Love. . . the electronic revolution in fibrecrafts

Podcast Logo from Colleen AF Venable (via Flickr)

You know, when I look back over the last five years of crafting, it's amazing to think how far I have come as far as embracing technology goes! Even a mere four years ago I had never downloaded a knitting pattern from the internet, ravelry wasn't yet a daily habit and I had never heard of podcasts, let alone any fibrecraft ones. It wasn't quite the first, but the Cast On podcast started on 31st October 2005 and although it has waxed and waned in episode frequency, it has remained a constant favourite of mine. It is produced very professionally by Brenda Dayne, an American woman living in Wales with her partner Tonya and their pets. It was back in 2007, when I was flicking through a knitting magazine in a local shop that I spotted an article on Brenda Dayne and her Cast On podcast, and my journey into the world of podcasts began. Within a matter of days, I had downloaded all the Cast On audio archives and signed up for several other podcasts too, like David Reidy's Sticks and String. I even found Saturday Morning with Kim Hill from Radio New Zealand was available in a podcast form. Not to mention a whole host of podcasts from my much-missed BBC Radio 4. More recently I have found the iMake podcast (mentioned in my "Guernsey Goodness" blog post.) Podcasts have been a very positive addition to my life. . . but for such a long time there was no New Zealand-based knitting or generally crafty podcast to be found. For a while, I even considered trying to produce one of my own, but my abysmal technical skills defeated me before I had even put up a trial episode!

Imagine my excitement in 2009 when I saw an announcement on http://ravelry.com that there was a new podcast, and a New Zealand one at that! Not just a knitting podcast either, but a multi-craftual one, encompassing knitting, spinning, weaving, sewing and a whole lot more. The "icing on the cake" for me, is that all this craftiness is teamed up with baking, another one of my favourite activities. This podcaster seemed to have come up with a local podcast that was just what I was looking for! The name of the podcast? "Crafternoon Tea with Granny G." Granny G has regaled us with tales of her crafty life and an abundance of baking and local interviews, ever since her first podcast back in September 2009. If you haven't listened to any of Crafternoon Tea before, then I highly recommend it. Here's a link to the very first episodes. Granny G is very easy to listen to and it feels like you are sitting around the kitchen table having a chat while she bakes, sews, spins etc in the background!

At the beginning of the year, Granny G published a beautiful NZ-themed knitting pattern - "Tiki Mittens."  I was amongst the first to buy and download the pattern and knitted them up as fingerless mitts for my lovely Wifie. . . I used some grey 4 ply Patons Patonyle yarn along with some 3 ply Knittery Merino Slim Sock, which I dyed jade green using food grade acid dyes bought from Morag of Vintage Purls.

Tiki mitts for Wifie - Jan 2011

Granny G has always been a very regular podcaster, so when there was a bit of a lengthy silence after her latest episode released on 31st January 2011, I thought something must be up. Not sure what, but something must be going on! Sure enough, on 2nd March, Granny G posted in her Crafternoon Tea ravelry group to explain why she had been missing from our iPods! This is what she said:

"I’m sure you’ve noticed by now the lack of new episodes… you have, haven’t you?

There is a good reason. I’ve not announced it, as each week I was hoping to upload a new episode, especially as I’ve two awesome interviews on hand which just need editing and releasing.

So what is the reason? Well back in January, I had too much coffee and decided it was an excellent idea to start a magazine. A digital only fibre craft magazine. I’m up to my ears in getting the preview issue out ready for March 20th or thereabouts, with the first full issues available in May/June.

You may have noticed the ad’s running below, for entangled magazine, well that’s me!

If all goes to plan, I should be able to get back to podcasting in the next few months. There will be occasional blog posts, and I will still be around here."

