Mostly Knitting

Free Wool

Posted by on Friday 21 March, 2008 09:53 AM

I have 2/3 of a garbage bag of yarn that was cut for selling as decorative embellishment for felters and textile artists.

Each piece is about 25cm long and it's fingering weight. There is a lot of bright blue, some turquoise, red, salmon, yellow ochre and I think a little black.

It would be great for a felting guild or fibre shop to repackage and sell, or it could be used to make a few rya rugs if you're a weaver. Also could be repackaged for workshops on weaving with ghiordes knots etc. I'd use it to make rugs myself but it's just not my colours.

Free to anyone who can pick it up (contact me for my location). Or I can mail out a 3 kilo bag of various colours or just bright blue to anyone who wants to pay postage. (That's whatever will fit in a 3 kilo post satchel, may or may not be a full 3 kilos)

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Another Excellent Book Fair

Posted by on Monday 22 October, 2007 02:13 PM

Last year Lifeline started holding a second hand book fair, the first one was so successful that they decided to hold two per year. I went last April, and we thought we'd have another look over the weekend. I didn't expect to find anything but boy, was I wrong! I ended up spending about $50 on some excellent finds. Considering that a decent knitting book can cost that (or more) in Australia, I'm very happy with my new purchases!

From right to left:

* A hard cover copy of Mary Thomas's Book of Knitting Patterns, 1973. I'm giving my paperback copy to a friend as I like this binding better (it's bigger). This is a stitch and technique dictionary, originally published in 1943. As well as stitches, it also contains excellent information on knitting shapes from the centre out, which is really handy if you want to design your own doilies and counterpane motifs.

* Creative Textile Craft. A Batsford book from the creative play series. This is mostly a picture book with creative ways to make arty effects with string and loosely woven fabric.

* Heritage Crochet: An Analysis by Mary Konior. Water damaged a little bit (the pages are wavy) but I was really after the information about antique crochet patterns and how to translate them into modern crochet language. This will be a fascinating read. It has some lovely patterns too.

* The Dryad Book of Bobbin Lace. Bobbin lace is on my list of stuff to learn to do.

* Make Your Own Rugs by Nancy Robb. I didn't get to look through this one before I bought it (for 50 cents) and it didn't have the info I was looking for so I'm going to re-donate it.

* Tassels & Trimmings by Effie Mitrofanis. This book was a nice surprise. I thought it would just be about regular tassels (and I already have a great book about those) but it also has unusual things like fabric tassels, lots of ways to dress up store bought trimmings, braids and fancy knots. My favourite thing about this book is that it makes use of a lot of household bits and pieces rather than having to go out and buy fancy turned wooden tops for every tassel.

* Creative Machine Embroidery by Kristen Dibbs. (Signed by the author) This has a couple of interesting projects like machine embroidered bangles and spider web lace. I mostly bought it for technique ideas rather than the projects. Machine sewn smocking is something I want to try. A little old fashioned considering it's from 2000, but it contains enough interesting ideas and projects to play with.

* Making Embroidered Bags and Purses by Gisela Banbury and Angela Dewar. I don't like the sample projects much, but this book has some good solid, basic patterns that can be reworked in a large number of original ways. I like this book for the versatility of the patterns. I'm going to use it as a jumping-off point rather than a pattern book.

* Machine Embroidery for the Home by Corliss Miller. Lots of interesting techniques to try in this one.

* The Fused Glass Handbook by Gil Reynolds. Fused glass and lampwork are two more things I'd like to try.

* Virginia Avery's Hats, a Heady Affair. My love of knitting hats is no secret. This book has lots of sewing patterns for basic hats that you can use to make totally original pieces. The samples are far too 1990's to make as they are, but the basic shapes are good and there's a lot of solid technical info.

* The Treasure Chest of Swedish Weaving by Ingerlise Skjoldebrand. A nice book of weaving projects (loom weaving) but the technical info on some of the projects is a little sparse. I want to make some rya woven cushion cover using the rya rug instructions from this book as a guide but I think I'm going to have to break out Peter Collingwood's rug weaving book in order to be able to understand the knotting technique. It does have some very pretty projects though.

* Salish Weaving by Paula Gustafson. The history and (basic) technique of Salish weaving. Should be an interesting read.

* The Gentle Needle Arts. A Golden Hands publication. I nearly didn't look at this one because I find Golden Hands publications a little too retro-tacky (not retro-kitsch, which is good. Retro-tacky, which is bad). However, the word "Daisywork" on the cover caught my eye so I had a look. I would have missed out on some lovely knitted lace pieces if I hadn't bought it! Not only that but it also has excellent looking directions for basic netting (very basic but clear), and some nice needle lace and crochet patterns. I'm also very tempted to make the macrame "Owl and Pussycat" but that may be because of my love of Edward Lear, rather than good taste.

* 1001 Illuminated Initial Letters by Owen Jones. 27 pages of fancy monograms. Might come in handy for embroidery.

* Bright Knits for Kids by Debbie Bliss. Initially I wasn't sure if I had this, but it turns out that I didn't. Some nice garments in case I'm ever an auntie again.

