A little bit Shabori

So why not??

I adore shabori and indigo dying.  And I adore spinning silk and knitting it, how perfect for me then to combine the two. 

I have created a challenge for myself, (lacking a challenge in my life or even something I have to create due to a deadline) I work better under a little pressure and the idea that I could make a series of beautiful accessories using my silk, linen and dye just makes my fingers tingle to get on with it.

Boro is in fashion, go check it out.  Traditional Japanese stitching and recycling to the max!

I can not wait for the devine linen to arrive, French linen 4 delightful metres of it to be stitched and dyed and manipulated by me. 

I am even considering hauling out the knitting machine to try some tuck stitches on this as a nice background for tying and dying in the shabori method, silk is so forgiving and casts a beautiful sheen after dying it absorbs the colour and just improves with use and handling, as does linen. 

Natural fibre is the way to go, I can not bring myself to knit with anything else these days, just as well I have boxes and boxes of my handspun silk and merino as well as 3 kilo of silk in various forms, my life is complete.

Some little baskets stitched

Love the French General fabric range and the colours are so perfect.   A few years ago I came across the first range to arrive in Australia, I was totally hooked.  I ordered a good slab of each fabric that took my eye and then a few metres of the above linnen, that came in rolls and was essentially a tea towel.
I started to sketch up some floral basket designs and hunted out some red embroidery threads and began to stitch the baskets I liked.  I have since done a couple of interesting pieced blocks to add to the quilt and a largish centre applique piece that I am experimenting with different effects.
This is a labour of love and a long term project...

Wow I have been away so long everything has changed.
Hope I can keep up with you Blogger.

I am starting a new enterprise, I am sewing and designing, knitting and spinning, dyeing and embroidering and such and hoping to sell some items.

I will be on Etsy as Charli-Rose, you may have heard of this before as I used it during my jewellery creating.  I will also be on Facebook under the same name and will be posting photo's and prices of my creations.  For me it is all about creating, I don't know what I will be offering for sale but it will be different, I hope it is appealing to others so they want to own it.

Some things I would be doing and combinations of, are:- embroidery, bags, knitting, sewing, patchwork, applique, mixed media, paintings, icons, ribbon work, spinning, dyeing, jewellery, chain maille. etc.

Feel free to browse and comment and any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Can someone please knit this

I often scan local advertisements just for the fun of it and recently found an add with a picture, "Can you knit this" There is no pattern just a photo and we would like it to look similar.

Challenge accepted, I soon got in touch and met with the young uni student to collect materials and instructions, no instructions, just do the best you can, also required was a 65cm sleeve piece and matching back piece and a sliver for the front.

I added the tassley ends after this photo, and was very pleased with the end result. Delivering the articles tomorrow so I am hoping that the student is happy and that they end up on the Fashion week runway.

Knitting and.....

Designing for a wedding outfit. Now Melbourne in the middle of January is going to be hot, hot, hot.

But the weather is so unpredictable that I am taking precaution and I am making a stunning and very colourful long vest to go over my summer outfit.

It is a very nice pattern from a european magazine and is done in browns, it is a pretty basic stitch pattern but I am appreciating the ease of knitting so that I can concentrate more on the colour. I have hand spun and dyed my own fibre, and using some commercial spun silk that I have dyed as well. Bright blue, grey blue, yellow gold and pinks.

Love the racing community

Have to mention that I dislike the time spent at the drags but when help is needed it is a great community. Without fail someone or many step up to help. We have just recently had a new race motor built in USA, my hubby fitted this over several weekends into the race car shell, with mods to get the motor in and finally after a few false starts, running.

Two or three passes later the old gear box broke, it was sort of going to happen, it should have stood up to the new motor but as it is an old box it was inevitable that it would fail.
This only two days before the Nationals, so the boys pulled the gear box out and called in a few favours, which included busy people becoming even busier as last minute problems get fixed.

Today will see the new box fitted and hopefully we will get all the way down the track again, I am not expecting any wins, as we have so much more to do before the car is competative again but with the help of many friends, we will at least get a chance to gather the race data we need and gain the points for attending, which if consistent can lead to winning track champ again this year.

The Quilter's Stash Harden

I am home again after a fabulous weekend teaching at The Quilter's Stash in Harden NSW.
Thank you to Sue for her fabulous shop and for gathering together some lovely ladies to attend the much awaited Baltimore Beauties class.

The quilt itself looks fabulous hanging in the shop and I was able to get my hands on a completed top from one of my students, who went her own way entirely and created an amazing version of this quilt. (photo's to follow).

All the girls decided to hand needleturn the quilt, so it will be a true labour of love. If your in the area of Harden and would like to attend please get in touch with Sue Chesworth at The Quilters Stash you will get all the notes from this past workshop and extra help to catch up. With two months between each block some work at home is expected, but the results are very much worth it. Machine sewers are encouraged. You will be amazed how much you can achieve with this class.