Knitting Beanies with Loré Loré

This week, our team got together to learn to knit a Pom Pom Beanie with the amazing Lorena of Loré Loré, a Melbourne knitwear brand. Loré Loré is a label focused on honouring handcrafted techniques, producing small collections made exclusively of locally sourced materials. She believes in bringing art back to the craft, and it shows in not only her stunning pieces but her knowledgeable teaching. Dani and Lorena met a few years ago when they were both doing markets, and have stayed friends since.

This fun day saw our team meeting up at Dani’s house. Lorena brought her knitting machines and local Australian Merino yarn. Sharing her knowledge and love of the art of knitting, she taught our team of absolute beginners how to set up, cast on, knit different patterns, cast off, and stitch the beanie together. She also taught us how to rectify mistakes and dropped stitches - a crucial step for us rookies!

Once we had all cast-off and closed our beanies off, we did the much easier part of making big fluffy pom-poms to top off the hats. She taught us the key tip to getting super fluffy pom poms: steam! Steaming your yarn with the iron will get it to soften and expand, separating the fibres to be poofier. [NOTE: This works best with wool yarn. Acrylic would likely melt, so please check your yarn content before trying!]

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Want to learn more about knitting?! Lorena is giving a studio demonstration at Finders Keepers At Home Virtual on Friday at 11:00 am AEST. RSVP here.

The Finders Keepers is Australia's largest curated marketplace of makers, designers, and entrepreneurs. Online, or at one of their major market events, the Finders Keepers is where communities come together to shop, explore, and discover the very best from designers, makers, and entrepreneurs in our country. This year it will be held online, streaming demonstrations and workshops, as well as hosting a large online marketplace.

Live in Melbourne and keen to make your own beanie?? Lorena teaches Make a Pom Pom Beanie workshops regularly in Melbourne. Upcoming workshops:

Saturday, 11 July 2020
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Thred Den (Fitzroy)

Saturday, 8 August 2020
10:00 am - 4:30 pm
The Windsor Workshop (Windsor)

Saturday, 29 August 2020
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Thred Den (Fitzroy)

She also leads workshops in Jute Jumbo Hand Knitting, Private Machine Lessons, and can host private parties like we had. You can see all the details - and booking links - on her website here.

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