Bishop Stone

Ross spinning day part 2

2012-02-14T18:55:00.001+11:00

One of the themes for our ross spinning day was mug hugs, or warmer for your coffee cup. The ladies from the guild produced a diverse range of mug hugs, one of my favourites being the penguin by Doris. How lucky we are to have such talented ladies in our group. I always come away feeling inspired and itching to try new things after seeing what they have made.

Ross spinning day part 1

2012-02-14T18:46:00.001+11:00

I am a little behind the time but in Jan. the hand weavers, spinners and dyers guild had their annual spinning day at ross. Ross being about the middle of this state. The weather was fantastic and it was a fantastic and relaxing day under the trees. I dont think we really wanted to go home at all.

Belle of the Ball Podcast V2

2012-01-24T12:32:00.001+11:00

advent calendar scarf Knit along 2011

2011-12-19T08:57:00.000+11:00

During december I have been doing a knit along through ravelry. The pattern is the advent calendar scarf 2011 by Kristin Benecken. Each day of december a new lace pattern is put up on the site and off we knit. I had thought this would be a great idea to have a new lace pattern to knit each day, but I forgott to factor in how busy the month has become.

I started two days late, then i thought I would be able to catch up but it has not happened. But I still live in hope of catching up. I have learnt some new stitches and love knitting lace, even though some of the patterns have been a learning curve and I have learnt that I do need quiet to knit lace.

I will post more photos as I go. So far I am up to day 14 and I will just continue slowely. I wont have it finished by christmas but that is OK with me.

last years fleece.

2011-11-29T10:50:00.000+11:00

I have been having a bit of a tidy up around my place and decided to have a look at some of my fleeces from last year, before we get around to shearing again. This fleece gave me a big surprise as I opened it out again. It is from my neighbours sheep. It is such a bright yellow colour at the cut edge that I was a little unsure what to do with it.

I took samples from different parts of the sheep and washed them to see how the washed fleece would look. Eventhough I used hot as water and tried different types of soaps and washes I was still left with a slight yellowness in the wool. In some places it was only a patch that stayed yellow, but in others it was the entire staple. I am still undecided as to whether to keep the fleece and spend hours washing it or throw it out. One one hand I know I have lots of other fleece but then again I dont like to throw out what may be an okish fleece even if the thought of so many hours of washing does not appeal when it is a fairly coarse fleece.
Ithink I will hold on to it for a bit and then decide.

kids, dogs and the beach

2011-11-16T08:55:00.002+11:00

We have been lucky enough to have had some really warm days, and a few of them in a row. The best way to spend these are with a walk along the dog beach and splashing around in the water.

The boys had a great time colapsing the bank of the river and swimming with the dogs. Eventhough the children have been in swimming a few times already this year I have not braved the cold water, I think I'll just wait until the water is slightly warmer.

Pendulum Wheel

2011-11-08T16:57:00.001+11:00

I was so fasinated by this whell and at the ease at which the lady is able to spin on it.

This is halloween 2011

2011-10-31T12:01:00.001+11:00

bicheno weekend

2011-09-26T11:28:00.000+10:00

I have just spent a lovely, relaxing weekend at the beautiful seaside village of bicheno. It was the Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild of Tasmanias annual weekend. There were about 50 ladies and a handful of men. There was lots of spinning, knitting and lots of talking and laughing going on. I always love to see what others have been doing and making. It is always so inspiring.

The theme this year was socks. I did the sock blank workshop. The wonderful Vicky and Sheree took this and I would like to to say a huge thankyou to them for all their hard work in making the blanks. Mine is on the right, my mum's on the left. The theory with mine is that I should get a row of black and then a row of colour when I knit my socks up. I have started and am really pleased to say it has worked. The blank is 120 stitches wide and 185 rows long. Then I used an old patons sock pattern that uses 60 stitches. I am happy to say it works for me. But as all knitters have slightly different tension it may be different for others. Iwould like to try a blank 240 stitches wide and get two rows of black, two rows of colour. I will post photos when I have knitted some more of my sock.

Here are some of the socks people brought along to share. The variety was amazing.

I also did a little workshop run by Kim. These are fibre swap cards. Kim is in a group where they do a monthly swap with hand made cards. The range was huge. Mine is second from the right on the bottom row.

Lower crackpot

2011-09-21T08:52:00.001+10:00

Here are some more photos from our recent trip to the promised land. We went to a place called Tasmazia where there are 8 mazes to find your way around. We had lots of fun and took quite a few wrong turns. There was also a long list of things to find on our trip as well, and I am happy to say we found them all. I was worried I would not sleep that night if we could not find all the items on the list, I do like to finish what I have started.

This place even has its own post office with certified stamps and post code. Very cool.

servas peace picnic

2011-09-19T10:22:00.001+10:00

Yesterday we spent a lovely and relaxing afternoon on parliament lawns having a picnic with new and old friends. For many years we have been involved in a peace based travel organisation, called SERVAS where people can come and stay with us for a few nights as they travel, sharing their culture and lives with us.
International peace day will soon be upon us and so we decided to have a local get together outside to help celebrate world peace. Over the years we have met some fantastic people and I have learnt alot about areas of the world I have never visited.

promised land

2011-09-16T19:10:00.001+10:00

We have just had a little holiday. we headed for the promised land for a few nights so we could take the children to Tasmazia.(more on that later) I had to take a photo of the sign so you would believe me, but I thought we just had to stay in the promised land.

Which is just down the road from No Where Else. ( I hope you can read the sign ) but that is really the name of this lovely rural area. I was amazed by how green and lush it was, but I guess that means it must rain alot there.
Apart from the name of this place, I wanted to go there because of a story my Dad tells of when he was a child. He and his father were out driving and as they a little lost my grandfather stopped at an intersection and asked my dad to go and see what the sign said. So out he goes and runs back to his waiting father.
So where are we? he answers Nowhere. His father not particularly amused tells him to get into the car and stop messing about. They drive on for a bit and arrive at another place. Same thing, my Dad jumps out looks at the sign and then comes back.
So where are we? And my Dad replies No Where Else. BY this time his father grumbles a few words under his breath and tells my Dad to get in the car while he goes to check the sign himself.
And now I can say I too have been to No Where Else. What a fantastic address to have.

This is the view of Mt Rollin from where we stayed. As the light changed so did the colour of the mountain.

This is a lovely house we passed in the town of Ross on our way home. I will post more photos of what we got up to later.

threatened species day

2011-09-08T12:26:00.001+10:00

Yesterday was threatened species day. #3 child and I went to the site of the old Beaumaris zoo in hobart where 75 years ago the last know Tasmanian tiger, or Thylacine, died. The state was in the grip of economic crisis and unfortunabtely the animals at the zoo were low on the list when it came to help. The tiger was left outside for its last night, having to deal with the cold hobart weather along with starvation. I am sad that I never got a chance to see a real Tassie tiger but I have met people who have heard and seen then many years ago.
I have just finished reading Tiger in the bush by Nan Chauncy. This book is about a young boy and the secret he tries to keep about the almost extinct tiger. I loved the book as it took me back to my childhood years spent out in the Tassie bush. I must read for anyone interested in Tasmania, the bush of the plight of the tiger.

