it's done!

Well it took me a month, but here it is. Southside Brown Owls, everybody!

Southside Brown Owls from Susie Anderson on Vimeo.

overload

A few weeks ago I went to Southside Brown Owls. I was really interested to see how everybody acted when they were meeting in real life. Southside was a good group to pick because they have only met a few times - I went to their third meeting. It is run by Shannon Rowe and Katrina Higham. Katrina owns the Windsor Deli, which is where the meeting was. She writes a food/craft blog. Shannon doesn't write a blog but she seems like an avid tweeter which is just as important these days. At the meeting chatting about online craft things I got the sense that twitter was the way of the future just because it's less involved. Speaking from experience, trying to write this blog, I concur: you can easily get 'snowballed' with all the stuff out there. Too much information for one gal.

One of the things that I've wanted to do for a while was to write about the craft-ish blogs and sites that I read/have read.

Whipup.net

My favourite thing about this website is the 'roundups' of patterns they do. It's an excellent aggregate of cool/fun patterns, recipes, craft books or websites. Their crochet one is particularly good.

Sarah McNeil
Illustrations, sweet things. Pretty.

Camila Galaz
Camila draws illustrations of pigeons in greylead, which I find really endearing.

Mrs Robertson Presents
There are a lot of blogs out there, it is true. But when one stumbles upon a blog that is actually well written - that my friends, is a keeper. Recipes and anecdotes from nearly-country Victoria from the inimitable Mrs Robertson.

Purl Bee
Purl Bee is useful for finding patterns, much moreso than whip up is. I believe they have a bunch of tutorials.

Kootoyoo
I used to read this blog religiously because it had beautiful pictures and interesting projects that recycled old things into awesome new stuff. Not so much any more, but at a glance it seems to be continuing on in the same fashion. I also dug this blog because it wasn't overwritten with cheeriness.

Ravelry
This website is essentially an index of patterns, free or for a small price, online. You can add your own (I assume, I haven't tried) and favourite the ones you find, use and like. Quite a good resource.

Northern Craft Bonanza
NCB is another craft group that meets in Melbourne. I have tentative plans to go to a meet when I get myself organised - it's closer to my place than any of the Brown Owls groups.

Brown Owls
Orchestrated by Pip Lincolne, this is a really excellent resource for anybody with the slightest interest in craft anywhere in Australia. The idea is that anybody, anywhere can begin a group under the name 'Brown Owls' and use the website to organise it. On the blog there is a calendar of the forthcoming meets. There are 3 or 4 different groups around Melbourne, a bunch in Sydney and elsewhere in Aus, and some all over the world! Sew exciting.

Sew much 2 read.

how to cast on a row of knitting

As promised, I have made a video about how to cast on a row of knitting. Before you watch, here are the basic steps.

First of all you need to make what is known as a slip knot. I do this by making a small loop with the wool, with the short end on top/across bit attached to the ball of wool. Bring the short end underneath the loop and pull it through the top. It should look a little bit like an A, and you should be able to pull the short end to make the loop smaller.

Put your slip knot on your left hand needle and pull it tight, but not so tight that you can't get your other needle through.

Put your the needle in your left hand underneath the right hand needle and through the back of the loop. Keep the loop close to the ends of the needles, but don't let it fall off. Wind the long end of the wool anticlockwise over the RH needle, from underneath the needle to the top.

Hold the left hand needle still for this next part, and keep in mind that the two needles should never be too far from each other. Pretend they are magnetic or something.

Bring the RH needle from the back to the front. You should be able to see the wool that you wound round it before as a loop around the needle. You can now pull the two needles apart slightly. You'll be able to see the loop properly now. That is your new stitch!

Hold the new stitch still on the right hand needle and use your left needle for the next bit. The left needle needs to go through the middle of the loop from the side that is closest to your hand. This move transfers the stitch back onto the left hand needle and completes the casting on process.

Carry on in the same way. Put your RH needle through the loop - or let's get serious and call it a stitch - underneath your LH needle. Wool round the needle anticlockwise from underneath again. Hold the LH needle still while you move the RH needle from back to front. Separate the needles and see your new stitch. Put the LH needle through the new stitch from the side nearest your hand (couldn't think of a better term for this).

You'll see in the video that I keep my needle in the stitch after I put it back onto the left hand needle. This is just a habit of mine that speeds up the casting on process.



There are a few parts where I accidentally move the knitting out of frame, so I might do a follow up video of these parts close up. I hope it is somewhat helpful.

hehe, Withnail and I is screening at Old Bar on Monday night.

crochet basics

A lot of people ask me what the difference between knitting and crochet is. The most discernible difference is you crochet with one hook, while you knit with two needles.

Another difference is that crochet tends to grow more quickly (ie you see results faster) it's easier to leave your work alone for a while and come back to it without any damage.

Similarities are that the needles and the hooks come in different sizes. The size of your wool corresponds to the size of your needle/hook. So if you have chunky wool, you want a big hook or needles and vice versa for thinner wool. The label on your ball of wool tells you what size needle you should knit or crochet with, but you can work with small wool on big needles or a big hook and the work will grow faster, but will also be more holey. This can sometimes look nice though.

Another similarity is that they are both made up of individual stitches. The different stitches that you learn combine to make bigger patterns. There can be a lot of counting involved.

In knitting the most common stitches are plain and purl.

The most common stitches in crochet are chain, slip stitch, single, double and treble stitch. It's important to note that there is a difference between UK/Aus and American terminologies. Crochet Australia has a useful conversion chart for future reference. Also on crochet Australia they break down a lot of the different stitches into diagrams with useful arrows that tell you which way your wool needs to be going, helpful for beginners.

Learning to crochet can be pretty hard. The best way to learn to crochet is to have somebody teach you in person. Or more precisely, the best way is now youtube tutorials.

Everybody's favourite craft guru Pip from meet me at mike's made this really useful series of videos called 'crochet school'. The good thing about this tutorial is that there's no annoying "now do this", just the visual with a text explanation. I find this the best method to learn, but she has collated a bunch of different links on that site if you don't find her tutorials useful.

Next time: how to cast on a row of knitting

for a while I have wanted to start a craft blog, but I am generally put off by the excessive cheeriness of it all. also it took me ages to think of a good craft pun. I think this is acceptable: with wool and I refers to the 1987 film starring Richard E. Grant Withnail & I which is, I'm told, a UK cult classic. Apparently there are drinking games based on how many times they drink or smoke. I just watched it because I was bored over some holidays last year and my university library has a very healthy supply of DVDs. If you haven't seen it, I guess you would call it a 'black comedy'.

I should explain my relationship with wool perhaps. I basically have been knitting for years - my 'grandma Betty' taught me how to knit when I was about 10 - I've since been quite a voracious winter knitter, beginning scarves enthusiastically in the winter then letting them fall by the wayside after realising you can make pudding - an equal comfort and source of warmth - faster. A few years ago however I started foraying more into craft generally, making some little trams (will post a pattern and pictures later) as presents for my friends. If I could knit them faster I would make more and sell them on etsy or something. Maybe this blog will inspire that, you never know. Then last year I decided that it was time for me to learn how to crochet. And crochet I did. I became addicted. It's really bad. I've got about 7 hats to show for my time - have finally got the sizing down - and this inhatuation has transferred back over to my knitting. I think I'm also obsessed with the idea of seeing my friends wearing the stuff I've made.

So on this blog I will start making a back catalogue of the things I've made in the past and new things I do make, inspiration I find and so on.

First, a picture of me, wearing something that I made!

Stay tuned for the pattern...

ps really hard to resist temptation to call this post 'casting on'