Experimental Spinning in isolation

As the Handweavers & Spinners Guild of Victoria has closed because of COVID-19 we have held our meetings virtually with a combination of WhatsApp and Zoom. It's hard to figure out how best to use them. I suspect many of the features are there, just have to find them.

One good outcome is that I seem inclined to finish the different yarns we've done so far.

This is the bead yarn that seems to be a leftover from the last time we covered beads. The beads are dalmation beads and I put them on the single as it was spun. I've got some black alpaca that I'll spin and combine with this one.

We were supposed to look at Border Leicester, however, we weren't able to obtain some in time. I found some English Leicester and decided to do some tail spinning. I've only done it once before and this time it was more successful.

For information on Border Leicesters see: https://www.thespinningloft.com/sheep-o-pedia/border-leic... and https://www.borderleicester.com.au/why-borders

I found a good video on tailspinning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv24qJaEhpk

The last one I've completed so far, we were blending all sorts of bits and pieces. I had wool, alpaca, threads and core spun around some 4 ply yarn which  worked quite well.

For core spinning yarn by Ninja Chickens- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhRGnWdJeOc's 

This month we were playing with compost yarn that uses fabric and buttons. Lots of feathers were on the agenda for others in our virtual Experimental Group.

I need a pair of mittens

4th June, 2020

I decided yesterday afternoon to knit me a pair of mittens.

Well, it wasn't quite that sudden. I had decided that the pair of mittens that I had knit with yarn from Hawaii should be reknit and teamed with some hard wearing handspun yarn. The mittens had developed a hole which I didn't want to repair, as the mittens were quite flimsy.

However, between Round 6 and Round 7 of Sock Madness I had about 2 days. I'm no longer in the competition but was interested in knitting the socks with the beads which turn out to be the Round 7 socks. (192 beads is tantalising!) So I needed something quick.

I used my favourite basic pattern book: Winter Warmers from Patons. (Book 483) It has lots of hats, scarves and mittens in different weight yarns and it is an essential item in my pattern collection.

This is them...

Happy and warm.

So enjoyable, I did some more. Now I have a pair for the beach and one for the city.

The Round the World Trip blanket

I'm trying to do a series of posts that catch up with this year. The first post is all about my trip blanket. I finally finished it in January, way after our return in September.

The idea was to get a ball of yarn everywhere we stayed. This didn't always work out, but in the major cities where we stayed, I managed to find a yarn shop and often some yarn that was from the local area. I used the 10 stitch blanket pattern as I could do the yarns in order, which sometimes gave odd results, but that was the point for me, to keep it in order. See: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ten-stitch-blanket

These are the shops I managed to find yarn:

San Francisco - Atelier Yarns, 1945 Divisadero St., San Francisco

Bellingham - Northwest Yarns, 1401 Commercial St., Bellingham

Haines - Dalton City Yarn, 312 Main St., Haines

Anchorage - Wooly Mammoth Alaska, 416 G Street, Anchorage

Talkeetna – The Patchwork Moose, 22262 Talkeetna Spur Road, Talkeetna, Alaska

I don't think I took a picture of the tiny bit of Quviut yarn I bought here!

Cordova - The NetLoft, 140 Adams Avenue, Cordova

New York - Purl Soho, 459 Broome St., New York

Boston - Newbury Yarns, Old South Meeting House, 2 Milk Street, Boston

Helsinki - Fiinaneule, Simonkatu 12, Helsinki

Edinburgh - McAree Brothers, 19 Howe Street, Edinburgh

Belfast – The Wicker Man, 18 High Street, Belfast

A great Irish Craft souvenir shop, well worth a visit. Even has yarn!

