advent calendar scarf Knit along 2011

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.

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

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

I was so fasinated by this whell and at the ease at which the lady is able to spin on it. This is a pendulum wheel and is one of the earlier styles of wheels after the great wheel. The great wheel needed to have the spinner standing up and at times walking as they drafted the wool. This looks a lot more comfortable and enjoyable. I would love to have a go but am not sure there would be any space in my house to put one of these huge wheels.

This is halloween 2011

bicheno weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.