Old school community.

A family bout of hideous gastro luckily ended just in time for me to head to the Bendigo Sheep Show a few weeks ago. I dutifully waited my 48 hours - ending Saturday night - which meant that I got to head up to Benders on the Sunday with two of my smalls on the quietest day of the show. We were chuffed to get to go this year, as we have missed the last few years, and it is a total treat.  Making that drive up the Calder is like stepping back into my childhood. All ironbarks and rocky ground.

I spent my formative years in a variety of towns in country Victoria. A few of those years were spent in a little town called Numurkah. My dad* was the local ambulance officer, and part of his ambulance job was to attend the local agricultural show. We kids got to go with him. Now, he is a friendly guy who loves a chat, which meant much chatting and hand shaking. It was a day that I looked forward to. Full of people and conversation. I remember the joy of being there and feeling like we were a part of something. Part of a group of people that had come together to share their year. It was community grounded in place.

As an aside I also remember that the best part of that special day was that one year we all got to ride home in the back of the ambulance totally freestyle. Ahhh the 80s. So unsafe but totally thrilling for a small kid.

Being at the Bendigo Sheep Show a few weeks ago reminded me of the feeling of being part of a country community. I felt the contrast between the life of my childhood and my life in the city. In a way there is less diversity in my city community in terms of age group, personality, values and type of people. Now don't get me wrong. I'm incredibly grateful for my community. They are generous, present and supportive, but these days my community has been created through friendships that have occurred by choice around shared values. We aren't thrust together in the same way that you are when you live in a small country town.

But being at the Sheep Show reminded me that there is something glorious to be said for a broader community. One that is more diverse and includes greater difference maybe? I can't put my finger on exactly what the difference is but I felt the richness in it. It was nice to be reminded of it and feel a part of it.

Now all that said, at the Sheep Show there were two distinct groups of people; the fibre lovers and the farmers. The outfits were totally different. Farmers wore polar fleece and the fibre lovers wore wool. It was like a uniform for both teams.

I took the kids in to watch the shearing for a bit, and the kind of community I was part of on that day long ago in Numurkah was clearly visible, farming families of multiple generations. Then we headed into the sheds selling the yarn and could clearly see the broader crafting community feeling the joy of being surrounded by likeminded souls.

Half Baked Hand Dyed - I was totally in love with their shell/cream/pink colour which is not even in this photo but trust me - so gorgeous.

Pirate Purls beautiful colours.

Beautiful yarn and knits from Great Ocean Road Mills.

More Great Ocean Road Woollen Mills goodness. I fell totally in love with their yarns. Didn't purchase obviously, but the love was there.

My kid purchased this with her pocket money from Great Ocean Road Mills. Her plan is to dye it with avocado and then knitting herself a scarf. Her process is one that takes time ....

My kid trotted around in her handknit cape that we found in an op shop, her cowl and playtime dress..... looking very much the child of a maker. She did photobomb many of my photos making them unusable. I'm sitting here trying to be forgiving. ;)

Beautiful Wild Nature Yarn - I can't find their webpage but look them up.

The biggest treat of the day was that Kylie from The Purl Box showed me a yarn colourway she had named for me after the first retreat. It was truly gorgeous Kylie x

Our only purchases were socks from the guild. There was a third kid/pair but there was too much wrestling to have all three in the one frame. #twoouttathreeaintbad#notasockknitter

I wore my Riddari so a couple of kind people recognised the sweater, and came up and said hi which I totally loved. I don't get to meet you lot very often, and so really I have no idea who it is that reads my rambles. It was a total treat for me, so thanks to you brave souls who introduced yourselves. x

Being at the sheep show on the weekend reminded me of how grateful I am to be part of this crafting community because in a way it is similar to the country community I grew up in. It's diversity is part of the joy; all ages and all types. There is space for our quirks and our crazy. Having a passion around craft means being able to strike up a conversation with women I don't know, who are decades older than me, in the queue and know that we share a connection.

This is something I love about the retreat as well. I never know who will be there and I can't wait to meet them. It's a group of women coming together around a simple shared understanding of the meaning, and the joy, of using our hands to create.

Felicia x

* not the photographer dad but my other dad - I'm lucky enough to have two.

A salute to the V

I realised the other day when I was looking at instagram that one of the cardigans I make most often is a V-neck called Go Buffalo. I rarely mention it because I've been making it so long it's lost the new and exciting feeling that would make me write about it. But that is what is so good about it - it is so simple and so sweet that I make it time and again. Because of it's less distinctive nature (unlike something like Granny's Favourite!) then it doesn't feature as much in photos - but in a way that makes it more wearable. A staple if you will.

So I guess what you need to know is that I love this pattern and I love the resulting cardies. Go Buffalo is simple, sweet, and emphasizes their little shoulders and stick like arms. Basically it's simply a top down raglan with nice proportions. It also lasts each kid for a long time as because it is DK then it is light so when it gets a little smaller and ends up having 3/4 sleeves then it works great over a frock for cool summer nights.

Now I've included quite a few pictures in this post however most of them are quick snaps from instagram. And that is because I don't seem to feel this cardy is as photo worthy as others I make. I couldn't find proper finished photo photos. Crazy because these are some of my all time favourite sweaters my kids own.

Modifications

Of course I modify it every single time. I've never actually made it as written but my modifications are simple. And I'll share them with you now.

1. The neckline.
I like a deeper V - a V that hits at the underarm level - and so instead of what's written I start by doing the neck increases every four rows rather than every two. I don't have a plan I just do them until it looks about right and then I switch to doing them every second row as written in the pattern. This gives a steeper slope initially near the neck, before switching to something closer to a 45degree angle when you get closer to the middle of the chest, about where the first button will go.

