HRYC

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!

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. 

xx

When Libby from Ashford visited me last year, I was treated to an early squish of the brand new version of Tekapo. Safe to say in a previous life I really wasn't a fan of this yarn - I found it coarse and scratchy and the colours mighty average. 

That we now have it on the shelves is testament to what a different yarn this now is. Lofty, bouncy, squishy and inifinitely softer than it once was. We ordered in 11 colours to start with in 12ply, but will be adding to this selection very quickly. The great thing is with Ashford being based in New Zealand, we can order this in anytime we please! If you need more, or fancy a different colour, it's no problem at all for us to order it in for you. It's also a fantastic alternative to the only other 12ply we usually stock, Cascade Eco (which will be returning to our shelves soon).

Ashford Tekapo 12ply comes in generous 100g balls, with 134m each. It is hand wash and comes in a glorious range of 29 colours.

It's pretty gosh darn perfect for a few of our favourite bulky yarn patterns:

Owls by Kate Davies

Aidez by Cirilia Rose

and

Hemlock Ring Blanket by Jared Flood

The hemlock ring blanket is the most likely project i'll first knit with Tekapo, as it's been lingering in my queue for ages. Already it's gone off to new homes intended for man hats and slippers - and keep people cosy and warm this winter. We've got it up for sale online if you can't make it into the shop for an in-person snuggle. We promise you won't regret it!

For quite some time now we've been hoping some clever clogs will be organised enough to start up a knitting movie session. And by jove, it's happened! 

We're super excited that the Embassy will be hosting the inaugural Lights Up Knitting session on Monday 22 April. Tickets go on sale today!! (Thursday, 11 April).  

Also super exciting for us - we're co-ordinating the goodie bags! There are some pretty great treats lined up already, but if we told you...

Buy a ticket, come along for a drink and some very like-minded company, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Perks is getting rave reviews, and our knitter on the ground, Jessie, admitted to me that she saw it 3 times in one weekend because she loved it so much. Starring our favourite Emma Watson looking cute as a (grown up) button, and ohmygosh Paul Rudd! Mmm. Paul Rudd. Right, enough gushing. It's about growing up. 

Knitting at the movies is quite different to knitting at home watching a movie from the couch. You'll be paying more attention to the movie than your hands, i'm guessing. Especially when Paul Rudd is on the screen. So here's our run down of perfect Lights Up Knitting session projects to cast on and bring along.

A super simple sock: we like the 'Just Yer Basic Sock' pattern. Top down socks are a great idea - cast on, get past the ribbing stage, then knit knit knit in the round for the whole movie.

Dare I suggest, a sweater with loads of stocking stitch would be just the ticket. 

Beach Street Park, the new offering by Kristen Kapur is knit from the bottom up, with lots of perfect movie-watching-friendly stocking stitch.

Blank Canvas, gorgeous simplicity from Ysolda Teague. Lots of stocking stitch again, but you will need to pack it with stitch markers so your fingers know when to work the decreases. Shouldn't be much of a Lights Up problem, though. 

Or, if you want to knit something cute and wee, Thom with a TH by Jenny Wiebe is an option. Or maybe the body of a Vertebrae?

Here I was thinking I may just knit the Mr some socks, but Beach Street Park really has caught my eye. 

Anyway! The detalis again:

Lights Up Knitting Session

6pm

Monday April 22

Tickets on sale April 11

I'll be hanging out in the Black Sparrow (that bar under the Embassy) from 5pm, so if you want to come by straight after work, or make the most of an evening out, you're more than welcome to join me for a pre-movie knit.

xx