HRYC

For quite some time now we've been hoping some clever clogs will be organised enough to start up a knitting movie session. And by jove, it's happened! 

We're super excited that the Embassy will be hosting the inaugural Lights Up Knitting session on Monday 22 April. Tickets go on sale today!! (Thursday, 11 April).  

Also super exciting for us - we're co-ordinating the goodie bags! There are some pretty great treats lined up already, but if we told you...

Buy a ticket, come along for a drink and some very like-minded company, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Perks is getting rave reviews, and our knitter on the ground, Jessie, admitted to me that she saw it 3 times in one weekend because she loved it so much. Starring our favourite Emma Watson looking cute as a (grown up) button, and ohmygosh Paul Rudd! Mmm. Paul Rudd. Right, enough gushing. It's about growing up. 

Knitting at the movies is quite different to knitting at home watching a movie from the couch. You'll be paying more attention to the movie than your hands, i'm guessing. Especially when Paul Rudd is on the screen. So here's our run down of perfect Lights Up Knitting session projects to cast on and bring along.

A super simple sock: we like the 'Just Yer Basic Sock' pattern. Top down socks are a great idea - cast on, get past the ribbing stage, then knit knit knit in the round for the whole movie.

Dare I suggest, a sweater with loads of stocking stitch would be just the ticket. 

Beach Street Park, the new offering by Kristen Kapur is knit from the bottom up, with lots of perfect movie-watching-friendly stocking stitch.

Blank Canvas, gorgeous simplicity from Ysolda Teague. Lots of stocking stitch again, but you will need to pack it with stitch markers so your fingers know when to work the decreases. Shouldn't be much of a Lights Up problem, though. 

Or, if you want to knit something cute and wee, Thom with a TH by Jenny Wiebe is an option. Or maybe the body of a Vertebrae?

Here I was thinking I may just knit the Mr some socks, but Beach Street Park really has caught my eye. 

Anyway! The detalis again:

Lights Up Knitting Session

6pm

Monday April 22

Tickets on sale April 11

I'll be hanging out in the Black Sparrow (that bar under the Embassy) from 5pm, so if you want to come by straight after work, or make the most of an evening out, you're more than welcome to join me for a pre-movie knit.

xx

While we're anxiously anticipating new stock (Ashford Tekapo and Malabrigo of all kinds!) I thought i'd take a moment to share a few snaps from my Easter weekend away. 

It isn't often I get the chance to escape to the family bach in Arthur's Pass - but it is always a joy to be there. Arthur's Pass is a village in the middle of the middle of the South Island, between Christchurch and Greymouth. It holds a lifetime of memories and lots of little crafty details. I find myself looking around and wondering if we should put in thermal backed curtains, or buy new frying pans. But the perfection that is the family bach is in its imperfection. Everything is worn, or old, or has been made to fulfill a purpose. Old fabrics will do for cushions, worn out cutlery is all you need for dinner here. 

It is a place where you don't need much, just some craft and a book and some good food. Grandma* made the crochet blankets (she says it's a good rest for hands when they're tired from knitting), and there's a spare Ashford Traveller wheel that I finally decided to make friends with. I can now say that I can spin on a wheel, one of those goals i've had for a long time but needed the quiet isolation to focus and get on with it.

How was your Easter weekend? Did you have any craft goals that you wanted to achieve? I hope it was restful and relaxing!

*yes, Grandma is Margaret Stove, but it feels a bit weird name-dropping when she is Grandma to me. 

 The second session of Crochet Blanket Addicts (anonymous) is tomorrow. Already! So soon!

Since the last session, our addicts have been busy. There has been talk of spreadsheets to plan colour arrangements, obsessive pinning of finished circles and squares and hexagons. I've also been witness to some very tricky colour decisions.

I, too, have turned into a crazy crocheter. The lack of large knitting project on any of my needles means that some serious work has been done on my granny stripe blanket.

From small beginnings

to

a selection of grey, blue and green tones

to

obsessive colour planning

to

wanting to work on it so desperately I took it to the pub

and now

it has seriously grown.

Crochet Blanket Addicts (anonymous) meet in the shop once a month to blabber with delight over hooking blankets. If you want to join us - please do! This month it is on Saturday 23 March (tomorrow at the time of posting) from 11am - 1pm. 

Hooray!

 For a long time my knitting ambition was to destroy stereotypes around the craft. To demonstrate that it wasn't simply for old people. That knitting is a pursuit for everyone, that the patterns are no longer awful and the yarn no longer scratchy. Knitting is a meditative pursuit that brings many great joy.

In line with this ambition, I want to prove that knitting isn't the exclusive domain of women. It's not. I know a bunch of men who knit. No, they aren't all gay. I've heard stories of husbands who took up knitting to deal with the stress of PhD study; men who spun yarn for their wives to knit up into jerseys. Men were the original master knitters - as with artists, carpenters and weavers, knitting used to be an industry populated by professional men and governed by a guild system. 

So. The challenge is on - is it possible to destroy another stereotype? Are men 'man enough' to knit? 

To be honest, i'm extremely skeptical. They say 'build it and they will come' - but will they? Is the average New Zealand man ready to pick up sticks and string and make fabric? Ready to accept that knitting is a craft for everyone? 

Man Made is a series of 6 sessions, covering all the basics (and then some) of knitting. Taught by Mike Dickison - a man knitter, ukulele player and bird expert. There will be craft beer. And finger food. And the tools you need will be supplied.

Prove me wrong. As much as I want to be optimistic and think we can get this series fully subscribed, I doubt it. I don't think men are up to it. I don't believe the average man has the balls to help prove that gender associations with knitting are a load of rubbish.

Here's the details anyway:

And to make it easy for you, it's possible to book online. No scary day time shop trip necessary.