Cambridge - Sew, Knit, Craft, King St., Cambridge

Stow-on-the-Wold - Bourton Basket, The Old Forge, Moore Road, Bourton-on-the-Water
Maidstone - Hobbycraft Maidstone, St Peters Wharf, St Peter’s St., Maidstone
Faversham – The Yarn Dispensary, 6 Market Pl, Faversham, United Kingdom
Vienna – Meidlinger Knopfkonig, Meidlinger Hauptstrasse 32, 1120 Wien, Austria

My favourite shop was in Cordova. The Net Loft is run by an amazing women who has managed to make this remote, off the tourist track yarn, art, embroidery, souvenier shop, quite a success. Full of amazing yarns, including locally dyed and working on locally produced, as well. She has a program where they knit Ganseys for the local fisherman, so successfully that the author of the book that inspired them, Knitted Ganseys by Beth Brown-Reinsel, created a Gansey just for them. For more information: https://thenetloftak.com/pages/cordova-gansey-project

Many birds migrate through Cordova, it is Alaska, and they created an exhibition of knitted birds and continues to get submissions from around the world. Have a look at this:  https://thenetloftak.com/pages/copper-river-delta-birds-by-hand

Asking at a local cafe, it was admitted that they didn't know a women who didn't knit. If only it were true everywhere.

Oh, and here is the blanket...

Finished 'Secure' Sculpture

I have been working on this piece all last year. It's taken all year to work and resolve golf balls, clay, yarn, fence pailings and nylon wire into a finished piece.

I've called it 'Secure' asking the question in our Security obsessed century, whether security is an illusion.

It's now been entered into the brand new 'Australian Textile Art Award' and I wait to see if it has been accepted.

However, I still think that there is a further iteration of this work to come!

UPDATE: It was accepted into the exhibition. However, due to COVID-19 all we were able to do was have a very small opening ceremony.  Even in June, it's still sitting at the Embroiderer's Guild waiting to be seen.

Discovery

Walking along the beach at Cape Woolamai is always full of majesty and beauty. Sometimes though, it's the small things you find that are the most delightful.

Hooded Plovers are endangered but there is a concerted effort to protect them. It's such a privalege to see these very cute birds as they skip over the sand. They're very skittish and we have to keep our distance.

This lovely little sea anemone in one of the rock pools. It's a very rough beach and you don't tend to see these. 

However, on the rocks at the end of the beach is the mass of mussels and limpits.

Gifting the Gnome

This is the third year of making something to give to the 'children' in our family. The first year I gave mittens and last year, bed socks. Coming to the third year I didn't have a clue about what to make. My time was limited as we went overseas and renovated our home kitchen.

All the 'children' are over 18 and several have partners, and I include the partners! Somehow I found a pattern that I'd had for quite a long time and decided to make Yuletide Gnomes.

I had a photocopy of an article from Simply Knitting from a Christmas Crafts Extra in 2005. Yuletide Gnomes by Alan Dart. They're based on Swedish Jultomten.

So thirteen gnomes had to be made from only my stash....not as hard as it sounds. Plenty of materials have been given and I had lots of eyelash yarn, great for beards, stuff that I will never use! I made all the hats in leftover handspun yarn, for those great individual hats.

This is my first attempt and now sits with all my Christmas trees.

This lot are ready to go, there are still three to make, but what a jolly bunch.

And here are the last lot, under the Christmas tree waiting to go to their new homes.

They all seemed to be accepted in the spirit with which they were made, so I'm quite happy. Next year, I will do something a bit more serious!

On the Edge

I feel the need to give my photography brain a nudge or two. So grab the camera, head down to the beach and set myself a challenge. Good idea? 

I didn't want to take the usual 'scenery' photos. Ok, set myself a subject.....

The edge. I love the edge of the water as it reaches the land. On a beach it is forever changing, but there is definition....There's the topic: On the Edge.

There's the very close edge, under my feet.

Lots of pictures of the edge under my feet, the fluff of waves and smooth of the sand. Sea meeting Land. Is it the edge of the sea or the edge of the land?

Or the different edges that can be found, which includes evidence of human activity, slowly being erased by the sea. 

Or, the edge where the plants begin.

What about other edges?

On the edge of Adventure. As the surfer is young, perhaps on the edge of Adulthood? Looking out from the edge, about to cross over. Just very lucky she stayed still for a moment before she headed out, and I snapped it quickly enough.

Is the edge between sea and sky an edge. Is the horizon an edge?

What about all sorts of other edges? On the edge of being lost. On the edge of being forgotton. On the edge of danger. 

How to stitch all these together, becomes a question that may lead to a piece of work. Stitching and layering and old forgotton and unloved doilies, on the edge of being lost forever, the work of many skilled workers. 

And what did I learn? Don't forget to take your other lens!