A slow weekend..

This weekend has been slow.. and calming.. and yet at the same time - exhausting? Go figure. Warning! Pic heavy post ahead!

I spent this weekend with Mandie from Ewe Give Me The Knits doing spinning demonstrations at the Bendigo Alpaca Colourbration Show. Saturday afternoon Big Mac and kids arrived, so Master Mayhem could see the 'Alpacas! Alpacas!' he had been so excited about for a week, and there was patting done, and squealing heard. No pics of that sadly, as my kids move FAST and I am not so quick at whipping out the camera.

Sunday was much slower and I got the chance to snap quite a few shots :) We were seated next to the people from Petlyn Park Alpacas and spinning tools. Listening to them talk about their products and their animals made for a great learning experience. A couple of weeks ago I bought one of their fabulous spindles, and have been spinning away on it since. I took this photo at their stall so you can see what their spindles look like:

Because they are an all metal construction they are fabulous to just throw in a handbag. You can drop them on the floor, bang 'em around and they still look, and spin as good as new. I also got a shot of their Wool Picker in action, picking through some Suri Alpaca that Mandie dyed, fluffing it into these beautiful softer - than - you - ever - imagined clouds. It does look like there was a clown scalping though.

Also - Whats an Alpaca Show without a picture of one of the gorgeous creatures? I love their little 'meh! meh!' sounds they make, just adorable. This is Sapphire, one of Petlyn's alpacas. She's a Huacaya alpaca, a young female and she has attitude. Check out the evil eye she's giving me!

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Meanwhile, there was much spinning done where we were sitting. I snapped this pic of Miss Mandie's bobbin in progress - you can see some of the clown scalp.. err.. red suri in this progress pic. So pretty and colourful!

And I was gifted with something very special and very, very, tres cool. A Mandie - spun Collier, spun this morning. It reminds me of a coral reef, and look - it has bells in it!

I love, love love it so much! (I also enjoy jingling while I walk, for some odd reason)

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For my own part I delved into my stash and got a fair bit of spinning done myself. It's a running joke that I am a straight spinner who almost never gets funky and branches out into artyarns. Evidently spinning next to the gorgeousness shown above had me feeling inspired, as last night I churned this out on the wheel:

As far as art yarns go, it's not terribly outside the square. But for someone like me, it's actually quite the step outside the comfort zone.

I also managed two finish two skeins of my usual style yarns :) This is 'Lola' Polwarth, handspun into a 2ply construction. Fibre originally dyed by EGMTK.

Also originally dyed by EGMTK (yes I DO have quite the stash of EGMTK fibre, why do you ask?) this is a single spun yarn of Blue Faced Leicester and Silk.

Both of these yarns will be available at the next shop update, which will take place this Friday night the 28th of August, at 8pm.

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And that is the weekend that was here at Casa Del Mayhem and Chaos. I know it is currently only early Sunday evening, but I am hoping the remainder of Sunday evening will involve nothing more exciting than a long hot bath, and an early bedtime! (for EVERYONE)

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Too cute.

When at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show I stopped by the lovely Wooldancer's stall, and grabbed a braid of hand dyed organic merino. It was not my usual colours, but I liked it anyways, cause I am a fan of yellow, and this one was particularly citrusy and sunshiney.

I didn't wait very long before whacking it on the wheel - in fact I think I started spinning it on the Sunday evening? At any rate, with the tour de fleece continuing it wasn't long before it was done and looked like this:

I bought some Bendigo Woolen Mills 'Luxury' 8 ply to match in a similar sunshiney yellow, choose a pattern and off I went. I also 'made up' a shrug / bolero pattern to match when I was done, to make the most of the handspun, and to give her something else for an extra layer of warmth, because the days are still a bit chilly here. Now, Miss Chaos has a new outfit for spring :

She sure doesn't look like the chaos creator she is.

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Long time no blog...

again.

Instead of apologies, on with the show. Much has happenned since the last blog post.

There was, of course, the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show, and the Ravelry events at the same time. They went off with a bang, thankfully, thats metaphorical terms, and not my head exploding but it was a close call for a while there. Fun was had, yarn and fibre were purchased, and most importantly a good time with beautiful friends was had. Including one fantabulous brunch that a bunch o sneaky people threw, and it was Awesome. That's right. With a capital A.

There was also the opening of the new Mayhem and Chaos shop. I decided I needed my own domain a while ago, but it took me a while to get off my butt and do something about it. I finally did it, and launched it a few weeks ago. There's a shiny new link on the right hand side bar to the shop, though there is not much left right now!! There's a new update in the works. If not this Friday night, then next Friday night, dependent on drying times.

I decided a few weeks ago now that there was no time like the present to learn to play the fiddle, something I had wanted to do for ages. I found a fabulous teacher, and when my tax return came in I went and bought myself a second hand violin. I'm loving lessons and am really happy that I made the decision.

And finally there has been a bit of spinning and knitting going on.

Spin wise, there's this: 'Visca' merino / seacell from ewe give me the knits. Spun up to about a sport or 5 ply weight and very purdy:

And while there has been more spinning and knitting done I'll leave you with one other thing because I don't want the post to be too pic heavy.

At the sheep and wool show I bought 3 100g skeins of 4 ply baby alpaca from Donyale at Yarncakes. It looked like this:

Thats 1300 metres or thereabouts of 4 ply yarn. What on earth does that knit up like? Well one month of constant knitting later, it looks like this:

The Icarus Shawl. Over 7 foot wide and big enough to wrap myself up in. Soft, drapey and 100% gorgeous. I am mighty pleased with it!

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