Wellington WWKiPD wrap-up

So about 30 people braved the rain and took part in the Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day event at Victoria St Cafe today. It was hard to get a decent photo as everyone was spread out, but here are some of the knitters:

Petra won the quiz prize draw

I made a new best friend (I think because she very quickly clicked to the fact that I was the one in charge of the giveaways...)

A doll she knitted herself. She's only 8 and she can knit faster than me. She told me it's because I need to practice more; I'll give her that. She's currently knitting scarves for everyone in her family and then she's going to start knitting them to sell for $5 each. Excellent plan.

Thanks to all our sponsors, there were lots of giveaways so over half the knitters left with some new yarn, needles, a pattern, or something equally as exciting.

Then at 3pm the treasure hunt organised by The 8th Canoe began. Teams had to walk from the Victoria St Cafe to the Southern Cross, spotting as many knitted 'pieces of 8' in the shop windows as they could. Here are a couple:

My team mate and I didn't win anything from our treasure hunt efforts, but Ellen did give me this as a consolation prize:

This can be my dream date until I find a better one!

One more sleep to go!

I got a phone call this morning from Newstalk ZB who interviewed me about the Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day event tomorrow and there's a little paragraph about it on the Capital Day page in this weekend's edition of The Dominion Post. All signs point to it being a great afternoon!

Full details about the event in this post (and a picture of some of the yarn and other giveaways to be won).

See you there!

It's nearly time!

There are only two more sleeps to go until the Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day event at Victoria St Cafe and this is some of the great stuff I have to give away. There's silk yarn, merino yarn, cotton yarn, mohair yarn, laceweight yarn, DK yarn, and sock yarn. There are patterns, knitting needles, DPNs, and crochet hooks. There's all natural yarn and some purely synthetic yarn. There are solid colours and multi-coloureds. The list goes on. Phew!

I really hope some people come along, have a drink, do some knitting and take some of these goodies off me... Yesterday the event was linked from 'Moata's blog idle' post on Stuff.co.nz which was fun, I don't normally read her blog but someone at work said, 'Hey Moata's blog on Stuff today talks about knitting, you might like it' and through the magic of the internet it was connected to Wellington WWKiP Day. Maybe that will encourage a couple more knitters along who might not normally know about it. The event is listed on Wotzon (I hate it when people spell things like that!), Eventfinder, Ravelry, and Facebook, but the basic details are:

When: Sunday 20th June, 1pm - 3pm
Where: Victoria St Cafe, corner Victoria and Bond Streets, Wellington
What: Bring your knitting and join us for a drink and the chance to win some fantastic yarn!

Also, a knitting treasure hunt being run by guerilla knitting collective, The 8th Canoe, will begin at 3pm from the Victoria St Cafe. It's raising money for the Wellington Women's Refuge (there's an info page here).

Ellen of the The 8th Canoe says, "The idea is you enter in teams of up to 3 (knitters, crocheters, or none of the above), with a gold coin donation per team member. This gives you the chance to compete for fabulous prizes from Minerva, Tiger Eye Beads and others to be confirmed, plus fun spot prizes."

If you're in Wellington you should definitely come along to one or both parts of the afternoon!

Make like a tree and...

I finally posted my leaves for 'It's a Tree!' today. I only managed five but I think they're a good five.

I also went to The Yarn Studio at Nancy's to pick up the goodies they are donating for Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day. I hadn't been to Nancy's before and The Yarn Studio is such a lovely wee corner full of such yum-ness as Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and examples of garments.

And something I'd heard about but not seen in real life, Noro.

Not sure I'm a fan, but it was nice to see it in real life.

The count down to the WWKiP Day event at Victoria St Cafe next Sunday is on! The information about it is up in the top right corner of the blog, hopefully we get a good turn out otherwise I'll have to take all the lovely donated goodies home myself...

Ready...?

I was going to wait because today Ellen (from Monday night Knitting Circle and the knitting graffiti group The 8th Canoe) suggested a WWKiP Day treasure hunt starting on the 12th of June, so I have been talking to her about the possibility of the two events supporting each other (which may mean putting a little plug for the treasure hunt on the posters and fliers).

But as you can tell, I'm too impatient. The poster and flier Guy made under my watchful eye are just too cute not to show off. The flier isn't quite finished yet but I have to show you the image:

It makes me want to create a series about these little friends and their casual tea drinking lives. But with pack-in for our show tomorrow (called Tea for Toot - can you tell I'm a big fan of tea?) then tech rehearsal stuff and opening night on Friday, I think I have enough to keep me busy for now.

So far my total leaf count for 'It's A Tree!' is 4...lucky there are knitters who are a lot faster than me out there who are knitting up a storm. Someone on the Ravelry discussion board for the project said they were up to 30. 30!!! I am in awe. There's an article in The Hutt News this week with a photo of Tash from OutdoorKnit putting some leaves and flowers up and they look so cool, I can't wait to see the trees in real life! I haven't sent my leaves in yet because I keep thinking, 'Surely I'll find time to make just one more...'.

Fun!

