Mayhem, Chaos, and Anarchy..

Swankymink a shawl of risks!

2011-08-07T01:00:00.000-07:00

So the wedding of my sister is done and dusted. There was good food, and good dancing and some not so good dancing, and much fun was had.

Also done and dusted is Cladonia (rav link) the shawl I was knitting to wear to the wedding to keep me warm. It's knit from SilkyMink yarn from Ixchel Yarns and Fibres, (one ball of black, one of burgundy) a 4ply/fingering weight yarn which is 70% mink, 10% angora bunny, 10% silk and 10% lambswool. I didn't think I would finish it in time. And i didn't think I had enough yarn, because according to ball bands and pattern requirements I would of been about 150 metres short.

Finish it I did - I knit furiously the night before, and in the car on the way down to the wedding, and in the hotel room before the wedding too. It was finished one hour before the wedding and hastily blocked while I fed the baby, and in the end when I threw it on it was still ever so slightly damp. Risky, but it worked out!

Run out of yarn I did not. I still have about 20 metres of the red yarn left, and about 70 metres of the black left. More risky knitting behaviour (ok not that risky, I used lifelines just in case) that paid off.

Did you know that mink is super warm? It is! At no point last night did I feel the need to put my big winter coat on as well as this shawl, and last night was your traditional cold n stormy evening.

All in all, big win! I love it.

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More finished objects, party frock edition!

2011-08-04T00:52:00.000-07:00

I'll start this off with a warning: this post is PIC HEAVY. Some might say laden with pics. I am still playing catch up on showing off the finished objects, so I've decided to just throw em all in one post and be done with it. So, on with the show, starting with the least recent through to most recent.

This little set was made for a gift, which is why I have been a bit lazy with putting pics up. They were waiting for me to get off my butt and send them to the recipient, but now I have, I can flash. (heheh)

The yarn is a 100% cashmere sportweight, which I was gifted by another lovely raveler who was not in love with the colour. The scarf is a skinnier, longer version of the Saroyan Pattern (ravelry link) and the mitts are 'Veyla' (ravelry link) by the lovely Ysolda Teague. The recipient appreciated them very much and they worked out so lovely, and buttery soft.

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Next up another knitted item! We have a wedding to attend this weekend, my sisters wedding, and I thought that given it would still be fairly cool I should probably knit our new wee mister Bram a vest. A cabled one. which, to me, means a nice natural coloured wool. On a trip up to visit Ms Mandie at her shop Ewe Give Me The Knits I discovered some really nice nut brown natural coloured balls of 8 ply, so I bought one and made him a nice cabled vest to go with a nice shirt and pants.

It's a nice pattern, and a free one too. The pattern is the Pembroke Pattern by Kirsten Kapur. I've been worried for a while that I made it too big and it would not fit him (even though he has grown quite a bit!) but I tried it on him today for an 'action shot' and it's perfect. As an added bonus, he even gave me a grin :)

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Moar knitting! Yes? More? Ok.

Last year at Bendigo sheep and wool show, I made a really nice cowl which was for sale there. I got the husbeast to model it for me for a finished object shot, and he mentioned at the time that he would quite like a cowl for himself. That year he picked out some fibre at the IxchelBunny stand for me to spin and knit into a cowl for him. Which while I had the best of intentions, kind of.. didn't happen. THIS year however, back at the Ixchel stand he picked out some beautiful Bison/Bamboo yarn, which I DID knit into a cowl for him, and very quickly too may I add!

Look at that smug bastard. Look how warm he is, and how cozy! The hat was knit for him last year from some handspun Southern Cross Fibre, and the cowl as mentioned was knitted out of yarn from Ixchel Yarns and Fibres, and it is AMAZING stuff.

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That's it then? That's all I did? Lazy sod, i thought this was a literal PILE of finished objects? Yeah it is. and so endeth the knitting portion of the finished objects. Now we can understand why I literally haven't had a spare moment in weeks!

I love weddings. I do. and I also love sewing. But, as it turns out, to my surprise, the thing I love to sew the most, is a good party frock. And for me, with my penchant for 50's sort of stle, red and black, and polkadots, this is the party frock to end ALL party frocks.

I may even find other excuses to wear it. Anywhere and everywhere, i say! (and look, my head is IN these shots!). The pattern is Butterick fast and easy pattern B5317, and it was indeed, surprisingly fast and easy. The fabric is two different types of taffeta I found in one of my (man. many!) trips to spotlight and I love love love it.

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Problem is, around here, if I make something for myself, I then MUST make something for the kids too. Which is fair enough because their wardrobe IS kind of lacking at the moment. (growth spurts tend to cause that). So, back to the patterns and the sewing machine (and err.. spotlight) we go.

Master Mayhem needs himself something a little bit funky and a little bit classy. So he has new pants, and a new vest, both of which are patterns from Ottobre magazines. The vest has been cut down from one of Macs old vests and re-worked because the vest no longer fit him, but the fabric and buttons were still too good to go to waste. Added bonus? pockets were already there. These pants have been dubbed 'Hey Ya' pants, and he does pull quite the 'ice cold!' look while in them.

(don't know where 'Hey Ya' or 'ice cold' come from? Check out this film clip, and you'll figure it pretty quick!)

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Nearly there - last one I promise. But I think I saved the best till last. The piece de resistance party frock. As many might know I am less than enthused about the colour pink. Buuuuut when you are a 4 year old girl, pink is THE BUSINESS. Miss Chaos often protests at how much she dislikes it when I choose clothes for her that are not OMGPINK. She likes stuff that is PINK, sparkly and / or furry. In that order. Preferably all three at once. So when I made this for her (just finished last night) I was very worried it would not be (as usual) pink ENOUGH.

I needn't have worried. She wpoke us up with her squeals when she walked into the loungeroom this morning and saw it hanging there, finished.

The fabric is all from spotlight, and the black cherry blossom fabric was a bit more pricey than I would usually spring for, being the tight ass that I am. But I figured if I had to work with such pinkness it was going to be nice fabric. And it had cherry blossoms on it. I love cherry blossoms.

Apparently that dress and those shoes are 'good for dancin'!' according to her. (see the shoes? Found them on clearance at Big W for $5. what a bargain!)

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Ok, NOW I am done. In more ways than one. I'm relieved I can spend tonight curled up on the couch with some nice relaxing knitting as opposed to hunched over the sewing machine. Yup, relaxing chill out time. Now - who wants to see if I can finish this lace shawl by Saturday, without running out of yarn? Ready, Set, GO!

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Pumpkin. Pie. Doughnuts.

2011-07-28T03:36:00.000-07:00

I know - second post in a day? Since when, say what now? I agree, but bear with me for a minute.

My first love was not, in fact, knitting. Or spinning. It was food. I used to work in commercial kitchens and I love love love food.

