Tag: knitting

Merged websites

Because I’m concentrating on fibre art and jewellery-making, my knitting has taken a backseat lately, and I’ve concluded it no longer needs a dedicated website. Fortunately, it’s easy enough to merge WordPress sites, so many of the pages from my little brother big brother website are now here on my showcase. It’s given me the chance to refresh some of the pages, and – although it’s a work in progress – keep the knitting pages up-to-date.

Check out my two main ranges, with themed accessories and links to my online shops:

BronzArt – women’s accessories

little brother big brother – quirky knits for colourful kids

Celebrating Harakeke

“Celebration of Harakeke” was the theme for entries in the 2022 Creative Fibre education event exhibition (July 2022), and I enjoyed making a couple of fibre artworks especially for it – you can see them on my “Harakeke” page.

My first attempt didn’t work out: I knitted an oblong entrelac shape in flax-like colours, then tried to felt it. (Entrelac knitting mimics a woven look, and is great so long as you get the triangles on the edges sorted. I’ve definitely got to mark where I’m up to in the pattern next time!)

Unfortunately, because I’d used several old yarns from my stash – some of which proved to be acrylic – the piece didn’t felt well and the stitching looked quite loose. Even tacking it onto tapestry canvas and back-filling didn’t work. I’d harvested a flax stem, and planned to include it against the entrelac background in a box frame – but couldn’t find a frame deep, or inexpensive, enough. Another unfinished project, but one I might go back to some day when I’ve got nothing else to do…

In the end, I knitted Colours of Harakeke socks and a hat, incorporating a basket weave pattern, as well as making two new fibre artworks. Works in progress:

Here’s how entrelac is supposed to look (image on left); I’ve downloaded this pattern from Ravelry and plan to tackle it some time. Meantime, I’m working my way through the stash, making moss stitch tote bags, and only buying more wool to finish grandson’s stripey pullover.

Bright Stripes for Little Brother

Nanna says she’s started Little Brother’s pullover and it’s looking good so far. She thought the colours might be a bit much, but they seem to be working. Little Brother really wanted triangles, and Nanna says she’ll try to work some in, but in the meantime, he thinks the stripes are cool.

(By the way, Nanna says you can see Big Brother wearing his Charcoal & Mint jersey here.)

This is what she’s done so far:

Charcoal and Mint (updated)

Nanna says she’s finally finished Big Brother’s jersey. She started it last year! Nanna says it was finished because it was a vest but Big Brother insisted he wanted it to have sleeves – and Big Brother is very good at insisting. So it had to wait until all her other stuff was done.

Now she’s gonna knit a jumper for Little Brother and Nanna says she’ll let him choose the colours. His favourites right now are blue, orange and red. He’s gonna look like a wonky traffic light!

Nanna says Little Brother is just the sort of Colourful Kid she likes to do her Quirky Knitting for. But she loves the colours Big Brother chose, too.

She’s also “stash busting” which Nanna says means using up all her old wonky wool. The orangey green thing might be a bag.

@bronz.beads first midweek market a success!

My @bronz.beads first time Mahara Midweek Market was a great success today: it was good to be under shelter from the persisting rain. Some other stallholders had pulled out because of the weather, but when people commented we were brave to be out in this weather, I pointed out that if it was sunny, I’d have to be at home mowing the lawns, but instead I was having a nice morning, knitting and chatting and selling jewellery to the nice folks in Waikanae.

It was great to sell two of the four brand new bracelets I made last night, as well as Christmas ‘trinkets’ – and a couple of knitted wreaths and Xmas trees I took along ‘just in case’.

Image © bronwyn angela white
Image © bronwyn angela white
Image © bronwyn angela white

Cabin fever?

If you’ve ever had that feeling of, “I wouldn’t wish depression on my worst enemy—but I wish my friend could experience it for just a day…”

As I ate breakfast in the sun this morning, I’ve been browsing through the March 2012 “Creative Fibre” magazine in which crafters from Canterbury write about the destruction of their equipment, social and business lives in the earthquakes of 2011, and their stories going forward.

