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. 

FNSI results and an OPAM

Last night was FNSI and yesterday I started at 10am with these unfinished knitting projects. 

So while watching a DVD I finished off Lance's socks and then started work on Grace's red scarf which by 8pm last night was well underway and almost finished one ball.   Lance likes his socks so there will be another pair on the needles when I finish my green ones.

Off out to walk the doogie and hopefully not get too wet! lol  Then I intend to finish the scarf and have a go at a beret style crochet hat Grace also liked.  So by tomorrow morning I might have 2 more OPAMers finished.

Stitching

Now just to prove I have been stitching too lol.  I have these two items completely finished for the Santa Sack Swap over at Cheryll's.  I also have another two items prepped completely ready for stitching and then they should be finished for the end of the month.  There will be a few 'secret projects' listed for OPAM this month lol.

I don't think they will give anything away.  So now I have four things finished.  Two are of the non sewing variety but one is still handmade and no it is not woolly lol.  How am I going to wait until the 1st of December to send them off!  lol. 

Now on the sock front I do have Lance's second sock on the home run.  The heel is completely turned and I am working on the foot.  Might go between some spinning and some sock knitting today as it is cold and foggy looking outside.

Looking forward to FNSI on this Friday as I will have the house to myself until about 3.30pm!  Might make that a secret sewing day!

Gorgeous Alpaca!

A couple of weeks ago I won 1kg of white alpaca on eBay.  Bit of a risk buying fleece on eBay but at a total of $20 including postage it wasn't going to be a big risk really lol.  It was dirty and a little smelly like an alpaca would smell so it needed to be shaken out and washed!  I don't bother to comb out seeds or burrs until I prep for spinning so it still has a few areas of grass seed to be removed later.  Now here it is washed and bagged.

Prepped for spinning.

No Merlin it is not another you lol! But definitely feels just as soft after carding.

This is a bit that I started spinning after plying off the last of the sock wool for Lance.  The thickness is equal to about 2 strands of embroidery floss!  So will make some lovely socks or delicate lace scarf! 

I was left with one area of about 60gms that was still a little tainted smell wise after the first wash so last night I set to and washed it twice and decided that there was nothing to loose so tried some red food dye to change its colour.  Hopefully it has taken as I'm not all that sure it would work for alpaca as it has for sheep.  But if it hasn't worked it was going to the bin anyway.  Will see when it is dry later in the week!

NOTE TO SELF:  Do not use a cheap brand of vinegar.  It does not work!  Use a good white vinegar like Cornwall's brand for dying fleece and fiber.  After this was rinsed I still had orange water so while thinking it didn't work very well I decided to try soaking it in warm water and Cornwall's vinegar and microwaved it again and let it cool.  Success.  No more orange water lol.  Mind you I have a suspicion that I might have felted it but won't know until it is dry.  The extra time in the microwave will have been the culprit.

This week I have ...

finished one sock for Lance and started on the second.

Skeined up a ball of white 5 ply wool like I used for the first pair of crochet socks and played around with blue and pink food colourings.  I used a similar techinque to the jelly dying and soaked the skein for a couple of hours in 2lts warm water and 1/2c vinegar.  Then I mixed up some food colourings at different strengths with water and a splash of vinegar and splodged it over the damp skein of wool.  Next I put it into an old casserole dish and microwaved it for 2 mins then allowed a 2 min rest and repeated this 6 times.  Then washed it out and let it it dry. 

This is what I have ended up with.

I have almost finished some sewing too.  But its all a secret lol.

FNWF or more like SNWF

Well after having people over for tea on Friday night I decided it would be a Saturday with Friends for me lol. 

Sarah wanted to go driving to Bendigo in the morning to get her hours up so that was ok and we were back home by 1pm.  Also gave me a chance to drop into the Bendigo Woollen Mills to have a look at their spinning tops/roving.  Found a few different smaller bags so grabbed them to have a try with.  Pics later in the week.  Yes more fibre pics lol.  I did head over to Mum and Dad's to share out what I bought too and to show Mum how it spun up. 

So eventually I decided that merino/bamboo mix I had been spinning for some socks for Lance was calling me.  Out came the swift to wind them into balls and then I cast on and got this far before thinking they were looking a bit big but because I didn't have a model to try them on I stopped and worked some more on my other socks. 

This morning I decided to transfer over to a circular needle to try them on and have now decided to start the size smaller and see which will be better.  I  have a sneaking suspicion that the smaller size will be the correct size.  I should have measured Lance's foot before he headed off to work lol.
Its a quick pattern to work anyway as it is sportsweight or 5ply and has a simple skip stitch and rib in it.  Not that you can see the pattern clearly.  I am very pleased with the wool I spun up as it is just so soft and warm to work with.  SO here we are starting again lol.  Trial and error!

SO it was a very different FNWF's and I am enjoying popping over to see what everyone else is doing too.