A few weeks ago, I bought my husbeast (who also love love loves food) a new toy for the kitchen. A deep fryer. Since then he seems set on frying ALL THE THINGS and I have not been able to get near it. 'Til tonight.

I steamed up some pumpkin to make pumpkin and cheese scones (because I am a lover of all things pumpkin and also all things cheese) but there was way too much there, so I got to thinking ebout what else I was going to use it for. And the idea for these babies was born. I have to put a warning here that they are concentrated evil and if you make them (and I suggest you do) please be aware - they are most definitely found in the category of 'sometimes food'.

PUMPKIN PIE DOUGHNUTS

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour

1 cup self raising flour

14g dried yeast

1/4 cup of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of all spice

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

First in one bowl combine your flours, yeast and allspice. In a second separate bowl place your pureed pumpkin, brown sugar and ricotta. Hit this with a stickmixer or pop it in a food processor until it is smooth and creamy and well blended. Make a well in the centre of the flours, and pour your puree mix in there, then work it through until it is well mixed. You should have a ball of slightly sticky dough at this point, so knead this until it is smooth and elastic.

Place your dough in a clean slightly oiled bowl and set it in a warm place for an hour, or until it is doubled in size.

Pop your dough onto the bench top and separate it, with a knife into manageable sized chunks. Now you need to make your wee donuts. I made mine bite sized.

To do this I separated the dough into quarters then rolled each quarter out into a sausage shape. Then I cut slices off, and poked a hole in each one with my little finger, stretching out a touch. But you could make them any size you want.

Next you want to fry them! If you don;t have a deep fryer, you could obviously just use some oil in saucepan on the stove. Fry them at a low temperature for about 2-3 minutes or until golden brown, flipping them over midway through so that both sides are even.

Drain them for a minute or so, then toss them through a mix of cinnamon sugar with the ratio weighted towards sugar.

DON'T yank them straight out of the sugar and into your mouth as I did because you WILL wind up with third degree burns of the tongue and you will sound like someone cut out your tongue for at least ten minutes afterwards.

Once they are cool enough to eat - do it! Delicious bite sized chunks of slightly chewy pumpkin pie doughnut.

YUM!

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Spinning around.. and around.. and around..

2011-07-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

The only problem with not blogging for a while because you are busy is that when you get back to things, there's a backlog of pics of finished things to get through. This is ecspecially true in times of high activity like I have had, mostly due to the Tour De Fleece.

The Tour De Fleece is a spin-a-long run on Ravelry and the aim of it is simple - to spin every day that the Tour De France rides. Some might say I am a bit of a dill for choosing to do it when the Ravelry events occur smack bang in the middle of it every year, but I enjoy it too much not to, really. This year was extra special because of the awesome Cadel Evans winning the Tour De France after many years trying! There were many very VERY late nights, but now I am all caught up on sleep I can share.

First off I was consumed with the need to finish the mammoth spin I had been working on for some time, before I could get to anything else. Finish it I did!

There's 500 grams of yarn there. I am proud of a number of things with this spin - to start with, I finished it, and proved to myself I could. Generally speaking I start to get bored with any particular fibre right around the end of a 100g lot. It's like I have some form of colour related attention defecit. But I have proved to myself now that it can be done. I'm also proud of it's consistency - each of the five 100g skeins comes in at 12 wraps per inch, and each of the skeins has between 200 and 217 metres in it.

Once that was done, there was this optim/soy/bamboo blend which I bought at Ewe Give Me The Knits at Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show nearly 5 years ago now. Two house moves ago, I had spun two thirds of it into singles, aiming for a three ply. I wound the first two lots into balls, stuffed them in a bag with the final third of fibre, then promptly forgot about them. So I dug them out, spun up the final third of the fibre, then plied them together.

And again, despite there being a 4-5 year break in between spinning the first two lots of singles and spinning the last lot, when it came time to ply there was less than two metres difference in the length of the three spun lots. Huzzah for consistency!

While I was on a roll of finishing things up I pulled out some Southern Cross Fibre that had been half finished for a few months. One of the Southern Cross Fibre clubs contained two 2oz braids of polwarth/tencel blend in contrasting colours which were just delicious. I spun up the chocolate brown braid pretty much straight away and while I had intended to do the same with it's cherry coloured friend, I had not gotten to it. So I sat down and spun it up, too.

So I now have two contrasting skeins of luscious shiny goodness and can now dream and imagine about what it wants to become.

Now that all of the unfinished wheelspins were complete, it was time to focus on something 'new'. So I pulled out two magic balls in 'Lorikeet' that I bought from Ewe Give Me The Knits last year. I split the colours into the braid and arranged them in the proper order of the spectrum, overlapping them slightly. Then I spun them in order, and navajo plied them to retain the colour progression.

The resulting yarn is roughly an 8 ply, or a dk weight yarn, and when knit up will knit up in a colour progression through the rainbow. The second magic ball I had of this has been spun exactly the same way and is just waiting to be plied.

I mentioned earlier that the Ravelry event I organise and the Sheep and Wool Show occurred in the midst of all this furious spinning. It did occur, and my event went well, and many thing were bought at the sheep and wool show, and loads of people were met and re met and fun was had. However, because I am full of fail, I did not take a single photo, so you will have to take my word for it. However I did come home from the wool show with three new spindles! One of which I have not yet figured out how to use, two of which currently have spins in progress on them, and a third I already had has a spin in progress on it too.

The one I already had, a bosworth, contains some Southern Cross Fibre polwarth/silk in 'Sprout' which is slowly but surely being spun up, much of it done within the Tour De Fleece.

The second spindle I bought at the Ixchel stall on the Friday of the show, and the fibre being spun on it was bought at the same time. The spindle has a stone whorl, and the fibre is a naturally coloured blend of camel,bunny and silk. It spins like butter!

The third spindle, another I bought at the show is my 'new baby' of the spindle family. It's a Jenkins Turkish spindle and oh how I love it! It is currently spinning up some Southern Cross Fibre BFL in 'Dauntless', and this spindle, flies!

For those who don't know how a turkish spindle works, all three pieces of the spindle that you can see in the pic disassemble. You spin and spin and instead of winding the yarn around the shaft like on the drop spindles above, you wind it through the arms on the bottom of the spindle. Once your spindle cop is full, you can pop out the shaft of the spindle out the bottom, pull the arms out the sides, and you end up with a wound ball of singles, all ready to be plied. It's like MAGIC, and it spins so fast and so even that I can see I ~might~ need more of these spindles!!

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So that was my Tour De Fleece. My apologies for no pics of sheep and wool weekend, but hopefully I can make up for it in my next post - I've seriously fallen behind in sharing finished objects, and I have three knitted finished objects to flaunt, and a fourth well on the way, as well as numerous (and spectacular!) sewn finished items. Wheee! Yay for striking while the iron's hot!

