Finishing the tunic No 2

Tunic no two is finished, I have gone ahead and stitched some 4mm ribbon around the neck edge before attempting to wash this garment, the last one stretched after washing and will need to be sorted out. To avoid any problems with washing the ribbon should support the neckline nicely. It is an effect of knitting top down with this particular design, nothing that can not be overcome but to be aware of it is a good thing seeing I am now onto tunic No 3.

We have a new yarn at work and I am loving it, kakadu is stunning, just so nice to knit and as I am working on a design on the needles, I have ripped it out so many times yet the yarn has held it's integrity and has not fluffed or balled up or seperated or done anything it really should have under the duress I have made it suffer. Love, love, love, gonna buy a cone of it for sure.

Beautiful quilt quilted, finally I have finished a quilt that has been worrying me a lot, it is so lovely that I was worried that my quilting would spoil it in some way. I am pleased to say it has worked out fine and the swirly curls has done it justice and it is now completed. I have about 5 quilts to finish off before Christmas and then the frame will be up for sale.

Mamre house again this weekend, doesn't the year go fast, it felt like only the other day, and in that time we have lost dear Brian, Christine's dad. He will be missed, and I am anticipating it being a difficult time for Chris. Let's hope she manages and accepts everyone's support.

A little sewing gets done

Amongst all the things that have been going on lately with the horses, I have managed to get some work done on the French quilt, some much awaited peiced star blocks. A week up at Port allowed me to sit quietly and draft up a block, then cut out and hand stitch it together, even taking piccies along the way.

The French quilt is on its way, almost all of the stitchery has been completed, the pieced blocks drafted up and some done. And the concept for the applique well sorted.

It is going to be a really nice quilt to make I am hoping others will agree and take the class.

Knitting has been progressing as well, tunic 2 completed and fits Charlotte beautifully, she now wants it to remain cream, so no dying reguired. I will stitch a ribbon around the inside of the neckline and this should help to maintain the shape. Then I can wash it and the Grafton really blooms upon washing. I have begun tunic no 3 for Karleigh and this is in medium and will be dyed to her specifications upon completion.

At work we have been busy dying a lovely new yarn from New Zealand, it is Kakadu this yarn is to date my favourite. It is just glorious, it dyes beautifully and I am about to knit a one off design I have created called Kakadu Capelet, it is in a bold orange, pink, dye blend and is totally amazing keep watch here to see this design evolve, if it is a success it will be offered on Ravelry thru Yarn Workshop.

I am in the process of completing a few quilt tops I have to do and I will be offering my quilt frame and Janome 6600 as a unit for sale on Ebay this is to free up some money so I can purchase a little filly that I would like to bring on and show.

In the meantime I have no lack of items to be done, I resist writing a list of to do's as I am to

frightened that it will be overwhelming.

Laptop down

Oh my, I have my laptop at the laptop doctors - I can not believe how much I miss it. I have everything that I do on that thing, all the settings for everything I follow and so many patterns that I have collected, not to mention the photo's.

But if it comes back completly wiped then I will just start again.

So my blogs arn't getting updated at the present time.

I have been busy tho, knitting, spinning, sewing, creating and working. I have a two week full time job working on some brochure mail out, very non thinking type work, you know repetative and mindless but pays well. I am saving a bit for a new horse float.

I have been purchasing some fibre from Virginia woolworks and have been spinning undyed silk noil which is fun, it takes a short draught and fast spin, I love using my new electric wheel as I now do not have to worry about sore knees. I just sit comfortably and the little wheel whirls away very quietly. Just lovely

Home and into the dye pot

Bambaroo - Overdyed and it worked brilliantly

Just look at the lustre

Killara - Green and gorgeous
1970's Geelong

Soft and drapey, yummo

I had a need to buy some silk and hand dye this, so while I was at it I decided to dye a couple of other skiens I had lying around since I first started at The Yarn Workshop, a skien of Killara, a lovely silk, wool blend, it dyes absolutely beautifully with lustre and depth.

I had to overdye a skien of Bambaroo that I was not happy with, so mixed up a bit of sky blue and a new colour I had just purchased, magenta, the result was a nice light steel grey/blue. This should now work with the other Bambaroo blue skein that I have as I was thinking of some fair isle for this yarn, maybe fair isle socks.

