HRYC

April 20, 2013

Handmade 2013: our picks in yarn

Can you feel our fizzy fizzy excitement about this year's Handmade programme? It's pretty darn fantastic with some of our all-time favourite people teaching and talking. We'll be busy as bees running the Knit Lounge with our own little exciting things planned, but the aim of the game is to learn some stuff.

Here's a run down of our top yarn picks - of classes that haven't already sold out!

Twice the fun: two-handed stranded knitting

Taught by Morag McKenzie of Vintage Purls

Have you always wanted to get a handle on fair isle knitting using both hands? TAKE THIS CLASS. I cannot impress upon you enough what a fantastic teacher Morag is, and how much you will gain. It is not for the knitting novice, however: this is for experienced knitters.

Absolute Beginner's Crochet Necklace

Taught by Sofia Moers (our very own crochet class teacher!)

If you haven't the time to commit to our two-session set of beginner's crochet classes, give this one a go. Taught by our very own crochet teacher, Sofia, you will walk away knowing the crochet basics. Again, Sofia is an excellent teacher (there's a reason we keep asking her back) who will generously share her expertise with you.

Ply on the Fly

Taught by Frances Stachl

Fancy yourself a bit of alright with a drop spindle? Frances will teach how to ply as you go, rather than waiting until the very end of spinning all your fibre. If I had a spare couple of hours up my sleeve I would most certainly be getting along to this class. It's also wonderful that Frances can make it back to Wellington to teach for Handmade weekend now that she is no longer a local (which makes us very sad!)

You can find more information on all of these classes in the Handmade Yarn section of the programme. If you have any questions at all - such as if your skill level is right for a class - just ask us :)

We highly recommend you book as soon as you possibly can. Classes are selling out incredibly quickly this year and being disappointed is always sad. Last year we had occasion to make up this tasty morsel due to Morag's Twice the Fun class selling out:

Next up: our picks from all the rest of the programme!

April 16, 2013

Man Made: front page!

A couple of weeks ago, Mike happened to be in town at the same time a Hutt News reporter wanted to chat about our Man Made sessions.

Would you believe it, this week who is on the front page of our local paper, but Mike? Our knitting teacher extraordinaire.

Despite all my skepticism, we now have some brave souls signed up. There is plenty of room for more!

At the same time, I feel remiss in that I haven't yet blogged about Handmade. It's coming up super fast and word is from the organisers that classes are selling like CRAZY. And I mean CRAZY in all caps. I've had more than a few people approach me lately asking for beginner lessons, and, man or woman, there are in fact beginner knitting lessons being held at Handmade.

Belinda of Blendy Knits fame is going to be in the Knit Lounge (hosted by us, joyfully once again!) teaching regular beginner sessions for the cheap and cheerful bargain price of $10. Scoot down to the bottom of this page to see details.

I will be doing a much more comprehensive post on our picks for Handmade weekend very very soon. However this completely random and fractured post is brought to you by a fried brain thanks to dyeing a crazy (there's that word again) amount of Knitsch Sock in preparation for the Creative Fibre Festival next weekend. Holland Road Yarn Co will be there as part of the trade market, but there is plenty to see as well as lots of shopping to be done :)

Better take the fried brain off for a glass of wine and some crochet. We have a crazy (I said it again!) amount of stock arriving this week so there will be lots of excited noises coming from this direction as big boxes of yarn are unpacked and distributed amongst shelves. And I promise the next post from me will hold some more sense.

September 19, 2012

Getting giddy over crochet

I've never been a lover of crochet. Perhaps because when I grew up there was the same problem with crochet as there was with knitting: epic ugliness.

Lately, though...i'm getting a little obsessed. That doesn't mean i've actually picked up a crochet hook yet, but it's really only a matter of time.

Before I get into sharing a whole load of crochet inspiration, I had better let you know about our crochet classes!

We're lucky to have Sofia back on board with another round of her beginner crochet class - hooray! The next set is Sunday 7 & 14 October from 12.30pm - 3pm. You can book online - just be sure to add the code crochetSHIP at the checkout to remove the shipping component.

For those who have a few crochet skills sorted, we've added a new class: Next Steps. Learn new tricks and techniques to take your crochet further - again, you can book online. Hooray!

Ready to drool over some crochet amazingness? Yeah, me too!