In a Spin

What Rosie Means

2008-11-17T23:38:00.007+10:30

You are deeply philosophical and thoughtful. You tend to analyze every aspect of your life.
You are intuitive, brilliant, and quite introverted. You value your time alone.
Often times, you are grumpy with other people. You don't appreciate them trying to interfere in your affairs.

You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.
You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily.
Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.
You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.
You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row.
You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace.
People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.
You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic “Type A” personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

The Knitting Meme

2008-08-24T19:34:00.004+09:30

I found this Knitting Meme on Tea and Cakes Blog, and thought it looked interesting. So here it is.

Bold: Things I’ve done
Italic: Things I’d like to do

Afghan
American/English knitting (as opposed to Continental)
Baby items
Bobbles
Button holes
Cable stitch patterns (including Aran)
Cardigan
Charity knitting
Continental knitting
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Darning
Designing knitted garments
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Drop stitch patterns
Dying with plant colours
Dying yarn
Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards
Fair Isle knitting
Freeform knitting
Fulling/felting
Garter stitch
Gloves
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Hair accessories
Hat
Holiday related knitting
Household items (dishcloths, wash cloths, tea cosies)
I-cord
Intarsia
Jewellery
Kitchener stitch
Knitting a gift
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Knitting art
Knitting for a living
Knitting for pets
Knitting for premmies
Knitting in public
Knitting items for a wedding
Knitting on a loom
Knitting smocking
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Knitting to make money
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Knitting with alpaca
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Knitting with banana fibre yarn
Knitting with beads
Knitting with camel yarn
Knitting with cashmere
Knitting with circular needles
Knitting with cotton
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Knitting with dpns
Knitting with linen
Knitting with metal wire
Knitting with recycled/second-hand yarn
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegated yarn
Knitting with silk
Knitting with someone else's hand-spun yarn
Knitting with soy yarn
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Knitting with wool
Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn
Lace patterns
Long Tail Cast on
Machine knitting
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Top-down
Moebius band knitting
Norwegian knitting
Olympic knitting
Participating in a KAL
Pillows
Publishing a knitting book
Purses/bags
Rug
Scarf
Shawl
Short rows
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Slip stitch patterns
Slippers
Socks: toe-up
Socks: top-down
Steeks
Stocking stitch
Stuffed toys
Swatching – sigh…
Sweater
Teaching a child to knit
Teaching a male how to knit - In my dreams, haha. He's not interested at all.
Textured knitting
Thrummed knitting
Toy/doll clothing
Tubular Cast on
Twisted stitch patterns
Two end knitting
Writing a pattern

Rosie's Mosaic

2008-06-16T23:02:00.003+09:30

The rules are :

Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
Using only the first page, pick an image.
Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into the mosaic maker.

What is your first name?
What is your favourite food?
What high school did you attend?
What is your favourite colour?
Who is your celebrity crush?
Favourite drink?
Dream vacation?
Favourite dessert?
What you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
One word to describe you.
Your Flickr name.

1. The Calm Before the Storm, 2. Little Su makes claim to being the cutest panda girl ever., 3. Valentines Day Reading Map, 4. water droplets in the shower - o.k. bokeh, 5. PA211061, 6. The Real Thing, 7. some of the other ones, 8. Tasting Spoons @ Scoops on Heliotrope, 9. Path to Grandma's House, 10. For you / Para vosotras (Sant Jordi), 11. Spinner Dolphin, 12. I'm Really Rosie...

1,000 Words??

2008-04-25T23:14:00.002+09:30

They say a picture tells a thousand words.

Peach didn't have much to say about it though, she was too busy crying. My poor baby's now sporting a temporary cast, which covers most of her arm. She's also not very happy, coz her arm hurts. Still.

She is, however, impressed by her "bone pictures" and wants to see them lots.

How much is my Blog worth?

2008-04-10T10:23:00.009+09:30

My blog is worth $2,258.16.

How much is your

blog worth?

It sure doesn't seem like much, but if it's money for nothing but my time, I guess I can live with that. *I* enjoy it, so I could really care less.