I had a skien from Yarn Workshop that was taken from a cone of Geelong that was dirty and therefore not saleable, yay, Roz get's to play with some more wonderful yarn. It is a huge bonus that Ingrid is so very fussy about what goes out the door as far as quality and quantity go, she will only sell the very best and her quality control is very high. So for me it was a simple matter of washing the skien, and deciding what I might like to create, as I had the magenta mix left over from the previous yarn dip, I thought I would use this, but leave some yarn out to get a bit of variation in the yarn. The result is very 1970's looking in that is goes purple, blue, light purple, pink then purple again. What fun and all from the same dye pot. I achieved it by dipping the yarn in at different times throughout the dyeing process and also allowing the colour to seep up and into the fibres, (the pink colour). Every experiment is fun and results in something unique, I must admit I am rather smitten with hand dyeing fibres.

Oh and the silk, it dyed up beautifully and has now been partially spun into a lovely fine thread for plying. Watch this space for future yarns.

What a week can achieve

Wow, what a week can achieve when you have very little interuptions. I finished spinning the fibre for the multi coloured yarn and am really happy with the way it come up, it is really cute.

There is 1200m but I don't know the weight of the skiens just yet.

I think they will make some lovely feature yarn or an fun scarf or beanie. I don't really mind what it ends up as the process of the spinning is what I enjoy.

I also managed to finish a Voque 25 anniversary scarf that I started and will now be able to gift this to a special person.

I had made one for my girlfriend to take to Canada with her a year or so ago, she said she was stopped in the streets, people asking if they could buy it. I am pleased to report she did not sell it. It is rather sweet and unusual don't you think??

Well the week is almost over and we will be heading back to Sydney this afternoon, it will be great to see the dogs and I am sure they have missed their mum. I will also visit Rocky and do some riding, see how the boy goes.

Perfect weather for ducks, or knitting

I have come back up to Port Macquarie this week to take care of my hubby, just a little bit anyway in the form of just being here for him and doing some cooking and general pottering around the unit so that when he gets home from work the place is warm, cooking is on, meals are served up, washing is done, bourbon, coke and ice waiting him and a movie in the player ready to go.

Why do all this, he is not very well at all poor dear, he has a nasty absess that is driving him insane with pain and discomfort - it needs to be operated on soon but as we are under public health system we have to wait. As he is living mostly up here in Port we have registered him for the operation up here with the hope that it may be sooner than Sydney's waiting list but this is a long shot.

My duty is just to be here for him as he is still working and taking on a lot of stress via his job and driving back and forth from Sydney on the weekends, the driving alone agrevates the absess.
On a happier note, I am knitting and spinning away the hours between looking after Tony. Today was the perfect weather for it, wet, cold and windy. Such a total contrast to Monday which was a real stunner. Seems you just can not pick the weather up here.

I am spinning some random fibres, some that I have stashed for a while, some I did a trial dye lot of and some purchased already dyed. The fibres range from a small amount of glitzy Angelina fibre, some silk noil, dyed by me. Angora bunny fibre, white silk, and dyed silk, and merino hand dyed in blue's and greeny yellows.

This is such a mixed bag of fibres that the resulting yarn is very interesting, thick to thin and very blended with areas of contrast that should be stunning once knitted up.

I am still using the manual wheel as I have the electric wheel still on layby, paying this off a little at a time. It will be great for my knee when I finally pay it off. I will get a nice large spindle and some big bobbins for chunky spinning as I really love doing this arty fibres.

I am thinking of popping the results of this current spinning on Etsy so keep an eye out I will post a link to this when it happens.

I have brought with me my quilt Le Lapin, that I have been working on and would like to begin teaching soon, it is a quilt using linnen and stitchery for the main design and supporting pieced and appliqued pieces as well, it is in the lovely French General fabric and I am thrilled with how it is developing. Keep any eye out as I will begin posting photo's for you to view.

Dot is modeling the tunic for me today, this is the first one I knitted for Charlotte and think it is rather nice. It came out close to a 16 rather than the 14 I had aimed for but apart from that I think it is a lovely pattern and a really nice thing to knit, I just love circular knitting, no seams and I wish there were more designs available in this method.