How I keep track of how many to increases to do is that I simply count the number of neckline increases in the pattern for the size I'm making and keep increasing until I have that many. As they are a kfb increase then they are easy to read but if you aren't sure then go to this post and it will show you what they look like. Generally I increase until I hit the underarm so that the V is inline with the breastbone. An extra increase or one less increase will not make any difference to your cardy. So don't stress too much.

2. The raglan increases.
Due to the fact that I muck up the row counts with what I do on the neckline then you need to make sure that you do the right number of raglan increases. I generally do this by increasing until I hit the stitch count for the sleeve OR I simply count the number I've done every few rows.

3. Garter Bands.
I love a garter band - especially when comparing it to a horizontal rib band. I think garter bands are tidier. But to make them tidy I decrease my needles size (normally to a 3.5mm from the 4.0mm of the body).

Another thing I do to make the sleeve and the body hem tidy (and sit in nicely) is that I also decrease the number of stitches on my last knit row before I start the garter band. Something like a [k6, k2tog] repeat works well. It doesn't matter whether this repeat fits into the number of stitches you have as noone will know but you. Make something up. 

A word about yarns.

The only other thing I'd say/recommend is that I've often made this out of Rowan Felted Tweed. Not a cool and groovy yarn by any stretch of the imagination but it is one of my all time favourites. It is a light DK which means that it has over 150m per 50g ball rather than the standard 100m per 50 of most DK yarns. This makes a lighter fabric which is nice for kidlets.

Also Felted Tweed seems to wear better than any other yarn I've ever used (I'll put Old Maiden Aunt Alpaca Silk and Shilasdair DK in this camp as well). It doesn't really pill, it survives a mild felting and looks great after years of wear. The other thing I love about it is that due to the tweedy nature of the yarn the fabric darns incredibly well. All of these sweaters have had holes put in them by enthusiastic kids in the playground. They have been repaired again and again without looking any worse for wear. You can't even see the darns and that isn't due to my skill. To be honest, I'm a bit of a slapdash darner.

Alrighty then - there you have it tigers. A great pattern that looks sweet and fits any given kid for years. A big V salute if you will.

Felicia x

It's all about Community and Connection!

My two favourite words! And so today I bring you a favourite "local" project that is all about community and connection.... and craft.

Every October time we attend a local school fair. My kids love it and harass me about it for many months. Their questions are always the same. Can we go? And how much spending money do we get?

The answers are yes! and $20. More than we would normally give them for such an event, but in this case we know that about half that money will be ethically spent....

Now why they love this particular fair is multi-faceted. They love that we get to meet up with so many family friends and probably that they get to hoon around all day with very little in the way of parental supervision. They love the activities, the singing, the pop-up op-shop, the food, the craft ..... but the thing that they do every year without fail is they buy monkeys. One monkey per child per year.

Happily Made Monkeys are now a tradition of the fair for us, and over the years, they have become part of our family. They are ethically made and super sweet, with magnets in their hands which make them unlike any other soft toy they own. Magnets mean they are a versatile pet.

I often find one of them attached to a potplant or curled up in a kid's bed. They get stuck to pin boards and attached to the fridge. They are always cuddling and are by far my kid's all time favourite soft toys. These monkeys have been part of our family for many years now and you will find them being flung at our old-school metal screen door in a game of "who can stick the highest monkey". They are often seen having a whale of a time roaming around our house.

And the great thing about them is that they are all about the love.

I mean how cute they are.

The lovely, clever and indomitable Veronica who runs Happily Made Monkeys is a friend of a friend. When I ran into her the other day, she shared that the organisation who makes the monkeys for her in Cambodia, have finally grown to the stage that they can start paying for their worker's kids to go to school. I love the project so much that I thought I would share it here.

Cambodia Knits are a social enterprise who employ home based knitters in Cambodia to make soft toys and finger puppets. Their crowdfunding campaign - selling Sleepy Snoogus' - pays for education for the knitters children. One Snoogus = 1 month of schooling.

For me this project is connection, community and craft rolled into one. So go check them out. They make great gifts - we always keep a few in our present box as they are the perfect unisex multi-age present - and your purchase of them helps make the world a better place.

And the best place to contact Veronica direct about monkeys is via the Happily Made Monkey facebook page.

Felicia x

Me Made May 2016

Most of you I'm sure know of Me Made May. If you don't then head over here and take a look.

My take on it is that this little handmade community of ours comes together to elevate and celebrate our handmade wardrobes, whether we are just at the start of making our #handmadewardrobe or like me we have been at it for a few years.

I took part last year - but I didn't plan to this year as I'm a little dis-trac-ted! But as I wear handmade nearly every day then I just started taking snaps. Last year I was religious about my photo taking but this year well life isn't working quite like that. And I don't think it matters.

The point is to celebrate what it is that we do. We make stuff! With our hands and our hearts! As a community! It's super.

This last year I have only made a few extra bits and pieces to fill some gaps - like a few Lou Box Tops and my Annie Dress but the consciousness raising that is the month of Me Made May has made realise that there are a few handmade pieces that I do not wear. Like ever. They don't feel like me, even though I love them.

Normally I give those kinds of garments away to my girlfriends, but as this one won't fit any of them due to boob/shoulder size, then if you pop back tomorrow I'll take a photo and give it away to one of you lot. It's pretty special - Nani Iro! :) I just thought it might be a nice way to celebrate Me Made May.

And as an aside if you aren't yet sewing your own clothes but think you might like to then head on over and have a look at our Simple Sewing 101 series. Many a newbie sewer has got started using Simple Sewing and I love watching your tops pop up on Instagram.

Join in over on instagram. I find it truly inspiring every year and often find people and patterns I had never heard of.

Felicia x

PS. If you are interested in popping back in for the top then I have a bust size of about 35/36". You would need to be similar to make use of it.