Lets hope the eastern barred bandicoot,the green and gold frog, the tassie devil, wedge tailed eagle, forty spotted pardolote and the hooded plover do not follow the same path as the tiger.

spring is on its way

2011-08-22T09:40:00.000+10:00

Here is our newest lamb, she seems to like the taste of the bark off this tree and can be seen chewing away at it each morning. I have named her camellia as my first white flower came out the morning she was born. (photo of the flower is later in the post)

Here are the first signs of spring around our place. These daffodils are grown from bulbs that I rescued from my great grand mothers garden. The house no longer stands but these were still flowering and I thought I should save some before the paddock was dug up by the tractor.

This is of course the white camellia and below is my first rhododendron of the season to be out in bloom. It caught me my surprise and so made me very happy when I saw the blooms.

more spinning

2011-08-12T17:11:00.001+10:00

Here is a cabled scarf I made for my teenage daughter. She had seen one at our local knit group so I found the debbie bliss book and knitted her up the scarf, only too happy to knit for my children.

This week I went to Judbury to the local craft group and had a great time spinning by the river in the towns new hall. As you can see all the rain we have had has swollen the Huon river to capacity. But it is a great backdrop to a craft group. This must be one of my favourite area, anytime of the year.

This is the park next door. I have often taken my children here. The tree in the distance is always a hit with my children as you can climb inside it and truely get a feeling for how majestic this tree once was. Happy crafting to you all.

winter on the mountain

2011-07-31T11:13:00.000+10:00

winter has been here for a while but we finally had some time to get up to play in the snow. Even Gerry seemed to enjoy it. I had a few turns sliding down the small hills. The children had lots of fun and we even found an igloo someone had made. The weather was one of the best I have ever been on the mountain, for winter that is.

tour de fleece

2011-07-13T13:18:00.000+10:00

As you can see the weather here has been a little cold over the last week. So it has been perfect weather for the tour de fleece. I have been busy trying to spin as much of my fleece srash as possible so this is what I have done so far.

This one was 828 m long.

a little bit of my socks

2011-07-04T12:23:00.000+10:00

Here are a few photos of the socks I have been working on lately. The rainbow socks are for my daughter. The ones below are called glass slipper and were made for a sock swap I was in on ravelry.

trial

2011-07-01T09:34:00.000+10:00

I thought I would try and see if I am able to post a photo onto my blog as I have been having problems for a while. This is a lovely flower blooming in my brothers garden in new zealand. If you are able to see this photo I will be back soon with a little update on my knitting adventures of late.

posting problems

2011-04-07T09:14:00.000+10:00

I seem to be having major problems trying to post my photos at the moment. I have followed some other peoples advice but can not seem to fix the problem. Any sugestions happily accepted. Thanks.

air walk quilt

2011-04-06T13:57:00.000+10:00

A few weeks ago I went to the Air walk, a suspended walkway through the treetops. I took my Host mother from Denmark( from the days when I was an exchange student many years ago) to see the wonderful forest. At the visitor centre I came across this fantastic quilt. I represents the forest and its diversity. I took some close ups of the detail that went into it. Sorry the photos have flash spots on them as it was behind glass. There was alot of 3d word and even knitted areas. Totally beautiful work. Well done to the ladies who made it.

wellington visit.

2011-03-30T11:59:00.000+11:00

I have just returned from a trip to wellington, new zealand to visit my brother, his wife and my new nephew. This is the view of the city from the hill just behind my brothers house. It is such a beautiful city with wonderful views, great wooden houses and lots of deep green trees.

Theses are just a few of the houses in and around the city area. I love the look of all these wooden houses. I could imagine living in one of these places. I could imagine sitting on the verandah and spinning or knitting.

This is a charming but very long pathway down to a house. Just imagine walking down there in the dark.

bothwell spin-in

2011-03-09T16:54:00.000+11:00

This is the lovely little town of Bothwell in the centre of Tasmania. Every second year it hosts the spin-in. And as the name suggests it is all about spinning, knitting and all things wooley.

These fantastic felted orbs are made by a very talented lady called Sue Evans. She also does contemporary artwork and custom made garments.

This stunning jacket is her felted thylacine( tasmanian Tiger) jacket.

There is also a competition for the longest spun thread from 10g of wool. This was facinating to look at the various entries from around the world. One entry that caught my eye was by an English lady called Amanda Hannaford and here thread was 652.726m long. So you can just imagine how fine it was. Truelly amazing.
I had a great day and only bought a little optim from ms gusset, and some silk/wool mix from the guild. I thought I was very good indeed.

one row scarf

2011-03-01T19:40:00.000+11:00

I found some lace weigh yarn in my stash and decided to make the one row scarf. I was very impressed by how quickly and easily this scarf knitted up and how impressive it looked when finished.

I was not sure how long to make it so I just kept going until the yarn was finished. I posted it off today for a birthday swap so I hope my swapee likes it.

sleeveless Cardigan

2011-02-18T14:12:00.000+11:00

This is my latest cardigan knitted from my stash yarn. It is the Sleeveless Cardigan by Wendy Knight . I found it in the Yarn magazine. As you can see it is not sleeveless as I added longer sleeves so I can wear this through winter and still be nice and warm.

knitting machine

2011-02-03T13:15:00.001+11:00

A few months ago I bought a second hand toyota 747 knitting machine in the hope of one day being able to make some jumpers for my children. First I gave it a little clean. I never knew there were so many needles or how long it would take to take them all out clean them in white spirit and them replace them. See how dirty the spirit has become.

But her it is all together and working. I have had a few sticking problems, but at the moment it all seems to be going well, touch wood. I am just playing at the moment, I have a long way to go before I can thing jumpers.

Lost your knitting needles?

2011-01-28T18:14:00.000+11:00

I found these photos on the net and thought you might enjoy them.
Just in case we were in the habit of loosing our needles, why not keep them with us at all times.

way home

2011-01-19T13:22:00.000+11:00

This is what I saw on my way home last night. A tiny patch of sun peeking over the hills. Hope you like it.

OLEK WALL STREET WEB

2011-01-11T10:43:00.000+11:00

I saw this on my local stitch and bitch blog. Hope you like it.

as we say goodbye to christmas

2011-01-11T08:52:00.000+11:00

I made some of these felt decorations this christmas. The original idea was to sit down with the children and make them together. But the boys interests only lasted a short while before they decided to race off and do something more exciting. So I had fun making them myself.

Our new cat TED loved the christmas tree. As an inside cat he does not get the chance to play with them outside so he made up for it with this one.

dogs on holiday

2011-01-05T14:21:00.000+11:00

This is how the dogs enjoyed there post christmas holiday by the beach. They had lots of fun.

Zeus found a blue tounge lizard hidden in the wood pile. It kept him entertained for hours, luckily he never got close to catching it.

But he kept waiting.

I dont know who enjoyed the beach more, the dogs or us.

christmas present

2011-01-02T20:20:00.000+11:00

This is the gift from my father this christmas. It is one of his paintings. I love it very much. I think it is one of my favourites of his.

Jethro Tull - A Christmas Song

2010-12-24T08:47:00.000+11:00

I wish you all a merry christmas.

sheep art

2010-12-18T21:18:00.000+11:00

I came across this picture of some sheep art. These were from an exhibition at the museum of communication in Frankfurt, germany. I cant remember the artist. Will let you all know if I can find it again. I thought these were very clever.

gingerbread houses

2010-12-13T14:44:00.000+11:00

As you can see I have been in the kitchen making gingerbread. I had wanted to make the gingrbread house with the children. #1 child and I made the gringerbread pieces for the house and then I put it together. I decided we did not need to decorate it with lollies as the children have had too many already in the last few weeks.

Then I made another batch of gingerbread and made these shaped biscuits. Oh my gosh. Now we have to eat them all, but it was fun.

more socks.