Dissapointment is a reason to have another go

The lovely tunic top that I knitted for Charlotte does not fit her, she has lost weight as she now has a personal trainer and the tunic came out closer to a 16 than a 12 to 14. Never mind, back to the drawing board.
I have cast on straight from a cone of Grafton, (forgive me Ingrid if this is not the done thing) and am knitting the small size. This is a bit of an experiment as I have tweaked the pattern a little to suit my own thoughts about the front shaping and the way the garment falls. It could be that Grafton is a soft, light yarn so having it off the cone may prove to provide a bit more body while I am knitting it. Something I think this particular method of knitting may suit better.
I have two orders for this knit and as these are friends I am not charging them anything for the knitting just a little to cover the yarn cost. It is my chance to knit this again without feeling guilty that I am not making something to be worn and enjoyed. I also get to have a go at dyeing a finished garment which should be fun.
One is to be a deep grey and the other a deep red, yummo.
The first one I made for Charlotte and doesn't fit her is in mid grey and size 16 I shall offer it to anyone it may fit.
I will post some piccies soon, so stay tuned.

Dyeing to Dye

I have been wanting to get at all my fibre and the yarn I spun a week or so ago together and time out to dye it and have a bit of a play with colour.

Lots of reasons for not getting to it until today, boring things like finishing quilts for people, one that I had to totally unpick, gahhhhh. Anyway on to more fun things.
I finally got to dye this morning and what a session it proved to be, lol. I had some silk noil that I had purchased from Virginia farm woolworks and liked what I saw of their dyeing of it, a deep purple and it looked interesting to spin.
I had some very fine merino 250grams of it and had already finely spun a bobbin of it in its natural colour, it was difficult to maintain a twist on it so I reverted to dyeing this as well and intend to do a funky fibre with it and the very fine white yarn plied together, well that is my plan. Watch this space for further development.

The 5 skeins of bunny, mohair and silk blend that I spun up in Port Macquarie was my most difficult decision as it was so lovely as it was. But then I thought, I had access to lots of lovely white yarn at Yarn Workshop so why not bite the bullet and dye the lot?
I chose to do the paint method, glad wrap and microwave for better control of the colour blending. It was more hands on (my pretty pink fingers are testament to that), and more fiddly but I enjoyed the process and think I did pretty well for my first go at it.

Hope you agree.

The photos:

1. Boston, "What ya doing now Mum?" My constant companion
2. Soaking yarn after the microwave. My reflection in the water as I took the pic. LOL
3. Tubs of prepared dyes.
4. Supplies, coffee and oh yea, yarn.
5. Merino slivers, they took the dye beautifully and I can not wait for them to dry so I can spin.
6. Little parcels ready for the microwave
7. The merino drying on the line, nice sunny day today, lovely.
8. The silk noil, spread out and done in several colours. forground, Dogwood, middle, Paw Paw and back is Eucalypt

Spinning again

Mention spinning these days and everyone assumes your taking that bike class at gym.
No not this little black duck, spinning to me means relaxation.......................
It is total Zen, maybe even more so than knitting is. If you haven't tried spinning yarn I highly recommend it, it's not hard, in fact the best yarn is the beginners yarn because it always comes out lovely and uneven and very interesting.
The fibre I was spinning up in Port, Yes I took my spinning wheel. (It is the Ashford Traveller and fairly portable). Is the lovely Merino, silk blend from Ashford that I purchased from Virginia Farm with my added stash of gorgeous bunny fibre from Charlotte's New Zealand trip. I wish I could let you feel this spun yarn, it is so lovely. I have plyed it two strands together and have yet to work out the wpi's but will do soon. For my first endeavour back into spinning I am really pleased with the result.


The juxtaposition of the modern (stark) apartment with the olde worlde craft of spinning. And it was so much warmer up there than back here in Sydney.

And the tunic, going great guns, really loving knitting in this yarn, Grafton from Yarn Workshop, I am already thinking of another colour way and perhaps tweak the pattern a bit.