I have my designer (Guy) working hard on the posters and fliers for Wellington WWKiP Day and while the above image didn't make the cut (I thought it was a bit too misleading in that the event isn't outdoors, it's in a cafe), I thought it was super cute!

You may remember that little yellow ball of yarn - he's from my Auckland trip in the weekend. I believe his little friend just had a dye job on Photoshop but the colour is pretty cool. Maybe Guy has a future as a yarn dyer as well as a designer of knitting event posters?

Hopefully I'll be able to share the finished Wellington WWKiP Day poster and flier soon, they are really cute and still feature the two little friends above.

Exciting times in Knitsville

Two very exciting things happened yesterday and both directly involved knitting.

I found a cafe willing to host a Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day event and they're actually really enthusiastic about it! 

So I'm very pleased to announce that a Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day 2010 event will be taking place at the Victoria St Cafe (corner Victoria and Bond Streets), from 1pm - 3pm on Sunday 20th June.

Now that I have a venue confirmed I can start doing all sorts of exciting things like approaching some knitting-related businesses in the city to ask if they'll donate any giveaways/prizes for the event, getting Guy to design a poster and flier under careful supervision/extreme fussiness, and trying to get some interest from the Capital Times and the like to help make sure some people actually know about it and turn up. Already one very kind and generous seller of hand-dyed 100% merino yarn has offered to donate a couple of skeins as giveaways for the event which just makes it all the more exciting (and I didn't even have to ask! What an awesome person!). 

The second thing was that I knitted a leaf!

And I love it! I'm ridiculously proud - I've already shown it to about 5 people at work this morning. It's for the 'It's a Tree!' collaborative community project organised by OutdoorKnit, TheNewDowse, Craft2.0 and Knitsch Yarns. The pattern for the leaf (and a flower) is on the OutdoorKnit website.

I'd love to say I whipped it up in an hour but it actually took me the whole of the MasterChef New Zealand grand finale and another hour after that (so, umm, 3 hours). I have been LOVING MasterChef New Zealand and the final had me on the edge of my seat which may explain why the leaf took me so long. I got distracted and mucked the leaf up towards the end so had to rip it back and try to figure out where I was up to in the pattern to keep going. Luckily Anita was on hand to help me work it out (having run out of yarn for her own leaf) and she stayed until the bitter end because she was determined to see me finish it.

At least we can safely say Anita was warm while she sat around waiting - she was wearing the amazing hoodie her Grandma knitted her. The only thing is that the hood is rather large!

News from the knitting front

Well, if you needed any more proof that Monday night Knitting Circle is cool - apart from the fact that you get to sit around knitting and talking to people - then perhaps some complimentary bar food would close the case for you.

Last night a slightly smaller collection of knitters (and some crocheters) than usual were stitching and chatting away (there's not really much bitching that goes on as far as I know) when one of the Southern Cross staff came over with a bowl of fries, a bowl of wedges, and some garlic bread and told us these were complimentary to say thanks for being regulars. Score! What would have been an inexpensive gesture on their part made for some happy knitters last night.

In amongst burning my fingers on super hot garlic bread, learning about tree planting in Canada and how it's a bit of a rite of passage for many Canadian young people, and discussing how the houses of pioneers in the harsh winters of the Canadian wilderness were probably warmer than most New Zealand houses in winter today (Anita and I were sitting by a Canadian and a French Canadian), I finished edging the Baby Shrug.


It is cuuute, if I do say so myself, and I am so proud. Look at that edging go! Of course it isn't perfect but it's pretty damn good for a first timer! I still have to sew it up, which I'm told isn't the easiest of tasks, but I'm prepared to do it over a few times if I have to because after all this time and effort I don't want some shoddy stitching to ruin what's taken me so long to finish.

In other knitting news (I'm a bit hesitant to say this in case it all turns to custard tomorrow when I meet with the manager, but oh well) I think I might have finally found a cafe willing to host a Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day event in June! Hurrah. After first beginning to look into it in January and working away quietly on it ever since, it seems at least one cafe manager can bother responding to me (it took a visit, an email, and then another follow-up email) and meeting with me to discuss the finer details. Fingers and needles crossed!

Te Papa was really keen to host it but it is smack bang in the middle of their Matariki celebrations and an exhibition opening so they are too busy. But seeing as their events manager is keen on a 'stitch and wine' evening I have suggested maybe organising one for July and combining it with a visit to the exhibition, Paperskin.

Possibilities, possibilities. Hopefully they become realities, realities.

O for Organising

Last night was Monday night Knitting Circle and yesterday I received an email from Tash of Knitsch to say she was finally able to make it along and wondered if there was a Southern Cross Knitting Circle group on Ravelry. When I replied that there wasn't she suggested I start one and after some playing around with my limited tools and abilities (Microsoft Paint and Word), I created a banner for the group.

(I can pretty much start my own graphic design business now.

I mean, look at the quality of that...)

So now anyone who comes along on Monday nights and is on Ravelry can join the group. This will make it easier to put names to faces (because I am so terrible, I hardly know anyone's name even though there are some people I have been seeing there and chatting to for months) and to find patterns you might have seen people knitting or photos of finished creations you've seen in progress on Monday nights.