2008-04-08T20:48:00.004+09:30

Our local Spinning Guild decided to have a Spindling Day - I decided to take my wheel along as usual, and spin as usual...

Not a chance! These ladies don't seem to understand "No, I'm not at all interested in trying." Everyone else there was trying it, so I got roped in regardless and was handed a spindle and some roving to use.

Now, you need to understand that I *really* had no inclination of every spindling - even in the beginning when I was wheel-less (cry) and couldn't get to the Guild when it was open due to other commitments, I still wasn't inclined to use a spindle. I just headed to the Guild on the rare occasion I could, bought a second-hand wheel on eBay (bargain), then spent a fortune trying to make it useable (drat); then bought an Ashford Traveller and away I went.

This gal wanted to spin, not spindle.

After much laughter (and frustration), we all managed some semblance of yarn on our spindles. Spindling is slooooow, and boy did I discover some muscles in my shoulders that I hadn't realised I owned!

DROPspindling was also the operative word on many an occasion. Hey, where'd that twist I had go? Learning to keep tension on the yarn as you wound it onto the spindle was also an art form - especially when you decided to be "clever" and stand up and make a *really* long length of yarn before you wound it on...

See where the sore muscles came from...

We also learnt some other stuff too: cheap homemade spindles don't work so well, they wobble more than spin; bigger isn't necessarily better, you tend to break your yarn a lot more due to the extra weight; and, if you first don't succeed, try again.

It was a bit of the blind leading the blind, with the ringleader reading the instructions from a book, and the rest tagging along. There were also some "evidence" photos taken of our efforts - I think an article in our next newsletter will be including these...

We all seemed to have fun and I was spotted looking at spindles on eBay... just looking, ya know!

I'm a Duty Fulfiller

2008-03-16T23:54:00.006+10:30

You Are An ISTJ

The Duty Fulfiller

You are responsible, reliable, and hardworking - you get the job done.
You prefer productive hobbies, like woodworking or knittings.
Quiet and serious, you are well prepared for whatever life hands you.
Conservative and down-to-earth, you hardly ever do anything crazy.

In love, you are loyal and honest. If you commit yourself to someone, then you're fully committed.
For you, love is something that happens naturally. And you don't need romantic gestures to feel loved.

At work, you remember details well and are happy to take on any responsibility. You would make a great business executive, accountant, or lawyer.

How you see yourself: Decisive, stable, and dependable

When other people don't get you, they see you as: Boring, conservative, and egotistical

What's Your Personality Type?

Free Rice

2008-03-15T22:48:00.002+10:30

For each word you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. Play and feed the hungry.

Ship Entering, or is it?

2008-02-15T22:22:00.002+10:30

I have finally finished my maiden pair of socks, thanks to the challenge of the Southern Summer of Socks. They have been finished for a little while, I just took my time to organise something suitable for sock blockers, and the photography was a little challenging to say the least.

Getting a decent photo of a small pair of socks, together with a huge ship was almost traumatic. Finding a good location from where to shoot, devoid of sign posts, stobie poles, other tourists who set up camp in the middle of your shoot. Also factoring in suitable light, and favourable shadowing on the ship, without the glare fading out your socks. Get the drift...

Anyway, one of the fun aspects to this challenge, has been some competitions that have been run. The latest competition was titled "Socks on Holiday".

So I took my lovelies on holiday, they did come with me to the Barossa Valley, but I forgot to take any piccies of them there. I'm wondering what effect the abundant wine of the area might have had - morphed my plain Patonyle basics into Jaywalkers? I digress...

Here they are admiring the landlocked ship we passed, which belongs to the sign posted at the top. The inexperienced would have to think they were seeing things - a huge ship parked at the side of the road! It's a good tour, but lots of steep ladder climbing and descending involved.

Just to round out my sock's holiday, I took it for a play on the sand in the sun. It seemed rather appropriate for a Southern Summer of Sock Holiday competition.

Busy Bee

2008-02-05T20:02:00.000+10:30

Continuing from yesterday, this is the plied yarn as it came off the bobbin onto the niddy noddy. It feels gloriously soft and squishy - and I *love* the colour. I'm so excited about this yarn.

