One of my resolutions for 2010 was to have more fun, and what could possibly be more fun that a week of sewing?

So, with lunch and a bundle of fabric in my basket, I took myself off to summer school to begin the Tivaevae course I’d enrolled in at the Corban’s Estate Arts Centre.

The stars must have be in alignment, because our lovely tutor Mary Ama, had chosen to hold the class in this little church. What better place to camp out for a week?

It sits in a beautiful grassy field that had me wondering if I was in New England. An auspicious beginning.

To inspire us, Mary had decorated the church with her own works in various stages of completion.

My head was already bursting with all the possibilities for what I wanted to achieve in 5 days, but the sight of Mary’s masterful examples prompted a stern chat with myself:

Girl, refrain from being too ambitious and learn as much as you can in the presence of this marvellous artist.

We began with an explanation of Tivaevae:

they are usually made by a group of ladies who choose a pattern and make one quilt for each in turn. The word means “continual sewing”. They are not, as a rule, sold or even displayed in public, but are made for loved ones, mostly for glory boxes, special birthdays and weddings. They are often used to wrap the dead. In other words, they are made with love, for no commercial purpose.

This explains why there are so few for sale in Rarotonga.

It’s important to use suitable fabric. 100% cotton in best. Most tivaevae are dazzling, in bold beautiful colours.

Mary says that that every person’s tivaevae tells a personal story.

We all chose projects that seemed to reflect our personalities. Jude (below) lives next to a stream on a lush property in the Waitakeres.

Her acid green background and bold applique design suited her lively personality.[note the large basting stitches used to keep the design in place on the background while it's embroidered]

Marian, my knitting colleague, chose a lei motif, with leaves and flowers placed in circle. It was a perfect blend of her English roots and the exoticism of her adopted homeland in the South Seas.

Her embroidery is as exquisite as her knitting and each new stitch she learned was executed to perfection.

As for my own tivaevae personality, Mary said my design was very “English”. I wasn’t sure what she meant until I began to embroider an anthurium design and realized that it reminded me of paisley, more Liberty of London than Cook Islands.  But then, James Cook, after whom the islands were named, was an Englishman and here we all are in a colourful blend of cultures and histories.

I arrived at the class with two muted shades of cotton I’d bought in New York. I wanted my tivaevae to remind me of my trip and the wonderful time I’d spent with India.

During the course of the week I came to regret my tame colour choices as I cast an envious eye over at my companions. But then, I am a Gemini after all.

In the course of the week I completed the blind stitching of the perimeter and the embroidery in one corner. Blind stitching isn’t always necessary but for a novice embroiderer like myself, it made for a more secure edging. Besides, my New York fabric frayed easily and would have been hard to fold and embroider simultaneously. Some Tivaevae, notably the ones made in Tahiti, are solely blind stitched. What sets the Cook Island tivaevae apart from other Pacific island quilts is the embroidery. It’s fantastically detailed.

Did I mention our fellow student, Isabella?

She required a very long leash and although she preferred custard pastries to needle and thread, she did have a few tricks up her sleeve, like this “powhiri” [Maori welcome].

I wonder if Tivaevae also means “continual gossip”? As with any group of knitters or quilters, fascinating stories were told as we worked, and we discovered that just like in the Islands, we are all connected by one means or another. Amazingly, all three of my classmates are descended from Spanish Armada sailors shipwrecked on the coast of Wales and Scotland. I felt a little left out. My ancestors must have been too busy knitting.

Here’s the spacious covered verandah where we ate our lunch each day.

A throng of passionate knitters descended on Auckland Museum last Saturday to Knit in Public in the Atrium. At last count it was 46, not bad for an under-the-radar event! There were young and old, from Naomi in her 80’s who never uses a pattern, to our youngest future knitter seen here (below) learning to wind her yarn into a ball.

Here (below) are Amanda and Neesha, our fabulous knitter celebs from TVNZ’s “Shortland Street”,  proving once and for all what we all know, that knitting is glamorous as well as practical and that knitters are hot!

We should do it more often….

Yes, please!

The ear to ear grin I wear on arriving back in Auckland after Knitters’ Weekend could be the result of being in such inspiring surroundings at the New Dowse Museum, in Lower Hutt. I suspect, though, that it is largely due to being in the company of so many friendly and fascinating knitters for an entire weekend. Meeting the esteemed Margaret Stove was a highlight. She is such a lovely lady, brimming with enthusiasm for knitting as a craft and an art form and generous in the sharing of her extensive knowledge. Although I wasn’t able to take one of her workshops I did manage to see her demonstrate the Shetland Elastic Bind Off. More on that below. Some very creative knitters entered the several competitive categories, my favorite of which was the Felted Bag. Here is the winner, an inventive Kina (sea urchin) basket made by Bernadette Cuttance. I love the bowl-like shape and the way Bernadette has taken the shell of inspiration and made it into a stylish and usable basket. Isn’t it beautiful?

Now to the amazing elastic bind off.

Although I watched Margaret demonstrate this technique, I foolishly did not practise it on the spot (always necessary for retaining anything in my sieve-like memory). However, since arriving home I have tried it several ways and found one that works well. This may be exactly the way Margaret showed it. It creates a very flexible bind off, ideal for use on the necks of baby garments, the tops of toe-up socks and for lace patterns. I’ll be using it liberally from now on.

