Its origins are traced back to the eight-hour working day movement that arose in the newly founded Wellington colony in 1840, primarily because of carpenter Samuel Parnell's refusal to work more than eight hours a day. He encouraged other tradesmen to also only work for eight hours a day and in October 1840 a workers' meeting passed a resolution supporting the idea. On 28 October 1890, the 50th anniversary of the eight-hour day was commemorated with a parade. The event was then celebrated annually in late October as either Labour Day or Eight-Hour Demonstration Day. In 1899 government legislated that the day be a public holiday from 1900. The day was celebrated on different days in different provinces. This led to ship owners complaining that seamen were taking excessive holidays by having one Labour Day in one port then another in their next port. In 1910 the government "Mondayised" the holiday so that it would be observed on the same day throughout the nation. Nowadays for the majority of New Zealanders it's "just another holiday".
In anticipation of "just another holiday" in Kerikeri without the distraction of home renov (ooh by the way I learned to "concrete" last week - it's my new favourite DIY skill - will show photos once finished. Aaaaand I went to the Mt Roskill Bunnings Ladies Night last week and learnt to Gibstop and how to diagnose which end of a tap is broken!). Bugger I just got distracted with DIY!! ... back to knitting.
After the F'ugly shrug attempt I took a long hard look at my knitting-self and decided to try the dark art of fol-low-ing-a-pat-tern. Well, well say HELLO to the all new and improved Casting on Trouble peeps!! Here is my first lacey "Feather and Fan" stitch (aka Old Shale stitch) - growing it's way to being a scarf; I used this blend of 4 linen/cotton yarns that I scored from the Creative Fibre shop last weekend for 50c a ball. Really nice mix of pinks and silver.
Once "yarns overs" became YO and not "yarn-somewhere-under-um-over-um-between-the-needles?" the fabric was turning out very pretty, so I immediately cast on for another scarf. This time using some more of that lurking stash - I'm a fan of these cream/moss/gold/pink colours but think the pink is a tad too bright for the others - but hey it's all about the stitch pattern people!!
And since learning a new stitch was very motivating for my knitting-mojo-monster this weekend - after much pained expressions and loud "huh?" I also learnt Trinity stitch (aka Bramble stitch, aka Cluster stitch). Very cool and I'll be using it for a new project which is hush hush ... for now.
I hope you too had some great knitting moments over the weekend.
2 comments:
well done! now you've mastered feather and fan, you could do the top down raglan bolero in feather and fan... cloud bolero... gorgeous... you can do it!
oh and I forgot to say, that yarn from creative fibres is looking good! And woah nelly, a ladies night at bunnings? I'm gonna have to do it sometime soon...
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