I love the squishyness.
I love the colour.
I love the barberpoling.
I love the changes in colour.
I love that the two rovings were so well matched.
I can see that I'm gonna love knitting this one. :-)

It's not perfect, but I'm still perfectly happy with it.

I gave it a bath, lovely shade of purple in the initial wash water. It did fade to a slight mauve by the third rinse, so I left it there. I gave it a snap and a whack, and then a whizz in the washing machine to spin out all the water I could.

Here it is, hanging under the verandah drying.

Hurry up, I have plans for you. :-)

Introducing Suzie and other fibrey goodness

2008-02-04T21:24:00.000+10:30

This is Suzie, a Majacraft Suzie Alpaca spinning wheel. Isn't she gorgeous!

I discovered her on a little trip to The Walking Wheel Studio, and saw her sitting there. I loved the colour of her woodgrain, and placed a deposit on her straight away - before someone else came in and snatched her from under my nose.

I didn't *plan* to buy a spinning wheel when I headed down south - I really only had a few bits and bobs I was after, and wanted to just *look* at the Majacraft wheels. I'd seen piccies of them on their website, but there's nothing like a proper look (and touch).

Now she's safely installed in my home, and has had the inaugural spin in.

There she is, with 100g of lovely merino fibre spun onto her bobbin, with space for even more. I can just imagine what her plying flyer and bobbin carries. That will be the next purchase towards her "stash".

On the Traveller is around 50g of a merino/silk blend (yummy). I'd spun half of it a few weeks ago, intending to spin the second half fairly quickly. School holidays and active toddlers disrupt the best laid plans though, and I finished the second bobbin yesterday.

Today I plied the two singles together, resulting in this yummy yarn. The Ashford Jumbo bobbin is stuffed full, I ran out of the merino/silk single, and there's still more of the merino single left over.

I'll let it sit on the bobbin tonight, and my plans are to skein, wash and whack it tomorrow. The school holidays may be over, but there's still the active toddler in the mix.

Fibre Floozy again

2007-11-21T23:05:00.000+10:30

I have *some* pics to show you what I've been up to lately - I am well pleased with myself, if I don't say so. :-)

I decided what I wouldn't navajo ply the light caramel I'd been spinning, rather I would make it a three ply yarn using the three bobbins worth I'd spun already. That went relatively well, and I like the finished effect. Got a little sloppy in places, it's tricky controlling three strands in your hands.

I soaked, and washed that yesterday. In readiness for the dying.

I finally broke out some packets of Kool Aid I had in readiness. It's an experience, believe me!

Lesson One: read ALL instructions and requirements. Do not think you know it all, and skip parts. Or glance over it, then forget it, coz it's only mentioned in the requirements.

They mention rubber gloves coz they're important.

You realise how important, when your hand is bright orange! Like *really* bright orange. OOPS!!!!

I would have taken a photo of that, but the camera batteries were dead. Again. So were the spares, despite being fully charged before you put them away. One day I will get used to that, but today wasn't the day. I was annoyed. Again.

Lesson Two: vary the instructions to suit your quantities. If your dish is full of yarn, it may need a longer cook than the instructions give.

I pulled the dish out of the microwave after the obligatory two minute cook, two minute rest, two minute cook. I was warned it would be hot, so I rugged up suitably. I peeked after a little bit, and it didn't seem *that* hot to me. I lifted up the skein, and the dye was still bright orange. I decided that it must need a little longer cooking.

So I popped it back in the microwave for a five minute cook, twoish minute rest, five minute cook.

That did the trick. It was HOT this time, and when I peeked the liquid was clear. That looked more like what I should be achieving.

Here's the pic of the dried yarn on the skein.

(You can also see my new laminate floor on display too. I'm very pleased with that too.)

And here's a pic of the yarn wound into a nice centre pull ball. 219 grams, and 160metres of yarn, 13WPI.

I will have to decide what to knit it into now. Decisions, decisions!