Here it is used on a 2+2 rib.

Let’s begin where the next stitch to be worked is a knit stitch. 

Step 1(below). If the next stitch to be worked is a knit stitch, knit the stitch onto the right hand needle.

Step 2. Insert the left hand needle into the two stitches on the right hand needle, on top of the right needle as shown.

Step 3. Knit the two sts together through the back of the loop (tbl)

Step 4. Where the next stitch to be worked is a purl stitch, purl the next stitch.

 Step 5. Insert the left hand needle into the two stitches on the right hand needle under the right needle as shown.

 Step 6. Purl the two stitches together.The stitches are now purled together.

Continue in this way along your ribbing and you will find you have a very stretchy bind off, thereby putting an end to the trauma inflicted upon children who find their faces stuck halfway into the neck of a pullover you made with the best of intentions.

I’m going to try it on seed and garter stitch now……

–Mel

Something I’ve been patiently awaiting came to my door this week. No, not another pair of shoes (my lesser addiction), but a box of delicious plant dyed certified organic merino named “Elan”. I’d already tried knitting with this lovely yarn, so fresh it has just stepped out of the dye bath, but I’d not yet seen the range of very pretty colours. The pale blue will be here in a few days, a delay due to little dying hiccups at the mill. I love this yarn.The ice cream colours lend themselves to baby garments, but I feel a cabled sweater for myself coming on. As a lover of bright colours, I find myself inexplicably drawn to Myro Fawn. Such a lovely name, more interesting than beige. Perhaps it brings back memories of the shawl-collared cardy knitted for me by my mother when I was a little girl. That wool was fawn with speckles of brights. It was my pride and joy and I vividly remember wearing it to school the morning after she finished it. One very nice detail on the label of this yarn is a description of how each colour is achieved, for example “The colour Karr Pink is the residue and sap from the tropical forests of India”

To prepare for my Playing with Colour workshop at Knitworld, Lower Hutt, next weekend, I thought I’d try a little colour knitting with “Elan”.This dotty sample is done mainly intarsia-style, but for two of the spots, I carried the background colour across the back, and wove it as I went. They are less successful, and look a bit wobbly, probably because I pulled the carried yarn too tight. Can you tell which ones they are? Disclaimer: I am not a perfect knitter just in case you think they’re all a bit rough.

Yes, you’re right. It’s the top two, the green and yellow dots. I got lazy and thought I’d cheat. I should have made them their own little areas of colour.

Happy Knitting,

Mel 

Hooray! South Seas Knitting went live today, finally. I feel like I’ve given birth and it could be said I went way past my due date. Thank you to all of the patient knitters who have continued to sheepishly enquire as to when it might happen. Some may think I was lounging around eating chocolates for the past few months, but no, I was doing the next best thing- ordering yarn, photographing yarn, writing about yarn, and most important, knitting with yarn. Now that we’re underway, I look forward to meeting new knitters, to hearing about what you’re knitting and what’s new in your knitting world. Please feel free to leave comments here and to email me with questions, suggestions and requests.To celebrate our launch I thought I’d share a pattern that was very popular at last year’s 2007 Papakura Knit Out. It is a gauzy lace weight scarf in a variation of Feather and Fan Stitch, made with just one ball of Habu cashmere. I first saw it worn by one of my favourite knitting people, Takako Ukei, of Habu Textiles in New York. She graciously gave me permission to share the pattern here. Enjoy it!

Mel 

Takako’s Cashmere Scarf

Yarn: 1 ball of Habu Naturally Dyed Cashmere  or Habu Cashmere

Size 3.25mm needles

Finished Measurements: 12×120cm

Stitch Pattern 1

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: *(K2tog) 3 times,  (yo,k1)  6 times, (k2tog) 3 times; rep from *.

Row 4: Knit

Stitch Pattern 2

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: K9, (k 2 tog) 3 times, (yo, k1) 6 times, (k2tog) 3 times, k9.

Row 4: P 9, k18, p9.

Cast on 36 sts.

*Work Stitch Pattern 1 eight times.

Work Stitch Pattern 2 eight times.

Rep from * 5 times.

Repeat Stitch Pattern 1 eight times.

Bind off loosely.

It’s been fun to explore my city all over again. Still the same mellow, sub tropical place it was when I left in 1983, it is now so much more diverse. Restaurants, cafes, galleries, markets, boutiques, are thriving and turning it into an alluring city that has more than just its natural beauty to it’s bow. Recently I stumbled into Starkwhite Gallery on Karangahape Road and was bowled over by a large image of what looks at first glance like a typicalNew Zealand scene: a hillside full of sheep with the occasional scruffy black sheep dog.
                    

“Farm” was surrounded by other arresting images of seemingly every day subjects, all with something slightly askew. My suspicion was aroused by the number of sheep crammed onto that rolling field. I’d never seen one so crowded and I wondered where the image might have been taken. That’s when I started to see the pattern. Parts of the image re-occur, creating a repeat pattern that reminds me of lace, and music, and mathematics, and symmetry, and…… knitting.

This and the other images I saw are the work of Jae Hoon Lee, an Auckland-based artist. You can see more here.