Rest in Wool

Jane July 31, 2018

Recently whilst searching for some unrelated product, the internet led me to a very interesting topic of Woolen Coffins. Apologies if this seems mournful to you.

I don't know if I am way behind the crowd on this, but it was certainly new to me!

It seems that about 8 years ago a company by the name of Hainsworth, in Yorkshire UK created lovely tactile coffins made from felted wool. These attractive coffins have a softness that wood and brass don't have.

The adult sizes use the fleece of 3 sheep and obviously less for the smaller pet versions they create.

They have been very popular and promoted in New Zealand as well through Natural Living and are available in Australia through Serendipity .

You can see images here:

I've also come across these other wool and knitting inspired coffins.

A company called Expression Coffins can turn your regular coffin into a tribute to your passions with an image skin, of yarn and knitting. It seems you can have any number of worldly passions printed on your coffin.. Cappuccino coffee, surfing, even camouflage.

Another wool themed resting place I found was this Woven Cloud. Made from wool and willow. There was a successful Kickstarter campaign for a UK product named Rest In Fleece , but the link to the website is no longer working. The cloud does look very tribal and quite ethereal.

Then I came across this absolutely beautiful coffin, known as a Leaf Cocoon. Stunningly handcrafted by Yuli Somme. You can watch the You Tube video here of her carving wood and sewing the cocoon then finally felting beautiful leaves on the outer blanket.

What gorgeous craft work. I can imagine how comforting this would be to someone looking for a final resting place for their loved one.

Anyway apologies again to anyone this may have upset, once I saw the woolen coffins I became intrigued. Certainly something to think about for both individuals and businesses involved in wool.

Top 10 things I love about Knitting

Jane October 16, 2015

1. Portable.. you can take your knitting with you most places and quietly go about your business.

2. Social. If you are unafraid to knit in public you will find that people are keen to stop and chat. You can also join a knitting social group, like a book club, to learn new skills, be inspired or just gossip and drink wine! As I said, just like a book club!

3. Support the Wool Industry and Sheep farmers. Ideologically I love the idea that Wool is a natural resource, we wont delve too far into the chemical processing in China that happens with almost all Australian wool. However it is still possible to support small scale wool farmers on a local level, such as Tarndie and Ton of Wool.

4. Creativity. Even if you don't consider yourself to be particularly creative, with a little perseverance I'm sure anyone could knit a scarf and show it proudly to your friends and family. (Of course the holes are meant to be there!) The What Jane Knits kits are a great place to start.

5. Constantly learning. Once you have mastered the basics of knitting it's not a far stretch to learn new skills and techniques. In fact create an account on Ravelry.com and you will soon find your self inspired, if only to make that gorgeous brioche beanie! Note: Brioche knitting and brioche pastry are not the same.. but both are fairly enticing!

6. Sharing skills. It used to be common for the older generation to hand down skills such as knitting to the youth. These days technology has kind of kicked those old school skills to the curb and the kids are teaching Grandparents how to set up their Facebook page on the new iPad. Learning to knit or teaching someone else to knit is a great way to bridge the generation gap.

7. Gift giving. People often tell me I'm good at finding presents for people. My reply to that is it is because I actually enjoy giving gifts, I take time to think about what that person might like and will seek out a store or try to find it. I think the key to giving a good gift is listening for clues throughout the year. So with knitting it is a matter of setting that process up with a longer lead time. Remember most people don't want knitted things all the time, but once in a while is nice.

8. Family heirlooms. Creating a special garment or knitted piece usually takes a long time and the expense of the yarn is often a surprise to a non knitter. Therefore taking care of those pieces to hand down to other family members is to be encouraged.

9. Relaxing. Once you have mastered the basics, knitting is very relaxing. The repetitive nature of plain and purl stitches can calm your thoughts. In fact I often find myself very sleepy knitting in the evening.

A cotton racer back top I knitted, which my daughter thought was cool enough for teens! Who would have thought?

10. Joy and pride. The joy of wearing a garment you have created or watching someone else wear something you created. It's a pretty awesome feeling.

September... my favourite month!

Jane September 7, 2015

Welcome to September!
My favourite month of the year.

As a passionate Melbournian there are many reasons why September is exciting.

Firstly it marks the beginning of Spring! Hooray! Even though I enjoy knitting all those winter woollies, I do love the sunshine. Spring brings blue skies, blossoms and of course lambs. Gorgeous sweet baby lambs... (see it really is about the wool).

Also Fathers Day, the first Sunday in September is Fathers Day for Australia. I trust you all celebrated as appropriate to your family a Dad or Father figure. I didn't actually see my Dad this year, but chatted on the phone. We are catching up next weekend.

Combining the above two elements, I actually found this photo yesterday. So young! The image is super grainy - it's a photo of a photocopy, but lets just pretend it's arty, ok!

My Dad and me with a baby lamb... circa 1980s?

Other things I love about September are the AFL Grand Final... although they've mucked it up this year by making it in October. I really do love football, but as a Carlton supporter, this year has not been memorable.

I love the flowers of spring in September... especially Freesias.. anything perfumed really. I'm not allergic to anything and don't suffer hay fever like many, so all the pollen doesn't bother me at all.

Of course the most exciting thing about September for me is MY BIRTHDAY!

This year is really special as I celebrate turning 50 on the 14th of September! Hooray. So that's going to be a memorable day.

September really is a month of new beginnings, new life and celebration for me.

Send me some of your favourite spring photos if you like - I can feature them on the What Jane Knits Instagram page... or just tag #whatjaneknits.