Half-way through the first week of school holidays here in NZ, and this morning I had the great pleasure of teaching four new (school age) knitters. It was such a lot of fun and has me thinking about crafty things kids can do in the holidays without too much supervision, and that doesn't cost very much. 

Thanks to the newly longer days and what seems to be a good run of sunshine, how about some wet felting? We sell corriedale fibre in 50g lots for only $3.50, and a little goes a long way. 

 Here's a few ideas to get you going:

 I think i'm going to have to make a few of these projects myself...

Over the weekend I very happily stumbled across yarnsub.com - an awesome new website which helps you figure out appropriate yarn substitutions for your pattern.

It's currently in Beta so you should go have a poke around and let the developers know what you think. It's a brilliantly simple idea and very thoughtfully executed. I can't wait to see how it evolves!

You've knit something amazing. It's taken an age, and now it's time for the critical last step: washing and blocking.

Over the next little while i'm going to share some posts with tips and tricks for how to best care for your hand knits. 

How to prevent bleeding

Sounds dramatic, doesn't it? Well, it can be. If your finished object has stripes, you do need to take care at the blocking stages. Also, if you're anything like me, you will have been too impatient to get started to want to fuss around with re-setting the yarn (which will be covered in another post). 

Take Ravello: Navy, silver and yellow stripes. Blues and reds are notorious colours to work with - even when set properly, they can still bleed colour. Chances are at some point you've knit with a blue or red or even green yarn and found some of the colour has rubbed off on your hands (extra tip: don't put hand cream on before knitting with any of these colours). 

How do you manage this after you've finished? Knitsch Sock might be machine washable, and if there wasn't a dark colour right next to a light colour I would have thrown this in the wash as with any other clothing item. But the prospect of the colour running made me nervous, so this is how I dealt with it instead:

1. Fill your laundry tub (or large wide basin) with lukewarm water. Add wool wash (whichever one floats your boat) and swish it around to make it bubbly. 

2. Add your knitted item. The key here is not to move it around too much, so the colour doesn't migrate. I folded the sleeves across the top half of the body so they weren't sitting next to the blue section. 

3. Gently push the fabric under the water. Again: don't wiggle it around or agitate it. 

4. Leave it like this for 15 minutes or so. The water will slowly soak through the fibre. Feel free to prod the fabric under the surface if it rises above the water.  

5. If you're working with a laundry tub or sink, pull the plug out and allow the water to drain away. Run the tap over it to rinse out all the water (again, not moving your knitted item around too much.) If you are using a basin, run water through it like you would cool down a boiled egg - let the warm water flow out and the cold water replace it until the wool wash is thoroughly rinsed out.

6. Put your item in the washing machine (if it's machine washable) and run it through the spin cycle to get the excess water out. If not machine washable, lay it flat on an old towel, roll the towel up and squeeze the excess water out. 

7. Lay it flat to dry. 

I followed this process the first few times I washed Ravello, to be sure any excess dye was well and truly dealt with. Now I just throw it in the washing machine. If you have a project using white or natural yarn next to dark colours, keep using the above method until you're absolutely certain there is no excess colour remaining.

Happy washing!

With World or Wearable Arts in town again, and having a shop in town for the first time, we have a little something special happening. I may not have been organised enough to enter the official window competition, but we're going to join in all the same. 

If you've ever knit with our giant knitting needles, your stitches make up the centre piece. With this in mind, our concept evolved. 

'Where am I?' she wondered, emerging from the darkness. 'What is this place?'

Welcome to our story window. Each day the shop is open during the Wearable Arts season, we will add a line to the story, and details to the window space. As the days go by, you'll have the chance to direct the story, and even add to the window itself. A real life 'watch this space' in the Grand Arcade store.

During Knit August Nights, a friend and I decided to do our own little knit-along. Both of us being who we are, it actually isn't so little. After knitting Ravello, and deciding to knit a rainbow something in a similar style, we were talking about dresses. 

And lo, another overly ambitious project to conquer in the next 6 months. 

A dress, in 4ply (Knitsch Sock, of course). Composed of grey and a rainbow. Taking Raekkevidde as the base pattern: 

Raekkevidde dress pattern by Bente Geil

(and particularly inspired by this project from the same pattern, unsurprisingly)

It's only the beginning. The main part is going to be grey, with two row stripes of colour all the way through. Theres' going to be quite a few ends to weave in, that's for sure. But stripes are always worth it. Which makes my current knitting queue: a 4ply cardigan, a 2ply cardigan, and a 4ply dress. Sucker for punishment, me?