More finishes

Firstly thank you to everyone who has taken the time to show me support for my blogging and express their friendship.  Bloggy friends are important people who share common interests and support each others endeavors.

Now there have been a few more finishes this week!  Lance's aran jumper is finished as is a beanie for my Dad for Father's day along with a few other things.  Was going to say but he might just be reading this lol.

I also finished spinning and plying off the black merino which will be used with the varigated sock wool leftovers of Lance's last pair of socks.  The next pair are going to have black heels and toes just to make them a little different.  They will be a plain rib because the wool doesn't really allow a pattern to show up like it should.

A pic of our birthday boy.  Merlin turned 5 on Wednesday!  Don't know where that 5 years have gone lol.

Last weekend I also washed up the last of the grey merino and swapped the rest with Mum so she could have enough grey to finish a spinning project.  I received this beautiful chocolate brown corredale instead.  All washed now and looking gorgeous but I am making myself leave it alone until I have combed and spun more grey merino for my jumper lot.  I have two full bobbins of the soft blue/grey waiting for a few bobbins of grey to be plied off.  This photo is in the dirty state but it is very clean compared to parts of the merino which came from a different source.

I have also finished digging over the vegie garden and just have the chook house to clean out which I might leave until Tuesday.  Now I have set a day I will have to get it done.  Tuesdays are usually full of grotty jobs to be done and then they are out of the way for a while.  Might just get to plant a few things out in a sheltered spot later today.  But I think I will cover them at night for a while just in case there is a frost.

Also had a great time on Wednesday afternoon at Knitting group have started the back of my crochet cardigan but not taken any pics yet.  I managed to get 8 inches done on it Wednesday but haven't done much since as I have been spinning or reading books on my kindle fire.  Yes it has taken me three years of thinking but I finally got one last month and love it.  There are even a few American spinning, knitting and crochet magazines on there lol.  

Well that's my past week and I have enjoyed catching up with a few blogs too.  What a big job that was.

OPAM Finishes and some more woolly projects.

If anyone has wondered why I have not been blogging recently it is because I have received some critic from a regular reader that has basically informed me a few times over the last 12 months that I should ie not do long posts and make them daily or twice weekly instead and also just recently criticized the amount of wooly projects I have enjoyed working on and made me feel sick. She suggests I should get back to sewing instead.  That person will know who she is and as I have better manners than she does so I will let her remain nameless.  I was going to shut the whole blog thing down and not even bother with it but I had two lovely ladies email me in the last couple of days as they had not noticed me around and I really appreciate their comments on the issue and their continued friendship.  I have decided to keep blogging and just ignore this person.  I have blocked her email and I will be turning on comment moderation so I see them before they are published directly to my blog.  I cant stand nasty people who comment rudely on anothers achievements in such a way wether it is my work or that of others.  Basically there is an old saying that if you cant say something nice then dont say it at all.  I have also decided that I get a lot more done when I am not blogging as much too so I will become an infrequent blogger.  So basically if you wish to visit me and be nice about it then do so and I would love to hear from you.  If not go away and find someone else to pick on as life is too short for such rubbish.  Those that are friends know that I have a lot on my plate and will not let the likes of she-who-shall-not-be-named ruin things for me or others and that is the last that will be said on the matter.

Well firstly over the last month I have done a couple of trips with Mum to Ewe give me the knits in Tongala and picked up a couple of lots of lovely landscape dyes.

So these were then used to dye a heap of Bendigo Woollen Mills sliver that is a mix of alpaca and  the other is their machine wash merino/bamboo.

Moss

Heath

Barossa 

Mix of all dyes at various strengths

Saltmarsh

So that all happened on one sunny day and the next I overdyed some old stash wool. It involved skeining it all up, dyeing throughout the day and then a quick rinse and now it is all balled up back in my organised stash boxes.

So the pink is Heath that was used to overdye a very pale mottled green 14 ply.
Barossa overdyed the same pale green.
Two strengths of barossa to overdye some pink mohair 4ply.
Daintree to overdye more pale green.
Rust Bendigo 8ply leftovers were overdyed with mustard to change the tone. 
The next two are cheap 5ply cream and cream flecked like I rainbow dyed ages ago and I have used 2 shades of daintree on one and several shades of mustard and daintree on the other. 
The last is a darker green version of the same 14ply and it has been overdyed with daintree.

All this wool started life as jumpers for my brother or myself when we were about 5 lol.  I didn't take any photos before they were dyed.

The green on the top rung has turned into the crochet scarf.

The green at the end of the bottom rung is turning into a beanie.

I have also just last Wednesday joined a knitting group that meets at the local library for a few hours every Wednesday.  I enjoyed myself immensely and am waiting for next Wednesday to come round so I can go again.  I worked on the final sleeve of Lance's jumper and will hopefully have it finished in the next week after I finish the beanie as it has a finish date on it lol.

The other finishes I have are the red hat and scarf for Grace and another pair of socks finished for myself. 

I have also sewed on my xmas swap items and have them nearly finished.  I also made heaps of needle pouches of various sizes to tidy up this box of needles and crochet hooks.  I recycled a dress that I used to wear back in the oldtime dancing days lol. 

Finally I took all those jelly dyed bits of fluff over to Mums and made some batts for spinning.  This is the combed out bits and bobs from when I prepped it ages ago and we made an art batt!  Not sure what the heck I will do with it but it is lovely and soft and pretty to look at.

So I hope you all made it to the end of this post.  Maybe the others wont be so long next time.