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Creative spaces and not so big places.

2011-07-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

There is just so much going on here at the moment. I've said it before but every day seems a struggle to get through the ever growing to-do list.

I have finally finished the mammoth spin however, and completed another spin which has been waiting to be finished for TWO YEARS now. I've cut out pattern and fabric for a new dress, over the weekend we rearranged the lounge room. I finished the vest for the babe, and the mitts and scarf set, both of which are now blocking. So I don't actually have very much to show for all of this time and effort outlay. However I do have one thing.

Way back in December, when we had just found out the babe was going to be a boy, we headed down to spend christmas at my mum and dads. To celebrate a trouble free scan I found a lovely pale blue coral fleece blanket in the pharmacy down there and bought it. I'm not the hugest fan of pastels, but coral fleece is just so soft. The babe loves it! he snuggles into it when he is in the pram or capsule and rubs his wee cheek against it. It's small though - strictly a pram or capsule size, definitely not cot size.

Enter - one metre of coral fleece and one metre of cotton jersey from spotlight. Fold jersey over edges of coral fleece, sew.

Result! Cot sized coral fleece blanket backed with jersey, for when he grows into a cot. Cute! Took all of half an hour, and cost less than the original pram sized one.

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While we wait for vests and mitts and scarves and handspun yarn to dry though - and while we wait for me to get off my butt and sew my new dress (as well as some stuff for Master Mayhem and Miss Chaos that is in the works too) I thought I would borrow someone elses idea and show off my creative space.

I may have mentioned it before, but the house we live in is small. And old. It's charming, but space around here needs to be used creatively. My studio exists as one half of a closed in back verandah. The verandah was also split in two by a partial wall and a door when it was closed in, and my main studio exists at one end.

This photo is taken to the doorway looking in. Just to the left of this shot is the fabric cupboard, the alpaca vortex corner and the fibre unit. The big black section you can see is my design wall, and at the end there is my work table on which resides my small stero and clock, sewing machine, overlocker, laptop and patterns (behind the laptop)

this is a better shot of the design wall which is a fairly new addition to the room. About a year ago when the winter clearance sales were on, I bought a metric buttload (that IS a real unit of measurement, shutup!) of this black 100% wool fabric. It's been sitting in the fabric stash since then, till last week. BigMac has helped me fix it to the wall using some dowel and I now have a big space that I can stand back from and really see whats going on with something. See how colours work together. The added bonus is that fibre, yarn and fabric alike, all stick to it with static. Slap it on there, and it stays. Awesome!

This is the Fat Quarter basket that sits on top of the fabric cupboard. In this resides my collection of fat quarters, my buttons, and the cardboard containers in front hold scraps that could be useful. I love this thing. It's really inspiring.

The fibre unit. In this unit, within boxes and tubs, is all of my fibre for spinning, all my handspun, and all my yarn. In the basket and up top are knitting patterns, spindles and spins in progress. The space just to the right of this is a corner, created by sandwiching the cupboard and unti together. This is the alpaca vortex. Their fleeces just keep showing up? There's 6 alpaca fleeces, one sheep fleece and a massive amount of hobbyfill, all in separate bags, smooghed into this corner. To the left of the unit is the doorway through which you can see the other studio. Currently it has a table in it for pattern cutting, but the rest of it is used for storage until we can find a better way to use the space.

Lastly, the fabric cupboard. Holds all the fabric that is larger than a fat quarter, either folded, or hanging up in there. It's like a treasure trove!

I'm looking at these photos and realising I really do love this space. It's like my own little cave. But in the photos it also looks a lot bigger than it really is. This entire room is 2 metres wide, and three metres deep. Thats it. Two adults will fit in it if we are right next to each other, but when the kids come in it becomes difficult for either adult to get out again until the kids leave. But considering it's size? An awful lot happens in here!

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What's your style? Dress Me Up!

2011-06-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a long couple of weeks, and will continue to be a long a couple of weeks in the lead up to the events I organise every July. There's not enough hours in every day for all the things I need to do, and all the things I want to do. Each and every day has become a blur of knitting, changing nappies, feeds, spinning, emails, photographs, making lunch, taking kids where they need to go, sewing, phonecalls, THINK OF SOMETHING FOR DINNER!, quotes, forms, and list making. Always with the list making.

In amongst all this has been a fair bit of design, some dreaming, motivating and motivation. Ideas growing, being bounced around and built upon. There's been some hard things to face, some interesting points come to, and many things still marinating in my head, as they tend to do.

For a start - on the lighter end of the spectrum - I'm coming to terms with a 'new normal' post pregnancy. Not only did I lose ten kilos while pregnant (I know, I know - I'm not bitching about it) - but my entire body shape has also changed as well. This means that 90% of my wardrobe no longer fits. Either things look like a sack, or they cling to all the bits I don't want them to cling to. Throw into this mix the fact that we have a wedding to go to in early August as well as two parties between here and then and you have a recipe for panic.

Enter the fabric stash. The stash I periodically add to by buying decent metreage of interesting things I find on sale.

Butterick have re released a range of their vintage patterns and I like many of the 1950's styles, so I bought a couple of patterns. One I am still waiting on to arrive on backorder, but the other one came home with me, pattern B5032.

After a dive in the fabric stash I came up with some nice cotton sateen I bought on clearance for about $5 a metre about a year ago. There was not enough for the full skirted version (which I would have liked) but there was definitely enough for the straight version. This is how it turned out:

I quite like it. I added a sash out of red dupion silk, because I felt it needed it, and because I am a sucker for silk. Red silk, to be specific. If I make the same pattern again (and I probably will) I will probably go down a few bust sizes on the top, as I found it to be very loose and I had to do a few tricks to get it to tighten up some. Perhaps I've lost more in the bust than I measured?

This is the pattern I am waiting on the arrival of though:

and I have another dress pattern and the fabric for it sitting down in the studio, just waiting to be cut and sewn. In between, you know, everything else.

There is progress at least - the mammoth spin is less than 100g of spinning away from being DONE. Which will be nice because I am 100% DONE WITH IT. There's a reason I don't spin more than about 200g of the same colours very often. It's called the sort of boredom that makes me want gouge my own eyes out for fun. I also have a matching set of mitts and a scarf soaking in a bucket waiting to be blocked and photographed before they get popped in a parcel pack to be sent off as a gift. In the same bucket there's also a wee cabled vest for Master BJ to wear to the wedding - he at least already has a button up shirt and nice pants to wear under it (conveniently given as a gift by the same person who's wedding we are attending! - thanks Coll!). A new dress pattern for Miss Chaos arrived today, from which I will make her a new dress to wear to it too.. and that of course means more fabric shopping. All together now.. aww.. yes yes I know, smallest violin in the world playing just for me. Master Mayhem and all of his too - short - in - the - leg - socks - showing - like - michael - jackson pants has not been forgotten either. There's an Ottobre Design mag on the way with a nice vest pattern in it, and I bought a metre and a half of a fabulous tartan fabric the other day to make him some seriously groovy wide legged punky pants from. I'm wondering if it is possible to get pants for him, and a skirt for Miss Chaos out of the one metre and a half of fabric. I'm going to give it a bash anyways!

