Psssst - Hey Brisbane peeps!

My Beautiful Laundrette

Do you hate washing? I don't - which is weird as we don't even have a washing machine at our house (*) which means you have to actually factor in washing time - not just shove stuff in while you're cooking dinner or something. Maybe it's my utter delight at slipping into freshly laundered sheets that makes me like the process. 

(*) long story involving one that broke and nobody being fussed in buying a new one as we're either in life transit or have lovely partners who do have washing machines.

So apart from hand washing, I traipse up the street to my beautiful laundrette - it really is my favourite! It's spacious, always clean, the floor tiles are cool, and they have machines that work well and are called Speed Queens.

I've always had a strange aversion to these oddly lit 'filth to clean' parlors as most look dodgy, and have bad strip lighting - who uses them? Well, I can tell you, all walks of life! I once saw a fashion shoot being done here and it got me thinking about doing a photographic series of a year in the life of this place and capture people's stories...it could be another blog - I could call it My Beautiful Laundrette (also the name of a great film) - would you read it?

Anyway - until that day - I wanted to share with you a little creative project. I used to keep my coinage in a daggy plastic bag (the shop next door never gives change so you have to remember to save some).

So, as I love Pippijoe's Laundry Bird fabric so much - this gives me yet another reason to use it. I had some lovely cream coloured organic hemp stashed away and repurposed a zip (from an old bag I decided to tear apart). 

I really love the effect sewing the images so that they really are left to flutter in the breeze - over time the fabric will fray with wear (just like our favourite clothes over time).

Prints Charming book launch!

The lovely ladies of Prints Charming (Cath and Kirsten) are holding a book launch of their new printing and sewing book at their Sydney studio on May 8, from 10am-12pm! So, if you're in Sydney put the date in your diaries and check it out:

Email at info@printscharming.com.au to let them know you're coming.

Studio address is 2 Young Street, Annandale.

Pre-order book here or go to your favourite bookstore.


{update} For those in the UK, "Prints Charming" will be in store 5th June 2010. If you're in the USA, our book has a new cover and is titled "Sew Charming", in store 5th October 2010.

What is frogging?

I have been clearing out my life a bit of late - and that included my crafting stash. Originally, I thought this piece of knitting was going to be a scarf of some type - but that was when I first started back into knitting, and as I knitted along I realised that basically it was... bloody horrible...the wrong colours, stitch, needle size - just look at it - argh!

Anyhoo, I've hung onto this - not to remind myself that I'll never be a knitwear designer - but more that the 100% wool could be recycled and used for something else one day - like one of Loani Prior's tea cosies (see here).

So how do you do this? If you've ever unravelled a knit project - you'll know that the wool gets all kinky and unmanageable (as the wool has memory and takes the shape of the stitches you've knitted) - this is where the technique 'frogging' comes into play. I'm guessing the term comes from soaking your yarn in water...

Firstly unravel the knitting: Do this gradually, otherwise it will be a massive mess and you'll want to just throw it away. Wind into a ball first - then wind onto a back of a chair, a friend's hands, a big book  or a skein winder. You could also go straight onto the back of a chair to make skeins, like I did (bypass the middle man I say). The idea is to create a big, manageable loop. Don't wind too tight either - you need to get it off.

Tie the skeins so they won't tangle. Lay the skein flat so that it forms a circle. I used scraps of contrasting yarn to tie around so that it keeps it all neat and together. Tie the scraps of yarn LOOSELY (otherwise you'll just create more kinks) around the bundles in two to three places.

Soak the skeins. Soak in enough lukewarm water to completely cover the skeins. Soak for at least twenty minutes, long enough for the water to permeate all the fibers. Do not agitate or rub or mangle the skeins! If you have a small sink, like I do, then you may want to soak only one or two skeins at a time to minimize the chance of tangling.

GENTLY use a towel to pat/squeeze out excess moisture. Gently, gently, because you don't want to damage the fibers or risk felting woolly yarns.

Hang the skein to dry. Use a plastic hanger (I used wooden ones for the pretty pictures), and drape the skein around the neck of the hook; let it dry thoroughly out of direct sunlight. The weight of water and the yarn itself will straighten things out.

Once the yarn is thoroughly dry (and I mean THOROUGHLY), it is ready for its next project! For peeps who like to repurpose - you would do this for hand knitted items you might find at garage sales, thrift stores etc in order to reuse the yarn.