Wow where has the time gone.....

Again things have managed to get away from me.  There has been next to no knitting to show as I have been either flat out with things or too tired to do any.  Hopefully things will improve now that I have had a procedure done to rectify some of it.

Lance and I also celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary at the end of November.  Went out for tea with the girls and had a lovely time.

Well there has been some more club fibre arrive and I have done some spinning of it as well.

These two have been spun up separately and plyed together.  Still to be skeined off and washed but very happy with it.  I have enjoyed the clubs surprise fibre over the last three months.  Sadly it is now at an end as I have decided not to sign up again just yet.  Mainly due to the amount of fibre which has been given to me this year in the way of free alpaca and merino cross coloured fleeces.

This lot has been overdyed with a pale blue/grey this morning and looks fantastic.  It is from the first club lot that arrived and I plyed it with some tussah silk leftover from another project.

Yet to be spun is this blend.  There is a batt and braid that match just like the smaug one above.  The braid is a lovely colourway.  Somehow I have neglected to take a pic of it but this photo doesn't do it justice.

I have also finished spinning and dyeing one lot of sock wool from Shropshire sheep. There is a few more lots to be done which will end up as work socks for Lance.  The wool spun from these sheep is nowhere near as soft as merino but it is equally as warm and thick and much more harder wearing for the inside of boots.

Plus I have begun to wash up all those gifted fleeces now that it is a lot hotter and the vege garden is really taking off too.

Sarah, our eldest, has had her graduation and very successfully completed her VCE exams with excellent results.  So in about 6 years time we will all be able to call her Dr Sarah lol.  Masters in Psychology with a PhD at the end of it is going to be a very long haul but one that she will thrive in as Sarah has the brains and dedication to do well.

Grace has also just begun Year 11 and will complete over the next 12 months a Vet course in music. Grace is looking at music therapy or something animal related and absolutely loves biology.  

We have also had two sneaky snakes.  One that I managed to nearly step on twice in two days!  In thongs.  Haven't seen them since buying big gumboots and putting shovels at both the front and back door.  They either fell off a havester going through town or perhaps even travelled up from the river nearby.  Either way they are the first we have seen in 17 years and believe me when I say it took me three weeks before I would garden or walk through the garden area to turn on a tap without the gumboots and shovel.  Pretty relaxed about it now but I do keep a very close eye on things.

Here's a couple of Christmas things my mum has made for us.  There is a lovely wall hanging too which I will share next time.

Also just finished off laying some flooring in the laundry/toilet area myself ready for the washing machine to empty all over it and out onto the kitchen floor!  Yes here comes another lot of work through insurance....you should have heard me last Saturday when the machine was no longer filling the bowl but filling the aircon vent in the floor!  Fixed that pretty quickly and had aircon after 30 mins but now I am waiting for a new machine, vac, bread maker, large toast/grill and a cupboard to be replaced along with the flooring fixed.  I never run a wash while out of the house for a very good reason and this is why.  If I hadn't been home it would have continued to run water until it was shut off.  Imagine the mess then and definitely no air con as it is under the floor!

Well after reading all this I suppose I have achieved a lot in my days but just don't really have much to show on here lol.  I think it is about time I did some blog visiting too to see what you have been up to too.

So I will say Merry Christmas everyone and have a happy, healthy New Year!

Spinning update

While working on more of the white jumper lot I also finished off these.

Bendigo Woollen Mills merino/bamboo blend with mohair and English leicester.  Dyed by me!

Ixchel bunny top with Bison, angora, baby camel, cashmere, merino, tencel plyed with grey alpaca.

Spin in at Benalla

Well I had a wonderful time at Wendy's farm with a visit to the shearing shed, alpacas and of course the sheep.  It was a very warm day so we stayed inside to spin and talk and enjoyed the view of the hills through the window.  I didn't think to take a camera with me so I am sharing some photos that others have taken.  Really looking forward to the next one which might not be until March next year.