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It's 1am right now. I had more to say in this blog post. So many thoughts. But again, I am out of time - story of my life right now. The one question I keep coming back to at the moment however is this - Am I who I want to be? And I think the answer is yes. But I think it's important to note that the question is WHO and not WHAT. Which are the most important things to me, that I allow myself to be defined by? There's a list in that there question. Always with the lists. But for now, I'm just going to leave this here for anyone pondering the same question.

Take it away, Ms Fucking Palmer.

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The List and The Toadstools (Giraffe Cameo!)

2011-06-15T23:08:00.000-07:00

I used to be well known for having an excellent memory. For the most part, I still do, but the reason for my good memory is because of The List. Yep. All capitals.

The List is something I think many people have but in me it seems to reach ridiculous proportions. The List is a real thing you see, something in my head that hums along constantly, much like the fridge in the kitchen. Most of the time it hums along quietly in the background, flicking through it's main folder of 'this year' and then the subfolders of 'this month', 'this week', 'today' and now with the addition of a baby to to the household 'THIS FREAKING MINUTE!' (because a hungry baby waits for no bastard).

The List frequently keeps me awake at night with it's cacophony of things that need to be done, places that need to be visited, things that need to be purchased - even tiny events like getting dressed and dressing the kids. From huge events to the most mundane it's a never ending ticking cycle. Once my mind gets to the end of The List it starts at the start again, immediately. I'm frequently heard to say 'I'll add it to The List' and as such it has become a tangible thing, something that features in the day to day running of the house and lives. Even the kids know about it. (Miss Chaos said to me just this morning 'where is fixing my cardigan on The List?)

Where was I? Oh yeah. Most of the time The List is manageable and quite a handy thing. But sometimes, at certain times of the year (generally preceeding large events) it becomes.. well, a beast quite frankly. The more things that are added to The List, the more unmanageable it becomes, like juggling, until I start dropping balls. It's always the little things I drop. In my haste to clear things off The List to make it easier to handle, I forget small things along the way. Like.. eating. Drinking. Going to the toilet before kidney explosion becomes imminent.

Currently the list is becoming unwieldy. One month from now is the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show, and at the same time the Ravelry Event(s) I organise annually. This year I was kind to myself. Knowing I would have a wee baby at the time, I limited myself to one event - a Friday night Dinner. I dropped the traditional Saturday morning breakfast. It's still a lot of organising though, so there are balls being dropped left right and centre here at the moment. I nearly reached critical kidneys this afternoon and couldn't work out why I felt so uncomfortable. The cat meowed at me incessantly for an hour this morning before I realised his water bowl needed filling. The front porch - something I normally keep very well maintained for some reason - has tumbleweeds inhabiting it. So if you are a Ravelry member and you don't know what the hell I am on about, do a search for 'Bendi Baa' among the groups, and you should find all the info you need.

Meanwhile in between all this organising there has been stuff created. Every body gotta have some down time. I have a scarf and mitts set for a gift which is not quite ready to be photographed, I'm back at the spinning wheel making headway on finishing up a custom spin. But there's been sewing, too. A pair of new pyjama pants for both Master Mayhem and Miss Chaos have been produced, and tested by them. They passed if you are interested, Master Mayhem proclaiming them 'warm and comfy WITH TRAINS ON!'. Priorities. He has them.

A couple of months ago though while browsing through a local opshop I uncovered some vintage / retro kids sheets. And they were AWESOME. High quality cotton, already washed and worn in though not TOO worn in. There was quite a bit there, a matching bunk bed set of two pillowcases, two flat sheets and two fitted sheets. I bought everything they had, and will be sending half of the haul to a friend. My half has been sitting, languishing in the fabric cupboard for a while. Miss Chaos' wardrobe is somewhat lacking though, given I have difficulty finding clothes I like for her. Everything seems to be OMG SO PINK!!!!! Or makes her look like the star of a movie that might be called 'The littlest LapDancer'.

So I upsized a pattern I had kicking around for a wee A-line / mod type dress. (Heh. I keep calling her Queen of the ModKids.. and if you haven't watched that episode of the Mighty Boosh with the King of The ModWolves, you won't get that reference so I'll shuddup)

She quite likes it, which is the main thing - 'I LOVE GIRAFFES! AND IT HAS GIRAFFES!!'. It looks excellent with her new ass-kicking boots too, and I like her in it. No whore outfits on a five year old here, no sir.

as an added bonus I had the perfect buttons, already sitting around waiting to be used. I love buttons. Have I mentioned that before? I really do.

She was so pleased to wear it to kinder yesterday. Her teachers commented on it. I love it.

We've also rearranged the studios. I have a better creative space now. I'm very pleased but photos of that will have to wait until next time.

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Return of the Crazy.

2011-05-22T04:30:00.000-07:00

So, I am back. For those playing at home this means I am now either no longer pregnant, or made up the whole thing to take an extended break from the business and the blog. Given I've not had issue with taking a blog break before for no reason other than not feeling particularly chatty (also known as Can't Be Fu.. uhh.. Motivated), and also given I actually love doing what I do, I guess it has to be the case that I now have a really good Finished Object to show off? And indeed I do.

I won't say he's the BEST finished object ever, because to do so would be kinda rude to Mr Mayhem and Miss Chaos, but he's definitely in the top 3 :p

Fresh from a bath at one day old.

BJ wound up being born on the 29th of April at 5.18am via emergency ceasar after a failed induction. Little bugger snoozed through labour, and refused to descend any further. Thankfully, this ceasar went far FAR better than the last one, and was not so much of a rushed emergency as a 'well, ok we are doing this now' type of emergency.

He weighed 6lb 10 oz at birth and now at 3 weeks and 3 days old has gained half a kilo on his birthweight already. He is a cruisy baby, never terribly stressed UNLESS that horrible thing happens.

That horrible thing? Getting cold.

Lucky his mam's a knitter then, eh?

Two weeks 6 days old

There has been a fair bit of knitting going on. At this stage, I can't spin due to the ceasar making me ache a bit if I try but I should be back at the wheel soon. I've not been sewing either, because the sewing studio is BLOODY FREEZING - a situation which will hopefully be rectified this week when I buy a small fan heater for it. So in the end, the only crafty pursuit left to me at the moment is knitting. I'm glad to have something to just pick up in between feeds and bum changes, book reading, sandwich making, picture drawing, drink getting and laundry washing.

