Busy, Busy, Busy

I inadvertantly booked myself into Rose St. Artists' Market and Ivanhoe Makers Market on the same weekend. This is not my preferred option as it means that I'm behind in such vital things as the weekly shopping and the washing. However, having made the mistake I just kept on going!

As it happened the Ivanhoe Makers Market was on election day, and given that it is in a position where a good proportion of the voters at the nearest electoral booth have to pass us by, we hoped for a good day.



Here is my friend Mary, who comes along with some of her work and helps me out at Ivanhoe. Our sons have been friends since prep and we've been friends since she noticed me wearing one of my jumpers in the schoolyard. Always fun to have her there and on Saturday we both had a great day. It was my best day so far and I was pretty happy.

It was also pretty good for the market as a whole, as we handed out plenty of information about the market. Hopefully, we can build on all that good will.

And so to Rose St.

What the picture doesn't show is how windy it was. There were plenty of people hanging on to their stalls with each gust of wind. Despite that it was a lovely sunny day.

If not somewhat quiet! I guess the day after an indecisive election left people feeling very quiet. So quiet, up to around 1/4 to 4 I had had one sale, and didn't look like getting any more at that time of the day. Very strange though, I had a further four sales and came away quite happy.

Now I have to make more for September......

Found the camera at last!

I really did think that we could get through this house renovation without much disruption. Yes, I am a glass half full (well, three quarters full!) type person. Subsequently, I'm now in a state! Part of this resulted in my misplacing the camera. Needless to say, I've finally found it!

I've been busy today, sewing on buttons on my latest batch of fingerless mittens - 60, to be precise. I'm off to Rose St. Artists' Market tomorrow, hopefully the rain will hold off for us.

So, I thought I would just show you some of the work of the past two weeks.

These are the articles I finished for last weeks Ivanhoe Makers Market.

1. Blue fingerless mittens made from the beautiful wool roving I bought on my weekend away at Tarndwarncoort.

2. New design of fingerless mittens, very simple but laced up down the back of the hand. Just using the yo,k2tog at the beginning of each row and using the resulting 'loop' to lace up with a twisted cord.

These both sold last week!

3. A funky simple beany using three different yarns together.

4. A black and white, feather and fan scarf, knitted lengthwise. This is the first of the upmarket footy scarves. Know a Collingwood fan out there?

These are the mittens I've just finished.

1. Two more mittens using the last of the Tarndwarncoort rovings. All that handspinning is just wonderful for my sanity.

2. The purple mittens use the pattern 'Stars and Stripes'. The grey mittens use the pattern 'Twist and turn'. Both these patterns are from the No.5 Vogue Stitchonary on Lace, that I just recently received. More on my purches in another post!

3. The hat is using some hand-dyed 12 ply from Morris and Sons. I managed to make their sale and picked up a few more cream wool packets. There's a little feather and fan pattern and the rim is stocking stitch which rolls up. I've got a hat like this and it's fun using the natural curl of stocking stitch.

All I have to do now is put the price tags on and I'm off tomorrow to market!

A busy weekend

Yes, it's going to be a busy weekend. Saturday is the Ivanhoe Makers Market, new name, bright new logo and hopefully a busy day to celebrate the end of Winter and the start of Spring. I'm going to have a 20% off everything sale, to celebrate. I hope that everyone comes and says hello.


These are the latest neckwarmers that I've been working on. Handspun, dyed, knit and finished with a button (of course).









And a few more fingerless mittens.









Then on Sunday, I'm part of a team that will be competing in the Sheep to Shawl competition at the Royal Melbourne Show. The competition starts around 10.30am and finishes when all the teams have spun and knit a shawl, however long that takes.

I've always wanted to have a go at competing, should be fun. It would be nice to have a cheer squad?