The Fearless Knitter rides again...

The Christmas before last (Xmas 2008), I bought myself a present, a bag of patterns and other useful stuff from Knitting Daily. On the front of the bag, there is a heart design and the slogan "Fearless Knitter". This was a promotion/challenge that Knitting Daily ran through 2008, challenging knitters to try at least one new technique during the year.

I took that challenge to heart (a bit late, since the promo had finished, but nevertheless...) - over the last 12 months, I've started knitting socks (unfortunately, start is all I've done so far, but I'll make it one day!) - I've crocheted some reasonably complicated garments (now that's the ultimate in fearlessness for knitters - putting one of your needles down!) - and last, but not least, I have started clearing my stash by knitting Fair Isle patterns.

The first thing I discovered was that there are an incredible number of variations on the theme of knitting with more than one colour. Apparently, to be strictly accurate, I should call my current project (Jo Sharp's Devon cardigan) a 'stranded colour work' project. 'Fair Isle' refers to traditional Scottish patterns, knitted in the round using no more than two colours at any time, and generally using a palette of no more than five related colours. Intarsia refers to patterns where large solid blocks of colour are knitted without running the yarn across the back of the work (as happens in Fair Isle patterns). If I wanted to slip some of my stitches instead of knitting them, I'd have something called slip-stitch knitting, which may or may not involve colours, but usually does. I could also go beserk and try mosaic work (square or rectangular patterns, similar to intarsia work).

The second thing I discovered was that it is very hard to knit from three balls of wool simultaneously while travelling on public transport! Usually, I use my travel time for knitting - PT is generally slow, and knitting or crochet helps to relieve the stress of knowing that I'm going to arrive late. Unfortunately, I can only knit patterns that don't require a great deal of concentration, as I need to focus my attention on the various announcements to make sure that I catch the correct train/tram/bus and get off at the correct stop! Hence my socks have a rather fetching dropped-stitch effect (caused by dropping stitches!) and my colour work cardigan currently consists of two half-finished fronts. I managed to knit as far as the colour work panel on both sides, but then found that I couldn't knit colour work, decrease for armholes and front slope AND decipher the announcements coming over the PA system at Flinders Street.

Looking forward to the day when I am both fearless and accurate with my new techniques...

Knitting in summer...

Yesterday, I finished off a Jo Sharp cotton singlet. It's a pattern that I've made before - it's in stripes, so it is a great way of using up leftover stash! It's also very comfortable to wear, even when the temperature is over 40 degrees. Which brings me to the point of this post - I wonder why more people don't knit in summer?

Knitting cottons used to be impossible to get hold of (at least when I was younger!), but now there are so many great cottons, bamboos and other summer-weight yarns available! If I look into the shop, I can see Rowan 4ply Cotton, Cotton Glace and Purelife Organic Cotton, not to mention some of the Milk Cottons. I can see some Cleckheaton 100% Bamboo and some of the Tahki DK Cotton. We have two baskets full of Jo Sharp Soho Summer DK Cotton and Desert Garden Aran Cotton, not to mention some of the Mango Moon lightweight recycled fibres. That's a lot of light-weight knitting!

The disadvantages are cost (for Rowan) - but we accept laybys. I know a lot of shoppers were underwhelmed by the first Cleckheaton bamboo pattern book - but we've had some lateral thinkers adapt vintage patterns and knit them up with the bamboo, with fantastic results. Ravelry and Knitty have also yielded some brilliant bamboo patterns - and some good options for Tahki, where again the supporting pattern book failed to captivate. I can't think of any issues with Jo Sharp - the patterns are great and the yarns are very competitively priced.

Another thought - if you can bring yourself to knit with wool in summer, you'll be ready for winter, while everyone else is scrambling to cast on...

The Maybe Moving Sale...

Someone famous once said "The world is full of surprises". They're right. When a group of people turned up at the shop a couple of weeks ago to ask about taking over our lease, I was very surprised. In all fairness, they were probably equally surprised when I didn't chase them off the premises with a broom. Instead, we sat down and had a cuppa and a chat, and it now looks like I am up for another new experience - moving shop!

In a previous post, I talked about moving into the shop at Northcote and realising that I had, for the first time in my existence and entirely by accident, done something cool. It has since dawned on me that cool is a mixed blessing. Cool areas are not cheap. Cool areas are not low-maintenance. Cool areas are prone to sell out or suffer sudden rent increases.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the shop is breaking even, when I want it to make a dirty great profit. My cunning plan, therefore, is to move a couple of hundred metres up the road to Croxton. Croxton is the shopping wasteland between cool Northcote and up-and-coming Thornbury. Most of the shops in Croxton are permanently shut, presumably providing low-cost accommodation for the financially disadvantaged. The shops that aren't squats are sweatshops of some variety.

BUT the rents are about half of Northcote rents - and knitters are prepared to travel! Even better, there will be no rival attractions - our wool and our coffees will be the only game in town, or at least within about a kilometre radius. While I don't like my chances of keeping my current customers if I relocate to Brighton, I think my chances are pretty good if I stay in the area.

The downside? The downside is finding something that is free , while simultaneously trying to negotiate the handover of the lease, making sure that the new place isn't too grotty and also trying to sell off as much wool as possible to make sure we don't injure ourselves packing for the move....

This is where you can help (imagine a puppy-shelter-fundraising voiceover here). All we ask is for you to give some of our wool a new home. Buy it at a 20% discount and give it the loving home it deserves. Otherwise, it will get stuffed into a great big box and thrown onto a truck - you know that it deserves better!! Save our wool and your money today. (This post was sponsored by the Association for Bigger Stashes or ABS for short).

Stash gym III - Australia's biggest (wool) loser

Once again, the stash has defeated me.