The 'Oceans and Islands' socks were finished a bit over a week ago now. The first sock heel was turned while I was in labour with BJ, and they came along fairly quick from that point really. Hospital provides good knitting opportunity. The pattern is Traffic Island Socks by Redscot (Ravelry link) and the yarn is Malabrigo Sock Yarn I got in a swapsie with the lovely SunriseSister. Great pattern which is very easy to memorise and gives a nice chevron look that I love. This is my second pair of these, the first went to my mother in law as a christmas gift. It's rare for me to like a pattern enough to do it twice!

Since finishing these I have also busted out a much petted skein of 5ply/sport weight 100% cashmere in a lovely spring green and knit a scarf. It is finished but photos will have to wait until after it is blocked, as it is currently soaking in a bucket.

Mentally I am feeling far more back on board than I have in a while (surprise surprise) and I have been plotting and planning - Ravelry events, new stuff for the store, new projects, new colour combinations, new things to see, do and share. It's all happening folks! Somehow the whirlwind in the brain that I never thought I would miss is back, and its return is welcome. Full steam ahead! (well. as much the body will allow)

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Idle hands? Hells no.

2011-04-26T01:01:00.000-07:00

So, I am still here, and still currently intact at 37 weeks and 5 days. It's been a slow couple of weeks - I'm rather round now, and while I have been rather quiet, I've still managed to be quite productive. Craft - wise, at any rate! Sitting around twiddling my thumbs would drive me insane so I've continued to create.

Time management (or an attempt at it) is a friend of mine at the moment - with so many other babies due in my circle of friends I need to get the jump on things now! Given I liked the set I did for my own new baby so much, I decided to make a second set as part of a gift for a friends bub, due a few months after me.

The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn, some left overs I had from a pair of knee high socks I made for Miss Mayhem a few months ago. So bright and funky!

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I also pulled out some Bendigo Woolen Mills Luxury 10 ply I had floating around whipped up this cute little Owlie Snuggle Sack for the new one.

It was a relatively quick and satisfying knit, ecspecially being in 10 ply. It's like a wee woolen sleeping bag! But with cute little owlish cables :p

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In the interests of practicality and remaining busy and multicraftual, I've also been back at the sewing machine, not quilting this time but something a little more.. well.. mundane.

1.5 metres of froggy print flanelette, and 1.5 metres of jungle print flanelette combined together gave me 4 nappy squares (to be used as nappies or random cleaner-uppers, whichever seems more urgent at the time!) and also 18 double sided cloth wipes from the offcuts of making the nappies. I bought the fabric at spotlight a couple of weeks ago when it was on sale for $4.50 per metre (got to love a good special!)

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And lastly but certainly not leastly, there's been spinning too - I'm steadily treadling away at a mammoth spin as part of a swap. The going is slow, as the baby is generally pretty damn unimpressed with the way I sit when I spin (or when I sit AT ALL for that matter) so I can only do short bursts at a time. But I am getting there! This pic shows progression from fibre, to spun singles, to finished and plied skein.

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So that's how I keep busy while waiting for things to happen. I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter Festivities, took advantage of a super long easter break, and commemorated Anzac Day in the way in which they saw fit. I sure did! Productivity for the win!

I get the feeling it might be a little while before I blog again, so I will just say at this point.. BRB ;)

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They call me mellow yellow..

2011-04-11T03:43:00.000-07:00

We all have our favourite colours don't we? Anyone who knows me knows red is my favourite. When I was a teenager I loved purple - but I think most teenage girls go through a fairly big purple phase. I also have very specific favourite colour tones across the spectrum though - my favourite red is Candyapple Red, but I have faves in all the other colours too. Duck Egg Blue. Eggplant Purple. Acid Green (which I sometimes call Soylent Green just for kicks - it's people! Soylent Green is people!!! the perfect green of a good Midori Illusion. There's a food theme here, have you noticed?) and Egg Yolk Yellow.

There's been a fair bit of yellow around here recently. My favourite necklace is yellow. I bought Miss Mayhem a new yellow shirt the other day. BigMac surprised me the other week with a bunch of my favourite yellow roses (and I didn't even give birth in order to get them! Shock!). My current spin in process features a deep golden colour, almost a mustard. Yellow is one of those colours that people either love or hate I think. I love it. Most colour shades of it too, through from a deep yolky yellow to a light delicate lemon. I think yellow is a warm colour - it's comforting and gives the illusion of cozy-ness.

This week I finished up a playrug sized quilt for the new baby which I have been working hard on (more on that later) and I needed a gift for a friends new baby, too. I decided on a pram sized quilt which was MADNESS given I decided this on the Thursday, and the baby shower where I would be gifting it was on the Sunday. In my usual style however, I decided to bite off more than I could chew, and chew like mad.

First up, while catching up on regular blog reading, and links around I discovered this tutorial over at 'a cuppa and a catch up' for a quilt as you go strip quilt. Made in less than a day, I figured it was just the ticket, and off to spotlight I headed where I was drawn to the yellows...

I paired them with a couple different types of grey, and a black, found some glorious variegated thread and headed home to begin.

It WOULD have gone according to plan and been finished in less than 24 hours, had my brain not started throwing out what I call 'unauthorised ideas'. You know the ones. The additions that make a 'nice' piece into something 'special', but which take more time and more effort. In other areas they would be known as budget blowout, but when your time is your budget, they are one and the same really. Problem is, once you have seen them in your head? You know you aren't really 'finished' until they have been included.

So in the end, it was more like 36 hours, with a very late night in there, and some frantic panicking when the colours ran in the wash (dylon colour run remover, I love you so!) BUT - it was complete, washed, dried and ready in time to be gifted. (just.)

Don't tell anyone but I cheated and did the binding with the machine on this one. Two reasons - 1 - there was just not enough time for me to do it by hand, as I am seriously S.L.O.W. at binding by hand and 2- I wanted to continue to show off that variegated thread of glorious yellowyness.

'Bird On A Wire' Quilt

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Earlier in the week I finished another quilt - this one a bit larger - as a playrug for the new baby. As one might be able to tell I'm not really the worlds biggest fan of pastels - I prefer bright, bold funky colours, yes, even for tiny babies. There's SO MUCH powder blue and baby pink around that at times, it can kinda feel like there's not much other option - I remember being so frustrated when I was having Miss Chaos that every single thing seemed to soft baby pink. I'm not a huge fan of pink, it's the only colour I DON'T have a favourite shade of, and when it's all the exact same pink? Ugh.

When you are choosing fabric yourself though, and making an item yourself - the only limit is in the fabric shops you are sourcing from. And thankfully around here, the fabric shops have PLENTY to choose from!

The main three fabrics on the centre blocks are (I think?) a Michael Miller fabric, all part of the same range. I bought a three pack of fat quarters when a local quilt shop sadly closed down, and they had been sitting in the stash for quite a while, waiting for the 'right' project. The black and silver swirly fabric on the outer border is some fabric I picked up at spotlight ages ago, and the red and FABULOUS acidic yellow borders are both moda marbles fabric.