* Principles of Garment Cutting by E. L. G. Gough.1940. I have a strange fascination for vintage garment cutting books. Don't ask why because I don't know. I suppose it's because I like to know how stuff works. I do have a modern book on drafting sewing patterns but I do like to see how vintage garments were cut as well. I mean really, you never know when you might need to sew yourself a Coachman's cape, do you? (VBG)

* Weldon's Encyclopedia of Needlework. Not dated but it's from the late 30's, early 40's. I already had a copy of this but it's all beaten up so now I have a nice copy for my vintage book collection and a beat up copy for using. It has a lovely knitted lace scarf design in it, a really nice fair isle pullover and two knitted doilies, among many other patterns for almost any needlework technique you can think of. Almost :) It also has lots of sock knitting technique and a nice little collection of stitch patterns.

And that's my score from the recent Lifeline book fair! I may be too busy reading and weaving and sewing and macrame-ing to go back next year! :P

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Book Report

Posted by on Tuesday 24 April, 2007 05:33 PM

I know I've kept you wondering for a couple of days but now I'll reveal the books that I bought at the book fair last Friday :-) Click on the small photos for a closeup so you can see the titles better.

Lots of poetry from some of my favourite poets, a little mythology and some textiles in this first photo. I'm currently enjoying reading Beowulf in the Anglo Saxon Poetry book. I can't wait to get to Malory :-)

On the far right you can see "Textiles by Woolman and McGowan" which was published in 1913. It has a very interesting illustration of someone using a walking wheel and using a stick to turn the wheel. I'll see if I can photograph some of the images to show you. I won't be scanning it because it's in perfect condition and I don't want to break the binding but I should be able to photograph some of the interesting images quite well.

"Patterns for Weaving by Jocelyn Burt" is one of the titles I was specifically looking for, so I was really pleased to find that for $1! The pulled thread embroidery book was a great find because I was also looking for interesting embroidery books and this one has really good illustrations.

In this pile are some interesting weaving books, among others. I haven't looked at the workbook of weaving yet, but the one on top of the pile "Handloom Weaving Technology" has some interesting info that I haven't seen in other books, including using a temple and the proper way to throw a shuttle. "Raffia Hats and Baskets" and "The Techniques of Bobbin Lace" were two specific books I was looking for. I was feeling pretty lucky to find anything I wanted, let alone so many specific titles! "Pattern Alterations" is a book on altering commercial sewing patterns to fit, which is info I've been looking for so I can make some things for Miss Binky. The Singer sewing book was published in 1954 so I might show you some pictures from that. It has some really nice line drawings of fashions from the era.

But wait, there's more!

A couple of items arrived from Ebay this morning :-)

Two fun Japanese craft books:

I love Japanese embroidery designs. I have a couple of Ondori books from the 1980's that have some lovely designs in them and this one is equally as adorable.

The other one is a felting book. I missed out on buying a book on needle felted dogs from the book shop a couple of weeks ago so I couldn't resist this book when I saw it. It also has some really pretty felt and fabric roses in it that I'm going to make.

The other auction that arrived was a daisy winder book from 1948.

There are a lot of copies of this available on Ebay at the moment so it only cost a couple of dollars. I bought it so I could scan the front cover and inside page and send it to the folks at handweaving.net so they can fill in the missing pages to the copy they have available to download for free at http://handweaving.net/DAItemDetail.aspx?ItemID=6758#

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My Feet Are Sooooo Sore...

Posted by on Friday 20 April, 2007 09:04 PM

We went to a local book fair today and boy are my feet sore!

I didn't think that I would find anything this year as I have done a major destash of craft books, plus I was looking for some very specific books. Not only specific topics but also some specific titles.

What are the odds that you're going to find exactly the books you are looking for at a 2nd hand book fair? Pretty high, it seems! I found almost everything I was after and the only things I didn't find were really "out there".

They're restocking the tables tomorrow, and there were some very nice knitted lace books by Furze Hewitt still there when we left at closing time today (we were at the front of the queue when it opened this morning but we went back just before closing "just in case" because Jamie works for the rest of the weekend and we can't go back). So, if you're anywhere near Wollongong and it's still before Sunday April 22nd when you read this, pop over to Kembla Grange racecourse and check out the books!

I'll tell you what I bought tomorrow :-)

PS: No I don't feel guilty that we destashed about a thousand books over the last 16 months and then bought home bags and bags full because it's for charity!

PS: I like to see pretty pictures when I read blogs so here's a preview of my embroidered loom flowers that I made for the tutorial that I hope to upload tomorrow.

:-)

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A Week in Thrifting...

Posted by on Wednesday 11 April, 2007 08:28 PM

Embroidery wools and a skein of Caron Watercolour

From the early 1930's. This booklet has definitely seen many better days, but most of the patterns are intact and will make a nice addition to the knitting wiki

Another booklet of patterns for the knitting wiki

A tube of cool buttons from the Spotlight "bags of craft crap" end of season sale. $5, bargain!

Some of my favourite buttons from the $5 tube o' goodness. I'm going to use these for purses, embroidery and other things that I haven't thought of yet.

A little embroidery kit from the Wollongong Embroidery guild for $2! This kit makes the little knitting bag in the photo. I'm going to stitch something else on it but I think I might start it tomorrow and take a little break from flower looming for a day.

Two little bags of embroidery thread yielded these lovely colours. You just can't get a good screaming-make-your-eyes-bleed turquoise like that anywhere these days

;-)

Some more buttons. I'm going to take the black ones apart and use the gold parts for embroidery. The thing in the middle is a 5cm (2 inch) patchwork template and I'm going to use the beads for textured embroidery.

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