I bought some socks.

As part of my checking out Etsy, I decided to buy something to see how it all works. Not being a great shopper, this proved more difficult than I thought. I did, finally, find these socks. Aren't they gorgeous?

They're made of recycled cotton. The originals are handknit, but they're made on a knitting machine, I assume a sock knitting machine, of course. They are made in pairs, but are "Mismatched with care in Vermont". I just love the deliberate mismatching.

The shop on Etsy is Rustic Seasons.

Altona Oil Refinery

The 3D5S trip for September was to Altona Oil Refinery. Meeting at the guild, and travelling together, we managed a side stop at docklands, where ships were being loaded with their containers. The structures here are amazing.

The trip to the Refinery had involved liaising with the public relations people who were very helpful and we were able to take photographs from around the perimeter without the interference. Security is obviously tight, sitting on all that flammable liquid must make you nervous at the best of times.

It is an amazing facility, which I don't think that those of us who have only ever driven past, are really ever aware of. There are pipes everywhere, it makes you wonder what they are all for.

It's going to be interesting to see how these translate into crochet and weaving when we meet next month. A fabulous trip.

Don't judge a book by its' cover

Looking for inspiration is always a pleasant experience.

I managed to find a Nicky Epstein book, only to find that it was on hold. Looking for a second time, I was a little desperate, I couldn't walk out of the library without something. This book did not look promising. Terrible looking 70's thing with an uninspiring title. It turned out that it was written in 2005. Couldn't someone have done better, there is very little that draws you to this book.

Except when you open it. It is full of fantastic ideas, swatches, techniques. I love it. I spent the evening just looking through it.

So excited was I that a small ball of leftover yarn was converted into a little sample of icords being included in the knitting, not just as a trim. I could see them going all over the place, both sides and extremely long.

I love libraries.

teesjourney on Etsy

It's official, I now have a shop on Etsy. (www.etsy.com) The shop is called 'teesjourney'. I've only got a few things up there, but it's a start. I've already had a few views and someone has put me on their favourites list. Very lovely. I just have to wait for the first sale.

It's quite a process setting up, deciding on your look, the banner, postage, pricing and the worst of all, photographs. I hope I will be quicker and resolve some of the problems with some colours. I would like to think that colourwise they are accurate. There's more to do in terms of putting information and doing promotion, and I tackle those things over the next few weeks.

I now have three weeks to the next 9"x5" market......I do tend to mark my time by each market....I am feeling the need to do something more creative than the fingerless mittens I need to make, the silk scarves and now silk yarn I would like to finish. The sculpture beckons, so lots of spinning of paper, but I think I need a big weaving job? Have to think.

This is not a block, I have plenty of ideas, just the desire for something substantial?

What have I been doing?

Mainly bookwork, labels, even washing my market table cloths. I decided that as doing all the administrative things I usually leave to the last week wasn't really getting them done, I've decided to do them this week. It's usually a bit flat after the excitement of a market day.....yes, it was successful, quiet but some lovely return business and friends. This means not so much actual work being done.

As well, I'm working on setting up my Etsy shop. Yes, I've decided to take the plunge, despite my reservations about its large size. It's only about the size of a small city, and I manage to live in Melbourne of three million, so I should be able to manage Etsy. It is quite an online community and the sharing of information and experience seems to be encouraged.

I'll let you know when I open up for business!

Silk scarves

Here are the three scarves I've made in the last couple of days. The red (Landscape 'Crab Apple') is actually a short row knit giving lovely curves, rosemary is a long scarf, knit diagonally (decrease one side, increase the other) and the onion skins is knit lengthwise with a stitch called 'Daisy Chain' (courtesy Vogue Knitting 'Stitchionary' Volume one) down the centre.

Off to Incube8tr this afternoon. More spinning!

Dyeing with Rosemary and Onion Skins

The 9"x5" Market is on again, this Sunday and I'm busy trying to make some silk scarves. A more luxurious item, that can, hopefully translate into either Summer scarves or Christmas presents.

As part of this project, I've tried some natural dyeing. The usual dyeing process involving Landscape dyes.

The first one I tried was with Rosemary. At first it was a bit disappointing and unfortunately difficult to photograph. The colour is a soft golden almost, but not quite, green. The colour you're supposed to achieve with Rosemary is a green. However, upon further reading of India Flint's 'Eco colour' I figure I should have harvested and chopped up the leaves, off the branches I trimmed, instead of just chucking in the whole lot as they came off the bush. I will try that next time.

The next dye I was really keen to use was Onion Skins. I have dyed with this at the Plant Craft Cottage in the Botanical Gardens and loved the colour this humble plant material provided. My local green grocer, generously provided me with a bag of onion skins. (It would have taken me months to collect a bagful!)

I wasn't disappointed. This beautiful, I don't want to say 'brown' as it doesn't convey the colour, Autumn leaf colour will knit into a beautiful scarf.

The process of dyeing is simple. I chose to use a more gentle method as suggested by India Flint, of bringing the dye material to a boil and then letting the pot brew. This worked very well with both materials and when I finally added the yarn as well. I simply bought the dyepot to the heat and then let it sit.

As these scarves are made from yarn which is both wool and silk, it is interesting how well the silk takes up the dye, to the detriment of the wool. To get a strong colour on the wool, I'm going to have to dye it separately. The natural dyes are noticeable, but the commercial red dye I used, really shows the difference.

There's so much to try.