Winter preoccupations

Hello all! Right now, I suspect my readership is 50% roasting in mid summer (or not roasting in the UK from what I've read!) and 50% freezing its collective buns off in mid winter. I'm among the latter. I just realised how much of my headspace is going into the cold. Thinking about how to protect myself from it, being sick of it, sick from it, the woiks.
How to survive it now I no longer work in corporate heat controlled offices - a layer of silk, a layer of merino and then as many other layers as I can pile on! Silk is 5 times warmer than wool by weight, apparently, and I always feel warmer with a home made silk cami next to the skin. Merino is so toasty also, and dense enough to resist draughts too.
Also I have a blow heater in my office all day, so when I am immobilised by desk work I don't start to feel the cold so much. I'm fine when I am on the move out in the shop.
At home, when we get in around 6.30-7, we rush to close the curtains and put on the heat pump. It turns our mezzanine into a dry sauna, but hardly heats the downstairs where we mostly live at all! But our huge, lined curtains do help to keep the warmth in.
But I reckon they could do better. So I have invested in enough 'bumpf' to interline my bedroom curtains.

Bumpf is a batting like fabric for sandwiching between curtain and lining for extra insulation. An awesome idea. Previously I didn't realise there was a special fabric just for this - in Christchurch where cold is a whole art form in itself, I interlined all our curtains with cheap, heavy knit fabrics, because they were thick, warm and required no hemming. Plus it gives curtains lots of body.
So, in my office is a 15m roll of bumpf. Call it product testing. I've chosen to try the bedroom curtains as they require a mere 6m of fabric, unlike the 30m required for the living room!
I'm really not sure when I'll get time to do it however. Got a couple of projects to fit in first and not much time to sew these days. :)

My Rare Yarn Adventure

Oh me oh my! I spent the beginning of last week in Nelson (that's across the sea!) in Cruellas, the best yarn shop on the planet!
Cruellas sells its own range of yarn, made from blends of merino and alpaca, under the brand Rare Yarn. In the shop, you can buy a hand knitted garment made from their range of exclusive patterns, order one to be knitted in your choice of size and colour, or buy the yarn and DIY. Or KIY. How cool is that!
We'll be selling the yarn and will have a stock of samples on rotation.

Two of the garments from their pattern range. I love the filigree mannequins so much I had to track some down for us!

A few of the most adorable knitted toys ever. They are so soft and delicious. Mr Turtle's shell is a coat the comes off!

I do confess that the highlight of my trip was this tiny scrap of puppyness. Brillo is a wire haired terrier (Kiwis know these as "Wilson" dogs on account of this ad) who was only 9 days old. He is the runt of the litter and is being hand fed to see if he can catch up with his 2 enormous siblings. I don't know if he has made it through another week yet. He spent a fair bit of his time in my arms, or in Ruth's cowl/snood (Ruth's hands in the photo, she is SO good with animals, and people too!)
So all in all, it feels like a pretty big honour to be brought into "the fold," and I am looking forward to having a cosy yarn filled corner of our shop, that alas will be puppy free!

Finally a photo of the quilt!

Remember this quilt in progress?

 I am currently snuggled under it as I am most evenings - it has been exhibited and I have taught it under the name Serenity Quilt. So it was about time I posted a photo or two of the finished quilt!

And here it is, on display in the shop for a few weeks before the course (luckily I got it back before the really cold weather started) I sashed it with 3/4 inch sashes of a fabulous fabric that reads as a black but has tiny, dark sprigs in it. It was the hardest part of the quilt, finding a sashing fabric that wasn't a solid black that was warm enough to work in this quilt. Most of them go to charcoal which is cool. This one is actually from a Christmas range and the colours are deep green, red and brown. Delicious! I had a couple of fat quarters only and had to scour teh interwebs for more of it, which I eventually found, and cleaned out the shop! It's like that when you find a fabric that just goes with everything. It is also in this quilt which I have also yet to photograph in its completed state!

At last, she remembers the giveaway!

I got sidetracked, sorry! Tomorrow I fly off to Nelson to learn about the new range of yarn we are stocking so I thought I'd better get this draw done.
The winner is...Johanna of Making it Well! Noone actually got the whole answer so I included all attempts :)
The answer was: size 60 (the tinest size hook you can get) and the use is indeed to make and maintain dreadlocks! I DO like the idea of using them to handle icky clothes though hehehe
So Johanna, you're easy being a local so you can come choose your own, but better get in fast as we are running low on stock! ( a couple of wool stashers have walked away with bagloads).
Have a great week all - I am taking the netbook away with me but not sure how much online time I will get. And this weekend MrC and I are off for the weekend to relax. I'm so excited about my week of doing different things I just want to jump and down and squeal!! I love my shop and working in it, but I know I will love it all the more for having a bit of time away from it! hehehe.

Unrelated photo of me. It looks adventurous so I thought it appropriate!

