A thought to share

for the new year......

Christmas Wishes

Christmas always eludes me as its usually my busiest time; but somehow I managed to make a few of these one year. Wish I had a few extra to send out with all those balls of Bespoke Wool heading off to New York. Must be the snowy weather that's fitting for those hoodymittenscarfs.

Back to Knitting

I've had enough time now to acclimatise to New Zealand pace and way of life; what a beautiful country; so green, air's so clean, and the light so clear. Aaahhhh!!! Anyway, back to it; its time to work again.

Off to the Land of Plenty

Well New Zealand does have plenty of sheep, water, wine,..... What more does one need!!! And it's still pretty close to Aus, but far enough to be away. And I will be away there forever I hope. I will still be stocking my favourite Melbourne stores; and I have some new interesting collaborations coming up, so will report on them soon. Of course the on-line store is still open, as I'm very busy designing more wools and patterns; - it's just now I'll be working from New Zealand.

New Knitting Kit

The Construction KIT NO1g follows the theme of the Construction No 1 Pattern, adding a new shape 'G', a mittenscarf to 'A' hood, gives you the "Hoodymittenscarf". Available to buy on the Webshop.

In the Farmers Shed...

An antique carding machine that was once used for Millinery. If this was mine, it would be polished and living in my loungeroom.

NEW SUMMER COLLECTION

The first trickle of Summer Deliveries are in store now at RPM .

Construction No 2

Alpaca fleece is a lustrous and silky fiber. Spun, it is warm, soft, luxurious and glossy. The preparing, carding, spinning,and finishing process of alpaca is very similar to the process used for wool. The black Alpaca fibre used for my production, although the loveliest of the colours, is also the rarest of breeds in Australia. They are full of character, mostly gentle and peaceful, sweet and curious.

Construction No 2 is a pattern written for the Bespoke Alpaca yarn. The shapes have a nice pliable sculptural quality when knitted up, and there’s some clever joining to construct the pieces in this pattern.

The Wool Story

So what does it mean to suggest providing an All-Australian harvested & hand-produced spun wool; in natural colours, without any chemical processing and harmful substances. Well, exactly this: A supply chain that benefits the grower, the designer, the customer, and therefore - the community. In the same fashion as the slow food movement, herein lies an opportunity to bring back a focus to yet another quality product, and a quality lifestyle, by creating a direct relationship between that which comes from the land - our farmers; and the raw material they supply to our producers and designers - our innovators; and the products we make for our customers - our community. As consumers WE make the choice, the choice based on sustaining our lifestyle and our consumption based on our needs: our need for clothes, our need for self-expression & creativity and our need to be part of the community.

So herein lies a balance. This balance has taken me years to establish, in a trade dominated by big industry and monopolised supply chains. Producing a small bespoke wool production seemed impossible; how so, in a country that boasts to be the largest wool producing nation in the world. Growers were mistrustful, mill spinners sceptical and costs for small manufacturing blown out of the market. I did reach a turning point eventually and was met with some enthusiasm and fair prices from few. A small window of opportunity presented itself, and I grasped it. I found growers looking to share a fair go, a spinning mill yearning to be creative, and customers wanting to be part of that story.

So here is the story: This wool is designed to not look mass produced; it is a bespoke product. It comes directly from small farming communities after the sheep are sheared in Spring. The wool is then washed, scoured, carded (so all the fibres run in one direction), drawn (stretched to go through the spinner), and hand controlled spun so the thread is nice and chunky, slubby and bumpy, leaving it natural, light, fluffy and handmade. All this takes many months.

My first Bespoke Wool is available to buy on my new WEB SHOP. It knits up quickly, with big needles and is the inspiration to my first knitting pattern; Construction No 1. A manual on how-to-knit basic shapes, and make many garments creatively by joining the shapes. It is a playful yarn to work with, as the pattern is designed to engage you in the creative process by building, forming, inventing and interpreting. This knitting construction pattern is the first in a series of many more patterns to come; I will keep you posted.

HandMade 2

A new edition of Handmade in Melbourne

Pop Up Shop

I was cleaned out - but glad these babies have gone to some good homes! Out of the 14 collections, some of these pieces were hard to part with; but back to the drawing board for me; and I'd say the next sample sale won't be around for a long, long while.

It's all in the Detail

Handmade touches.... Summer 09, going in to store soon!

Summer 09

A peak at some new summer pieces; going into store August; silk thread machine knitted so fine it curls like wet paper at the edges and Crisp handknitted Linen Lace.

The Age

The Craft of Press: The Age

POP UP SHOP

Sample Sale:
Not blogging much lately as I've been busy beyond repair almost. (nursing an rsi shoulder); So, developed the new summer collection and started production for August deliveries into store; building a website and trying to archive 6 years of material, + developing a new product which will be launched on the website - really soon; and doing a clean up of the studio!; Now there are 14 collections of archived samples in boxes that I need to move; so 1 of everything I've ever made will be for sale; (at a small fraction of the retail price) - get in for first dibs at the POP UP SHOP: 2 days only on Sat 11 & Sun 12 July -
41 Gamon Street, Seddon. I look forward to seeing you there!

Summer 06

Silk Leather Wool

W05: a mix of materials

another old collection

Other old crochet and knit collection to look at for reference. Sometimes I think we do our better work earlier on in our careers, and it's nice to sometimes just read into the details of past work.

crochet collection

Bringing out old crochet collections from the archives for inspiration for new summer. Decided not to take that direction anyway but got a bit nostalgic about this capsule.

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Snippets of Winter