DH is lucky to still be alive... he looked at the skein I proudly showed him, and he asked me if it was meant to be all patchy like that. Or was that what I wanted. Of course that was what I wanted, it is after all, a *random* dyed yarn! I will try to educate him a little more regarding yarn and stuff, but he is a reluctant learner. He doesn't *do* stuff like that.

Amazing Architecture

2007-11-08T22:02:00.000+10:30

I headed to the supermarket this afternoon, with Peach in the pram. While I was putting her in the pram, after taking it down the steps, Mum told me to watch out for the wasp she could see.

I couldn't see one.

Coz if I could, you wouldn't have got me through the front door.

I hate wasps, even more than bees. And I hate them. They scare me. Flying around, dangling that huge stinging thing. At least a bee can only sting you once.

Not that I've ever been stung. I don't wanna be though either, I hear it hurts somewhat.

Anyway, I came back from the shops. I see the wasp this time, it's hovering around the steps I want to go up to get back inside. And it stays there. Like it's searching for something.

I clamber up the other side of the step, and drag the pram up too. And head safely inside with Peach. She wouldn't like a wasp sting either.

I get brave and head out for another look a while later. The wasp has gone. No sign of it, nor what it could have been looking for.

Much later in the afternoon, I notice the bright cacti flowers through the window, so I grab my camera and head out. (They'll come in another post, maybe tomorrow - depends on the floor remember). I then notice this creation, still damp. Freshly crafted.

Notice the little lip around the opening, and how it points up. See the layer of mud crafted into a foundation bedding layer. It looks like a tiny pottery jug, beautifully rounded.

I am in awe.

I almost wish I'd hung around long enough to watch what he was doing. It must have taken several hours to do, coz that was the time frame from when I first saw nothing, to the final product, which was still damp.

It had dried out when I took Mum out to show her an hour later.

Fibre Floozy Day, or was it...

2007-11-08T20:17:00.000+10:30

It'd been planned for weeks - the local Spinner's Guild here were having a Silk Painting workshop yesterday. I'd checked DH's roster and he was scheduled to be off - the planets were lining up... he was booked in for Peach minding service.

No ifs, buts, or maybes.

He had the job, and it was set in concrete as far as I was concerned...

Then the phone call came...

"Hello, Miz Rosie, your laminate flooring will be installed tomorrow at 8.30am." AAAAGH, I scream inwardly, that afternoon. Less than 24 hours notice, and the carpet's still on the floor in the hall, and the vinyl in the kitchen! And we're still waiting for the floorboards to be repaired!

The installer pops around to have a little look see - no sweat, he can repair the floorboards. I ask him reeeealy nicely if he can possibly reschedule our installation. He can probably do it on Thursday or Friday. We get the confirmatory phone call, and Friday's the day.

That gives us plenty of time to remove the furniture and stuff, and take up the old flooring. We'd finished the hall, which took most of the day - when we get a phone call, "Hello, Miz Rosie, can he change that booking to tomorrow?" It wasn't really a question, and we panic slightly. It's late in the afternoon, with DH scheduled to head off to night shift in a few hours.

I do the afternoon school run and associated after school stuff, while DH starts work on the kitchen. He's a good man, and when I get back home several hours later, I find the kitchen almost cleared and put the kids to work emptying the cupboards that need to be moved. We manage to move everything out, except the fridge and dishwasher. We cross our fingers and hope the guy can work around those in the morning.

DH just needs to lift the vinyl, that should be easy enough to roll up to take out. Then he needs to pop up the masonite which is underneath. It's only stapled down, so that shouldn't be much of a drama either. He has several hours from when he comes home, to when the installer will be arriving...

Step 1. Remove vinyl. Easy, no sweat.

Step 2. Look at the million staples in each masonite sheet. Around the edges, they've stapled every inch! Literally. Although I didn't measure to be precise. And another dozen or two staples in the middle of the sheet. And each staple is about an inch long too. Well and truly anchored. Not meant to move in a hurry...

They don't either.

