The annual Japan Quilting Expo will be held in Yokohama, Tokyo in November 2010. This Expo attracts quilters from all over the world including Australia. It is a 3-day event that shows the latest trends and styles in Japanese quilting with workshops and social events at the Expo.
Travel Associates are organising a tour to the Expo. After spending three days at the Expo, participants will travel to Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan and, as well as general sightseeing, will have a guided tour of local fabric shops and attend a half day quilting workshop with a well known Kyoto quilter.
Three days of sightseeing in Tokyo follow including a visit to Nippori Fabric City. Accommodation is 3-4 star and travel on the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Kyoto is a highlight. The 10 day/9 night tour, fully escorted from Australia by Japan Holidays staff costs from $5,249.

Posted by Prue Hill at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is a new group for discussion of sprang, a string craft of interlocking warp used to create webbing for sashes, bags, hairnets, hammocks and more. You are invited to join and share information about sprang both modern and historical.

groups.yahoo.com/group/Sprang_List

The owner of the list, Franco Rios, has a web page with lots of fibre related links: Rabbit Geek: Links Fiber Related

Posted by Prue Hill at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Eight short months ago, in August 2008, an idea began with three weavers who wanted to launch a website to offer hand weavers an inclusive environment where they could catalogue projects, share drafts, discuss ideas and share resources. Claudia Segal, Tien Chiu and Alison Giachetti, along with a host of dedicated volunteers have worked tirelessly to bring this idea alive, and in late May or early June we are launching the first version of Weavolution.com! You will be able to join and participate in the user-created, moderated groups and forums, and post your current projects (drafts and pictures), looms, yarns, books, accessories, and whatnot to share with others. If you prefer, you will be able to peruse the entire site without joining or logging in.

Continue reading "Weavolution" »

Posted by Prue Hill at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Antique Pattern Library is a great resource for inspiration or old patterns/designs. Most of these books are rare and are scanned in to share and celebrate the vast history of craft. Pictured here is a French crochet book from 1868 donated by Judith Combs. Topics are range in the needlecraft family from knitting, crochet, embroidery, needlepoint and more. Books listed in light grey are those that are currently being scanned and will be added to the library.

Antique Pattern Library — (via Craftzine.com: Blog)

Posted by Red Wolf at 2:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Betz White has a great needle felting tutorial up using one of those cool needlefelting tools from Clover.

Needle Felting - new tool — Betz White (via Craftzine.com: Blog)

Posted by Red Wolf at 2:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CraftMemo is a free, flexible, easy-to-use record keeping & management system designed specially to cater for craft enthusiasts.

CraftMemo was a personal project created by me (Jan) a craft addict. Like most of you I have hundreds of craft supplies from many suppliers and used only MS Excel as a means to organize my inventory. It soon became too cumbersome to organize and find things.

I finally decided to write my own inventory system as there wasn't anything out there that was simple yet flexible enough to manage all my craft goodies. I shared this program with a couple of close friends who found the system to be useful and suggested that I share it with other craft enthusiasts. This was how CraftMemo started and I personally hope that many others will enjoy and benefit from it.

Posted by Red Wolf at 2:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Make It is a relatively new blog on the block specialising in information, tips, and more on how to be a craft entrepreneur. There are some great crafter interviews for biz advice as well as for craft inspiration.

Make It — (via MAKE: Blog)

Posted by Red Wolf at 2:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Interactive Weaver Tartan Generator automatically generates tartan patterns based on your colour selections. Choose your colours, there order and the number of threads per colour and they'll draw the tartan.

The House of Tartan gives you the option of having twill or silk fabric woven in your chosen pattern, but it's a handy tools for experimenting with your own designs.

Interactive Weaver Tartan Generator — (via Boingboing)

Posted by Red Wolf at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Create your own cross stitch projects with your own digital images or photos. Dark Lilac's counted cross stitch chart generator will calculate a pattern as well as a stitch count and color chart. As long as your uploaded image is scaled to the exact size you want (1 pixel= 1 cross stitch), the final stitch chart will be calculated accordingly. You can also check out the recently uploaded cross stitch charts.

Cross Stitch Generator — Dark Lilac (via MAKE: Blog)

Posted by Red Wolf at 5:35 PM | Permalink

A great tutorial from Ashley Martineau on how to reuse the yarn from old jumpers you don't want any more. The tutorial is complete with photos and lots of tips on how you can reuse the yarn, like doubling up the fibres for stronger support.