I have been planning to take some photos of my new garments for the past four weeks and put them up on Ravelry. Unfortunately (?), I've now got a backlog of stuff to photograph and I don't know where to start. I could get photos of the poncho, the melange shawl and the shrug, but the shrug is currently on the mannequin and the poncho and shawl are stuffed into the drawer so tightly I can barely get them out (something to do with the drawer being full of other knitted garments...). I could photograph the cardigan, but it's not finished - I am hoping to get some more Ribbon Twist from the US to finish off the trim or (failing that!), I need to scrounge two balls of grey or white Big Wool. I have the fronts of two jumpers, but have not been able to get the wool I need to do the backs and the sleeves (still on order). I have a shrug that is slightly too long and needs to be modified, not sure how. The vest is accessible - I am wearing it at present - but it is a timely reminder that a large woman should not wear garments that draw attention to her chest. It looks like I am trying to smuggle two footballs into the shop... or maybe that should be two footballers...

My solution has been to knit or crochet more garments (singlet top, another LONGER knitted vest, a crochet vest which will probably be another disaster and a jumper for the Significant Other). This won't get the UFOs over the line, but at least it will keep the stash on its steady downward path. The other day (drumroll, please!), I hopped up onto the end of my bed, reached up and touched... THE SHELF!! That's right, I have cleared enough of my stash that the shelf has become visible. Maybe instead of photographing the finished objects, I should take a photo of the shelf!! Finished objects are ten a penny around here at present, but a shrinking stash has rarity value!

Wool shop birthday!

Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us, happy birthday on August 8th... Happy birthday to us! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!

The other day, I was crocheting happily away on a shrug and thinking about how much has happened over the past twelve months. On 8/8/08, I first opened for business. We had half a dozen varieties of Patons and Cleckheaton yarns, most of the Jo Sharp range and a bit of Rowan. The sofas were in place, but we didn't have an urn or a food handling permit. Our stock fitted comfortably on one shelf, with a couple of boxes out the back for the overflow.

Since then, we've expanded our stock to include a couple of the NZ Naturally lines, Tahki Cotton, Twilleys, Filatura di Crosa and Mango Moon. We have organic, sustainable and ethical yarns, sock wool, and books (hardcover books, not pattern books). We've set ourselves up to serve tea and coffee - and successfully passed our first health inspection. We've run some very successful classes, and we've cancelled other classes that didn't get the numbers. We have lots of new shelves and baskets, but they don't hold all the stock on hand or even come close.

We've had at least 976 customers come through the door, because that's how many customers we have on our loyalty database. All in all, a very successful first year - I am very relieved that we didn't end up becoming a casualty of the recession!

We will be celebrating our first birthday on 8th August, with discounts for loyalty club members. (This includes any loyalty club members who might happen to join the club on the day!). Afraid I can't think of anything very intelligent to say, except thank you to everyone who has supported us through our first year! We'll see you all at our second birthday in 2010...

**Stash gym update: I have managed to finish off another three or four jumpers due to the Eye. Anyone who came into the shop over May/June may have noticed that one of my eyes was swollen to three times normal size and that I appeared to be slightly over-medicated on painkillers. I'm still going to the Eye and Ear hospital for regular check-ups, even though they don't seem to have the faintest idea what's wrong with me. However, at four or more hours per visit, this has been a chance to finish my Ribbon Twist vest, a Ribbon Twist cardie, a Jo Sharp DK Cotton singlet, a Mango Moon shrug and handbag and three pairs of mitts for birthday presents. Stash gym photos coming soon...

Autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness...

Obviously, Keats didn't knit or crochet. For us here at CCCK, autumn is the season when everybody decides to start their new knitting or crochet projects.


Not to say that we haven't had both mists and fruit around here, but mostly autumn has brought us people who want to knit, crochet or (in a few cases) do both. Our classes are booking out, we are ordering stock twice a month (instead of every two months) and we find ourselves apologising to customers who have had to wait for service.


Autumn has also brought a swag of articles in newspapers and lifestyle magazines about the growing interest in craft (particularly subversive craft, such as yarnbombing). Autumn has brought new tenants to the empty shops along High Street, with new and exciting plans. And as I trotted along the street, going for my morning walk (got to get those 10,000 steps in!), I was suddenly hit by a realisation - I have accidentally become cool.


In my younger days, I was so far from being cool, I wasn't even on the same planet. I knitted. I read. I didn't have a boyfriend in high school (or a girlfriend) and there wasn't the remotest possibility of me acquiring either. I wasn't old enough to get a car or a driver's licence until I was at uni. I liked my parents and got on well with them. I was sort of Gothic, but because I'm phobic about touching my eyes, I couldn't wear eyeliner. I wrote, but instead of heart-wrenching angst-driven paens of darkness bemoaning my desolate teenage state, I wrote sci-fi and comedy, and I was a failure as a suffering misunderstood author, because my stuff was being published. I sang, but it was all cheerful ditties by Gilbert and Sullivan about flowers blooming in spring. You would have to go a long way to find something less cool than a plump, healthy-looking Goth with no eyeliner who tells jokes and sings musical comedy songs...


But now, almost completely by accident, I have ended up with a cool shop in a hot street. Fitzroy rents have risen to a point where the cool people have had to move out - to Northcote. Knitting and craft are bigger than Ben Hur - men and women are knitting, crocheting, dying, spinning and weaving like there's no tomorrow. Hooray for the recession! And hooray for the new anti-consumerist trends! And of course, hooray for autumn, because if people weren't freezing and wanting warm woolly garments, I'd still be slogging my way through the stash gym. (More to come on that in our next instalment...)

Stash-gym - the weigh-in

I figured that a picture is worth 1,000 words...

Before

**This is a representation only. I have a wide angle lens, but it was not quite wide enough to manage The Stash.***

After