Sticks and Stones

Thanks to this post I organised a great activity for Playgroup today… we couldn’t go as Sophie has been vomiting and they have both had very high temperatures over 38 degrees but we did keep enough supplies at home to make them here.  I can’t post pictures as the camera is in Pete’s car at work…maybe I’ll post the outcome tomorrow.  It’s an easy project, all you need is a balloon, paste (I think I’d make a four and water paste next time) and yarn scraps of which we had plenty (I have a strange habit of keeping all of the off cuts from darning in ends and sewing up seams…I don’t know why but they came in handy and I had loads to send to Playgroup).

I went through the stash yesterday and organised a box of potential projects.  I put in the pattern and enough wool to complete in together and there is lots to do!  I filled another plastic tub with 8ply (DK) yarns and another with 10-12ply yarn.  I need yet another tub for all of the other yarns.  I certainly don’t need to buy any yarn for a while, it’s just when you want to knit something new and you can’t match any of the stash yarns to it…. I guess that means I have to either not knit it or spin the yarn with my existing fibre stash which is also quite considerable!

And, thanks to Ruth’s reminder the other day, I have pulled out the second Scarf for Africa to finish off… I seem to have a lot of WIPs at the moment…

While I have been doing this I have been applying for Grants to revamp our Toy Library which is in desperate need of new, good quality toys and equipement.  I visited another Toy Library in our Shire and was shocked at the disparity between the two….I have lots of work to do.

In addition to this I have been working as a nurse a little bit and Fregie Sacks is booming… just wish I’d sell more fibre on Etsy so I could get some more processed…all in good time!

Oh, and of course I have been spinning quite a bit and I have some fibre purchases to show off when I get my hands on the camera and go out to the block to photograph them (I am slowly moving stuff out of the shed here and into the shed there… maybe we’ll move soon!).

Plans for the house are going well and we are almost settled on them… which means maybe we’ll be able to apply for permits soon…fingers crossed.

Better be off the “recreational Internet” now as I have loads to do with a Grant Application due this Friday and a unwell babe.  If I haven’t responded to your comments it’s just due to lack of time – I have read and enjoyed them all!

I couldn’t help myself, the burnished gold was just too appealing so 100g went to the shop and 150g went to my chair:

Dividing up the fibre

After such fun with the fibre:

Future Hair Style?

Like Mother, Like Son?

I divided it up and plaited it for the shop…

Burnished Gold

Bruised Sky

and then set to work pre draughting ready to spin in s stupor when I come home tired from tennis this afternoon and little people are sleeping.

Pre draughted ready to spin...1/4 anyway!

The Little People rose at 0530 this morning so I was privileged to see this:

Sunrise 0600

Have a great day!

There has been so much going on around here – so much to blog about but no time to blog – but today we I have taken a day out.  Last week Sam went to hospital via ambulance due to his first ever asthma attack and, following the wisdom of the paediatrician, we spent the night in hospital.  It’s all fine now and we’ve had our asthma education so we are all proficient at using the spacer, inhaler and mask.  Sam recovered well over the next few days and I headed off to Melbourne for the 3rd Certificate of Spinning day.

Sam got sick with gastro – poor Pete did so well with him -  and had the symptoms for 4 days so this week is  stay at home week to make sure we don’t spread it around.  No Playgroup, no Storytime.  What could be more entertaining for 2 little ones than wool processing!

We started with kettle dyeing and came out with these:

kettle dyed roving

They are 250g each so I am going to keep some for me and put the rest in my shop.  I love the orangy gold that the sandstone colourway produced and I am a sucker for blues…

Then, while Kung fu Panda was on (their new favourite but I fast forward to scary bits) I put some of the Alpaca and Silk through the drum carder for Henley Perfected – yes, this is an epic but I am still determined to spin the yarn for it, then dye the yarn, then knit the garment… I think I am looking at about year 2015 for completion .

50:50 alpaca silk

These batts always make me think of Santa’s beard…

Then, as a result of Certificate of Spinning motivation, we pulled out 3 of the gifted fleeces from Pete’s other cousin and started off the scouring process:

Buckets of Joy!

5 buckets on the go – Sophie had fun dumping in the fleeces but I had to keep asking her not to put it in lock by lock, the water was so hot but she was so careful – I think she may be a natural .  The fleeces have been heavily skirted as they were pretty daggy and had/have a lot of grass seeds so they were fairly small.  Here is the last fleece from that bag:

Biggest fleece

This fleece is larger than the rest of this bag full so it will soak tonight when then others are put out to dry…  Next step is to hide them somewhere in the house until I have them all combed and ready to spin… under the bed is full of Mum’s yarn and there are not many other places…I’ll work out something .

One bag down, 7 to go!

Lastly today, I have combed out a heap of fibre to knit another beanie and Erin’s second fingerless mitt.  The man who leaves fleeces for me came by the other day and asked if I’d like some Alpaca.  He explained that there are quite a few around that get shorn and the fleeces get thrown out so if I’d like them they are all mine… What could I say?  Yes, Yes, Yes!

cross breed fibre

I have decided on my end of year project for the Certificate of Spinning and have started to gather supplies.  More later.

I’m off to bottle some extra tomatoes for whole tomatoes during winter!

I came across this blog today and I just find it so amazing that I wanted you all to go and look at it if you haven’t already – so talented!!

Last week I did a bit of spinning.  Enough spinning to start and finish 110g of sock yarn!  It’s lovely – hand dyed by me with colours Sophie chose – and of the same stock that my store items are made from.

Predrafted fibre

Set up spin

(note: these photos seem to show the true colour of the fibre! I really need to practice with lighting!)

I decided to go through my Ravelry Queue to see what socks I could knit with a 2ply, 14 WPI, fingering weight yarn – as it turns out there are 13 patterns that suit…  I have 13 pairs of socks of 4 ply/fingering weight in my Ravelry Queue!

Singles

14 WPI - WHOOOH

My first choice from this list was Charade but as I have not measured the metreage and as this was originally spun up for Sophie to have a pair of socks I thought I should probably go with the Spring Anklets by Cassie Thoreson.

But, after thinking of me first, I realised that I had spun this for my Darling Daughter – who just threw a HUGE tantrum – so I found this pattern… I’m off to be a grown up and do a swatch!  Fingers crossed I’ll have enough left for a pair of anklets for me.

Yes, they keep rolling in.  We went to Beechworth for the night, came home, unpacked the car, went to say hello to MIL, came home and there it was… another BIG bag of lovely (but very smelly) fleece!  It has a nice long staple and appears to be quite fine… I have put a large chunk in a bucket of Morning Fresh…will let you know how it goes… maybe it’s from a Ram as it seems to smell more than usual… annonymous donar – again!