2010-12-03T16:14:00.000+11:00

Here are the finished sandalwood socks. I am happy with them but would like to try the pattern in a solid colour to see if it will show up the pattern better

These are a pair of toe up socks. They are knitted with cleckheaton bamboo. With bamboo stitch on the front of the cuff. They also have a picot edge. These are really nice and feel very smooth. I was not overly happy with the heel seam but love the socks.
Now I am knitting a top down cardi.

countdown to christmas

2010-12-01T11:04:00.000+11:00

Well it is that time of the year again when we start to count down to christmas. Each year we have an advent candle and always light it a dinner time. When the children were younger it was a great way for them to be able to see how far away christmas was. I love candles and I especially love the decorations you can find on advent candles. This year I had lots of trouble finding a candle. At first I wanted to make one like we did last year but I couldnt find a shop that sold candle decorating stuff. So luckily I found this solitary candle, designed by Jette Froelich, a danish designer. I think I will have to stock up on the candles when I find a good website that supplies them.

And here is the other side of the candle, so no matter where you are sitting at the table you have a nice view.

A friend of mine who has just arrived "home" from denmark gave me these lovely little nisse for christmas decorations. I just love them and all thing nisse-ish. The Danes really know how to decorate for christmas.

in the garden

2010-11-24T08:34:00.000+11:00

After the hot weather of yesterday I woke up to cooler and damper day. The garden seems to flourishing though. The bearded iris is a hybrid designed by my great uncle. A fitting way to remember him.

Delicious Death for Agatha Christie

2010-11-15T10:43:00.000+11:00

As an avid fan of Agatha Christie's I decided to make the Delicious Death cake which was created to celebrate her 120th birthday. Even though I am not much of a cook I thought this would be a good tribute to the master of crime that the whole family could enjoy.
I have been working my way through the poirot tv series, in chronological order, even though my family think me a little strange but you have to start at the beginning ang and then move forward. Most of these I had seen before and even more of them I have read but I just love the whole world within a world in these stories. Next I will have to move on to the Miss Marples.( I secretly would like to become Miss Marple, visiting wonderful english vilages, knitting and solving crimes). But back to the cake.Here are the raisins and glace cherries simmering in orangs juice( decided not to go for the brandy option so the children would like the taste)

#3 child took this photo of the finished cake and I thought I would use it as he told me his photo was better than mine. The recipe had said to cut the cake in two and put the fruit inside but after cooling the cake it was obvious when I started cutting that it would not stay in one piece and was very crumbly, so I put the fruit ontop, as you do. I dont know why it was so crumbly, any suggestions are very welcome.

Here is another photo of the cake, and its chocolate topping.

As you can see we managed to finish most of the cake, and luckily no one has died,yet. It was fun to make but not the type of cake I would make again. I found it very rich and far too sweet for me, even if the children managed to have seconds.
So thankyou Agatha Christie for all that you have contributed to the world, I know you have given me hours and hours of enjoyement in my life.

animals on display

2010-11-09T13:39:00.000+11:00

This is one of our nightly visitors. The mother possum was on the ground eating some food I had left out for them while this young one was on top of the bird feeder eaing the seeds I had left out for the birds.

It is that time of year again and I headed off to the show with the children and this goat stole our hearts, what an expression!

We also spent some time at the snake pit. The reptile rescue man and his helper stood in there with 10 deadly Tasmanian snakes. They were fasinating to watch but I was very happy for the high walls seperating me from them. These are tiger snakes and copper heads. I have one living in my garden at the moment and I wish it would go away. It seems to have taken a liking to my iris garden, just next to the verandah. All snakes are protected in Tasmania and so we are not allowed to kill them, so I am hoping it will decide this is not a good place to be.

And of course it cant be a show without the poultry shed. This was one of the finest roosters in the shed. WE always seem to spend far too long looking at all the chickens, ducks, pidgeons etc but you have to love them. we all went in the canary raffle and yet again we did not win, which is probably good.

Ihave been doing a little something

2010-11-09T13:06:00.000+11:00

As I am still finding it hard to find suitable patterns for a cardigan that can use the wool I have in my stash(maybe that is why it has been in the stash for so long.) I decided to make these quick and very easy Evangeline gloves as a gift. Then I made a pair for #1 child. This was some lovely soft wool I got from a blue swap on ravelry. Very nice

Then of course I decided to work on my sock wool stash and make these Sandalwood socks. I am using some sock wool I dyed. I really like the colour and I love the pattern but it is the old adage, wrong woll for that pattern. Oh well, I will just have to knit another pair later in a solid colour to show off the pattern.

It was#3 childs birthday and we held it on halloween weekend and so here was my black cat pinata, I also made a witch but had trouble with getting the right mouth to make her look witchy enough so in the end I painted over the mouth and I dont think any of the children even noticed she was missing a mouth.

worms end wales

2010-11-05T10:00:00.000+11:00

We went for a lovely walk along this headland at Worms End in Wales. The scenery was just spectacular. There were a few surfers out at the beach and a lot of walkers around enjoying the lovely day. When the tide is right you can walk from the head land out to the island, but unfortunately we were not able to stay there until the tide turned.

welsh travel

2010-11-05T09:54:00.000+11:00

While we were away in the UK the children go the chance to have a go at archery and also were able to hold some birds of prey. These two things seem to be very popular in the UK and so the children were really excited to be able to have a go at these medieval sports.

This was a young owl that the falconers were raising by hand. It was very cute and its eyes were so compelling.

Then we stumbled across this old water mill where they had been crding fleece and them spinning it and eventually weaving it, all driven by water power. It was very interesting to see but a shame that it was no longer used as a working mill.

welsh wanderings

2010-10-12T12:57:00.000+11:00

We spent some time in wales and had lots of fun driving around this wonderfully lush and green country. We stopped at this sea side town on the west coast It is called Aberayon.

These houses are just so beautiful.

As you can tell the tide was out when we arrived and I just loved these boats left high and dry.

home again. Jiggety Jig.

2010-10-05T20:20:00.000+11:00

As I said in my last post I have been away on holiday with the family. We decided to go to europe for four months for our one and only family adventure. We have alot of family and friends over there and I was wanting to catch up with them face to face agian. So we started off flying into Heathrow and hired a car to head for Wales. We stopped in the small town of Lyneham where there is an airforce base.

There was also this lovely thatch roofed house.

As we drove on we passed some small villages with what I would have to call very english churches and cemetries. I do like a good cemetry to wander around in.

This was the start of our big adventure and over the next while I will post some more photos while I try to decide what to spin or knit now that I am home again and back into the swing of everyday life.

holidays

2010-07-30T19:28:00.000+10:00

if people have been wondering why i have been so quiet in the last few months i must admitt it is because i am on holiday. i am now half way through my holiday. we have travelled around europe visiting family and friends and are now in sicily enjoying the sun and the beach. there has been no knitting and no spinning at all while i have been away. i will have withdrawls soon. hope to upload heaps of photos when i arrive home. hope everyone is well.

mothers day

2010-05-12T10:47:00.000+10:00

This mothers day I started my day with a visit to an open garden with my parents. The garden was mainly set on 1 acre of steep slope. There were mainly rhododendrons, azaleas and wonderful deciduous trees, including lots of magnolias. It was a a truelly inspiring garden, even more so as my little patch of garden is dominated by gum tree and no autumn colour to speak of. The sheer size of some of the leaves was great to see and walking on fallen crunching leaves is always envocative of childhood.
Then we all headed off to watch #1 child play soccer and then we all headed off to lunch at the nearby tavern for a really nice late lunch. All in All a fantastic day.

more knots

2010-05-06T19:55:00.000+10:00

These are more Dorea knots that I have been practicing. These will become necklaces for the children.

