Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Plied!!

Madras Navajoed oct 09

Despite some tangle-tastic frustrations yesterday (which I wisely stepped away from to sit on the couch with my sweetie watching a ridiculous hollywood action flick instead).... the madras spritzer is Navajoed!! (can that be a verb?)

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Hard Core Fibre Pr0n!

Madras (1)
Madras fibre - Treetops Colour Harmonies
Madras (2)

I loved Bon's comment on the last spinning post so much, I had to name a post after it and dish out some more!!

Madras separated
Separated/pre-drafted and balled up
Madras separated (1)

Mmmm... the colours conjure thoughts of pina coladas, lolly water and tasty fruit spritzes....

Single
Sunday spun singles

Monday, October 26, 2009

Baublery

I picked up this tackle box for a wonderful bargain this weekend from the local camping and outdoors store.

Bauble stash (2)

It may seem a little odd for a vegetarian purchase.. have I truly taken up fishing?

In fact no, the case isn't for organising fishing hoo-hahs but to finally put my baubles in order!!

Previously they were in such a state I barely wore any of my lovely things because I couldn't find them, or forgot I had them. So I did a complete re-evaluation and laid everything out...

baublery

But now look at the wonderous order of the baublery display!

Bauble stash (1)

Hurrah!! :D

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The Tale of Two Fibres

Recently I made a purchase of some wonderful fibre from Treetops Colour Harmony, with gifting in mind!

fibre - treetops - rhubarb

This lovely merino in Rhubarb from Treetops Colour Harmonies came in to my world with some other fibre destined to be shaped and moulded to be gifted to my lovely Mum as part of her birthday gift this year. Though Mum has knit in the past the skill has long been in hiatus until recently, when she has once again taken up the needles! *crowd shouts 'Hurrah!!'*

Rhubarb

So this year for her birthday I wanted to gift her some handspun, and spin some of it in her presence so she could be part of the process :) We would have loved to do some spinning together, but time didn't allow this visit, but next time I hope we will have a craft fantastica with loads of time for spinning, quilting, knitting, crochet.....!!

I digress...

The first yarn spun for Mum, and spun while staying in her gorgeous home, was the Gypsy JamBerry - of which I have only progress shots to share so far (though I'm sure I can grab some finished shots from Mum!)

fibre - treetops - jamberry

I wanted a very exciting, alternative feel so spun a thick & thin, then plied with a thin golden thread to give a very corrogated and textured, wild looking yarn.

Gypsy Singles

The rich magenta, purple and red with little flashes of gold here and there made the yarn seem like a Gypsy woman's hair, wild and curly, with the rich colours of her silk scarf and the golden glint of her hoop earrings...

fibre - treetops - jamberry (1)

The other fibre I took back home with me and have just now wound it up into an edible looking cake ready to send off!

Rhubarb Prepped

This Rhubarb is my second experience of the Navajo ply (which I LUFF) and I'm so happy with how it's turned out :D

Rhubarb

It feels like a nice medium weight yarn to my hand, but I'm not a terribly good judge, so I'll do my best to measure it up before I send it off to Mum! But it looks to be just the ticket for a born-again knitter ready to hit the needles again after some time off - enough yarn to make a decent accessory (hat, scarf, cowl, mittens, cushion, cozy of some sort..) and with personal interest and colour but not too daunting - hurrah!!

Friday, October 23, 2009

New yarn!

Oh how delicious!

Koigu KPPPM

I fell in love with Koigu KPPPM when my secret pal sent me a two skeins years ago.
So when I saw the fabulous giant tree of coiled skeins over at Calico & Ivy I simply couldn't resist!

The only problem was which colour?? So many to choose from!


This colourway was so unique I was so drawn to it, and now the question is... what to knit?!

Koigu Deliciousness

I thought of a Baktus (non Ravelry link)... but that didn't look how I wanted it to... so now I'm thinking of perhaps the Sockhead Hat (non Ravelry link). The yarn is too variegated to knit lace, and I could knit up another triangular shawl with eyelet ridges and garter ridges.. but I think I'd like to do something a little different... hmmmm!

Any other suggestions?

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Commencement

This evening I learnt the circular cast on and have taken the first weeeeny step on the way to a wonderful experience....

circgira

Some time from now this homley, warm, Australian, lofty and earth-hued yarn will become a
Girasole-like creature by my hand - and we shall snuggle beneath it my shweetie and I :)

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Where the Wild Sash Is

Hehee!!

Where the Wild Sash Is

I just LUFF opportunities like these!!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

DPN Danger!

Be warned!!

It can happen to YOU!

I bring you the next slasher movie....

WHEN NEEDLES ATTACK!

DEATH BY DPN!

dpn danger!

Well, alright, that IS a little dramatic... But this is exactly what I saw when I pulled my wallet out of my bag the other day - My bag that was also housing my socks-in-progress.

One DPN had leapt free of the bundle and KEBABBED my (rather sturdy) wallet! It is seriously stabbed in their folks and I promise I had NOTHING to do with it! That picture is taken with a camera phone on the table of the cafe directly after discovery!

Heed ye this cautionary tale....

Friday, October 16, 2009

Back!

Well.. after an INTENSE week of step mum life including loads of fun, challenges, tender moments, frustration, laughter, tears, excitement, exhaustion, delight, wonder and learning across all fields... I am BACK!!

Plan to claw my way back in to control of my life any moment now - tidying things up around the house, finishing abandonned projects, replying to emails, updating Ravelry, uploading pictures to flickr, catching up on Bloglines and all those things that were put to the back-burner while we had a spunky 9 year old staying with us!

I can hardly wait until next time we have Scamp to stay - every time we see him we're more and more bonded and seem to have a better time than the last. This time we even did some crafting - not something this very sports oriented boy has ever seemed interested in before.
Sewing Scamp
And he loved it!
Pencil case is still unfinished due to camping and riding, shooting range adventures, reading our book, playing wii, visiting family, remote control car, learning to juggle, playing darts, bush walks, cooking, watching movies and toasting marshmallows.....

Mallows!<
But we can finish it off amongst all our other adventures of next time!!

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Phat Knits

For more amazing design work such as this, check out the incredible Phat Knits!

phat knits

I badly feel the need for a ginormous squooshy couch/bed made from knitted noodle!!

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Forecast is for Navajo

So I've been spinning up the lovely Forecast yarn from the Spunky Eclectic fibre club from years ago.....

spinning - spunky - pie in the sky (2)

Spinning singles as I normally do, but something was a little different...

Something was brewing.

spinning - spunky - pie in the sky

The Navajo Ply cloud that had been growing on the horizon for a good while now finally broke!

Navajo Forecast1

It was a little tangley to start with so I had to leave it for an extra day for the residual twist to relax a little... but once the storm had broken, there was no going back

Navajo Forecast6

I am in smitten, head-over-heels, wonder-eyed love with Navajo Plying - I even give it capital letters!!

Navajo Forecast4

I love how the yarn feels so balanced, I don't know if that's the right technical terms, but that's certainly how it looks and feels to me. It seems round and plump and happy - and that's always good in a skein of handspun :)

Navajo Forecast2

It comes in at 11 wpi, so about a DK weight/8ply weight. I just love how the colours sometimes barberpole in TRIO!

Navajo Forecast3

I don't have awfully much to work with - around 150 metres is my guess, but I need to measure it properly - but I'm sure I can make something lovely out of it. For now I'm happy with it sitting in it's little yarn cake (yes I've wound it up already!) for me to gaze at!

Navajo Forecast5