It takes a good fifteen minutes to remove one sheet, in fragments. Except the staples pull through, and are still firmly anchored in the floorboards underneath. I bag and remove the pieces, while DH gets to work with the pliers, removing the staples. I head off on the school run, leaving DH to tackle the others - hoping the first one is just a steep learning curve, and he'll get faster, and have it all done by the time the installer needs to start work in the kitchen.

I get back to some bad news.

He hasn't.

But there's some "good" news. Sorta. Depends on how you look at it.

The flooring they thought was ours isn't. The one that's there is a tile. Ours is a wooden floor. Hopefully ours is here tomorrow. OR I WILL GO NUTS WITH MY LOUNGE STUFFED FULL LIKE IT IS AT THE MOMENT. You can't sit on the chairs, there's stuff piled on them. The only chair you can vaguely sit on, you can't see the tv from, coz the kitchen table's in front of it, piled with more stuff. I'm not a floor sitting sorta gal. There's lots of stuff for Peach to play with.

Anyway, I digress.

Okay, we have been given a mixed blessing. No floor today, but a further 24 hours to finish the kitchen. We could need every second of that.

The floor installer gets to work repairing the floorboards. Oh, by the way, here's a few more we found under the hall floor. Who knows what we'll also find under the kitchen floor. Am starting to think we should have just left the floors as they were. At least worn our carpets didn't produce worn out people.

He also gives DH some tool to use to help lift the masonite sheeting. He gives a demo, and lifts an entire sheet in almost one piece. With the staples mainly in the sheet, instead of the floor.

DH doesn't get on so well. He does get on a little better though.

I ship Peach off to grandma's for a while. She likes to be in the thick of things, and little girls, and sharp implements do not make a healthy combo.

DH lifts, I remove to outside. Silly us, you don't take out the staples from the floor, you bash them in with the hammer. It's faster, see.

Floor installer has finished repairing the floorboards, and starts to help DH.

By 10.00am, that job's also finished.

Hopefully the guy arrives tomorrow morning, with the laminate flooring. He'd just made a 140km round trip for nothing really. We'd ordered for floor about two months ago.

Pay It Forward

2007-10-31T19:26:00.000+10:30

Have you seen the movie "Pay it Forward"?

Haley Joel Osment's character comes up with a simple idea to change the world. Give three good deeds, the person who receives it must pay it forward.

An easy thing but so difficult.

Somebody has taken this idea and turned it into presents. It's fun to give gifts. I read about it in Lilleduck's blog. You can be a part of this if you promise to:

“I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week… but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.”

You can be a part of this, just leave a comment here, and I will reply so you can can email me your address.

Treasure your children

2007-10-30T23:26:00.000+10:30

A terrible accident claimed the life of a bright young girl on the weekend.

In a wind storm a gum tree was blown over, killing the young girl who stood near it.

A family changed forever.

A younger sister now the only child.

I drive by here almost every day, and see the flowers keep on coming. People stop to pay their respects. A young boy on his way home from school, stopping, throwing his school bag on the ground, kicking the fence. Then leaning on the fence, crying.

It causes that reaction. The tears. We weren't even close to the family, just knew them through school. I can't imagine what the family and those close to them are going through.

Every time I drive past, the tears come.

Each paper I read has the same effect too.

I hugged my children for just a bit longer, just a bit harder, just a little more often.

So many if onlies for Deanna, but it's too late for those now. May she live on in our hearts, and inspire yet again.

Treasure your children while you can, you just never know their future.

Fibre Floozies

2007-10-17T18:00:00.000+09:30

Today is Fibre Floozy Day (aka Spinning Wednesday). This one is "Transcend", a 22 Micron Merino Hand Dyed top from Mandie of EGMTK! Gorgeousness personified.

Here it is snuggled together with "Genesis", which I decided to use at the last moment also. I didn't take a pic of that on its own, but it's more green and yellow, with some turquoise added. Equally yummy! I tore both of them into thinner strips, then drafted them slightly.

You get a better idea of the "Genesis" colour, here it is together with the "Transcend", after yet more drafting and stripping. A lovely pile of colour on my lounge. I wanted to spin from each top together, to blend the colours together a little.

