Insubordiknit Art Yarn Workshop

Also known as the most fun I've had learning in a really long time! See... this is me... having fun!


As a fairly new spinner I love to watch how other people spin, and a couple of weeks ago I got the chance to watch a whole lot of people spin at the Melbourne Insubordiknit Workshop! The workshop weekend was organised by the wonderful Mandie from Ewe Give Me The Knits and her lovely friend Janet. The teacher travelled all the way from the US to share her spinning skills with us! Jacey (Insubordiknit) is a wonderful teacher, a fantastic story teller and a joy to be near!

The range of people at the worskshop was amazing, people from the other side of the country, people of all ages! This is Jacey with the youngest and oldest workshoppers, George and Frances!

I really enjoyed spending time with everyone at the workshop, there were people I already knew, like the lovely NEVYL girls; people who supply my latest addiction (beautiful fibre!), Mandy and Charly (Ixchel); as well as a whole swag of people I'm acquainted with online but had never met in person before this weekend. It was amazing to share the experience with so many people who love the same stuff I do!

And the end of the weekend, I had a handful of funky, slightly wonky and somewhat overspun yarns, as well as a whole swag of new skills to practice
!

His Own Sense of Style

It's not the greatest quality photo (taken with the web cam) but it's clear enough to see the sort of outfit this boy can put together! I like his style!

I'm a Ravthlete!

Let's face it, it's the only kind of athlete I'll ever be...

In August 2008 I was fairly new to the world of Ravelry and all it contained and in an effort to immerse myself I joined in the Ravelympics. A clever concept that involved knitting events during the duration of the Beijing Olympic Games. A great way to challenge yourself to knit more/faster/harder!

This year as the Winter Olympics rolled around I found myself co-captaining a contingent of brave souls preparing to knit ourselves stupid in the Winter Ravelympics! We called ourselves Team Doing A Bradbury in honour of Australia's first Winter Gold Medallist and even had some encouragement from the man himself! I set out with grand plans at the opening ceremony and ended the closing ceremony with a touch of RSI.

I competed in the Aerial Unwind (another great thing about the Ravelympics: to medal, all you have to do is finish!) which involved frogging a top I made for last winter and then proceded not to wear all winter so it was really just an interesting way to store my yarn. So this:


Became this:

My next event was the Sweaterboard Cross, in which I received a medal for my waistcoat, which I modified from a 1970s pattern. It also got me a medal for the Lace Luge.


Then the time came to tackle my WIPs in the WIP Dancing.

I finished off a shrug that had been languishing in the basket since our holiday to Tasmania in October.


A scarf that I started at the same time as the shrug,


And I finally finished knitting my tree. To be more precise I finished knitting the roots of my tree and sewing in a gazillion ends.


Check out my medal haul!
At the end of it all my co-captains Ali and Jane and I got to do a random draw for a whole swag of prizes donated by our super team mates! It was really interesting to see what people can do in a limited amount of time with an imaginary deadline looming over their heads, the Bradburies produced some magnificent efforts!