I have a little more length to add and then go back pick up the stitches on the arm holes and do a couple of rounds to finish these off. I am really loving the top down method of knitting these seamless garments, my pet hate is sewing up the seams. I found a book in Port on top down knitting but the patterns were so basic, bland and boring. I think this one has spoilt me a bit.

Cooking up a storm In Port Macquarie

A week at Port Macquarie, and what to do, well for starters I will be cooking something warm and yummy for Tony. Poor man, he has been without the benefit of home cooking for ages. And while he is not a bad cook himself, there really isn’t anything better than having a few meals put up in the freezer for those late nights after a hard day at work and he can just pull something from the freezer and heat it up.
Last week at work Ingrid made a fabulous soup, she is rather awesome at these soups and the bonus for me is that I not only get lunch made for me but they are Weight Watchers approved. Too good

So I am sharing here the process of this really delightfully good soup with a few of my own twists on it but not too much different from Ingrid’s and truth is I think it would work with many variations.
Capsicums are cheap at the moment so grab 2 or 3 of these, don’t think it matters what colour.
A large onion, garlic cloves, some peppers or paprika, a tin or two of chopped tomatoes, a tin of Cannaleni beans, and two Cherizo sausages. I got two from Coles for about $6.00 and this is the most expensive part but really adds flavour.

Slice up the sausage and pop into pan and fry up a little, chop onion and fry up with sausage, chop up the capsicum, peppers and garlic, chuck in and stir all together, throw in the tomatoes, and cannelenni beans, stir up, I added some water here but stock would be good too. I think the capsicum will break down a little too and add more fluid. Just check it every so often as it simmers and see if more fluid is needed, even a dash of white wine wouldn’t hurt. hahahahah

And the surroundings near the unit we are staying in are very pleasant.

Roma lace yarn

ROMA LACE YARN

I love lace knitting, and the yarn, well it's a little slice of heaven. The best thing for me is that it's very economical. You can really indulge in superbly luxurious fibres because the fine lace weight yarn goes so far.
I have been loaned Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia and have decided that as I want to knit at least 50% of the designs in the book that I should just purchase a copy of my own.
Not long ago Mum brought me a copy of The Gossamer Webs Design Collection by Galina Khmeleva, this is another lovely book with lots of ideas and swatches of lace designs that are traditional to Estonian knitting. Many years ago (don't ask how long please), my dear friend Margaret taught me how to knit Shetland Lace shawls we sent off to Jamieson by snail mail and waited patiently for the yarn to arrive. It was such a revelation for me as up until then I had never knitted with anything smaller than an 8 ply, mostly because I was knitting practical adult jumpers, and toddler garments. I had a prolific baby garments knitter in my dear Auntie so never bothered with any ply smaller than the 8ply.
Having started with the yarn company it all comes back to me about those early years and my knitting lace shawls. So even though I have taught myself many things from books and love my books to death there is really nothing like the hands on knowledge of a true lace knitter.
Margaret was taught at a young age to knit as many of the women would have been. She loved her fair isle and Alice Starmore, she loved the harsh but beautiful landscape of the Shetlands and had wonderful memories of growing up there.
There is a sad ending to this story, Margaret recently suffered from a severe disease viral encephalitis it left Margaret at only 55 with brain damage, she no longer remembers a large part of her more recent life, she lives very much in the past and no longer has the dexterity to knit or create as she used to. She does not remember how to knit, or that she was at one time a truly talented knitter. The illness has robbed her and her husband of their retirement as now it is a daily battle just to function and get through her day.
This has made me more appreciative of everyday that I am able to take up the knitting needles and knit. And for that bit of yarn I just had to have, stashed away for that scarf I always intended to make, well, now I don't hesitate, I knit it and enjoy every delicious stitch.

How do you misplace your finished knitting pieces???

Ummmm, well I don't know, it is very odd. One minute I had them finished and awaiting the sleeves to be done and now I can not find them. The front and back of a gorgeous baby jumper.

It was not a great deal of work, but I would like to know where they have gone, what I have done with them??

Could they be in Port Macquarie? I really just don't know. LOL

I would love to finish this little jumper, the cardi and the hat and boots are all done, I have a set of sleeves missing their mate. Maybe I will give up and just knit them again.