This will be used mostly as something to pop down on our hardwood flooring during playtime, a blanket to pop in the car, or pop down under the wee one at other peoples houses when we go visiting. Master Mayhem was a severely refluxy baby and I can't tell you the amount of times I wound up desperately trying to clean spew out of someone elses carpet. Ewwwww. Much easier to just have something you can throw in the wash!

'Surf's Up' Playquilt

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So now the countdown begins. As of Thursday it's four weeks till my due date to have this babe. I'm frantically trying to get prepared and there is more sewing and knitting to be done, preferably before that happens. One word:

MEEP!

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Of pixies and autumn...

2011-04-03T01:51:00.000-07:00

So, now sitting at 34 (and a bit) weeks pregnant, the finished objects are picking up the pace in my own desperate attempts to clear the decks, and keep everyone who needs to be warm, toasty. We're definitely into my favourite season now, I love the smells and colours of Autumn. The leaves on the trees change to glorious oranges, browns and reds, the days are mild and just perfect for throwing on a light cardigan or shawl for a bit of extra warmth. Of an evening, when the chill comes down people all over town start turning on heaters and lighting woodfires, and the sweet smelling smoke fills the air and hangs low to the ground. I love it all, it's a sensory overload!

The other thing I love about autumn is the food that is in season. You can get away with (and crave) more substantial meals and the fact that pumpkin is in season and cheap helps with that! In the last week I have made pumpkin scones, and pumpkin soup. We had toasted pumpkin bread with marinated goats cheese for breakfast today, and tonights dinner is a hearty chicken and mushroom casserole with rice which we cooked all day in the slow cooker. to the end of preparation for the arrival of the babe, I am taking advantage of the ability to cook without sweltering, and trying to stock the freezer with quick, easy, and healthy meals that we can just reheat on those blurry first couple of weeks with a newborn. So far there's a few litres of pumpkin soup in there, the remainders of tonights chicken and mushroom casserole will go in there too. There's an entire lasagne in the oven, cooling down and getting ready to be sliced before freezing, and garlic bread to go with it. Still to come is mexican chicken meatballs, and a steak and onion pie.

The house is a frenzy of activity, different people preparing for different things. Both kids are about to have their last week at kinder before going on school holidays, and I am being yammerred at endlessly every day about how the Easter Bunny cometh soon! Big Mac has a new job, so every evening is spent preparing for the next day ahead, mapping his route out (the work involves travel) and making lunches for the kids and himself. And I am spending my days trying to keep up with the kids, while buying what needs to be bought, and making what needs to be made.

This week I have a couple of hats which have been finished off. The first is made from leftover Dream In Colour Smooshy sock yarn. I made my dad a pair of socks from it for christmas, and had a fair bit leftover. The hat is newborn sized and deliciously soft too. Not to mention cute!

The second hat is a case of wingin' it in every aspect. I had some Ewe Give Me the Knits merino / carbonized bamboo in a pastel kind of rainbow. It reminded me a lot of fruit tingles, and was nice, but was not a colourway I would of worn myself. I started spinning it and deicded that for a change, I just wanted to throw the fibre at the wheel instead of spinning it ultra fine. So I did. The end result was a super soft bulky weighted two ply yarn that was VERY squishy!

Because Miss Chaos for some reason looks like a hobo in every beanie I put her in, I wanted to make her a bit of a different hat to keep her warm. So I improvised and the result is what I am calling the 'Pixi Hoodlum'.

Soft, warm and snuggly, it suits her down to the ground and she loves it. I also think I might need to be making something similar for myself before winter hits properly!

There's plenty more to come though. At the moment i have a mammoth spin in progress, on the needles I have a cute and funky pair of booties for a wee baby girl who is due after my babe, and the brightly coloured baby quilt I am making has had it's top finished and now needs to be 'sandwiched' (quilted) and bound. The hours are ticking by at an alarming rate every day, with much to be done, but slowly and surely, it's all happening.

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Finally a new shawl for me.

2011-03-05T00:44:00.000-08:00

Despite the number of shawls I knit in an almost habitual manner, the last shawl I actually knit FOR MYSELF was the huge Stormy Wings Alpaca Shawl. Which was almost two years ago now. When I knit that one, I had some lovely silver grey Moggy and Me yarn, and I decided I was going to knit that baby till the yarn ran out. So I did. And then I blocked it, and as alpaca tends to do - it grew. A lot.

The final result was that that particular shawl is over 7 foot wide - which makes it (on my 5 foot 4 frame) less of a shawl, and more of a blanket. Which is fine, if it's freezing cold, but when it's just a bit chilly and I just want something pretty to throw around my neck for a little extra warmth (as opposed to my own personal alpaca furnace) it kind of leaves me shit out of luck.

This week, I knit myself a shawlette - the perfect size for a little something extra when the wind picks up some. And it's in just my colours too.

The pattern is the 'Holden Shawlette' (Rav link) by Mindy Wilkes. The yarn is Wollmeise 100% in 'Spice Market WD'. (Wollmeise is a highly sought after yarn from Germany. It is high sought after mostly because of it's colours, which are super rich. Spice Market is my favourite colourway of theirs, and the WD stands for 'We're Different'. Which means it's a mis-dye - this particular batch has none of the pistachio green this colourway normally has, which doesn't bother me in the slightest. I love it's rustiness anyways.)

The knitting of the shawl took me a little under two weeks. I have had the yarn sitting there for well over six months, and I was just waiting till it told me what it wanted to be.

And then I received a parcel in the mail from Mum and Dad for my birthday, and I am not ashamed to say, the shawl virtually knit itself, to match the contents of the parcel.

They go together so nicely! That's a carved piece of Amber in the end there. I love it, and I love the shawl with it, too. Perfect match and all in the lovely autumny colours I adore.

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Single-Minded Insanity.

2011-02-25T22:02:00.000-08:00

I've been a busy chick.

It's funny though. I may have mentioned it before, but I am what the knit-freaks among us would call a monogamous knitter. This means I rarely if ever have more than one project on the needles at a time. This is because once I have more than one project going, I start to feel stressed and overwhelmed with my own inability to complete things in what I would like to think is a timely manner. Of course, my version of a 'timely manner' is different to everyone elses.

However I am also multi-craftual, and as such the same rules don't apply to other crafts. While I will never have more than one sewing project, knitting project or spinning project on the go at the once, it's a-ok to have all of them. At the moment I have on the knitting needles, a Holden Shawlette (rav link). I also have some merino barberpole 2ply on the spinning wheel. I have a quilt / playmat about 3/4 of the way through construction of its top down in the sewing studio. I also have a series of books I am part way through reading on the kindle (a gift for my birthday from the husbeast - as a side note, I recently finished 'Good Omens' by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and it was awesome. Read it!). And I don't feel in the least bit stressed with all these different things on the go, it's when i am forced to divide knitting OR spinning OR sewing time between two projects of the same variety that I get tetchy. I'm weird, I know.

