MERRY XMAS TO ONE AND ALL

I can't believe how fast this year has flown by.  Even my youngest kids have complained so it's not just me.
I have been busy spinning wool and knitting a jumper for a dear friend and I discovered when I went to dye her wool that my cauldron has a hole in it!!!!  Really pissed about that as it's a stainless steel pot so I can't just patch it up.  Replacing it will cost me at least $140 and that's not even for a pot as big but it should do.  Unfortunately with the silly season hard upon us, buying a new one will have to wait till new year.
Which means I will once again be braving heat stroke to dye next year's Wool Show stock.

I entered a shawl into the local show that I spun and knitted, from wool a friend from England gifted me, and won a second prize.  This was way back in October.

The colours are most accurate in this photo.  Sorry it's a little fuzzy...they didn't display them well this year.

We also went camping with the home education group at Halls Gap.  Lovely place but the weather was changeable to say the least.  We managed to put the tent up between showers when we arrived and ended up leaving a day early due to kids vomiting all through it a few days later...argh....it was raining then too so we dropped and ran between showers.

Not an easy feat with 5 kids and all our gear.  We don't exactly do it rough when we go camping.  After all, how would we wake up in the morning if we left the coffee maker at home.

Here's our wee tent....

 We had a table and lots more chairs but that was a morning shot so they hadn't come out as yet.

I woke early one morning...darn nature is noisy...Cockatoos are very loud in groups.  There were advantages to waking early and leaving the tent...the field next to us had a gathering of Kangaroos.

 There is a rather busy road on the other side of those trees..

 The vista around us was really awesome too.  Halls Gap is worth a good look if you ever get the chance.  Bit of a bugger for a person with a bad back in need of a chiropractor though..Doing the walking tracks was out of my reach but the drives around are pretty good too.

We had an awesome full moon the second night....kids went crazy...

 

And of course in November we had another birthday.  One of my youngest turned 9!!!!!

Her big sister baked her a couple of cakes since our oven spat the dummy.  Yet another large cost we didn't need at this time of year since we had to replace it...garg...is all I can say...

We're waiting on the guys to come and resurface the pool too but with all the rain we're having it's not happening when it should have.  Just as well we only have about one hot day a week.  The weather is being very dicky this year due to a change in weather patterns....I will post pics of the pool when it gets done...hopefully before xmas...

Well I have my mother staying for the next few days and many busy days ahead so I will hopefully post again but it may not happen....If I don't, Merry Xmas to all!!!!!!!!!

AUSTRALIAN SHEEP AND WOOL SHOW COME AND GONE

And what a wonderful weekend it was if you don't count the weather.  Set up Thursday was the hottest July day we've had in decades and we sweltered with 23*.  Alas it led to a false sense of security as the next day was wet and cold and it just got colder as the weekend progressed.  I don't think the mercury broke double digits on the Sunday.

Regardless, the yarn and fibre obsessed came and spent on their yearly re-stash.  I went with 28.6kg of dyed merino and by the end of Friday I had 13.5kg left.  I thought I was going to be out by the end of Saturday but it slowed right down and at the end of Sunday I had a little over 2kg left.  Stitch markers did not sell as I had hoped but they did sell and of course, they won't go 'off' so they'll be listed on a store, probably my etsy at this point.  I do think I'll have to look into my own online store soon, as the etsy post drives me batty.

Here's a pic of the start of the show.  I had thought I had taken an end of show pic but nope...

I have a few teals and blues left and some watermelon and pinks...black went in the first couple of hours.  Really happy with those shelves I used this year and we put camp flooring down which made a huge difference to our feet which got really sore last year.

My Hand Made Stitch Markers...

I love making these things and use them all the time myself.  So, like the nice person I am, I am happy to share the love......
The cost is $10 for 6 markers, $15 for 6 markers and a row counter and $5 for a row counter. The Crochet Balls come in sets of 4 for $10. Most have sets with row counters but some don’t. If you want some before Bendigo just let me know.   I am happy to have people email me via here if you'd like to purchase a set or two.  I do have pay pal or for local people bank deposits and cash on pick up.  Post is always what I have to pay myself, no cheeky post pirating.  If you want to pick them up at Bendigo I am happy to put anything aside that you'd like.

