Follow up!

When I worked in the corporate world (sounds so phoney doesn't it), one of the biggest things we found out regarding any facet of business is that many fail to follow up.  They would spend all their time, money and person power, on doing a marketing campaign or inviting people to an event, have great products etc and then for the want of a phone call or letter lost at least 60% effectiveness of the campaign.

I said I would get out my needles and so I have.  Here is the follow up!

Firstly, I am not a knitter, but I don't mind admitting that.  However when it comes to creative yarns that's not a disadvantage really, because I am not hung up on stitch design, the yarn will do it for me.  The other side of the coin is that whilst I know what I want to do with my yarn, working out size has been a challenge.  I have fallen in love with swatches, yes the impatient part of me has learnt the benefit of a small square versus pulling out large quantities of knitting.

Finally, having found a needle size I liked, I had to choose how to knit it up.  I wanted the beehives to sit on the surface of the cowl (that's what I am making) so this is what I am doing.  I cast on stitches and started with a knit row then whenever I came to a beehive I would knit up to the start of it (using up all the fine yarn right to the last stitch possible before the beehive starts) and then I would slip however many stitches it takes to get past the length of the beehive.  With this yarn it was either 2 or 3 (sometimes 4).  Slipping more stitches rather than less, meant that the beehive would sit firmly against the surface of the knitting.  This method does tighten up the knitting and with this in mind I did cast on a few extra stitches at the beginning to compensate.

This is what I have achieved so far and I am really looking forward to the rest.  I will keep you posted!

Really wanted the Beehives on the surface of the knitting, not chopped in half amongst the stitches

Here you can see I slipped 4 stitches to get past this big beehive!  I wanted it to slit flat against the surface and not sag.

Yes, it's been a while.

I could go into all the details about why I haven't blogged, and yet I have had time to post on face book.  Short chats were the order of the day for quite a while, it's a bit representative of the pace of the world really, but that's a bit too deep.  True though, and now that there has been a shift in my world - time versus work, versus family = a re-prioritising, with a generous dollop of encouragement from my darling husband and Mandie from ewegivemetheknits.com I am able to spend more time.....doing what?

Sharing, sharing my love of spinning, textured yet functional yarns, and the creations, that is, the  finished garments that appear as a result of all this activity.  It's natural for me to work with them, but I realised that there are many people who like the look of them but don't know how to work with them.

So many people knit, crochet and work with fibre in the Textile Art field, but when it comes to Art Yarns they don't know what to do with them.  They are more than eye candy!

I want the talented knitters and crocheters to realise that they can use Art Yarns like you use an ingredient in cooking.  Sometimes the addition of a fresh, well prepared thoughtfully added ingredient can make all the difference to a dish ( you get it, I am meaning garment).  Then again the same Art yarn (dropped the ingredient thing) with the appropriate construction method can create a garment all on its own, a statement piece that will draw comments every time you wear it.

It's not just here in Australia that we textured spinners find ourselves in this conundrum. It's happening all over the world where Art Yarns are being created, there is movement afoot to emphasise the creation of stable and functional Art Yarns.  However on the other hand there is a void, a lack, a black hole relating to what to create out of them.

There's work to do, and I am putting my fingers in front of the wheel and picking up my knitting needles, crochet hook etc (it's the etc that I worry about) and going on a creative journey.  An Art Yarn Exhibition of my own.

Here is the beginning and I am starting with the beehive coil yarn.

A full bobbin on the Aura from Majacraft , Merino Wool coiled back on a Linen yarn.  Nice and strong and it adds to the functionality.

Straight off the bobbin, reasonably balanced, but will be more balanced once the twist is redistributed with a hot soak.

This is what a hot soak and a spin can do = balanced yarn.

Lovely to dry yarns hanging freely and not stretched.  This means that when the garment is washed later on the yarn will behave and remain just as it was when you first knitted it.

I have 200 grams and 152 Metres of yarn, now to get out my needles and create something functional!