A New Years Resolution

As another blogger bemoaned her lack of blogging and the wish to regain her momentum, said "Isn't that what new years resolutions are for?". All I can say is 'Yep'! So here is my first blog for 2011.

I have been a bit thin on magazine reviews, for no other reason that my head has been IN the magazine and not here. A little bit of luck on New Years Eve provided me with the latest edition of Vogue Knitting (or Designer Knitting after it has been sent to England, repackaged and sent here! Hasn't anyone told them that England is the WRONG direction!) I didn't expect anything but there it was.....

I love this:

and this:

and would love to modify this dress to something else!

Oh, and here is our lovely extension. It is finished (basically) and we've furniture and TV and it's the lightest and biggest room in the house. We love the terrace and the view!

Unfortunately, the landscaping is still to come. 2011 project....I thought it would all be over.

Anyway, I hope your New Year celebrations were filled with friendship and fun and achievable resolutions. See you somewhere, sometime, I'll be the one with the busy hands!

Just some finished things

Here are the finished articles referred to in previous posts. Just so you know I do finish things!

Firstly, the mystery socks. I slowed down once the last page was sent out, and then they sat waiting for the toes to be grafted. Finally, they're finished, I've worn them and I like them. Just perfect for jeans. Now, I need some new shoes.....

Oh, and, yes, I do have different sized feet and therefore different sized socks!

Then there's the fingerless mittens using the Earth Pallette experiment. I found just the right buttons and I like them, they'll be at Rose St. on Sunday.

And, finally the scarf. I am so happy with it. It has rolls, holes, bits sticking out and, I think, reflects my trip to the Botanical Gardens. The picture doesn't quite show everything, but, I hope you get the idea.

When too many fibre sandwiches are not enough!

I know I haven't been blogging much. I'm taking more photos of all the work I'm doing, so that's a start! or should I say 'restart'. I've just unloaded them from the camera and I do have a couple of things to show you.

I did decide to make this post about Experimental Spinning, our Christmas meeting, held on Saturday and our, now annual, fibre sandwich, and, I'm not going to change that decision.

This year the theme was 'Christmas cake'. Much brown fibre was spread out, much chatting, all sorts of 'fruit', mostly reds and greens, more chatting, and finally, we put a layer of 'icing' on the top and more decorating with holly and pink icing.

We did think it looked like a Christmas cake!

We split it up and celebrated with a real home made beautiful sponge cake, coffee from Filous, and other delicious things. Some of us started spinning our Christmas cake and a lovely day was had by all.

I went home and finished spinning. For some reason, fibre does 'speak' to you, the sandwich demanded to be spun finer than I would usually, so when I finished it at home, I navaho plied the yarn to retain the different layers. Ooops, forgot to say, that we seemed to create four layers as we were piling up our fibre contributions. There were two 'cake' layers, a 'fruit' layer and an 'icing' layer. I decided (what alot of decisions!) that I would card each layer and spin them. Navaho plying just made sense.

Here, it is, and I'm happy!

Ladders

Now, I have to replace the fingerless mittens that sold on Saturday! I have a certain number of mittens in my head that I think I need to give people a reasonable choice. The first part of this is to replace those sold!

Hanging in my workshop were two hanks of 12ply yarn that had been dyed in Earth Palette dyes. I like the idea of these as they are a cold water dye and also allow you to 'paint' the yarn. My friend, Jackie and I, had purchased a few at the Sheep and Wool show and it seemed like a good idea that now was the time to experiment!

To make up the dye we used hot water to melt the dye and other chemical crystals. We were supposed to allow them to cool, but being impatient to give it a go we used them warm. In my fellow dyers case this didn't cause any problems as she was cautious (newbie dyer!) and I just ploughed ahead. Of course, the dye took too well and the mixing I was expecting didn't quite happen. I ended up with these two balls of yarn.

Using the newly purchased stitch dictionary (see yesterday's post), I chose a stitch they called 'ladders'.

And here are the knitted mittens, without finishing and buttons. Aren't they fun?

I can see this stitch in all sorts of ways: a very fine yarn would really suit this stitch, rearranging the ladders and perhaps, casting off and on the background stitches to really create a ladder. Just some ideas.

