Finn and Cashmere

I finished spinning the "Marine Dream" finn/cashmere blend plied yarn. It took a while to get through it all.


The yarn will soon be listed on etsy and the webstore.

Now, what to spin next? Probably some raw fleece, which I haven't spun from for a while. There is a huge selection bagged up in the garage. Corriedale today, I think...

Spinning and Perpetual Socks

The yellow cotton child's socks are finished (yay!) and I delved straight into more socks. These are adult socks in Nundle Mill's 8 ply Hemp + Wool. This yarn is growing on me the further along I get. It will be interesting to see how it is after a number of wears and washes.

I have been spinning up this colourway "Marine Dream" in a finn/cashmere blend. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. LOVE THE COLOURS, LOVE THE FIBRE!!! Can't wait to ply this one. I'll leave you now to get back to spinning it, with a Jane Austen DVD for company. Kids are out with hubby, time to ... relax ...

Spinning Finn

I have been playing around with some pure finn top and found it wonderfully fast to spin. Even though it is a medium wool, it is nice and soft and has a lovely lustre found in longwools such as English Leicester, but without the itchy scratchy factor. This colourway is "watermelon" and I have chain plied it.

I also dyed some of the finn top in our "Vintage" colourway...

and spun up a plied yarn.

I'll pop these onto the etsy and webstore very soon. I'm spinning some finn/cashmere top next and I loooove the colours in that one. Pictures soon...

Camouflage

In the obscene heat of the last couple of days, I managed to finish plying this yarn which I have decided to call "Camouflage". At least the green is a cool colour to look at - I don't think I could have managed to spin anything red or yellow! I've also been dabbling in the dyepot again, so I will have lots of spinning in the works. The fibres will probably be dry in 10 minutes, it is so hot. This large skein has been listed on our etsy and webstore, and would make nice sport weight sock yarn.

15 Years !!!

Yesterday morning we woke up to the kids bringing in a tray with breakfast cereal and the all important cup of tea. It was our fifteen year wedding anniversary, and they had coloured in decorations which they had stuck with sticky tape all over the walls outside our bedroom door (luckily we hadn't yet painted the walls since we moved in). Our son had also wrapped up a block of chocolate he had pinched from the cupboard, and which we had been searching for over the previous two days (and blaming each other for its disappearance, of course!) They also did a concert for us on toy instruments, with the four year old vocalist of the family standing on the coffee table in all her glory (in only bright pink enormous underpants, as the weather was still very hot).

They are better at remembering these things than I am. I have been known to forget our wedding anniversaries. This is, of course, the Fawlty Towers anniversary milestone. As Sybil Fawlty said, "Fifteen years! When I think what I could have had..." One of our favourite shows...

We then took ourselves off without the kids to see a movie, but due to my mistake, missed our session time! So had a nice time wandering around pretending we had no responsibilities of children at home, then went to a music store where I spotted it! My dream guitar!! Claret coloured Takamine steel string - only entry level guitar but with a nice tone. Guess what I got to celebrate 15 years of marriage... It has been named Jeffrey, little Taka. But does the world really need more guitarists?

Bit of spinning: two bobbins of fine spinning, merino, in "earthen wear" colours. To be plied soon, and we'll see what it becomes...

Mulberry Delight - out of season fruitiness

"Mulberry Delight" - plied handspun merino yarn is all done and ready to have the twist set. It will be listed on our etsy and webstore tomorrow when I take some decent photos.

Still having troubles with the Majacraft plying bobbin... I wonder if they are going to reply to the email I sent in December asking about it...

Spinning...Finally!

The last two nights I threw everything else aside, swiped the dust off Elspeth, and did some spinning. The plied yarn is merino dyed in a new colourway, "Atmosphere," which I have been playing around with and, wow, did this yarn turn out SOFT and SPROINGy!! I keep squeezing it just for fun. The single on the bobbin is merino in our "Mulberry Delight" colourway. Online and Etsy Store updates in the pipeline.

It felt good to get spinning again, and meshed well with the veggie garden I have been making in the backyard - stripping life back to the basics.

Getting My Act Together

A dodgy photo of the yellow child's sock in progress. I didn't get quite as far as I planned, since I overenthusiastically kept decreasing while watching a movie, and had to unpick and retrieve those stitches!

I have been knitting over the New Year but no spinning for a while, as I have been working on a screenplay and it is hard to squeeze everything in to the 24 hours of the day. Especially in school holidays...

Before Christmas I went fleece shopping at some local hobby farms. Met the sheep, personally picked out some lovely fleeces, so will be spinning up some yarns in the near future for a (long overdue) store update. Stay tuned.

Sock obsessed!

I finished knitting the Country Fair socks and, just for a change, cast on another pair of...socks! Addictive knitting projects.

As soon as the first pair of socks were off the needles, they were grabbed by my daughter and worn around the house. Not even time for a photo. After I managed to get them back, they were placed on some borrowed legs for a quick snap. Just to prove they were indeed finished. Like almost everything else I create they will probably end up in my elder daughter's wardrobe. She is very enthusiastic and appreciative of handmade things. What a lovely child!!

The yellow socks are going to end up on the feet of my younger daughter. I'm not sure they will stay yellow for long...

Out of the Knitting Bag

We've been bringing in the new year with the best that summer fruit can bring...big fat juicy black cherries and white nectarines. Mmmm.

On a not so exciting note, knitting has been slow after the new year clean up exposed a tax form that should have been filled out back in July. Oops. Procrastination is such an ugly word.

Tonight as a family we are going to watch the movie "Sabrina." Before Christmas my sister had a lovely baby of the same name, unfortunately not in Australia. She is an Audrey Hepburn fan, so we are "educating" the kids with that version of the movie!

The knitting bag is bursting with projects, some of which are in the photo. Sock number 2 in Country Fair is ready for the heel, and a cardigan for me will hopefully be finished before the first cold snap of Autumn. I get distracted and start new projects constantly! However, I did finish a beanie in slubby handspun.

PS. Tell Santa I spent his Christmas money buying knitting / spinning goodies over the internet. Think I blew the budget, though...