Calanas

Calanas Enjoying life one stitch at a time - knitting, crocheting, spinning and weaving.

Unique hand spun artisan yarns and hand knitted accessories using renewable natural fibers.

05/09/2026

The past 2 weeks have seen an epic journey through Melanesia, a region that has dense rainforests, vibrant coral ecosystems and cultures that have maintained their traditions for generations.
Sit back and enjoy part one of this adventure leaving behind cool winter mornings. Spending 24 hours in Darwin was a perfect way to acclimatise to the humidity before boarding the ship. The first day was spent with a leisurely day at sea before arriving at Thursday Island. What sights there were a hike up to Green Fort Hill and a stop to see some freshly caught lobsters.
Leaving Australia behind we sailed across the Coral Sea to some remote PNG islands. We were met by local islanders paddling out in their handmade outrigger canoes and on land the reception was unforgettable. We were welcomed with beautiful tropical flowers and traditional dancing.
Amongst all this beauty I still found time to knit and crochet both on ship and to the amazement of one little girl also in a little clearing on one of the islands.

The wool arrived like a promise: skeins of tightly wound, olive-green wool that smelled of the fields. For three weeks, ...
11/08/2026

The wool arrived like a promise: skeins of tightly wound, olive-green wool that smelled of the fields. For three weeks, I lived by the rhythm of the needles. I knitted on the ship, in the quiet spaces between conversations. Row after painstaking row, the stitches multiplied, taking shape into what was supposed to be a classic winter jumper.

But the day I cast off the final stitch, something felt wrong.

Standing in front of the mirror, the truth became undeniable. The shoulders drooped too low, the fit was loose rather than cozy, it didn’t feel just right; it just felt like a mistake.

All of winter I tried to convince myself that it was fine, but deep down I knew that something had to happen, it was a heavy moment- dozens of hours of lost time. Every knitter knows the quiet dread of this crossroads, but a true crafter knows that yarn has a memory-and it deserves a better story.

Taking a deep breath, I struggled but finally found the tail end of the yarn and pulled. The unravelling began. It was a strange, therapeutic rhythm. Crinkle, crinkle, crinkle. The structure vanished, replaced by an ocean of tightly crimped, zig-zagging green ramen noodles. The indecision of all the past weeks was laid bare in those crinkles.

To give the yarn a clean slate, I filled a basin with lukewarm water and a drop of delicate wool wash. Submerging the crimped strands felt like an apology to the fiber. As the wool soaked, the water relaxed the tight kinks, and the yarn began to remember its true nature.

I gently squeezed out the water and took the wet skeins outside to dry under the verandah, hanging them up like long, green curtains of moss. The breeze caught them, stretching the fibers back to their original, fluffy glory.

Now, the yarn sits in clean, plump cakes, completely transformed. The old, pattern is forgotten. Ahead lies a new, better fit, and a brand-new start. The time wasn’t wasted at all—it was just the necessary prologue.

07/08/2026

I am so fed up seeing people stealing from our hard working designers. They even just screenshot the original images and post as their own. Please if you are interested in a design to knit make sure that you are actually buying it from the person who created it not thieves.

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Mudgee, NSW
2850

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