The Luxury of knitting

I have always found that creating is cathartic, it allows a balance to the hum drum and the demand of life. It affords a time out from the mundane and I think, if I was unable to create I would most likely go loopy.

I have been known to collect up the fallen sticks from Jacaranda trees and begin to weave with these, small baskets and little woven treasures. This has been a time of stress or boredom and nothing on hand to do. I actually get stressed not having something to do, something to work on at all times. We never know when we will have some down time or waiting time and this is even more true when the kids are young. I have knitted many a garment sitting in the car waiting for children to finish dance lessons, guitar lessons, and a variety of sport.

I often go away with more crafty raw material or WIP than clothes - I find this perfectly normal. And if I don't have a project started and well under way before I leave on a trip then I am anxious to get that done as a priority. I have been known to hold up an outing by racing about the house finding the correct size needles.

After many years of knitting I have come to appreciate the joy of a really nice yarn and some lovely knitting needles, some spoil yourself drop dead gorgeous stitch markers and a really nice pattern and a good reason to knit. What do I mean by a good reason to knit (who needs a reason you may be shouting). My reason to knit is to make something lovely for my daughter, something unusual and unique that no one else she knows will have. It makes every stitch, every row and every minute a pure pleasure, enhancing the experience ten fold for me.

Bambaroo and Footscray - Double dipping

Hey what do you do when you dye a yarn and then don't like the colour??

You dye it again of course.

One skien of Bambaroo, knotted and not suitable for retail, and a much covetted skien of Footscray. I want to knit socks!!! Well Ingrid is more than generous and maybe a bit curious as to what I am going to do with them.

That is Bambaroo on the left and Footscray on the right, (Note how the bamboo yarn takes the dye differenty). I used a eucalypt green and a dash of turquoise. But the turquoise took over. The colours were a lot stronger in real life, the photo has toned them down somewhat, and while I could live with the green in the Footscray as it was for socks, I couldn't quiet cope with the green on the bambaroo that I was considering for a small shoulder wrap or shrug. Impossible to live with this colour near my face, blah, I think I would get seasick from it.

What to do?? No -too easy, redye of course. So into the pot they go again and this time with just some straight navy die, had to go darker of course, altho I did consider bleaching out some dye at one point, but no, can not bring myself to that just yet. (stay tuned, you never know what I will do next).

This is the result of the second dipping, a much deeper shade of green and altho not what I had in mind exactly, it is still ok, I think I can live with it (maybe).

Bambaroo on the left and Footscray on the right having taken the deep shade of the navy. I left a bit of the Bambaroo out to retain the first dye lighter green and that should feature nicely. The Footscray looks almost black here, or steel grey but is actually a really nice deep, deep turquiose.

And above a much more successful dipping is the grey for Charlottes tunic, see previous post for more on that and the yarn is Grafton it dyed so well and came up soft and luxurious. I have started the pattern and oh my it is a bit harder than first thought but I will perservere have a good colour pic of the tunic and can see a bit clearer what the instructions are telling me to do.

Fibre Fibre everywhere

When Charlotte went over to New Zealand I asked her if she could possibly find me some Possum fibre or yarn to spin and knit, enough for a small project like a scarf or shawl would have been perfect as I knew it was expensive.

Well Charlotte is not a knitter but she did understand what I was after, she had no luck finding possum yarn, despite visiting several places in New Zealand both South and North Island.

But bless her heart she found me some gorgeous bunny fibre, German angora bunny fibre, 100grams of the delightful stuff, so since then I have been keeping my eye open for something suitable to spin it with. I have a nice suri alpaca fleece in a coffee cream colour, that I could have used but it was a dirty fleece and should really be professionally carded, but who do you get to do that these days??

So when I was at Virginia Farm Woolworks I found a bag of luscious white Merino and silk slivers

100 grams for $12.50, so I purchased two as this seemed to be a nice ratio for the 100grams of bunny fluff. I can not wait to spin this and hope I am not so out of practice that I make a mess of it, but anything around a 4 or 5 ply would be lovely.

I have also been dipping and dying a bit more. I have started the tunic, difficult but rather fascinating in a bizarre sort of way. It is going to be a challenge but it is worth it.