I wondered what stories of recovery, inspiration and kindness will come from our collective experiences of COVID-19, a different kind of devastation, but one that’s brought many lives to an abrupt halt. For some, “isolation” has been little different from “retirement”; for others, the social and financial fabric of their lives is shredded and torn.

A good news story is the astonishing success of the “New Zealand Made Products” initiative on Facebook. In less than a week, it’s gained 250,105 members who’re sharing their NZ owned, designed and made products—and getting sales. You may be sure I’ve added my bronz.beads online shop to the listings!

Yesterday, as we move into Alert Level 3, it finally hit me: cabin fever! Most of the projects—I finished knitting those cardigans!—are complete, the garden’s tidier than ever before, I’ve run out of good beading wire and a necklace I made with florist’s wire broke and beads spilled everywhere… basically, I was out of sorts.

Not sure I can blame this on the lockdown, though; some readers will know I live with depression and despite the thank-god-for-antidepressants that keep me from despair and hopelessness, there are still ups and downs, as the black dog tries to throw its shadow over everything.

Finally I stopped procrastinating and got on with collating another book in my “Words of Spirit and Faith” series. It kept me absorbed—husband had to remind me I hadn’t moved from my chair for hours and should take a break—and brought a gratifying sense of accomplishment. And a Facebook discussion led to possible collaboration with someone in the United States—my lyrics and her music.

Because there’s sure to be someone reading this who struggles with anxiety and depression, or who cares for someone who does, I’m offering some excellent and simple resources. If you’ve ever had that feeling of, “I wouldn’t wish depression on my worst enemy—but I wish my friend could experience it for just a day”, share Matthew Johnstone’s “I had a black dog” and “Living with a black dog”—yes, amusing cartoon drawings and words about mental illness (links below).

And if you’ve ever thought someone should just pull their socks up and get on with it, please also read, view or listen to these resources. They could change your life or save a friend’s.

I trust you’re making this time of limitation a space for deciding how you’d like your life and community to be, and what sort of ‘new normal’ we can create together.

Kapiti Arts & Crafts Society Shop

 

i-had-a-black-dog-cover-image-matthew-johnstone
Enter a caption

I had a black dog—video

Living with a black dog—video 

I had a black dog—book

Living with a black dog—book

We thought she said ghostly

Nanna says she’s knitting a new cardigan to sell on her website, because she’s made some sales lately and needs to restock her shop.

She showed us the jersey when we talked on Skype. It’s got orange and blue stripes but she says it’s not as ghastly as it sounds. We thought she said ghostly – Woo, woo!

Now we live in Queensland, Nanna says we’ll be too warm to need her to knit things for us. But Big Brother said it gets cold sometimes, and he’d like a jersey in cool colours.

Nanna said, “Is red cool?” Silly old Nanna!

Big Brother told her that cool colours are blue and green and purple, and red is a hot colour. Little Brother would probably like a red or orange jersey but Nanna says it will take a while because she’s quite busy just now. She said maybe by next winter…

“Nanna says” stuff about her quirky colourful knitting (& grandsons)

You can find links here to my latest little brother big brother website “Nanna says” posts; sign up to that site to get occasional knitting related updates.

#NannaKnits
#bronzart
#littlebrotherbigbrother

…and find those colourful quirky things to buy at bronzart on felt

 

Tricky rascal raspberries

Nanna says some colours are really tricky to photograph – especially if they’re blue hues.

Boo hoos!?!

Haha, Nanna says it’s enough to make you wanna cry, the way the camera turns pink things red or orange but not bright dark pink like the real wool she was knitting with.

She says the wool of the scarf she’s made for “Operation Brighten” (we told you about that last time) is a bright raspberry pink.

Last year when we were staying at Nanna’s house, before we moved to South Korea, there was a raspberry bush in the orchard; that’s what they call down the back where all the fruit trees are. Late one night, Granddad heard a noise at the back door. When he went to see what it was, there was Big  Brother coming inside again… with red on his mouth.

”Nanna was asleep,” said Big Brother, “so I went in the garden and ate some raspberries!”

Nanna and Granddad thought it was very funny. But after that, the back door was locked very tight. Continue reading “Tricky rascal raspberries” →