HRYC

First up, we want to say a huge congratulations to Caren Wilton for winning the Twice As Nice pass! Hip hip hooray! Also to Janine Boon and Sarah Gray who won spot prizes. Thanks for all your lovely comments - it's so interesting to hear everyone's other craft experiences.

If you missed out - don't fret! We have a second pass to give away next week.

Now, with only 3 short weeks until Handmade, we're pondering the non-yarn class options. 

Recently i've been craving sandwiches. A good, hearty sandwich is always a winner in my book. That and soup. You can squish so many flavour combinations into a simple parcel and just have a great big mouth-party as a result. Ruth Pretty is presenting a Taste Masterclass titled 'The Countess of Sandwich' which sounds pretty intriguing to me. 

Besides the fact it has a fantastic workshop title, Obi One Kimono is top of my stitching list. I love kimono silk fabrics but it can be tricky to figure out the best way to up-cycle them in a way that does justice to the history, provenance and beauty of the fabric. With Sarah Wirth guiding you along, you'll learn how to cut and seam a skirt or other item you fancy. 

(by the way, the more I look at the programme, the more I want to run away and take all the classes. This is such a fantastic line-up!)

Big, chunky, handmade rugs are everywhere. And if you haven't seen them yet, you will soon, I guarantee it. Using recycled materials such as threadbare sheets or t-shirts that haven't been worn for years, they often speak of handicrafts from a couple decades ago. I remember our neighbour having a fantastic one on her lounge floor when I was 8, and wishing I had they skills to make one.

With the Braided Rugs class Jane Wrigglesworth will teach you how to make your very own. The best part: no sewing. I LOVE projects that require no tools except for the materials! You may just see me sneak into this one.

I could go on and on...this was only intended to be one post, but I'm going to extend it into a second. 

In other Handmade 2013 news, i've decided to take on another of those not-so-smart deadlines as i'm prone to do. I'd quite like to have a second Rocky Coast cardigan knit up, as well as my White Pine cardi. White Pine has been in my queue for aaaaages and at long last the yarn has arrived for it. Crazy? Yes? Probably. There's only 20 knitting days until Handmade.

Are you planning to wear something special you made to Handmade? You should! Drooling over each other's finished objects is what we do best. Just don't follow my lead and create silly. ridiculous deadlines for yourselves...

 To celebrate Wonders of Wool this weekend, we're doing our only-ever-once-a-year promo: One day, one dollar off!

And if you can't make it to the market or the shop on Saturday 4 May, you can get $1 off every skein of Knitsch Sock if you add the code 'oneday' at the checkout page of your online order. 

Please note this offer excludes Knitsch seconds and only applies to yarn.

As Handmade approaches with great rapidity, i'm thinking more and more about the multi-craft nature of the event. Handmade is wonderful in that it presents a whole range of crafts - from knitting to sewing, cooking to zine-making. 

For knitters, I think the best part of the weekend is that you can try out things you've always wanted to have a go at, but needed the gentle push in order to get started. You might fall in love with an entirely new making process, or decide that spinning isn't really your thing. Until you try, you won't really know.

One of my biggest problems is that I want to DO ALL THE THINGS. I want to make, make, make. And play with beautiful colours and fibres and fabrics and immerse myself in the pleasure of creating. Events such as Handmade fill me with so much joy and an overwhelming sense of just how much I love craft. 

Holland Road Yarn Co may well be a yarn shop, but that doesn't mean we're all just knitters. Sewing was my first love, until I discovered that knitting added a new level of portability. I adored weaving on the rare occasion we were able to do it at school, and have seen some incredible examples of fabric woven from the yarns we sell. Now I can also officially say I'm a spinner (more on that in another post). I've also been known to dabble in cross stitch, I can crochet, i've made use of tiger tail and beads to make jewellery, and pretty much anything that involves turning a material of some sort into something new gets me all in a fluster of excitement.

Add in there baking and dyeing yarn and it's a pretty much complete list of my loves. 

'So tell us about the giveaway!' you say...

How to enter:

Entry closes 5pm Wednesday 8 May
Prize drawn 5.05pm Wednesday 8 May

A long running issue with men getting into knitting has been patterns. There is a long history of men being the recipients of knitted gifts that are somewhat....ill-conceived. Said gifts are often fussy, with too many details or the wrong colour choice. Scratchy yarn is a big turn-off, as are impractical garments. There is a well-known 'sweater curse' that even has its own Wikipedia entry. 

Mike is going to be working off some his favourite patterns for the Man Made course, including some WWII standard issue patterns for knitting for the troops. Knitting for a man at war couldn't be fussy: it had to be simple, practical and highly functional. Function namely being warm. My idea of the perfect knitwear design is a harmony in simplicity. I find all too often that designers of both mens and womenswear have a tendency to add 'something else'. Something else usually being totally unnecessary and upsetting the balance of the underlying design. 

What i've learned over the years is that men don't want complicated design, they want to put on a jersey that keeps them warm. The jersey shouldn't tell the world very loudly that it is hand-knit; it should be functional garment that serves its purpose well. It comes down to: the simpler, the better. Here's my round-up of great man knits - with an attempt to include some of the best male knitwear designers around.

Turn a Square by Jared Flood

Brownstone by Jared Flood

Emilien by Ariane Caron-Lacoste

Seamless Saddle Shoulder Pullover by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Basic Pullover and Vest by Bruce Weinstein

(don't mind that this image shows a model wearing a sample two sizes too big for him)

This entire post could be a shrine to Jared Flood, but I've resisted that urge. Jared Flood, of Brooklyn Tweed, is an incredible design talent. I'd go so far as to say he is an knitwear architect - every one of his designs have strong foundations with the simplest and most balanced details. His success is well-earned, that's for sure. He now works with an esteemed group of designers and has his own yarn line. He's my man-knit hero.

There is still a pretty big gap in the men's knitwear pattern market, but it is slowly being filled. Unfortunately there are still a lot of hideous patterns being produced. My challenge to our new male knitters: design your own patterns. Knit what you want to wear. Let's start sending a clear message about the kind of knits that fit into your life. And wear them with pride.

There are a couple of super important dates you should put in your diary if you are in Wellington over the next two weeks. I've been frantically preparing for our biggest market yet: The trade section at the annual Creative Fibre Festival. 

The Festival is annual, but it is in a different New Zealand city each year. This is our first ever showing - with it being local, it makes it much easier for us to manage. 

Creative Fibre is New Zealand's national Spinning, Weaving and Woolcraft society. It has groups all around the county which meet regularly and work to encourage fibre crafts. They run classes, hold spin ins, and organise large events such as this. 

It is paid entry to the trade arena, however this also allows you access to exhibitions, demonstrations and whole range of other things. It's $12 on the door - or if you're super keen, there is a large range of super interesting classes being run. 

We'll be there 25 - 28 April sharing the love of great yarn - but don't fret if you want to visit the shop - we'll still be open!

The second event on our calendar is one we don't ever miss - Wonders of Wool! The wonderfully woolly themed annual market at the Wellington Underground Market at Frank Kitts.  

If you can't make it out to the Creative Fibre Festival, be sure to head on along to the Wonders of Wool market. It's on Saturday 4 May from 10am - 4pm and is always loads of fun.

For now, as I work my little tail off getting ready for both, I have this on repeat in my head. Preparing for markets as big as these two is more than a little stressful. Please don't be alarmed by my Zombie-like state if you are in the shop this week - these are the reasons!

See you in store or at a market soon! And the shop is open even if we are also selling elsewhere, don't worry :) Except ANZAC day, we'll be closed on ANZAC day. I think that's all for now...

xx