Here's one bobbin of finished yarn, I love how the colours change but also blend along the yarn. There's still another bobbin's worth (at least) to spin up, I've made a start. NBS (numb bum syndrome) caused me to stop spinning for the day. My right hand was also complaining a bit, it's never done that before - although I usually spin fleece in the grease. Don't know if the two are related, but my right hand had better toughen up somewhat!

I'm on a good thing here, just need to get the drafting a little smoother yet.

I haven't decided how I want this yarn to finish though. My considered options are: ply together with itself; ply with a pale yellow plying thread I have; or leave as singles.

I am knitting this into a scarf for my eldest DD. Opinions please... :-)

How Nerdy am I?

2007-10-16T19:46:00.000+09:30

Bit of a strange test, with some strange questions. Maybe the wrong sort of nerd questions for me...

Toddler Slippers ready to felt

2007-10-15T17:18:00.001+09:30

This is the Toddler sized slippers from the same pattern as I used for my slippers earlier. I knitted these from the extra ball of yarn I had - with not much leftover at all - about 20cm, at a stretch.

I could be knitting these for a while though, I have two more little people who'd like a pair now.

These could turn into "The Song That Doesn't End"...

More Mambray Creek pics

2007-10-12T17:59:00.001+09:30

Here's a few more photos from yesterday, these ones were taken by DH. The kookaburras are everywhere, so it's hard not to take a few photos of them. They sit so still, and seem to be posing for the camera. ;-)

We were also visited later in the day by a few emu, they ran around cleaning up every minute food scrap - even though we'd cleaned up and collected all of our rubbish, they still found *something* on the ground to eat. It must've been something that Peach dropped as she ran about with her food.

They even headed over to the barbecue plate and proceeded to clean that. Even though we *had* cleaned it off afterwards! Peach thought she could wander over to pat them! She did run after them though.

There was also plenty of flora to see. Lots of Salvation Jane, aka Patterson's Curse growing everywhere. Flossie was looking for smaller things though - she got excited every time she saw a ladybird resting on one.

This wattle tree looks glorious, a gorgeous flush of yellow fluff!

Picnic at Mambray Creek

2007-10-12T00:35:00.001+09:30

We headed off to Mambray Creek, which is part of the Mount Remarkable National Park for a picnic. There are lovely, well maintained facilities there - gas barbecues, flushing toilets, good walking trails. Each time we go, something new has been provided, which makes the park entry fee worthwhile. I just check the current fee online, so I can make sure I have the correct change for the envelope.

This time it was the colourful signage, there were this series showing the park's highlights for the various seasons. Here's the appropriate one for now, as it's currently Spring.

Flossie read her way through all the seasons, she's reading about Summer here. I recall last time we went, being bothered by lots of sticky flies which seemed to particularly like people's faces. It must have been sometime during Summer.

Here's Peach and Grandma getting up close with some of the native fauna. They are obviously used to having people around, as you could get quite close to them before they'd fly away. Peach did manage to get even closer than this photo shows.

Here's my "up close and personal" moment with the Kookaburra. He sat up in that tree for ages while I slowly got closer and closer. You can even see the feather stuck in his mouth, he let me get that close. I'd love to have a huge zoom lens so I could take that shot from a distance, but unfortunately I don't have the appropriate camera.

There were lots of other birds about also, but none of them sat still long enough for me to catch them. Except for the beautiful blue and yellow ones which flashed by, catching my attention. They landed in the distance, and I tried to take a photo... I was having bother with my sunnies and the LCD on the camera, so I couldn't see *exactly* what I was taking... I *thought* I was in the right place... Unfortunately, I managed to get some lovely photos of a rock. Missed the birds altogether. :-(

Spin Day Wednesday

2007-10-12T00:07:00.000+09:30

Here's part of my results from Spin Day Wednesday:

Adding to my bobbin more of this fleece. I'm spinning it fine, as I plan to experiment with Navajo plying next, and this is the official candidate. I already have one really full bobbin of this, and still more fleece to spin. I have four bobbins, so I'll probably spin all four, coz I can ply them onto the Jumbo bobbins I have.

