Vintage Purls

Life has been hectic but in a good way. My sock club is up and running and participants got their first installment (called Toasty) this week:

And I’m busy working on the second and third installments.

I became an auntie! She was a wee bit early (6 weeks) but she’s done very well and was able to leave hospital for home yesterday (she was born on the 22nd of May). Introducing Anya:

My knitterly self is delighted to have a wee thing to make outfits for but I felt terribly unprepared when she arrived so early and so little. I’m also busy with work knitting so I’m not being the prolific knitter aunt I want to be. Stella helped out by making the worlds cutest booties:

Mr K has been traveling the world for work which leaves me lonely at home and with the entire fur mob to care for by myself. They take advantage of his absence and my weaker state to do special things like sleep on the bed with me at night, which I have yet to learn simply leads to poor sleep for me and is no substitute for Mr K at all. He’s off again this week, to the States this time so I’m arranging some School House Press books to come home with him since we have only limited access to Elizabeth Zimmermann publications in New Zealand.

Keeping up with yarn dyeing and the like has seen my ability to prepare new vintage patterns for the site impeded - there are plenty more to go up but they are time consuming to scan and then clean up into a readable state. More fill come though, just bear with me.

Camp was great! Lots of knitting time but my actual output was small - this twined knitting lark is tough going. And because I’m that kind of difficult person I decided to jump in the deep end by twining with two colours - four ends, twisting, concentration and very slow knitting ensued. My two colour technique wasn’t brilliant and I got myself into such a tangle twice that I had to break out the scissors and rejoin my wool. Still the result is a thick, cozy fabric with texture and interest.

My “punishment” for attending such a lovely weekend is a rotten cold that has stolen my ability to think properly. The person I suspect gave it to me shall remain nameless but I will link to her blog since sometimes I’m nasty like that.

I got the Sock Club registration up last night and this morning half the slots were gone already! If you are interested be in quick, numbers are limited. It’s great to know that other NZ knitters share my interests and I’m going to work really hard to provide a really great club for them.

This weekend I’m off to “Knitting Camp” for some exploration of Twined Knitting. It’s forecast to rain all weekend here so it seems an ideal weekend to huddle inside playing with yarn. The company will be superb and I can be all knit-geeky without getting strange looks from non-fibre obsessed individuals.

I’ve dyed up some z-twist yarn in anticipation (apparently z-twist yarn is the thing to have for twined knitting). I got a mystery cone from the back table at Milton so I don’t know what it is exactly but $4.90 for 490g is not something I can turn down easily. It’s washed up nicely and took the dye well so I think it’s mostly wool.

Mr K gets to stay at home and shift eight metres of firewood into storage (probably in said rain). I know I should feel kind of bad about this but secretly I am delighted; I detest moving wood under the house - I normally come out with a mild case of concussion from belting my head on too-low beams. Another reason I love Mr K - moves copious amounts of wood every winter without a word of complaint. 

When I get back from knitting fun away I will open registrations for my first Sock Club. I’ve always looked at American knitters’ blogs with envy as they discuss sock clubs. So I’m doing one for NZ knitters - why should we miss out on the fun? The Vintage Purls Winter-Warm Up Sock Club will run for three months over winter and see it’s participants delivered a parcel of knitting goodness during each of our coldest months. I’m terribly excited and hope at least a few people will want to play along.

Last Friday here was ANZAC day and a NZ Ravelry member “introduced” us to her extraordinary great grandmother, if you are a Ravelry member it’s worth checking out.