Oddly however, I seem to do this thing - not so much with knitting or spinning, but certainly with sewing, and with reading books, and about a zillion other things - whereby the world ceases to exist for me until I am finished. I will start something, and until I finish the whole thing, or at least a huge chunk of it, I stop doing other life necessary things - like eating. Drinking. Sleeping. Taking a toilet break. I've always realised that this is bloody stupid behaviour, however it is only recently that I cam to the realisation that it's also hereditary. My dad does it too.

On the rare occasion I have worked with him (or travelled with him) this tendancy to not stop for love nor money has driven me BATSHIT crazy. I caught myself doing it again the other day while working on a quilt, and realised I was doing the SAME thing he always does which I found incredibly frustrating. I got up and got a drink and took a break, but I am not silly enough to think that this realisation means I won't do it again. Just means I have someone to blame :p Ha!

At any rate I do not have a finished quilt to show, nor do I have a finished shawl, or spin to show. I'm consciously splitting my time between all three, but in the past two weeks I have finished up with a pair of socks for myself, and a baby hat and cardi set for the wee one out of handspun, so on with the show.

Firstly the socks are the Kalajoki Socks (rav link) which I am calling 'Wiggle socks' because they have a wiggle, and because I keep forgetting how to spell their real name.

I knit them out of Shibui sock yarn which I was gifted by Knitabulous at least years Ravelry Baa events. The yarn is fabulous to work with, a nice tight ply, no splittiness and amazing stitch definition.

I'm really quite pleased with how they turned out. They are soft, comfy and warm, and just the thing to continue to batt out a winter wardobe of toasty warm socks.

B y the time winter comes however, we will have a new addition to the family to keep toasty warm, so in my ongoing effort to to turn a newborn into what looks like a small fuzzy colourful sheep, I give you what I did with the Southern Cross Fibre Handspun that I posted in the previous blog entry.

I made a wee little set out of the handspun and some Bendigo Woolen Mills 4 ply Luxury in 'Oceanic'. The set consists of the Garter Yoke Baby Cardi and a smaller almost miniature version of the Thorpe Hat.

I think it is Super cute, and I'm really pleased with how both of them came out, ecspecially since both patterns have had either details or gauge changed extensively.

The cardi was knit on 3mm needles with 5 and 4 ply yarn, in order to size it down to a 3 month size (or thereabouts). The original pattern is for a 6-12 month size. I also picked up stitches around the neckline and knit a further 6 rows for a mandarin style collar, didn't bother with buttonholes because I wanted to put toggles and loops on instead, and did the icord bind off on the cuffs instead of the garter stitch the pattern called for.

For the Thorpe Hat, the original pattern is written for adults, and gives three sizes, S, M and L. I knit the medium, completely as the pattern instructed.

Except that I knit it in a 5ply weight handspun, and the main stockinette prtion of the hat was knit on 3.25mm needles, and the brim and earflaps of the hat were knit on 3mm needles. The end result is newborn-3months-ish sized. It fits the cabbage patch doll in circumference anyways.

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Small things and small roadblocks.

2011-01-19T23:57:00.000-08:00

So ah.. that photo a day thing.. that lasted a long while eh? I got blind sided by a recurring abcess under one of my teeth, so there's been too much pain to even consider photo taking. I figured I'd get back into it and make up for lost time, but.. meh. I figure I am more of the random photo type of person anyways!

In the meantime though, there's been a bit of knitting going on, and some spinning too, so I do at least have some photos to show! First out we have a cute wee baby set, the first thing I have made for the new babe coming along.

The 'Green Goblin Baby Set' consists of the Offset Wraplan Cardigan, and a pair of Stay On Baby Boots.

The yarn is hand dyed sock yarn from Ewe Give Me The Knits, which I purchased at the 2010 Sheep and Wool Show. The buttons I found at spotlight.

I made the smallest size, but the pattern calls for it to be knit on 3.5mm needles. I went up to a 3.75 mm, mostly because it made a nicer fabric, and used 3.5mm's for the garter bands and button band.

The boots are amazingly cute.

I did the soles in stockinette instead of the garter the pattern called for, and I did them in some left over Dream In Colour Smooshy I had laying around from when I knit my dad some socks for christmas. I like the way they turned out too.

Aside from knitting there has also been spinning. The fibre in one of my last posts, a Corriedale from Southern Cross Fibre kind of fell out of love with me a little ways into spinning it. I'm not the worlds biggest fan of Corriedale fibre to begin with, and the colours weren't totally grabbing me. I Navajo plied what I had already spun, and wound up with a nice little mini skein of 95 metres of Fingering or 4 ply weight yarn.

I have not the foggiest idea of what I am going to do with it. Maybe a wee dress for one of Miss Mayhem's dollies if I get really bored or something?

At any rate the remaining fibre has found itself a new home where it will be properly adored.

And I pulled out some more Southern Cross Fibre that I absolutely adored, and spun it. I was on a roll with the Navajo ply so I continued it here.

This one is Organic Merino, in a colourway called 'Natural Beauty' and it was the fibre club delivery that I received for November in 2010. Soft and smooshy and very yummy! It spun up to about an 8ply or Dk weight yarn, and there is 201 metres in this skein.

This one is destined to be something for the new babe too - it's so lovely and soft, I think it will be super warm for maybe a jumper or cardi of some sort, and certainly something nice and soft for a wee little head :)

So, done! Till next time!

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Photo A Day 6/1/11 & 7/1/11

2011-01-07T04:35:00.000-08:00

So in the absence of me actually posting the photo yesterday, you get two together today, which is better really because they go together.

Bit O'Fluff

This is some Southern Cross Fibre Corriedale in the 'Geothermal' colourway, fluffed up and ready to hit the wheel

As The Wheel Turns...

and this is the same fibre, starting to take steps into becoming grown up yarn.

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Photo A Day 5/01/11 - snapshot of gestational diabetes.

2011-01-05T05:35:00.000-08:00

A small portion of my average day the moment, given that I am 22 weeks pregnant, and a gestational diabetic.

Every day I have

4 finger prick blood sugar level tests (one fasting in the morning, one 2 hours after breakfast, lunch and dinner)

3 metformin pills (one in the morning with breakfast, two in the evening with dinner)

2 multivitamins (with breakfast)

1 vitamin D tablet

1 Iron with vitamin C tablet

(both at lunch)

And 22 units of insulin every evening before bed.

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Photo A Day 4 - Where do you wear your heart?

2011-01-04T03:24:00.000-08:00

Where do you wear your heart?