Here we have a braclet and a dragonfly I made. Yes more knots for practice.

And for something a little different I thought I would try the sev[en]circle pattern. I really like this wool I have hand dyed myself and it looks good when knitted. The sev[en]circle looks good BUT I decided to frog this because I was not sure I would wear it much and the wool was too nice to use on something I would not wear lots. It is not quite a scarf as it does not sit close to the neck, so there I was frogging something I had knitted. Sad but the right choice.

korean knots

2010-04-24T17:47:00.000+10:00

Recently I went to do a korean knot worshop. I had lots of fun as I really enjoy knotting and learning knew knots. We started with this cute dragonfly.

Then we moved on to the Dorae.

Which i have practiced and practiced over and over at home and am really impressed that I can still remember how to make the knot.
Now I am ready to move on to a new knot. I have tried to make the ring (which is like a small solid ball but had trouble getting it tight enough, Will need to practice more.

easter

2010-04-10T19:40:00.000+10:00

I must admit I love easter time. I always decorate the table and kitchen windows. I have some wonderful paper clips my danish sister made for me. And now I have taken over from Mum in making the easter bunny marshmallows. But I was not so sure about the way my children decapitated them. hmmmmm I hope they have embraced my love for nature, but you cant help but wonder at such times.

I hope everyone had a good easter break.

when in doubt spin

2010-04-04T16:37:00.000+10:00

What a busy few weeks I have had. Gerry had an accident and broke 12 bones. He had surgery to plate and pin some of these and he is now hame and on the mend but I have been busy doing mum and dad things. And of course when in doubt about what to do you spin. Well it works for me. So I decided to sort out my fleece stash and the excitement of that is you find things you have forgotten about.
I spun and plyed these two different brown alpaca fleeces I found. Cant remember where they have come from.

Then I found some hand dyed wool I did ages ago with food color and plyed that with alpaca.

Then came the silk I had bought at the bothwell spin-in. It is "spring" and of course I plyed it with alpaca.

Then lastly I found some left over green wool from a dying workshop I went to and , you guessed it, I plyed it with some more alpaca. Now with all this alpaca plyed you would think that would be the end of it but NO. I have found even more alpaca, so that is my next spinning adventure.

What have I been doing?

2010-03-22T20:09:00.000+11:00

This is a beanie I had promised #2 child. The first one I made was a little tight so it went to #3 and I knitted a slightly larger one. It is a little hard a gauge the finished fitting size but it all worked out well.

This is a little baby cap I made a little while ago.

After loving the red baby cap I wanted to make one for my brothers baby ( yes I am going to be an aunt, woooowhooo) but wouldnt you know it I could not find the same wool again. I will post a photo later of the new blue one. So instead I have been making these baby socks. Now I know what to do with all those little bits of left over sock wool.

New member of the family

2010-03-12T12:02:00.000+11:00

There is a new member to our extended family. My mum has got a new puppy. It has been 18 months since their beloved spike drowned outside their house. He was a very old kelpie who had gone deaf and blind.
Now there is a new and energetic little bundle of doggie energy in their house.
He is the cutest little thing, and little is the word . He is a cross between a mini fox terrier and a shitzu.
When he is fully vacinated I will be able to have him over for play dates with my boys. Cant wait.

hens in a row

2010-03-09T12:42:00.000+11:00

After reading the lovely willows blog a while ago I decided to have a go at making her coney dogs. But of course I needed to do a little tweeking to them to accomodate my family. I used veggie sausages and a kangaroo sausage and a chicken sausage. I also made a bean/tomato sauce for the vego dog. With all these changes I am really happy to say that they went down really well. Thankyou Willow.

This has been the view out my bedroom window lately. I have not worked out why these native hens choose to sit in a row like this but it looks rather cute, and atleast while hey sit they are quiet. If you have never heard a native hen then let me tell you they are loud and are best described as a squeeky bed spring, over and over and over. Hmm they look good sound horrible.

cooking can be fun

2010-02-07T13:42:00.000+11:00

I have been doing sone cooking lately. I dont mean the type of cooking we all must do so we can have food on the table for dinner but cooking for fun. And if you know me you know that i dont often put cooking and fun in the same breath. I know shame on me for being like that.
This first recipe is Latkes which are apparently a jewish food. I saw an old program of martha stewart where she made these. Then 2paw had a photo of some she had made on her blog after watching the same program so I thought I should give them a go. And I was really impressed with the results. The kids loved them too.

And so I move onto the bread section of my cooking. Now bread is something I do love to cook and do think of as fun. For lunch today I decided to make rolls and I must say they were fabulous. So light and soft with that ever sought after crispy crust. YUMMY. A good looking loaf or roll never fails to impress me and even get a little excited. There is still hope for me where cooking is concerned, now all I have to do is get excited about cooking other foods.

Gerry's birthday

2010-02-04T10:35:00.000+11:00

It has rolled around again. Gerry, my Hubbie, has had his birthday and we were so luck with the weather for the day that we decided to go out for lunch. He headed off on his bike and rode to this wonderful spot for lunch. I of course drove with the kids.
This beautiful spot is further down the channel from us at a place called Peppermint bay. We sat out side and enjoyed the view and the lovely food.

New beginnings for the new year

2010-01-08T09:24:00.000+11:00

With the beginnings of the start of the year and thoughts of out with the old and in with the new I found this site in the city the other day. This is one of those times when the old and the new must stand together. I really love these old sandstone buildings, I think it is a shame that progress has to change the environs of such lovely buildings. Checkout the tassie tiger on the top of the building.

This is one of my favourite roses in my garden and I have been so pleased to see that for some reason the possums have left my roses alone this season. Having roses fully bloom and then drop petals on my bush is something of a novelty for me to watch.

And talking of possums. After all these years of living here and being dissapointed each season when the wildlife has got into the garden and eaten more than they should, I decided to buy a little hot house. I have been so impressed by its anti-possum etc properties. I keep going up to see these wonderful plants. The frogs also think it is a great place to hang out. The smell of fresh(real) tomato plants and the sight of frogs must be high on my list of things That I love.

Happy New Year

2010-01-04T20:12:00.000+11:00

I wish evryone a happy new year. This post I am sorry to say I have not got around to adding any photos, yet, hope to do it later.
I have had a great christmas with family and lovely food. But with the good also comes a few trials to overcome. On christmas day, while cooking the lunch I was drawn outside by one of our dogs only to find our beloved cat struggling about and unable to get up. We moved him up stairs to the bathroom and tried to make him as comfortable as possible. I checked for snake bite, ticks and any wounds but could not find any. I had to race back to the lunch and finish cooking.
We had a great lunch and we talked to our vet who thought it was a stroke. He told me he may recover, or he may not.
The next day we all packed up and headed off for the beach, Having to seperate the dogs and our poor cat in the car. We had a great enclosure for the cat so he could be outside for the holiday. But in the morning he had dissapeared. I could not believe that our boy had enough strength let alone escape from his enclosure. We put up posters, asked neighbours but there was no luck. I thought I would not see him again and he had dragged himself away to die.
That night before heading to bed I thought I would search again, just in case. And there came a cry from his enclosure. He had returned. I was totally baffled. Not only did he vanish but he also turned up again. I have no idea where he went, why he did not answer our calls and how he found his way around an unfamiliar place.
I tried not to think about it too much but to just be thankful he returned.
He is doing so much better now, he can walk by dragging his back leg a little and has a little movement in his tail, but his purr is as loud as ever.