So, there you have it. Granny G/Genny Stevens has started an electronic fibre craft magazine, "Entangled." If the free preview issue is anything to go by, it's going to be a very high quality, visually sumptuous, information-packed magazine! Genny says in the Editor's Note that the preview issue is "a taster, a sample of things to come!" As such, I didn't expect the freebie to be quite so full, but obviously this is going to be no ordinary magazine! Although it's produced in NZ you can sign up for your copy from wherever you live, and as well as viewing it on your computer screen, you can even download it and look at it on your iPad if you are lucky enough to own such a thing (I'm not!) 

In order to get your hands/eyes on a copy of the free preview issue of Entangled, you need to sign up to Zinio. . . but people, if I can negotiate the sign-up process, so can you! You won't be disappointed. And no, before you ask, I'm not on commission for getting you to sign up to look at the preview issue of Entangled - I have never even met Granny G! But the magazine genuinely looks great, and I am all for supporting New Zealand enterprise, especially if it involves an area of life that really interests me, ie fibre crafts. The preview issue has all sorts of interesting articles in it, including a focus on Perendale wool and fleece, some Knit Graffiti (a topic dear to my heart) and a book review of New Zealander Margaret Stove's latest book: Wrapped in Lace.

So there we are. . . where would we fibre crafters be without the internet? Imagine a world with no crafty podcasts, no online yarn shops and Indie dyers, no downloadable patterns either paid or freebies,  and possibly worst of all - no ravelry! Ravelry enables you to check out almost any pattern you can imagine and see several (or thousands of) versions of it, compare yarn choices, get ideas of how to use a particular yarn, organise and share your projects, make networks and friendships with people all over the world, not feel quite so alone in your craft geekery and "much, much more!" So very much more that I think I will devote a whole post to ravelry one day. 

But for now, I am just very grateful for the electronic revolution that has taken place in fibre crafts over the last few years. To some this blending of traditional crafts with high-technology solutions  may seem like a strange juxtaposition, but to me it makes perfect sense. Long may it continue. . .

Guernsey goodness. . .

Guernsey location map  - courtesy of google

Did I ever tell you that I have a huge affection for Guernsey? I first visited that lovely Channel Isle in October 1986 as a 15 year old, on a family holiday. 

It's where, aged 15,  I flew on my very first flight ever. . . Bournemouth to Guernsey. I remember saying to my mum "How is the plane ever going to get airborne like this?" much to the mirth of the surrounding passengers - we were taxi-ing over to the runway at the time, but I didn't know that, and wondered how we were supposed to get airborne at THAT speed!

It's where, aged 15,  I met two very eccentric and lovable spinster sisters in their late 70s/early 80s, who lived in an old farmhouse in St Sampson. We stayed with them for our week long holiday at the "DIY B&B" they ran. . .

It's where, aged 15, I met one of my most amazing friends, who has remained a rock through thick and thin. . .

It's where I went camping as an 18 year old on my first truly independent holiday. . .

It's where I got my first "Guernsey jumper"  - a grey woollen one.

It's where I first met Golden Guernsey goats and fell in love with goats full stop, but Guernsey goats in particular. . . maybe one day we will have a piece of land big enough to have some Golden Guernsey Goats, or in fact any goats at all ;-)

It's where, as a teenager, I first flew in a little yellow island-hopping plane (also known as a flying banana!), immortalised through a series of children's books. The most famous plane of the fleet has the registration G-JOEY and is Aurigny Air Services' pin up boy!

More recently, Guernsey has been back on my radar with the 2009 gift of a wonderful book "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" from that lifelong friend I met in Guernsey. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it, if you are wanting a gentle slow paced book which really brings the characters and Guernsey itself to life.

Late last year, a local friend Jesse recommended a relatively new craft podcast called iMake, by a woman called Martine, based in Guernsey. The mention of Guernsey had me interested right away without even listening to the podcast!

I am pleased to report that the iMake podcast is a really good listen, whether you are a "Guernsophile" (yes, I just made that word up!) or not. . . It is a multi-craft podcast, with an emphasis on knitting, but plenty of airtime for a multitude of other crafts including soap-making, precious metal clay jewellery, scrap-booking, sewing, candle making, card-making and heaps of other crafts too multitudinous to mention! There is even a regular "Guernsey section" and occasional "outside broadcasts" or visits from Martine's friend Charles who is a witty conversationalist and craftsman to boot! Martine's voice is very easy on the ears and her podcasts are usually around 25 to 30 minutes duration, which suits me perfectly as it means I can listen to an entire episode on my drive to work.

