My mum came down to Wellington and we spent the weekend at Handmade. The weekend started with a Friday afternoon visit out to Stitchbird's new shop in Kilbirnie. I was already a huge fan of the fabrics they stock having bought them before from the Underground market. On Friday I walked out with half a metre or so of an owl print in black. Around the corner is the Kilbirnie sewing/knitting shop. I don't know how I hadn't visited it before but I'm kind of glad I hadn't as now I have huge yarn buying temptation only a 20 minute walk from my house. It seemed they stocked everything - a full range of Touch, Naturally, Indiecita etc etc.
All that was rather lovely but my evening was topped off with a bath. My flat is bath-less so whenever I get the chance to soak in a hot tub, I will take it!
Both Saturday and Sunday I spent rushing from one class to another (each 2 hours long). First up was cushion making. My invisible zip wasn't so invisible (didn't get the foot anywhere near close enough to the zipper on one side) but you can't really tell as I cannily placed the zip on the bottom of the cushion . Here's a picture of the finished product. I'm so in love with this print...
Next had a masterclass with Ruth Pretty about celebration cakes. It was really interesting, at times funny, and at the end we got to taste cake. Not just a little cake, a huge plate full of cake. Each. I could barely move afterwards but had to get to my next class.
This next class, two handed stranded knitting was probably my favourite of the weekend as it was really challenging but by the end of it I think I definitely got the hang the new skills we learnt. Basically it's a way of knitting that makes colour work easier. You hold and knit one colour with your left hand and hold/knit another colour with your right. Knitting with my left had felt incredibly weird but I see how with a little more practice it should become second nature. We also learnt how to secure the yarn every few stitches if you are carrying one colour along of a bit without knitting it. I had been most scared about this class but managed to keep up with everyone :-) It was taught by Morag of Vintage Purls.
Then it was time for spinning with a drop spindle. It was tricky! I spent the whole time laughing at my attempts. Even funnier was my flatmate sitting there with a giant scowl on her face after she got much the same results as me. By the end of it I wasn't getting any better but found it really enjoyable. I'll definitely try keep it up until one day I spin a useable piece of yarn!
First up today was cheese making. We learnt how to make camembert, quark, cream cheese and whey ricotta. The camembert process was quite involved but I can see myself making the others regularly.
I learnt how to make croissants next. We stood at rows of tables, simultaneously rolling pastry into long rectangles, folding it over into an envelope before rolling it some more. The purpose is to get lots of layers of pastry with butter in between to make a delicious croissant. I think ours ended up with 108 layers. Not bad! We didn't have time to shape them in class but I learnt the different ways to treat the pastry to make croissants, pain au raisin and pain au chocolat. I have the pastry sitting in the fridge now to roll one more time and shape but I'm not sure how well it'll turn out after it got quite warm and squashed while I did other classes this afternoon. Croissant making is really fun in a setting like that with a handsome teacher with a gorgeous accent hehe.
After a quick coffee and lunch it was time for our Lynda Hallinan masterclass. She passed around some damson plum gin which was delicious. The talk was about the best things to grow in your garden and ways to use them. I think I'll definitely give the quince vodka, pumpkin and date loaf and zucchini jelly. It was really cool having her speak to us as I am a big fan. I get the newsletter each week, watched the gardening TV show she did on Prime multiple times and follow her blog.
My final session of the weekend was sock owls. I didn't actually quite finish one but I'll post a picture later in the week when he's finished. They are quite simple and super cute.
My mum did a class where they made frangipani flowers. I'm totally going to knit one to wear in my hair! I also bought a kit to make an albert toy. With all these new ideas and inspiration and my already long knitting backlog, I'm going to be pretty busy in my free time this winter.
So that was that. Handmade 2012 been and gone. It was money well spent. I might have booked and paid for Knit August Nights tonight. It's a knitting weekend in Napier in August. I've signed up for classes on short row knitting making this hat, finishing garment and blocking. It should be a good weekend. I'll have time to squeeze in some wine tasting too!
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