I'm not exactly sure what this fleece is, but it spins fine really easily. I had a full shoe box of ready washed and combed fleece - a jumbo box, like a pair of boots sized box. I spun half of it, then I needed to take a break.

Oops, then I got sidetracked and didn't come back to it.

The fleece is a sort of silvery grey colour, which seems to look darker once it's spun. It was an old fleece I bought through the Guild here, I tried to spin it as it was, but the grease was just way too sticky. I popped the whole thing in the bath and gave it a wash - it was also an extremely dirty fleece from the amount of dirt that washed out! I washed it in warm water to keep some of the grease intact, but also to remove some of it too. It also needed a heap of rinses - probably my fault, for tossing the whole thing in at once.

Just part of the learning curve!

Felted Slipper Pattern

2007-10-10T00:12:00.001+09:30

The pattern for the Felted Slippers is available from Knitting at Knoon.

It comes in three sizes - toddler slippers, youth slippers and adult slippers. And it's a downloadable freebie!

Finished Felted Slippers

2007-10-08T21:12:00.001+09:30

I washed these harshly in my washing machine this morning. And I washed them again and again... I did read somewhere that Fisher and Paykel washing machines are not rough enough to felt quickly... But we did persevere and got there in the end.

I spent most of the morning blocking them on my feet, so they'd dry nicely to my foot shape. I also gave them a good brush with my teddy brush to fluff them up nicely. The machine did some fluffing, and I just finished it off.

As you can see by the pic, they are now nice and stiff, and will stand on their own. They feel sooo good on my feet too.

I'm pleased! :-)

One Down...

2007-10-02T19:57:00.001+09:30

My first slipper!

Well, nearly - the knitting's done on this one, and will hop to and get the second one knitted up. The fun part's tossing them in the machine and washing away.

I'm not so wild on the heathery part on the foot, but that's how the yarn came off the ball. I guess I can live with it, and it will probably look different after felting anyway. The colour I love the most is the blue which will be hidden at the back of the heel.

*cry*

I just broke into the second ball, right at the toe shaping. I guess I'll have enough left from the third ball to knit some toddler slippers too. Perhaps I could make those the second pair of "socks" I knit in the SSS, while I'm waiting for my circular needles that I plan to order later in the week to arrive.

Flossie's Finished Beanie

2007-10-01T20:25:00.001+09:30

Here's Flossie's yarn all knitted up into the beanie. It's a bit big on her head, but that doesn't matter, coz it's actually for her dad. It's from a freebie pattern that I collected at Spotlight. I've used this pattern quite a bit, coz it gives a nice looking beanie, with not a lot of hard effort. It has a twisted stitch cable which looks really smart. The shaping's worked in around the knit stitches, and you pull the yarn through the remaining eight stitches on the needle and sew up the back seam.

How easy is that!

She really wanted to knit it, but I hadn't taught her how to purl yet. Oops! There was a bit of a deadline, so I ended up knitting it for her.

Southern Summer of Socks

2007-10-01T20:14:00.001+09:30

I've joined up for the Southern Summer of Socks KAL.

Today's the opening day, so here's my inaugural pair of "socks" to open my account. These are the only half decent pair of circular needles I have, so I decided to use them and find some yarn to match. They're not quite my first pair - my first pair of slippers were knitted from my first yarn spun on my new wheel, I discovered part way through that I'd used the wrong size whorl. I was using the smallest one, not the largest one. That probably accounts for why the yarn was coming through so terribly, terribly over-spun. No worries, ply it together anyway, and use it for felted slippers. They came up a treat, and the really over-spun till they were rock hard knots look good now. They give it a bouclé effect.

My goals for the KAL are to knit my first pair of "real" socks, to use the Magic Loop technique, and knit some of those sock patterns I have been saving on my computer. I will probably add to my sock yarn stash too, it's rather pathetic at the moment.

Ravelry

2007-09-30T22:45:00.000+09:30

I checked my place in the Waiting List on Friday - at last there were more people waiting behind me than were in front of me! Nice to see that I am making some headway through the list.

