New product design

Have had an idea playing around in my head about making a simple but stylish backpack. This is my first attempt.

Using the weaving technique on the knitting machine, I've knit a piece of fabric as long as I could. I did run out of yarn and the machine started to kick up a fuss, so this is more in the line of a crochet hook holder...longer, longer....but it works. I've sewn it up and felted it.

Unfortunately, photography has let me down and you can't see the rich texture or colour, however, I love it and will be making a full sample, for me, next.

I've also had a bit of a thought about spinning. I have so enjoyed the last few days spinning that I really need to design yarn for particular projects. I look at the commercial yarn stash and am becoming more frustrated with it, as it doesn't have the colours or textures I want. Some serious stash busting is required here to get rid of that unwanted yarn!....

Jewellery as Art

Sunday morning coffee with partner demanded some reading material, well he reads the paper! and I found the latest issue of 'Craft Arts International' had this wonderful article on Marjorie Schick who does body sculpture. It's very inspiring and the idea of getting so big is really intriguing. If you're going to do sculpture that's what is needed. I seem to be getting smaller...so they can sell? I think I need to work on bigger pieces. That's why the Sculpture award was useful, but that won't run till next year. I need to keep looking for appropriate opportunities.

I don't always buy this magazine. It's always beautiful, but not always enough to interest me to justify buying it. This is well worthwhile.

And I finished the skeins for the Bendigo workshop and am very happy. In April, I'll do two more sets, one with fleece and the other 'disobeying' the workshop co-ordinator (me!) and doing something else.

Incubated

A pretty busy couple of days. Friday, I finally went to in.cube8r and rented a cube. I do need to go back and have a good look. I

only had an hour parking spot and it took all of my time to sort myself out. Lovely helpful young lady at in.cube8tr made me feel welcome and I'm hopeful that both ventures will be successful.

The first meeting of the 9x5 market working group also took place. Now we have to be serious about making this a self-sustaining market. A good number of people have volunteered and I feel very hopeful.

Yesterday was Experimental Spinning day and we were playing with beads. What alot of glittery fun. I did alot of talking and showing and only managed to produce this very small sample. However, it is very useful on several counts. Firstly, threading the beads on a core yarn and then wrapping the core was successful. Secondly, knitting it up was great as it really is fluffy and round. I could have used bigger needles, but the 5mm needles were all that was available.

Coffee, then Thai food finished the day.

NOTE: in.cube8r gallery: www.incube8r.com

Continuous bullion yarn

This is the wonderful second yarn for the Bendigo workshop. Not a great deal of yardage in this continuous bullion, but wonderful texture.

The only problem is that the core yarn gets too much twist and can break! Lots of interesting noises made then! It might pay to run the yarn through the wheel twice, so that I can ply back with the textured commercial boucle and finish with a fine black yarn.

I think I really need to knit a swatch with all these yarns. That would mean doing another set. I've wanted to with some dyed fleece. Way too much spinning.

Sample stashes

I finished the first workshop skein...hooray! Managed to find a matching boucle to ply in and some black to finally balance the yarn. I'm happy with the result. Though, photography does not give the full impact. It's washing now which might yield extra surprises.

Talking about all those samples you make, thanks knitspingirl, has got me thinking about what to do with them.

This is my sample stash stored in a box. Always store them all in the one place! At least you know you've got too much and need to do something, rather than them lurking everywhere.

However, as I'm sure everyone is very well organised, and it really doesn't take you much further than feeling a little uneasy/guilty about what to do with it all, got me to thinking. I know, a dangerous thing!

Next thing to do was sort into major colour groups and see what I had. It looked a bit more organised.

These are the four groups that seem to have some promise! What next you ask. I don't know, I've got this far. Need to think about it......stripes, mosaic knitting....

Healthy, wealthy & wise

Well, two out of three ain't bad. After a shocking headache most of Monday, most unusual for me, I feel happy again. I think one of those...slept awkwardly, went walking without water...for longer than usual, sat on the computer, new glasses......the list goes on. Anyway much better. We're also being careful with computer usage...only in the morning, till the end of the month. We've almost busted our download limit and mornings are off-peak.



I have had a good time. Thought I'd use up all that spare dye that's been leftover from a couple of projects. All in the pot. I have some commercial undyed yarns bought from Wangaratta Woollen Mills on the last trip to Harrietville, so I skeined two and dip dyed. Dyeing a third, adding the next third and then the final third for the last 10 minutes. It's a sort of wine colour and I'm quite happy.





Then, I thought I'd overdye the commercial autumn colour I won. Unfortunately, I forgot that it was still a hot pot and just dumped it in. I think I gave it a bit of a shock, it's slightly felted. I am quite happy with the result, but I think I'll do another, properly. I am looking to make an Autumn leaf scarf with this lot, I just need to get the right shape.









I've also started work on the workshop for the Bendigo spinners. The first yarn we're going to create is a multi-ply yarn. I've based the workshop around the multi-colour tops, like those you get from First Editions. For this yarn I've spun 20gm of the multi-colour, then 10gm each of a brown and black which should match. For added complexity, the brown is an unwashed fleece, so I won't know what the final yarn will look like till I wash it!




I've plyed the brown with the colour to balance, the black with the colour with extra twist. I've then plyed these together with extra twist and will add some fine commercial yarn, probably black. I'd like some texture, but I don't think I have anything suitable.

I have to time all of this!

Sometimes wool is best!

I've just finished spinning the mix of bamboo, ramie, soy and carbon. It has to be the worst spinning experience...the bamboo goes everywhere, the carbon and soy are completely inelastic and who knows about the ramie it got lost. Very different amounts of twist were required depending on the fibre, though that is my fault for choosing this particular path!

I decided to spin another single of silky wool and ply them together. This certainly improved the look and handle and I'm starting to be happy.

As there is only about 30gms I thought I might also dye at the same time, some fluffy wool, whose provenance is unknown, but might provide a nice contrast to the handspun skein.

I had some Landscape Desert Pea to dye the two skeins. I've used this on wool before and got quite a strong red, but failed to this time. Not sure what the problem was, but it's a decent result.

The dye took very unevenly on the multi-fibre dye, as you would expect.

This is going to be quite a challenge to get an interesting scarf. At least it's bright.