Not wanting to be left out the poor dogs who had a great holiday playing backyard cricket, running on the beach and swimming decided to get tummy bugs at the end of the holiday. And poor little pepper was not able to keep his food down either. The old girl seems to have missed this bug though.

Walk against warming, upper florentine

2009-12-12T19:34:00.000+11:00

We had a really great day today going to the upper florentine for the walk against warming rally. The bush is being protected by some great caretakers. Some of them were found on the platform many meters up in the trees. Others were camping in the forest to do their best to save one of Tasmania's wild places.

As you can see from these photos the forest is just a spectacular place and well worth saving. I spent much of my childhood exploring the forests in a small town near the florentine. It holds so many great memories for me. Walking through such magnificant areas filled with moss covered trees, ferns and fungi of all colours is like food for the soul. It is impossible to be unmoved by such pure beauty.

mitered mozart

2009-11-24T12:59:00.000+11:00

Well here it is.
I have finally finished my cardi. The pattern was from the knitter's magazine, spring 2000. The mitered mozart by Candace Eisner Strick. This is just a big mitered square with a picot edge.
I am really happy with the way it looks and with the way the colours work together.
Now I can start something new.

what warm weather holds.

2009-11-21T15:08:00.000+11:00

I have just read this book. It was the title that grabbed my attention first, as anything to do with purple usually does. It is a fasinating read, all about the man that discovered the artificial colour dye mauve. I found it interesting as it covers the artificial dye history of England and I learnt lots about the world of dyes. Made me stop and think about all those great colours we use and take for granted.

I spent the other day at the southern schools triathlon with #2 child. What a great day, and as you can tell from all these bikes there were 2000 children taking part. It was just so great to see so many children having a great time.

And of course now that there are some hot days around it has been time to do a bit of swimming. This is my favourite local beach. How luck are we to live so close to such a wonderful beach. Safe for families and with such a great view, and there are often dolphins swimming past. I always complain about how cold the water is when I first get in, You would think that after a life time of swimming in these waters I would just get over it and realise that once your body goes numb the water is really very nice. It definently cools the body temperature. While I was standing in the water waiting for the water to warm up a bit before swimming a had time to admire the many tiny fish that swim around your legs if you keep still enough. Then there was a huge starfish, doing not alot.
I really am a fish at heart, there is always something so calming and peaceful about swimming. I cant wait for the weather to be even warmer so I can take on the waves at the surf beach too.

country shows are soooo coool

2009-11-14T21:03:00.000+11:00

Today we headed off to the local country show. And it was such a great day. The weather was awful at our place but by the time we headed over the hill the sun was shinning ang made for a brilliant day.
We watched the dog jumping trials, with the winner jumping 2 meters with lots of excitement and joy. Nothing gets a crowd going like the cheer of encouragement for a dog trying to scale a wall 2m high.
Then there was the heavy horses, draught horses to us old folk.
And the great display by the australian light horsemen. What a show, what horses and such a captivating show of skill with horse, knife, sword and lance.
There was also all the dog showing. Ohh I just love the dogs.
And then of course there is the alpacas, sheep, cattle along with all the fantastic spinning and knitting exhibits.
You cant go past a country show, even with all the side show fun and excitement.

A happy Pepper

2009-11-11T18:33:00.000+11:00

This is the face of a happy Pepper. These are photos taken by #1 child playing with him. Pepper just adores #1 and thinks the world revolves around her. Needless to say if she leaves him, he feels his world has ended. It is just typical poodle behaviour, but we love him anyway.

halloween fun

2009-11-01T17:22:00.000+11:00

As you can see we have been celebrating halloween in our house.
I had a week of fun getting the house ready to look all spooky, and it was so much fun. Then on all hallows eve the children dressed as, well lots of spooky black things. I was a white ghost. We also had a witch and a ghost knight and a grimm reaper in the family.
I had read a great blogpost by Amongst The Oaks about labels for halloween potion bottles and had fun putting some together.
We all had a great night with wonderful food, conversation and energetic kids. Even if I dont really know what we were celebrating. I will have to go out and research the meaning behind this great night for dressing up and having fun.

Party time again

2009-10-11T20:06:00.000+11:00

It has been party time here again. I have been busy making a bugs bunny cake. Do you think that I could find grey food colouring, no, so I used a very light blue colour.
Then I made two pinjatas. I had lots of fun making these and could have paper mached everything in sight but thought better of it.
We had a family fondue dinner at #3 childs request. We had both a cheese and yes the favourite chocolate fondue. YUM.

midsomer murders theme on a theremin

2009-09-23T19:43:00.000+10:00

This is so cool.

Muir shawl

2009-09-21T19:35:00.000+10:00

Well I am really happy to say I have finished my first shawl. Yaaaaaaah. I am really liking how it looks. It could have been a touch longer but I ran out of silk. Yes it is knitted from silk. The blue has more variation in it than the photo shows, between a light blue and a deep blue with a few bubbly bits( Dont know how else to describe then).

Now what will I start next. Hmmmmmm.

Under the Greenwood Tree

2009-09-18T19:48:00.000+10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Uqzg4kg00

I found this movie at the end of a tape where I had been watching another program. What a little gem to find. I was so happy to have found this movie, and am really keen to read the book now.
I thought the story was ingaging and who can go past a good love story. Ahhhh aint love grand.

holiday projects

2009-09-12T19:38:00.000+10:00

It is half way through school holidays and am I any more organized that at the start? No. but I have got some photos to share with you of my projects. Now that # 1 child has returned home with the camera(which is actually # 1's but I borrow).
OK so this first one is not my project at all but a fantastic hand knitted hat that my mum picked up at a second hand shop for $2. Can you believe it. I love this hat and have worn it lots already. I would like to thankyou to the person that knitted this gem. I know you did not make it with me in mind but I thankyou because I love it.
It reminds me of a movie I recently saw for the second time. "The Witches" by Roald Dahl. I had never realised the number of fantastic hand knitted jumpers, cardigans, mittens etc in this movie before. Last time I watched it I was more excited about the scandinavian theme, and of course the witches. I think I would like to have a go at knitting some of those fantastic norwegian designs, but I do have a few other things to finish first.

I have finally finished my second hedgerow sock. I really like these socks as they have a girlie feel to them. Easy to knit but such a great design. If you want more details you can check my ravelry projects page.

And while we are still talking about socks, I recieved this wonderful sock wool from Wales. Sally Pointer has hand dyed this from Woad ( I had to google it to find out what it was). It is called ice and fits with the swap theme of my favourite fairytale "snow queen". Then I found an ice themed sock pattern to go with it. So stay tuned and hopefully I will start it soonish.

And we cant forgett the spinning. Here it is. And what will it be?????? Who knows. I have just become one of those people that spin for spinning sake.

colour and dogs

2009-09-02T16:04:00.000+10:00

I have been spinning again. This time I had a rainbow mix that I spun into singles and then.... well what will I ply it with. Since I could not decide what colour to do I thought I would just try a few different ones. I tried mint, royal blue, purple, lilac and then I plyed some with itself( my favourite). It was a really interesting exercise in colour- which I am not so good at yet. It is always surprising to see how various colours react with others.
I have also decided to start the modular cardi "dream coat". This will use up lots of my handspun. And stop spinning and do some knitting.

