Blogtober #28 KIWIANA

Right, as promised here are the fruits of our Kiwiana yarn swap! are you ready to drool?

Kiwiana (taken from wikipedia)
Items of kiwiana are generally those which are either unique to or particularly common to New Zealand, particularly from the early and mid twentieth century. Although the term is sometimes used to describe any and all New Zealand icons, it is more commonly used to describe pop culture items such as toys or branded foods. A few more serious national icons have become kiwiana through heavy use in advertising and the souvenir industry. These include the kiwi and the hei-tiki. Kiwiana is generally seen as a form of kitsch.

We all interpreted this theme diferently and even though we had 1 double up in theme, the packages were so different! Amongst the hand dyed yarn and gifts we all included patterns to go with the yarn and paper work of some discription ( recipes, books cards etc).

First of all here is the package i put together for the lovely Kristy. I chose the theme "Mince pie and sauce" and included some pie and sauce flavoured chips, the iconic "tomato" kiwi sauce bottle, a felt softie "pie" and two little tomato hairclips.

I dyed up 100grams of vintage purls sock yarn in the colours of mince and tomato sauce with hints of pastry:


I recieved an amazing "Surf" themed package from Clare including a hand woven basket made from recycled surf magazines! how cool is THAT?! I also got a "swift" for wool winding which was awsome:

The majority of the yarn is still to be untangled after a whoopsie but i got a teaser to "tide" me over (hehe)


Angela recieved from Kate some beautiful hand spun "Wave Waltz" yarn, with a paua cloth nappy kit, felted hairclip and brouch and some hand painted breastpads :)



Kate recieved from Kristy an amazing "Pukeko" package with rich purple, blue and green sock yarn, free trade chocolate (for the red component), notebook and a Pukeko childrens book :)


What Kiwiana swap would be complete without the Buzzy Bee? Trudy recieved a seriosuly funky
swap from Angela including a buzzy bee ball and soem scrummy red and yellow yarn:


Sam chose "Paua" as her theme for Sheryl and pulled it of beautifully! included with her fabulous sock yarn was a brag book and a Paua rockyroad kit! YUM!


Sam then recieved her Rocky Road swap! Trudy had dyed some delicious looking yarn and included some sweet little stich markers which Sam then put straight to work hehe:


Lizzie recieved the second Pukeko swap of the night, but Sheryl had taken a differnt approach and used the stylized portrayal f the pukeko as her inspiration for her stunning yarn. There was also a super cute WIP bag made from kiwiana fabric and some pukeko lollies and magnet along with a card :)


Last up was the iconic "Jandle" swap for Clare. Lizzie had found some pohutakawa jandles (and even patterns for jandle socks!) to match her kiwiana sock yarn!


The pile of yarn at the end of all the unwraping was a beautiful sight!


The actual giving in person was the best "swap" experience i have had :) Seeing your swappees face as they open your gift, being able to fondle all the yarn in person etc is priceless! There are no packages "lost" in the mail or 8 months late, no wondering "did they like it?" I cant wait to do it again! ( and we are doing it again next month hehe)

Thank you ladies for making it such an awsome swap! xxx