Knitting progress and New boots!

Look how far I got by Friday! I think I have a new addiction. I'm keeping the giveaway open a little longer, so if you have any creative answers about what crochet needles may get used for besides crochet, post them here or in my last post :)
In the meantime, I got a bit fluey at the end of last week so MrC chucked me out of the shop for the day. He's sweet like that. Instead of going home, however, I did what I always do when I need to relax- I headed to the Eastern Suburbs of Wellington, where the sea is close and it makes me happy! AND it just so happens that my favourite shoe shop is over there too. It specialises in big size shoes and tickles me that my problem big feet are nearly the smallest size they stock!
Well, I SAVED $600 by NOT buying two other pairs I loved. And I bought one pair of adorable boots:

Aren't they the cutest things!!!!??!!! And so comfortable too! The heel is just low enough to be comfortable for me but just enough to be a bit elegant. And the leopard skin tippets were irresistible.
They certainly did wonders for my fluiness! :)

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and a sort of giveaway

Today I picked up a skein of 8 ply and some size 4 needles, and cast on 35 stitches. The last time I knitted was over 30 years ago.
!!!!!!
I know!! Knitting!! I do everything but knit!! I can't believe I even remember HOW to knit, but it seems to be one of those bicycle riding things - I stared at the needles and wool for about 5 seconds, and then just knew what to do.

 

Taking to knitting again like a duck to water!

 It's a bit of a miracle I can even knit a basic stocking stitch really. I am a leftie and both of my grans were right handed, so I was the granddaughter they couldn't teach. My clever Mum taught me, fellow leftie that she is, but I am a horrendous student of anything and never bothered to learn anything grander, although I did once knit a stitch in a brick/weave pattern. Cor!
The yarn I've chosen is 80% merino, 20% possum. It is a variegated colour scheme that, quite coincidentally, matches 'my' colour palette, which is called Dusky Cool Deep. My eye prefers a warmer palette really, but this one does suit me, and I still love it.

 Yummy colours - photo taken next morning, look how much I got done last night!

So why am I doing this knitting thing? It's a response to the winter chill. Usually I want to quilt, but it is not portable enough. Plus I've been reading about knitting on so many blogs, and it's been chipping away at me. In a good way!
And lastly but by no mean leastly, I sell wool, but I don't know much about it. So I want to learn. We are going to be stocking a new range of yarn soon, and I really want to understand it. I'll never be an expert but I want to understand what things knitters and crocheters think about.
Now, who would like to guess what size crochet hook we sell the most of, and for what purpose? Hints include - nothing at all to do with yarn, and our shop is in the funky, alternative part of the city. Te Aro is to Wellington what Camden is to London, Fitzroy is to Melbourne, and possibly Soho is to New York (although I am guessing there!). :) Any correct, or sufficiently entertaining answers, can go in a draw to win some yarn. I won't specifiy what kind as I've got a few options. It can be negotiated with the winner! :)

Reverse engineering - sewing time and sustainability

Hmm. I am feeling like a dirty stop out, going so silent for so long. Of course my devoted followers know it's because I am up the the gunwales in Made on Marion, which is a 7 day, 80 hour a week commitment, but I don't want to go down the rabbit hole!
And so in the interest of being of interest, I am reverse engineering this post based on the photos I have taken recently.

First up is the sewing machine area set up in the shop. This is my beloved Bernina 1230. It's awesome to have one's sewing machine set up at one's work, although I don't often get time to use it, but I am working on a couple of ideas and it means I can snatch a few minutes sewing from time to time without having to drag all my kit out and set up. Do you like our wallpaper? It's only in one place - I don't think it would be easy to live with beyond that one wall!

My friend here the organic cotton stand gets a photo and a write up because lately I have been thinking about sewing and knitting etc for vegans. A dear friend of mine is an avid crafter and a vegan, and for her this means editing out wool and silk too. I should add she is not at all righteous about this commitment, but I find it intriguing and have been looking for products that are vegan friendly, because usually that means they are also more sustainable by nature. Take this organic cotton as a case in point - cotton not being a food crop, gets sprayed out the wazoo with evil chemicals that kill lots of insects and probably other wildlife and probably don't do much for the Egyptian farmers who grow it either. So the organic type is much kinder to wildlife. It's a slow seller, by the way, mostly I feel because it comes in 200m reels which makes the price point a lot higher. Pity as it is only, pro rata, a few cents dearer than the 100m cotton thread we also sell far more of.
My search for vegan alternatives has also led to stocking linen and bamboo 'sliver,' which is the carded, pre-spun state of the fibre. Incidentally, I think linen sliver would make an excellent 18th C wig. I only have a little bit, as much for curiosity sake and because the design students who comprise such a big part of our clientele are always looking for unusual materials to make unusual things.

Last randomly selected image is of these wall hangings made by the Embroidenator. She loves poppies as much as I do and I love having these beauties in my line of sight all day! :)