And of course I Had to add some photos of the dogs that # 1 child took. Hope you enjoy them.

spinning and rain

2009-08-26T11:15:00.000+10:00

With so much rain there does not seem to be much else to do than spin, spin, spin. I have just finished these two. I decided to branch out into greens and this is what I came up with. I really like the colour combination and how it turned out.

Then on the weekend I went to a spinning workshop and ended up with this purple and tencle. I really like the tencle but it was not so soft on the hands to spin. This is a lot more purple, the photo does not seem to show that up.

Atleast with all this rain there are some blooms of colour out in the garden to cheer us all up. The rain does not seem to have upset these lovelies. And I even have a red rhododendron out at the moment. I think this is totally the wrong time for this one but who cares, it makes me happy evcery time I see it. I hope everyone else has equally as nice things in their gardens to make them happy as it still continues to rain.

a little trip

2009-08-16T15:27:00.000+10:00

I have just had a litlle trip away. And I do mean a "little" trip. I went away up to the north of the state for a few days. Left the kids behind and had the tables turned as I was the child travelling with my parents. We headed off for the north to celebrate a relatives 100th birthday.
I could not think of a better reason to celebrate. This is the only person I know who has reached such a great age. I even got to see the letter from the Queen, the Govenor General and the prime minister.

During the trip I got to meet 2paw and had a great chat with her. She had so kindly copied a missed episode of grand designs for me. And I must say I did love the house design. She also was so kind as to have made me a fab bag, and inside Truffles. YUMMMMMM. I am so in admiration of people that can sew, and 2paws bag was so cool. Thankyou.
I had a really nice stay away and on the way home we stopped off for a relaxing walk in the Tamar Valley wetlands. It is all board walked and is edged by reeds.

This wetland has a huge array of bird life, not that I was quick enough to photo many of the birds but here I have taken a photo of their footprints in the mud flats. There were black swans, geese, red hooded plovers(tiny birds that race around), hawks etc. It was such a beautiful walk with so much to look at. There was also loud frog croaks and bird calls to accompany me on my walk.

This is the final destination, a little island in the middle of the river. I didn't have enough time to stop for a picnic on this trip, but have done so in the past. Ahhh a really relaxing way to finish off a good little trip.

New arrivals

2009-08-06T19:46:00.000+10:00

It has taken me a week to post this as I will explain as I go . BUT last thursday morning I woke to two new and absolutely adorable lambs. At first I only saw one but both ewes had a little white lamb at foot. We had all waited expectantly to see if our brown sheep would give us a brown lamb. I dont think you could get much whiter.

This is the first lamb for milo, she was a little skinny but ever so cute. She has the genes to be a really good wool sheep.

Here is our other lamb. A little boy I think we will name blackie as he has a black dot on his nose.

After watching these cuties for a while and feeding the mums I thought it was time to head off for my spinning day. I was so excited I told everyone the great news. When I left spinning, heading to parent help at school I decided to quickly dash home and drop my wheel off. As I drove down the drive I slowed down to catch a sight of the lambs. To my complete horror I saw two large brown hawks or eagles attacking a lamb. So I jumped out of the car and raced over to the paddock saying not very nice things about the birds. The poor lambs eye had been pecked and it was still alive and thrashing about. I went into rescue mode and bundled it up, raced it into the house and wrapped it up, tried to warm it up and started looking for the lamb formula and lamb jumper.
I decided it needed more help than I could give it and raced it off to the vet. They were not too optomistic about survival, but gosh you have to try. I refused putting it down and the vet gave it oxygen, antibiotics, fluid etc. And an hour later I took it home.
I penned up the mum and expressed milk, which the lamb drank. Yaaaaah I though it seems to be doing really well. But alas It died at 7pm.
As much as I know it is only nature for birds to do this I was still devistated to actually see them attack such a vunerable little animal. Ireally did not know if I wanted to go through this ever again. It all just seemed so unfair. And this was my good wool sheep.
Maybe when I grow up I will be better able to cope with this. Death itself is not the issue with me, It is the pain and suffering inflicted that I find so hard to deal with.

Handspun for sale

2009-07-24T19:30:00.000+10:00

Multi blue merino mix
skein 11om approx $15
skein 80m approx $12
skein 106m approx $15
skein 116m approx $15(Pending) plus postage

Aqua merino mix
skein110m approx $15
skein 210m approx $30 plus postage

Red merino mix
skein 46m approx
skein 46m approx
$30 plus postage

Rainbow Border Lester and cotton thread.
skein 144m approx.
skein 82m approx. $30 plus postage

winter rest

2009-07-24T10:09:00.000+10:00

This pretty well much describes us all at the moment. Tired, tired, tired. Number 1 child and dog were happily asleep on the couch last night. Little pepper started sleeoing on top of number 1 then decided he was not close enough so he then snuggled in between the couch and number 1's back.
There has been so much rain over the last weeks that it is hard to get outside and play without getting covered in sloppy mud. So we are all just waiting for some sunshine to dry up the ground so we can all enjoy going outside again. And I cant wait until the dogs can play outside without getting totally wet and muddy. Lets hope it dries up before any lambs decide to arrive.

Signal Station

2009-07-20T14:35:00.000+10:00

This lovely house is now the signal station cafe and it was the perfect place for a morning tea break after an early morning soccer game for boys.

There used to be a number of signal stations along the river. Each signalling to the next to tell of the arrival of ships, and of course the occasional convict escape. FRom this one you can see all the way down the river to the mouth of the river and then back up into town. Luckily the rain had stopped on Saturday so we were able to sit in the glassed in verander and enjoy the view. So very nice after standing on the frosted grass for an hour.

A wonderful day

2009-07-06T12:28:00.000+10:00

This day has started in such a good way that it is surely telling me something. After a weekend of rain, rain and rain( you would think there was not anything left in those clouds anymore) I was really pleased to see the sun shine through the clouds today.
After encouraging myself to get to the pool this morning, Monday always seems hard work in the water, I was really glad I talked myself into it. I always find the water leaves me relaxed and slightly happier. I must be a true water child.
So what a great surprise I got as I arrived home to find sunshine, blue sky and as I walked to the house I looked up to the sky to see one of our local Wedge tailed eagles gliding right over my head. He was very low and glided right over my head. What a sight.
I just stood and watched him until he disapeared behind the trees. Oh to be a bird.

Atleast with all this rain some of the plants in my garden are happy.I just could not resist the following photo.

Lets hope my friend here brings you a smile or two, it can be found smiling at all those who drive behind me.

And I thought I would share this with you. This lovely house is one that an ancestor of mine once lived in in a small town called Pontville. I went there with my parents to celebrate my dads birthday. We had a really yummy meal at the local pub. The scallops were just lovely, and then we went for a little stroll to the small cemetery where we discovered that the family grave stone had been restored by the historical society. So good to see.

mist rising

2009-06-23T12:47:00.000+10:00

Another day of mist and beauty at our place. There is nothing like a walk through the mist. Silent, still and almost mythical. It looks like this is going to stay around for the rest of the day.

The spiders have still been busy making their webs. Not that I have seen any of them around the place.

Knittind time

2009-06-22T12:52:00.000+10:00

This is the wonderful mitred scarf that Idecided to turn into a vest. I am very happy with it. It is always good to try a new pattern and when it turns out so well I cant help but be happy.

These great felted clogs were made for hubbie. The pattern was quick and easy to make, now I want to make some for myself.