Ixchel Club Fibre

The two fibre clubs I joined arrived a couple of weeks ago and I spent last Saturday spinning them up while enjoying a spinning day with my Mum and over the remainder of this week before heading off to a spin in over at Benalla yesterday.  More on that later.

Fibre content:  angora, stainless steel, silk, eco merino, rose, suri, silk, hemp, cashmire and angelina

Fibre content: eco merino, cashmere, glitz, suri, silk, angora and alpaca

At the moment they are still singles and will need to be plyed with something else.  I am thinking a blend of grey merino and grey alpaca for both.  Both the batt and the braid had lots of bling in them and while I loved spinning both I am happier with the braid as the other has spun up more 'arty' than I was expecting due to lots of sari silk threads and neps in the middle of the batt.  It is gorgeous and soft but very different.  But that is the reason behind joining in the clubs over three months because they will be completely different to what I normally would spin and also experiencing different fibres as sometimes it is the fibre that dictates how thick or thin or how much twist etc you need to use as I thought initially I would be able to spin the batt as a thin single rather than the thickish one I have ended up with.

New chooks

Well my original chickens are now in their 8th year and we have lost 2 over the last hot summer and another just popped off the perch about 6 weeks ago while walking around having a peck in the back garden.  So we have now managed to settle in 3 new girls which we bought about 4 weeks ago to keep us going with eggs and they are certainly doing that! 

Two originals with a 2 year old sussex at the back.

Two of the three new ones. They have a bit of growing to do.

Spinning!

Had a lovely day spinning with my Mum yesterday.  I thought I would like to try some grey unwashed alpaca that mainly has just a little dust in it rather than horrid prickles etc.  So I have started to flick the ends and it is spinning up nice and fine.

Here is some pics of the fleeces Mum was given last weekend.  I only asked for one white merino but there are about 2 white fleeces unskirted to deal with and 3 beautiful coloured fleeces which incorporate shades of white through to dark grey.  Mum has the same amount at her house too.  All free which is nice but where will I store mine for the next 6 years!  Less time for crafting now than I used to have too but if I can keep the moths out I will be right lol.

Well off now to do some more deadheading in the garden and pack some of those bags of fleece away in tubs!

I had to pull out the lace rows on my shawl last weekend and start again because silly me had more stitches than needed after one 8 row block!  I have fixed that as in the middle there is a knit 2 stitches before and after doing knit ones and yarn overs lol.  I really shouldn't start things like that when I am tired.  Might work on it this afternoon while watching a car race with Lance.

Gardening

Not sure where the last month has gone but I can see the results of many weekends worth of gardening I have been doing instead of crafting and blogging lol.  Here's some shots of my front garden and there have been a few subtle changes like shifting some edging and changing the shape of a few beds etc.  I have also planted some new roses namely David Austin Othello, Charles Austin and a lovely pink one which the name escapes me just at the moment.  Looking forward to seeing these bloom but here is Othello....

A shot from the front gate with Oklahoma and Princess Grace in the foreground.

My lovely viburnum

Radox Bouquet which is mass planted in the center bed

A gorgeous red striped hippy

Lovely lilac

Kings ransom which I have had for about 25 years!

Those gorgeous Radox Bouquets again!

Iceberg

Love my spring garden.  Forgot to take pics of the magnolia and stunning may bush before they finished flowering.  Next year lol.

Crafting catchup

Well that pesky ankle is finally on the mend fingers crossed.  I have over the last month or so I have spun and plied a 3rd of the white jumper lot and some lovely pink merino, bamboo, English Leicester and mohair that I had blended and dyed over 18 months ago.  Still need to get it off the bobbin and washed but thats ok.  No rush really lol. 

