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.