And so now I am onto my next pair of socks. It is the hedgerow pattern and I already love the way it looks. This is one of my hand dyed wools.

a slice of today

2009-06-22T11:57:00.000+10:00

This is a slice of life at the moment. Winter is here, wonderful mist and drizzle today. Soccer rules the weekends.

The spiders were really busy last night. There must have been an explosion of baby spider births. They have been busy decorating the garden with all their wonderful webs.

Out of the mist and cool drizzle I can always find so much beauty. But I am not sure our front gate post really should be included in that group.

I hope you are all having a really great day, whether it is summer or winter in your part of the world.

World wide knit in public day

2009-06-19T10:28:00.000+10:00

Well here we all are for our world wide knit in public day in Ross. It was a fantastic day of knitting, some spinning and lots of talk about knitting and sheep.
Ross is a great old town and a fantastic setting for a great day. There was a mix of Ravelry and non Ravelers, which was good to see. It was held at the wool centre. So a big thankyou to the ladies there for letting us use their great venue. I got to check out lots about wool and sheep inbetween knitting.

what have I been doing?

2009-05-18T13:59:00.000+10:00

There has been some new autumn leaves around our little town . They seemed to spring up over night in a few different places. There were also some nice warmers for the pedestrian crossing bars.

I finally got around to making a sock from my christmas pressie. I was really interested to see how the wool I had dyed would knit up. I was really happy with the way the colours worked out. I am about half way through my second sock and then I have my other dyed wool to try.

I started this as a mitred scarf, but decided that it was too nice to have as a scarf, so I have decided to change it into a mitred vest. Lets hope it looks as great as a vest. Stay tuned to see what happens next.

And of course there was number two childs birthday. The theme was horror and so I made this spooky cake. The party ghouls seemed to like it so I was really happy. I really like making the cakes for their parties.

If you go down to the woods today

2009-04-21T14:18:00.000+10:00

Over the Easter break I made these little gnomes for my boys. But you have to watch them all the time. No sooner do you turn your back on them they have raced off to the woods to play, and climb, and dance around the mushrooms.

These wonderful mushrooms really captured the gnomes attention.

a little more fibre in the diet.

2009-04-15T17:01:00.000+10:00

This is the "Good Dye Day" I went to on good friday. What better way to kick off the easter break than with a bit of dyeing at tasknitters place. There were colours amany, some unmentioned people may have a little stash that would indicate a dye addiction. So many great colours and so many different ways of dyeing.

This purple is the lates of my many shades of purple I tried out while dyeing raw fleece. I am really happy with the way the colour takes to raw fleece. Now I will have to spin that up before I can start on the new dyed roving I have just made.

This one worked really well. I used food colouring and was really happy with the brightness of the colours. Who would have thought that the humble food colouring could be so great. I am still waiting for my others to dry so stay tuned for the other colours.

Beware dyeing will also become an obsession for tasknitter.

Just a girl and her carder

2009-03-30T20:16:00.000+11:00

Well I have been a little bit busy lately doing a bit of carding. This is our boy Jack who gave me all this lovely wool. It just goes to show that even a grumpy old ram can have a fantastic fleece. Lets hope we get some nice lambs from him again this year.

Now that I have carded up all this wool I will have to find somewhere to keep it. I dont think the kitchen table is the right place for it so I will have to stash it somewhere. hmmmmm but where. And then of course I will be spinning it up. I think I will have to hang up my knitting needles for a while. I have been having loads of fun with this fleece. It has been so nice to work with, so fine and shiny. I think this is a new passion that only other fibre holics will really understand.

I came across this 2ply and have been trying to re ball it. As you can see it has been a little tangled and has taken some patience to work out. But it did give me a break from all that carding. And I wonder why I run out of time to do all those other things in life.

my latest spinning

2009-03-20T08:56:00.000+11:00

So here is my latest spinning. I seem to have neglected my knitting for the love of spinning. I even tryied a little silver thread to ply with my reds.

Long weekend

2009-03-11T08:28:00.000+11:00

There is nothing like a long weekend for getting away to the beach. We walked along this beautiful beach looking for anything interesting. The beach was very clean, not even any shells to pick up. But after my little stroll we stopped at this lovely art gallery. The view is just to die for. The mosaic is done by the owners daughter.

And inside I came across this knitted lady. She even had her own knitted food and mouse. What a surprise find.

our nightly visitor

2009-03-06T10:24:00.000+11:00

I thought I should share these photos with you all. These are two of our nightly visitors. The one below is the older mother and the second possum is the 18 month old baby. We have watched mum visit us each night for many years now. Then one day we noticed she had a baby in her pouch. As the baby grew older he migrated from her pouch onto her back, clinging on and creating a grey fur patch on mums back. I loved watching the baby take food out of mums hands and even out of her mouth at times. As the baby grew up they had to fend off on older male possum who would wander through , turn his nose up at some of the food left out for him and trying to bully the mum.
They usually arrive at the same time each evening, waiting for the cat to be fed then leaving the shelter of their wattle tree. Mind you all the food I leave out for them does not stop them from eating my roses and fruit trees, and anything else the take a fancy to.
But how could you be cross with that cute little face. After all they lived here before us and deserve our respect. I just wish more people could feel compasion for all life.
After so many years I still get a buzz out of seeing my little visitors and hope you like the photos.

bothwell spin in stash

2009-03-02T13:48:00.000+11:00

I know that with so much fantastic fiber on offer I should have been able to make an easy decision at the Bothwell spin in but I seemed to keep walking around trying to make the right choice. I knew that I wanted to buy some alpaca but which one. Which colour, and so I just kept feeling all these fantastic alpaca. Finally I decided on some light colours and then I got some silk in spring colours to ply with it. I have no idea what I will make from it but I am sure that will come to me.

But I have finished( kind of ) the jumper . This is from the first skeins I spun. But I did run out of wool for the sleeves so I have to decide if I will leave it as a vest or try to add a different coloured sleeve. So many decisions to make. I will ask number 3 child what he would like as it is for him. This means that I have started back on my muir shawl. I need to finish that as well so I will be able to start my socks. And then of course start spinning up my stash from Bothwell. Wish me luck.

bothwell spin-in

2009-03-02T13:18:00.000+11:00

Well it is that time again and what better way to spend a Saturday but to be surrounded by wool, fibre and spinning. We headed off early so i could make the most of the day. I am not sure that the children really thought the same as I did but They did end up having lots of fun thanks to some dedicated adults that put on a range of child friendly games. That meant I had more shopping time.

These were some of the wonderful alpacas on display there. They are so adorable I would love to have a couple as pets. But instead I decided to buy some alpaca. I will show you what i bought in the next blog.

On the way home I had to stop and take a photo of these fab roadside displays. The highway was an old convict route. And a coach road.

2009-02-25T15:36:00.000+11:00

And the rain came down.
And the rain came down.

Then the heavens opened and blasted forth.
My world was lit so bright I had to close my eyes.

And the rain came down.

But after all the wild weather we have been having lately I was so happy to find this flower bent over in my garden. Out of such storm comes natures beauty. I also saw one of the largest leopard slugs eating a snail. I think they are so cute, as slimmy animals go.
I must admit I was not really feeling like going for my walk today but the dogs dragged me outside and the smell of fresh soil and leaves really made the walk worthwhile. I think that if I did not have the dogs it would be so easy to just stay inside and miss out on all that nature has to offer us each day.
I hope you all get the chance to see something new each day and be amazed by nature at its work.