I have also been given some stunning grey alpaca and there is lots of it along with a brown, black and lighter grey.  I have it skirted and packed away in tubs in the shed.  Will be able to just comb this lot out and spin it without washing first.  But can't touch it yet as I have some merino and fawn alpaca to blend and spin which is starting to go on the bobbin now (below).  This is a thank you to the lady who generously gave me half a bale of very light fawn/cream alpaca and a merino fleece.  Will be a long process but will end up dyeing it in the skein and knitting her girls some gorgeous hats and one for her and hubby too.

 

 

Lastly is some mohair locks that I dyed up ready for blending with some matching baby merino.  Definitely not enough hours in the day even with stupid day lights savings lol.   

FNSI and the old blog......

I joined in with FNSI last night and cast on a new project to give me a break from BLACK!!!!!!!  Its called WesterWaldWaves by Kaeidschie which was available for free on the internet.  Can't remember if it was through Raverly or not.  So many stitch markers and 294 sts later I just managed the first 8-10 rows  I changed the band on it because I didn't want too much garter stitch on the edge.  It is from some of the mohair that I overdyed in the last post. 

Sarah's Chunky cardigan is progressing well.  BWM 12ply charcoal is what I am using so it is knitting up fast.

This is a scarf that I crocheted over a couple of nights to give me a break from Sarah's cardigan.  It is from some mohair and alpaca that I spun then dyed.  Came together lovely but will need blocking.

The old blog has been merged with this one and it is now shut down.  I hope my lovely followers have seen and reconnected with me.

Now to head over and visit some other blogs as I have a lot of catching up to do (as usual).

Wow thought I should do an update...............

There's a bit of catching up to do lol.

The first three photos show some 110gm hanks which came off a cone of 3ply Mohair from the now defunct Bendigo Mohair Farm.  It was sitting in Mum's stash for nearly 30 years so after knitting it up into a scarf and a few pairs of light grey/brown socks I decided to attack it with some dyes!  I am very pleased with the results too.

The horrible shrug from the last post has been replaced by this pattern and it is going together much better thankfully.  Will help keep Sarah warmer than that cheap cotton on stuff that professes to be a jumper lol.

I dyed some alpaca tops from BWM last year and blended them on the drum carder so time back and got them all spun up a few weeks ago.  Sadly there is no spinning happening here because silly me went crashing down in the main street last Friday when my left ankle gave way stepping off the curb onto the road.  Also managed to wreck my right knee which is what is stopping me from spinning.  Everything is still sore, puffy and bruised.  The ankle will take ages to heal because I sprained it terribly about 6 years ago and it is going to take time.  Mmmm not really happy about it but thats the way it goes.

My new flyer came about a fortnight ago and below is a pic of a standard bobbin next to the jumbo one that fits on it.  I can now make huge skeins rather than little 100gm ones plus it also will allow me to make arty type yarns with the much bigger hole for it to go through.  So the new wheel is now very much complete and will not need to purchase anything more for it.  I did manage to get the poll dorset/merino cross done on it before I was so nicely put out of action lol.  This is the first 300gms of a kilo finished that will become a jumper.  Going to be a long process if I keep getting distracted by pretty colours and blends.

I've also done a little shopping over the past month too.  This lot is from Kathy's fibres in SA and contains some lovely bits which I will use on my blending board for some fun.  I also bought some of her sparkle which is similar to angelina which will take the dyes I use easily.  Will blend and spin up white and then have fun dyeing it to suit a project.  There is also 100gms of optim tops which everyone on the spinning site talks about.  Thought it would be fun to give it a go.

These dyes I picked up from Colleen over in Kyabram when I visited her for the morning about a month ago.  So I am all set now for fibre to spin and dyes to colour it lol.  No more spinning spending will be done until the year 2016 lol.  Well apart from when I run out of a certain colour or something.  Its nice knowing that birthday money has been well spent and Christmas is all organised for me too.  Yes it involves fibre.  

So the word is out that yes I love spinning and things are being shorn all over the place so fleece will soon be arriving and the best part is it wont cost me a cent lol as it has taken some dedicated saving to get me all set up over the last 18 months.

Have a lovely weekend,
katherine