Amethyst Glass

I love these ones…they say Believe…there will be quite a few of these ones.

Black Cloisonne

Black Onyx

Blue Cloisonne

Crochet Balls (sets of 4 only)

Glass Squares

Glass Balls

Hand Made

Glass Lady Bugs…wayyy too cutems (sets of 6) SOLD OUT

Leopardskin Jasper with rhinestone ends.

Made with Love

Rose Quartz

Watermelon Quartz

Amethyst

Chrysocolla

Coloured Stone

Coloured Turquoise

Glass Rounds, these are all different colours in set if I can manage it.

Hematite, non magnetic, I love how these shine..

Light Blue Cloisonne

Turquoise Peace Sign

Unakite

Row Counter, glass balls

Like I said, most of them are in sets but I do have singles of the Row Counters with various cute beads etc.  The Crochet balls are only in sets of 4 ($10) and usually the set of 6 will have one that has something different on it or a silver rather than gold clasp (or vise versa) so you can use them for the beginning on round work.  I found last year that they are excellent for crochet so if you know any of those lovely crafters, let them know!!! 

A New Spinning Wheel on the Market!!

As an avid spinner it's always interesting to see what's new on the market.  A friend has been selected to be a test spinner for a new wheel coming out of the Netherlands so I am interested to see how it spins.  It's a very modern looking wheel but simple as well, a bit like the dutch imo, no fuss no muss.
Here is the Linky....tell me what you think of their look!  Woolmakers  From the look I quite like that it has bobbin storage on the wheel and the size of the wheel means it'll be fantastic for thicker spins.  It's 2cm larger in the wheel than the Ashford Traveller wheel and 5lb lighter.  The shape of it looks like it would be easy to maneuver around compared to other non folding wheels.

I will be looking forward to hearing how it spins.  Also I will be interested to see how much fibre/yarn you can get off the bobbin.  The price is about $330 AUD and I would guess that shipping from there would be around another $100AUD as I know I can get 10kg from the UK for about that.  That makes this wheel very affordable.

WATCH THIS SPACE!!!!

Wonders Never Cease!!!

Well I hadn't posted again as I had to open a different browser to do so, BUT it seems that Firefox actually did something about my complaint and now I can open my blog AND log on with their browser!!! Just AWESOME!

So me and my little sweat shop workers got down and labeled all the fibre I have dyed so far.  We actually took some photos too but not a pic of every colour way.  Shame but I'll have to see if hubs has photos on his phone still.  He did actually put some of my dyeing photos to music but the file was way too big to post here.

So, without further ado!.....................................

 Pink

 Watermelon

 Dusky Pink

 Dark Blue

 Pink and White

 Dark grey/black

 

 Dark grey/black

 

Dark Granny Brown

Just a small cross section of what I have dyed up.  There are 30 different colours with names such as Watermelon, Dusky Pink, Light Pink, Pink and White, Daffodil Yellow and Orange, Indigo, Aqua Blue and Darker Aqua Blue, Grass Green, Hot Pink and Not Hot Pink, Not really Watermelon, Variegated Purple and Sky Blue, Granny Brown, Blink (blue with pink highlights), Camo, Grape, Dusky Red and Red Red Wine, this list will go on as I plan to dye more.

I have sold a little of it to a friend who felts and she says it's felts perfectly! I also have some Super wash I'll be throwing some dye at but at this time I am not sure if it'll make it to market.

And just so you know it knits up after spinning perfectly too....here's something I whipped up earlier....

Whooops!!!!!!!

Been quite a while since I have posted.  Everytime I thought about doing it I didn't have the time but I will make more of an effort to do so from now on.

Christmas has been and gone and now we're well into the new year!  I am busy busy dyeing up Merino to take to the Australian Wool and Sheep Show this year.  Dates this year are July 19th - 21st - Feature Breed - Texel,  I love Texel, it's a wonderful wool!

This year I am focusing more on this merino I have, which is fantastic for felting and my fantastic Stitch Markers which are great for knitting and crochet.  I am going to have a wall of colour and I have been dyeing kg lots in the same colour.  Well they are supposed to be the same colour but I would technically have to call it varigated which is just awesome too! The micron level is 17-22 so it's just lovely and soft.

My prices will be $5 for the approximately 100g dyed chains or $35 for an undyed kg.  Photos to come....