Ross wool centre 25th anniversary

The Wool centre in the lovely town of Ross is turning 25 so some members of the Handweavers Spinners and dyers Guild of Tasmania spent the day out under the tree in the middle of the town for some spinning and fun.
Here we have Glenda(with her taklih spindle), Margaret and Di ( our President)

 

 

a hungry visitor

 

Summer has been so dry that there is very little food for our native friends. Each morning and evening they come to forage near the house , eating anything that they can find. Even though I have been leaving food out for them they have still stripped most of the green plants including eating the agapanthus flowers and leaves. Poor things must be desperate.
Doesn't matter how many times I see them I still love to watch the mothers and joeys safe in our yard.

calm defore the storm

 It has been so dry here
over summer that we have been waiting and waiting for rain to come. Our big dam is almost empty and the top dam has been empty for about two months. The sunset the other night was so stunning and then the rains came, not enough to change the water levels but enough to add a little green back to the ground.

 

 

knitted friends

 

some of my knitted friends. Some times it is nice to have a quick and easy projest to do.

beach weather

 

It is that time of the year. Yes beach, beach, beach.
It has been a very warm and very dry summer for us in Tasmania. We have had bad bushfires and gum trees are dying from the dry near to our home. It is soooo nice to see and walk on green grass at the beach. The water has been almost warm, and for Tasmania that really is a change. If only the water could stay like that for a little longer. There have been reports of new fish species being caught in our waters as the warm currents travel down our coast.

 

Eco Dyeing results

As I promised here are the results of my Eco bundle dyeing.
This is cordata dyed on silk. I love the intense orange gained from the first dye bath.

Another cordata silk scarf. 

This is also cordata on silk but I put this in the dye in the second bath. As you can see it is nowhere near as bright as the first ones.

And this is a linen serviette that I had pre boiled and then dyed with flowers from the garden.

longest thread compitition

Every second year in a little town called Bothwell there is a wonderful event called the Bothwell spin-in. It was created many years ago by one of the local residents, Barbara Fowler. She also started a competition for the longest thread. This has to be handspun from 10 grams of raw fleece.
I thought I would give it a go and tried to encourage as many others to join as well, just for fun. Anyway for a while at the end of last year my life seemed to be consumed with the spinning of my personal longest thread. I knew my entry would never be anything like a winning entry as these have been over 1 km long. So I kept trying, threads broke, and I kept trying.

 

In the end I was just happy to have a thread that did not break when I wound it into a ball. Now all I hope is that it will not break when it goes through the measuring machine, and be disqualified.
As frustrating as I found this at times I am very happy to have challenged myself to spin a fine, strong thread and what fleece did I use? I was luck enough to have part of a fleece from Barbara Flowlers own merino flock, handed to me by my Mum.
Keeping my fingers crossed for the end result.

eco dyeing

For christmas my children gave me Eco Colour by India Flint.
I had been playing around with bundle dyeing and though I should study her information a little more closely. She is such a wealth of knowledge and her book is fantastic.
Stay tuned for the results