Dress in it, from Winter 11. Nice!