There's only 6868 people in front of me today, and 10,538 behind me.

I will get there, I really will!

More Garden Pics

2007-09-28T20:22:00.000+09:30

I thought I'd show some more piccies from my garden. It adds a nice bit of colour to my blog, and reminds me how much colour and blossom there is in the garden. You need to look for it, but it's there. With the water restrictions, the lush garden of old is an extinct breed.

This is a close-up of a cactus plant - it's huge. You could quite comfortably sit on it as a cushion. Although it looks quite comfy, don't be deceived by those spines. They are sharp! Very sharp, and must have little barbs on the ends, coz they tend to hang on if you get too close.

Yet another cactus plant, just brimming with buds. The cacti put on a gorgeous show when their flowers come out, but you have to be quick. They only bloom for a day, then they start to die off. I'll have to remember to take some photos of the cacti in bloom, it's a sight worth seeing.

2007-09-22T19:04:00.000+09:30

Tada!!!!

Flossie's first skein of yarn. She's rather pleased with herself, as you might imagine.

She spun the brown fleece first, then wanted some variety, so the silver fleece was next. I plied the two of them together for her, and she's as happy as a pig in muck.

She now has 100g of hand-spun yarn, which she plans to knit into a beanie. Her knitting has been confined to scarves so far, so this is the next step along the learning curve. I'll also have to teach her how to read knitting patterns - bet she's already planning her first jumper...

Flossie in a Spin

2007-09-16T18:38:00.000+09:30

Here's little Flossie, barely eight years old - merrily spinning away. You'd think she'd done this before, but it's her first time. Not too bad at all, with not much help at all from Mum. Quite impressed, I am. :-)

She plans to knit this into a scarf.

I need to show her plying next, when she's spun the next bobbin.

Now she's asking me about dying the wool - she can't have first dibs on that, I want to have a go first. She'll be nagging for her own hand-dyed rovings from Mandie next...

More garden

2007-09-14T23:13:00.001+09:30

I have some loveliness in my garden, when you look hard - despite the watering restrictions. This little rose (complete with wildlife), Sonia, has some buds growing, despite having no water for a year or so. Most of the other bushes have died, but this one grows on. I expected this bud to be blown away from last night's winds - I wanted to photograph it yesterday, but the camera batteries were dead. They do that, go flat in the camera. So do the charged spare set. Frustrating...

This is of one of the Grevillea trees in the front yard, even with the watering restrictions, if you look about there's plenty of beauty to see. If you just have a quick glance, you miss most of it. It's a good reminder for me, coz I miss my garden full of blooms.

First Skeins

2007-09-11T18:53:00.000+09:30

This is a sample of one of my first skeins of wool, spun from Corriedale fleece. Not the very, very, first skein - but a sample from skein number two, so still very novice. And that very first skein was little, so I could get on to discover plying.

I was encouraged to enter it into the local Show here, and what a surprise:

First place with some of your initial spinning efforts! What encouragement!

Exciting Purchase

2007-09-08T21:03:00.001+09:30

This is my new spinning baby - an Ashford Traveller, double drive, double treadle. I also went for broke and bought the matching chair too.

I'd been learning to spin at the local Guild here, but couldn't attend very on many days, due to kid's activities conflicting with their days and times. I was lucky if I got to go once every two months, when Blossie and Flossie had a bye with their netball games.

Now I can spin as often as I like.

I just need to devise a way to keep Peach (2 year old) away from the wheel. She loves playing with it - removing the drive band, unwinding the brake band, playing with the bobbins if I leave them on the rack...

Spring is blooming

2007-09-07T11:26:00.000+09:30

Spring is definitely here, the trees are blossoming with their first flowers of the season. The sweet peas are blooming magnificently with a colourful display. Here's some of the glory:

* Tap, tap, tap *

2007-09-04T23:46:00.000+09:30

Testing, 1, 2, 3...

I'm just wetting my toes and publishing my first post on what I hope to be my Spinning Blog. And other stuff with fibres and yarns. Time will tell...