In a lovely circular scenario, which will become apparent eventually, in 2008 a local knitting friend Susan inspired me to start making a sock yarn blanket after I saw her beautiful mitred square sock yarn blanket. Last year I showed Jesse and the rest of the local knit group my sock yarn fish blanket, which inspired Jesse to start on making a mitred square sock yarn blanket of her own. In turn, Jesse inspired Martine to start her own sock yarn blanket and Martine set up a sock yarn swap circle, which I became part of! I received one box of sock yarn scraps from Martine and I sent a bag of sock yarn scraps to Guernsey long before I thought of writing this blog, but a couple of weeks ago another box of yarn arrived for Jesse and me to share, and tucked inside was a delicious lip balm for each of us. . . Thanks Martine!

Another amazing piece of Guernsey goodness happened last week when Martine asked me if I would like to be interviewed (by questionnaire) for her iMake website. That's a link to the "interview" by the way. . . and if you do have a look at it, make sure you have a good look around the rest of the iMake website. It's a very slick design and loads of interesting information and tutorials there, as well as the podcast and show notes. . . a wealth of information and inspiration to be found.

Knit. . . Wifie's Tiki fingerless mitts

So, a month ago I spotted that Grannyg (of most excellent New Zealand podcast Crafternoon Tea ) had published a pattern called Tiki. It is based on the iconic New Zealand Tiki. Some of you are probably wondering what a Tiki is so I will quote from the Tiki pattern:

"In New Zealand Maori mythology, Tiki is the first man who created the first woman and bore children with her. He appears all through Central Eastern Polynesian culture in carvings but for us in New Zealand he is found in pendants known as Hei-Tiki. These pendants were traditionally carved in greenstone or bone, although in recent times all manner of materials have been used.
A Hei-Tiki is a powerful good luck symbol, representing ancestors in human form. The tilted head indicates thinking, hands are for strength, mouth indicates powerful communication, heart is for love and the loins are for fertility."

My "wifie" (or civil union partner if you prefer!) saw the Tiki design on ravelry over my shoulder and immediately pronounced that she would love a pair of the Tiki mittens! I needed no encouragement to buy the pattern, but only once I had bought and downloaded it did aforementioned partner realise that the mittens were full mittens. "Wifie" wanted fingerless mittens, didn't reckon it gets cold enough round here to warrant full mittens, and remarked "You could make those fingerless, couldn't you?!" It seemed somewhat sacrilegious to cannibalise the pattern no sooner than it had been downloaded, but I mentioned it to Grannyg on ravelry and she gave her blessing!

First step was to dye up some green sock yarn using food colouring from Morag at Vintage Purls. Next I knitted up a Hei-Tiki pendant to test out my colour choices. . . Grey Regia sock yarn and the lighter green that I had dyed worked well together. Originally, I tried with two shades of green but they were too similar, but the grey and green combo worked well (it's the two colours used in the published pattern, so I guess it was a no-brainer!)

So far so good, except "Wifie" wasn't keen on the Tiki's eyes. So I offered to try making them grey instead of green! 

Thus I started on the fingerless, grey-eyed Tiki mitts! If I had worked at them consistently I definitely could have got them done in less than a week of evenings, but I got distracted onto several other projects (including my new-found fascination for knitted graffiti!) and so they took a month from start to finish. I finished them yesterday and here they are. . .

Tiki mitts - back of hand

Tiki mitts palm

If I can find some suitably sized paua shell buttons I might try attaching those for the eyes. . . But overall I am really pleased with the mitts, most importantly "Wifie" loves them and it's great to have such a very New Zealand-themed pattern at our fingertips (only NZ$5 to download from ravelry!) Thanks Granny G!