I'm still in the process of finding a venue for a Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day 2010 event so watch this space. I want somewhere a bit more central than the Southern Cross and also think it will be a nice change of scenery to have it somewhere different from Monday night Knitting Circle, but so far due to other venues having other events on on the same few possible dates I'm not very spoiled for choice.

I spent last night on the Baby Shrug which is progressing slowly. It's now looking more like something that could conceivably one day become a garment.

(My attempt at putting some more light on it which actually seemed to make the rest of the room darker. Let's call it mood lighting.)

Anita decided to try making a pair of bigger booties so had lots of fun with maths and didn't get much knitting done. It's tough going for the Baby Knitters Club.

As I walked home from Monday night Knitting Circle I was so not looking forward to making my bed as I had washed the sheets and the duvet so it all needed to be redone. There's a cold going around work and I've got it so I just felt like collapsing into bed. Which, it turned out, I could, because when I got home...

My room had been 'serviced' by Guy and my flatmate Lauren (who works at a hotel so is very accomplished at making beds and plumping pillows - among other things of course like managing the hotel's bar and restaurant). They had found some little lotions and potions I'd been given at Christmas to complete the package. So cute. And Lauren has fulfilled her goal to 'make it onto the blog'. Even though she's already been blogged about by someone much cooler than me...

I'm in quarantine from Guy at the moment as his show Wannabe got chosen as Pick of the Fringe (as well as winning Best One Man Band (Solo Show) in the Fringe Awards) so he has a return season at Downstage Theatre which opens on Thursday night and for which him catching a cold would not be helpful. Brotastik, the boy band he plays all five members of in the show, now has a website which I may or may not have contributed some fan fiction to. It's a pretty awesome throwback to tacky websites of the 90s and the place to go for your Brotastik desktop wallpaper.

Of course Revolt of the Mannequins finished on the weekend and I have some photos of the awesomeness that I've decided to reveal now that it's over, but I'll save them for tomorrow as once I start I know it will be very difficult to stop. It was such an amazing event, I am in love with Royal De Luxe.

Long time listener, first time caller...

Or in this case: long time reader, first time blogger. Which is a bit exciting.

As it's the beginning of a new year the blogging population has probably increased by a few trillion in the last few days as a result of new year's resolutions or something, but this blog has come into fruition not because of any resolution to share my life with anyone in the world who is remotely interested (even though I have been contemplating jumping on the bandwagon for a while) but because I just completed my very first knitting project and am ridiculously proud.

Here it is having been carefully handwashed with a squirt of B_E_E Delicate Fabric Wash, rolled up in a towel, and then laid out to dry as per the instructions for blocking in one of my current bibles.

It has been about 3 months in the making and it's not quite perfect due to me underestimating how much wool I'd need to finish it off, but it's done!

In other exciting news, a few days ago I contacted the organiser of Christchurch's World Wide Knit in Public Day to ask if she knew of anyone organising an event for Wellington for 2010. I had come across the Christchurch event when searching for something knitting related on the web and when I did some more investigation it seemed that there had been a 2009 event in many major centres in New Zealand but none in Wellington. Particularly shameful for the Cultural Capital...esepecially as it seems like a fun event. I love the credo of the overall WWKIP website: 'Better living through stitching together'. Partly because it reminds me of the Glad 'Better Living' ads that used to be on TV: 'I'm Leah Panapa, better living everyone'.

So, seeing as I like organising things (aka am a control freak) and am currently not heavily involved in any theatre projects, I thought I'd email and ask if Amy knew of anyone organising a 2010 WWKIP event in Wellington that I could help, otherwise I'd get one going myself. She replied today and she is so lovely, she said there had been interest in holding one but noone had done anything about it. So voila! Have project, will run with it. She also said she'd forward my email to some Wellington knitters who might be keen to help which is exciting.

Another exciting upcoming event is the Greytown Arts Festival. Being a born and bred Wairarapa girl I love going home and this is something cool to go home and do (apart from hang with the cutest and most awesome nine year old brother in the world and see the rest of the family). I'm mainly looking forward to the Art and Garden Tour (yes I'm a Nana at heart and I embrace it) and the Graffiti Knitting. Also, I love the design for the Festival. What a great image.

Finally, because I can see my tendency to write novels instead of emails is going to carry over onto here, I was all excited about casting on for my next project tonight (a hat, am pretty scared by the prospect of knitting in the round, decreasing etc but I don't want to knit another scarf and have tried to find a really easy pattern on Ravelry so I'm going to look at it as wonderful puzzle...) having been to Knit World and bought the wool (white and navy blue, following the pattern EXACTLY in the hope that it magically makes it easier) at lunchtime. However, when I sat down to cast on I checked that the needles I'd bought were right by consulting the needle chart in that old faithful and it appears the girl who helped me at Knit World got it wrong. I don't blame her, it's freaking confusing with the American vs the mm. Who knows, maybe she got it right and I am reading it wrong. But anyway, I'm going back tomorrow to check/get the right needles and then, look out hat, here I come!