Now, I'm off to do the shopping, washing and all the stuff that didn't get done on the weekend......It was a nice weekend.

A glorious day in the Botanical Gardens

Yep, wonderful sunny Melbourne Sunday afternoon in the Botanical gardens. We're such a lucky city to have such a large open space fall of plants, buildings, lakes and more plants.

A meeting of Experimental Spinning and 3D5S was to start at the Plant Craft cottage in the gardens. These ladies are wonderful with all sorts of different crafts related to plants: dyeing, pot pourri (I can still smell on my hand the damp pot pourri, a pot of which you are invited to stir with your hand!), basketmaking, fibre group, counterpart and I think some more. So after a lovely cup of tea talking all things crafty I sat outside 'being inspired' by their lovely gardens and trying to come up with a pattern for my new balls of wool.

At a busy market at Ivanhoe Makers Market, one of my lovely customers had returned with a jacket that had been knit with some yarn I had dyed for her and presented me with a leftover hank. This had been dyed a lovely 'Flax' colour (from Landscape dyes) and seemed right to start in the gardens.

I had, also, just picked up another stitch dictionary from the little knick knack shop in Heidelberg in Hawdon st. (sorry, I don't remember the name) that has a really wonderful collection of vintage patterns, among other things!

Not being particularly successful, but feeling relaxed, I headed off for a stroll in the gardens, taking photos, enjoying the new wildlife, including signets and an egg laying turtle. Finally, finishing up at the Observatory cafe, where the SnB group were meeting.

The afternoon was spent chatting, laughing, eating and, of course, knitting where I finally, and with much unpulling arrived at what I thought would work.

A mixture of knitting and folding, short row knitting, adding eyelets all seem to combine to create something interesting.

It still needs tweeking. It will be knit lengthwise and various directional changes seem to be called for, but also a little look at the reversability issue!

End of my first year of DVA

Well, it's all over, bar the shouting. Yesterday, I finished my last print for printmaking. I still have to get the entire folio together.

Every Monday, there's Life drawing in the morning and Printmaking in the afternoon. Life Drawing with Peter, has been such a privilege, to have models come in and pose for two hours.....not straight, they do have rests, the longest stretch being for 20 minutes....you hold a pose for 20 minutes! I have a great deal of respect for the models, they were so generous and fabulous to draw.

Then after lunch we fronted up to Jo and her wonderful printmaking class. I have enjoyed learning about the different print methods she showed us. She has created a wonderful blog for students, hasn't been active as she's been on holiday, but has great links. Should be good to read next year.

I did really like lino cut with the direct and very textural method of carving out your image, but I did also enjoy aquatint, where resin is applied over a line etching then covered up gradually to create tone.

I don't think I'm a real printmaker though.....editioning just doesn't suit my style. I just want to change the print every time!

My last print was this one-off aquatint, in red!

Now, I have to label and name all my prints.

Not another fractal yarn!

I blame knitspingirl, but I can't help trying yet another fractal yarn.

 

I bought this packet of Pure Merino Wool Top from Garments and Gadgets at the Sheep and Wool show this year. They're not particularly cost effective, but I can't help trying someone else's colour combinations. This one is called: Brights, and yes, there is another one in my stash.

As I have related before, a fractal yarn, is where you spin one half of your colours in sequence. Then you keep splitting the other single in half and half again till you get to the smallest amount, either possible or that you want. I stopped here.

It's interesting how the two bobbins end up. You can see only the last few colours in the first and in the second all the different colours in their different lengths. Plying is also a fascinating exercise in colour theory as the spinning combines colours and you get purples, greys, browns, all sorts. I'm sort of hoping that this will work in the final product.

This is the finished yarn, and before you say it, yes it does look a little barber shop pole. It does look bright though, and that was the idea. I am happy, mostly as this is finer than I usually spin and my last effort at spinning this fine was not my best effort. I did not put enough twist in my original singles, so when it plyed to balance it was way too soft, this time, I think it was just about right....hooray!

I'm hoping that this will become a little more subtle in the weaving. I'm going to make a fine black warp and use this as the weft in, hopefully a couple of different twill patterns. I do feel confident, but as I haven't even a warp plan, that's easy!

Now, off to have some breakfast.

PS, yes it was fun to do and I just had to share!