Clear Out

I feel like a bloke on his annual vendetta to clean out his shed. I have upended all my knitting bags from storage and I've been busy sorting and winding my stash, which over time, has become very tangled and messy.

I have reached an impassse with this feathery yarn...

I bought it when I was experimenting with a pattern to knit a Magpie for a freshly hatched Collingwood Magpie supporter. It drew all other kinds of yarn into it and it has taken most of the afternoon to pull out the other colours. Now I'm left with something that looks like it should be entered in International Beard Day!

The First Time

My first mature-age knitting project commenced when we were living in a rented house in Ballarat which was about as toasty as a refrigerator. Ballarat, you see, has the reputation in Victoria of being the most consistently coldest city and our house was a 1940s double fronted brick home complete with corner sash windows to let in lots of light and, unfortunately, cold. I don't know how I stumbled on my first pattern but I do know I was wanting something very easy to cut my teeth on and thus I discovered the website of Renee Sparkes "FroggieMeanie.com" (now sadly defunct so I won't add a dead link) and a pattern for Lyra's hood in the Golden Compass. You can still access the original pattern on Ravelry, the largest online knitting community http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/golden-compass-hat and there are a number of modified versions of the pattern available on other people's websites and blogs.

The pattern uses two strands of super chunky yarn and some giant size 12 needles which I think were the biggest ones I could find in Spotlight at the time. The most fun non-knitting part was making the ties. I just loved watching those twisted pieces of yarn coil into each other.

Beginning now

I have been knitting fairly consistently now for almost 6 years. I did learn to knit in year 8 (many moons ago!) at high school during a term of needlecraft and made a fluffy, soft vest in ice blue chunky wool but then never picked a pair of needles again until the birth of my daughter Lucinda. There is now a small body of work, a Ravelry account queued with projects, a folder of bookmarked videos and self-help tutes and an ever growing stash of yarn and knitting paraphernalia to feed my passion. There is also a wonderful group of knitters and crocheters who meet regularly at our local community club. These ladies just blow my mind with their expertise and I feel very amateur and awe-struck in their presence. I also enjoy their light-hearted, easy going view on the world and the moments where we have a good old laugh at life. I've called this blog "Fibre Fancier" because, despite every best effort, to be conservative in my yarn resources a.k.a. "stash" I really do fancy knittable fibre of any description and in this blog I will probably be exploring all types of yarn or fibre with which I can knit. Cotton, wool, bamboo, silk (if the budget will stretch), plain old 8ply acrylic and super luxurious fancy yarn. This blog, I'm hoping, will be a place to share projects, high points and low points and seek out fellow fibre fanciers. Feel free to comment and I will be looking forward to responding.