The Recycled Yarn Tutorial — neauveau (via MAKE: Blog)

Posted by Red Wolf at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Prue has found a free online weaving magazine produced by Ralph Griswold.

Webside — (via Weavetech mailing list)

Posted by Red Wolf at 12:21 PM | Permalink

If you'd rather listen to a magazine than read it, then podcasting is for you. Cast-On is a new knitting podcast that joins the wonderful KnitCast.

For more information about podcasts, see our previous article.

Posted by Red Wolf at 10:36 AM | Permalink

Prue has discovered an excellent resource in Resil Chemicals' online textile dictionary.

Textile Dictionary — Resil Chemicals (via Weavetech mailing list)

Posted by Red Wolf at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes you just need to visualise it to get a better idea. Especially when it comes to mixing and matching colour. Before you start your next scarf or jumper project, check out the Random Stripe Generator. It's a great online tool created by a fellow crafter to help you see it, before you make it. And if you don't like the patterns that are produced, just hit refresh, and you'll get more options.

Random Stripe Generator — kissyourshadow.com (via MAKE: Blog)

Posted by Red Wolf at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Southern Cross Knitting's inaugural issue, Winter 2005, is online is a new online.

There's some great articles on spinning and dyeing and some wonderful patterns to try out.

Southern Cross Knitting

Posted by Red Wolf at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MagKnits is an online magazine if knitting patterns that is published twice a year. They are always looking for submissions, so drop them a line if you'd like to share.

Between issues patterns are sent out to subscribers of their free e-mail mailing list.

MagKnits — (via KnitCast)

Posted by Red Wolf at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Podcasting is the web equivalent of an audio magazine subscription. Audio files are made available online by anyone on any topic. You can download them for listening on your computer, burn them onto a CD for listening in the car or upload them to an MP3 player to enjoy when you're walking the dog, spinning or knitting.

KnitCast is a podcast about knitting. The site includes all the information you'll need about how to receive and utilise the audio files.

A good free program is Juice, it's available for recent versions of Windows, Macintosh and Linux. iTunes is also now capable of downloading podcasts.

It's worth noting that if you plan on getting into podcasts, the files can be quite large, so you'll need a broadband internet connection and enough hard drive space to download your files.

KnitCast — (via knitting in public)

Posted by Red Wolf at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

microRevolt offers an awesome free program called knitPro which translates any high resolution image into a graph for you to create your custom designed knitwear.

The reason the program is freely available is to encourage a little political monkeywrenching. The idea being that you can easily create a pattern using the logo of a large company that uses sweatshop labour, such as Nike, and knit up your own subversive jumper.

Or you could just run vintage fabric swatches, cartoons, or the kid's photographs and drawings through the program and create your own amazing and unique gifts for the family.

knitPro — microRevolt (via knitting in public)

Posted by Red Wolf at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Southern Cross Knitting is a new online Australian and New Zealand knitting magazine that's about to be released by Sarah Bradbury.

Southern Cross Knitting — Knitting in Public

Posted by Red Wolf at 6:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The double weave study group of Complex Weavers (CWDW) is entirely on line as a Yahoo Group. A cyber study group in the truest sense with members from all over the USA, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Israel, UK, and Spain. It is open to all CW members with an interest in double weave, beginner to advanced and everything in between, without restrictions and for nominal annual dues of $5. That said, Yahoo limits photos to 30MB and as we have nine different projects running concurrently, 30MB is just not enough.

So... with the enormous help of Sally Breckenridge of WeaveIt and Ingrid Boesel (group guru) of Fiberworks PCW we have created our own website under our own domain. Welcome to www.cwDoubleWeave.org though you can't get in until you're a member!

With the size of the new site we can open our doors to as many new members as are interested. For information please send me an email — via Margaret Coe (WeaveTech Mailing List)

Posted by Red Wolf at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is a new, free, online magazine called Hand Spinners.

They have in-depth articles ranging across dyeing, spinning, weaving and knitting. Worth a look next time you're online and if you don't have a computer, it may well be worth harassing your friends and relatives to print you out some articles — via ANZWeaveSpin Mailing List

Posted by Red Wolf at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)