I have been working on this jumper lately. I decided I need to stop spinning and try to finish this jumper. It is from the first skeins I spun. It will be for number three child. Ever since he saw the sheep shawn he has wanted me to make him a jumper so I need to get cracking on it. It is knitted all in one and I am just starting on the arm holes. I hope he will like it since he chose the pattern and colours.

festelavn

2009-02-25T15:01:00.000+11:00

I headed off with the kids the other day to celebrate festelavn. For those who do not know , it is a scandinavian celebration. In the old days they used to ride through the villages and break barrels that were strung up from an arch. It has something to do with the start of lent and scaring away evil spirits. You can always send me a message if you know more about it. These days the children dress up and go from door to door singing a song asking for the festelavn boller(buns). You can see these above. They are cinnamon buns filled with cream and marzipan(yummmy). The children then bash open a barrel filled with lollies.

Then number one child and I went for a walk along the beach??? well the water anyway. The tide was so far out that it only left a small channel of rushing water. There were so many crabs and still a few clear jellyfish. I am sure I have never seen jelly fish here before, there must be something in the water as they say, for all these jellyfish to be around. Not forgetting the giant one. But I also found two hiking boots, a black volley shoe and a sock and a pair of red reading glasses still in their case. It always amazes me what you can find on a beach, even a small one like this.

2009-02-17T16:58:00.000+11:00

Well this is the magic work of the drum carder I have borroweed. It makes all that carding so easy and I love it. These are the remaining bats left over from my little go at dyeing at home. I had lots of fun adding some colour to Jacks fleece. I was getting a little bored with all that white.And as I plyed it up this is what I ended up with. Very nice I think.

But of course I still have some more on the bobbin and will slowely work my way through the rest of those bats.

giant jelly fish

2009-02-09T20:31:00.000+11:00

Today we found this giant jellyfish on a small cove near our place. I was totally amazed by the size of this thing. I had to check the net to see that this is most likely a lions mane jelly fish and is found around here, but in such a sheltered cove. I am stunned.

Just to give it some perspective this is my number 1 child next to the jelly fish. It is huge. But also very beautiful in so many ways. I had hoped that the tide would turn while we were there so we could see it float away but alas it did not happen. I have no idea if it can possibly survive after being washed up on a beach but we can only hope.

But what is this? There were a few of these on the top of the jelly fish and they were still moving indipendently from the jellyfish while still being attached to it. Can you help me?

This was my favourite jellyfish. It is a clear one with four purple circles in it. Just stunning. I now love jellyfish.

latest spinning

2009-02-09T20:16:00.000+11:00

This is a pastel food dyed wool a friend - phezzit- gave to me. It was really nice to spin and I have plied it with my Jacks wool.

This is a varigated wool that I spun to see what it would look like. I have had fun spinning this.

This isViolet vibe which Ilove. the colour is so nice. But with all this spinning and not enough knitting I need to start selling my yarn.

Australia day

2009-02-01T17:07:00.000+11:00

I love a bit of Australia day festivity. There is nothing better than to celebrate our great country and life style at the beach. The kids played beach soccer(football) and built this cool sand castle. I was not sure how to take the photo of Neptune here without standing on him.

This was the first beach day that seemed to set the mood for the whole week. We spent tues at a friends pool, wed at another beach, thur at the water hole, fri at another beach. Sat was a rest day then today we headed off to a little dog beach where we ran into friends and the dogs ran into some of their friends. I must say the dogs were not too keen for a swim if there was no stick to chase. Maybe the thought of a swim for funs sake does not enter a dogs mind. The water was really nice, and that is unusual for the sea down here. You have to be tough to grow up swimming in the waters down here. I was just talking about this with a friend from long ago who I used to go swimming with at our local beach as we grew up. We were mad and some times the water was so cold it would take our breath away and we had to jog up and down the beach to get any feeling back when we had finished. But it was fun.

what i have been up to

2009-01-25T21:13:00.000+11:00

Well this is what I have been up to. Surprise, surprise spinning. But this is a mixture of the dyed silk caps and the fleece from our jack. I really had heaps of fun working with the silk. Of course I checked out a few web sites on how to prepare the silk caps and then I was away. Even though I am only a novice spinner i did find the silk harder to seperate and draft than the fleece but I love the feel of it . And the colours. I would like to try and ply it with itself, but I dont know what i would use it for.

THis is some of the brown roving I spun. It was not as smooth as the fleece but I was impressed with the colour, much nicer than I had thought.

Then i have balled up my sock wool ready and waiting for me to finish my shawl.

And during all this my old girl Lilly just looked on not sure what to think. Poor girl is starting to loose here memory and her already timid nature has moments of total unsureness. She really can not cope with anything new or different at this stage of her life and then at times she becomes strangely rebellious and wanders not really sure of what she is doing. But we still love her and hope she still remembers she is now safe.

holidays, visitors and nature

2009-01-22T10:11:00.000+11:00

My last few weeks have been with visitors. And this is some of the fab food they made us while they stayed with us. And just when I thought christmas was over we had lots more yummy food to eat. The kids loved the cooking and alas it is all gone.

But of course I could not spend all my time eating so I have branched out into some dyeing. I guess it is the natural progression from spinning to dyeing. Those colourful ones will become socks and the tan wool will become a jacket for number 3 child, if I can find a pattern to fit him. Now I am totally taken with the dyeing process and will have to get to and spin some more so I can dye more wool. I am eager to see what effect the sock wool will have when knitted up so I can get an idea of what type of pattern to use while dyeing. JUst lots more trial and error. Fun, fun, fun.

But in amongst all this spinning and dyeing I have been really lucky to have been visited by some great natural sights. Nature will never stop to amaze me and make the world a better place to live. This blue tongued lizard has been sunning himself in the middle of our driveway for a few days, which means stopping the car, moving him out of the way and then driving on. Luckily I have not seen any snakes yet.
While away for a beach break we were luck enough to see a stingray really close in to shore. He seemed really happy to just flap around in the shallows as we watched on. Then at the other end of the beac I saw a pacific gull drop something from high and them dive down to the sand and eat it. So of course I had to go and see what it was. He had dropped a sea urchin, the shell had brocken so he could eat the animal but what amazed me was that the spines on the shell were still moving as if it was still alive, even with nothing inside. It was one of natures amazing sights that had me captivated.

my new obsession

2009-01-11T10:06:00.000+11:00

This is a new hat I made for my self for those cold soccer morning . it is the noro hat and really quick and easy to make.

Well here it is, my new obsession. Yes it is a spinning wheel and I have become a little bit excited about spinning. And I must say it is relaxing and I hope that if I practice lots and lots and lots I will get really good at it and then their is the new frontier of dyeing as well. But I have not forgotten my shawl. That is still on the go, but very slowely.

And if you are wondering what I am spinning ,well here is Jack just after she has been shawn by our friendly shearer.

And this is how it all turned out. It is slowely getting there. But I will be spinning lots from now on. I have two fleeces to get through and that will take me a long time to get through.

spinning

2009-01-09T11:27:00.000+11:00

Well it has happened. I have started to spin. And it is great. I think it is my new passion. But I have lots of practice ahead of me to get to be a good spinner. I have a great teacher, my mum. So I am sure I will be able to knit something from it soon, or am I dreaming a bit. I am also off to do a dyeing workshop so I will be able to colour my new yarn. The only problem is that I have been neglecting my shawl while I have been spinning. I will have to find a way to share my time.
The poodle loves to eat the fleece so I have to keep him away from it.
I am spinning the wool from Jack, our beautiful sheep and it is a good fleece, so I am told.