I wear mine on the ass end of my car, apparently ;)

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Photo A Day 3 - Wait, what?

2011-01-03T05:08:00.000-08:00

January 3rd, 2011. Snapped in our local Safeway as I stood there in disbelief.

I like hot cross buns, particularly of the chocolate variety, just as much (if not more) than anyone else but COME ON.

JANUARY THIRD?!?!?

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Photo A Day 2 - From Dusk (till Dawn)

2011-01-02T02:38:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite candles from Dusk. Mmmmm smells good.

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Photo A Day January 1st, 2011

2010-12-31T22:33:00.000-08:00

So, around here, one thing we are happy to promote in the kids, is a love of reading. Both myself and the MacBeast love to read, and what this picture represents is the haul of books from this christmas alone, for all four members of our family. It also represents what all four of us have spent a lot of time doing over the last week, and will most likely spend a lot of time doing throughout the year, too. It seemed fitting to have this as the first picture of the year.

When it gets to the first day of 2012 and I go 'where did the year go, and why didn't I get as much done as I thought I would?' someone direct me to this picture.

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Unwrapped, to wrap it up.

2010-12-31T21:15:00.000-08:00

Well another Christmas, and another year, is now over. It's been, to put it mildly, a bastard of a year. Quite a few good and amazing things happenned.

And quite a few shocking and downright nasty things happenned, and much of it took a toll on us. BUT - we are still here, we are still going strong, and we've just come through a decent christmas and fantastic New Years Eve.

While many people do a photo collage of all the things they knit for the year, that is a bit much for me at the moment given I embark on the new year clean out, clean up today. Instead I will re-cap Christmas and show the few latest things.

Every christmas Big Mac and I attempt to make hampers of home made goodies for our parents, siblings and as many of our friends as we can manage. This year was no exception. Included was Christmas tree Bark (thanks to Jade for the recipe), Crostoli, Lemon Cinnamon Shortbreads, Maple - chilli roasted nuts, Peanut butter balls, but my favourite inclusion was the Cherry and Apple Jam we made.

It was made from organic split cherries which we bought from a local orchard - they were the tastiest cherries I have ever eaten, and true to form, made the tastiest jam, too. I'm really rather glad we have another two big jars of it sitting in the cupboard for ourselves.

Also this christmas, I knit some things. (I know - surprise! right?) In fact, in the month and a half leading up to christmas, I managed to knock over two shawls and a pair of socks. Granted, the socks were finished in the car on the way down to my parents, and I don't have photo's of them because of that, but trust me. They got done.

The first Shawl finished and off the needles was for my MIL (mother in law). It is knit from Zauberball yarn which is soft and single spun, with a slow colour change. The shawl pattern is called 'Shaelyn'.

and just for a better idea of the colours

The second shawl, completed and blocked JUST in the nick of time, was for my mum. It's knit from Mayhem and Chaos Silk Lace, in the colourway 'Tusk'.

The pattern is the Shetland Lace Triangle, which I have been meaning to do for a while, but have only just got around to.

It's beautiful and silky and drapey and she just loved it. So strangle to hold something in your hands that encompasses your shoulders, but is so light, it is barely there.

All up, a big christmas was had, with us crossing from one side of the state to the other over the course of week. We ere home in time to ring in the new year with friends, which was a blast for all of us. We look into the rest of this year interested to see what it brings!

And later, I will be back with the first photo-a-day for the month of January, to ring in the New Year. I'd like to say I will do a photo a day for a whole year, but I think I will just content myself with January as a goal. To start with at least.

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Beginnings and endings.

2010-11-14T23:02:00.000-08:00

So... to re-cap. I've been quiet a while. There have been reasons. Plenty of them.

But, right now, here is where we are at: Master Mayhem has now turned FIVE. Unbelievable. Tomorrow, Miss Chaos turns FOUR. To me, this is even more unbelievable.

We around here will be heading into summer at the end of this month. To feel the weather around, you wouldn't know it. It has been the mildest, coolest Spring season I remember. Also the wettest. I am hoping this translates to a mild summer also, as me and baking heat don't go so well. I'd be happy for the spring season to hang around a lot longer, with it's yummy smells, pretty flowers and all creatures.. well. Doing what they do this time of year.

Including me.

Which brings me to the real reason there has been so little knitting or blog updating, or spinning, and the real reason why the thought of a searing hot summer fills me with dread. The wee Mayhem and Chaos family is growing it seems, and we are due to have a new addition joining the household in mid-May of 2011. For my own part I've spent the last 3-4 months mostly feeling insanely ill, and all knit and spin mojo exited the building. A few weeks ago I started feeling better, and began knitting again only to come down with a headcold. Which then turned into strep throat. And then morphed into headcold with strep throat and an upper respitory tract infection. Yay me.

I was at my lowest point on Thursday when my diet for the day consisted entirely of iced water, and salty tears of self pity. By Friday I had begun to progress through the liquids - Iced Water - warm tea - soft drink - hot tea - soup. Saturday I progressed to those food forms which can be reasonably classified as 'goo'. Custard, jelly, yogo and ice cream. By last night I was proud of my progress to the level of 'mush' which is where I remain today. Pasta and mashed potato are my friends right now. This illness is a doozy and i think it will be at least another week before I am feeling right again, but I am taking it easy and resting up, per doctors orders. This is evidenced by the fact I am in bed, with my laptop, and don't particularly feel like leaving.

I do have a finished object to show though, one measly one throughout all this. This is a 'Peasant Shawl' knit from Ixchel fibres BFL/Bunny sock yarn.

It turned out to be an enjoyable, relatively quick little knit in the end, and is the start of the silly season knitting. This little shawlette is destined to go as a gift for the kindergarten teacher who has taught Miss Chaos 3 year old kinder this year, and Master Mayhem 3 year old kinder last year. Her assistance has been invaluable throughout everything, and given that next year Miss Chaos leaves her care to step up to four year old kinder, I wanted to do something special to show our appreciation. I hope she likes it as i felt the colours were entirely up her alley.

And so it begins. From here on out until the 25th of December there will be knitting, there will be baking, there will be hamper making and shopping. After christmas will see the shop ramp up again in a big way, with loads more updates, base yarns, fun times. I've loads of ideas! I actually really put my all into enjoying christmas and making it enjoyable for the kids too. Many more pictures of pretties and tasties and quirky links to follow for your madness and pleasure. I'll also post the recipe for my super awesome nuts :p

In the meantime though, I'd like to know - do you have a recipe which you would love to receive in a christmas hamper? In the past I've tried for a mix of Savoury and sweet nibblies, nicely packaged in cellophane bags and divvied up among family member so that everyone gets a bit of everything. If you were making one of those hampers to give as a gift, do you have a recipe to share which you would make? I'd love to see them :) I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

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Old, new and so much more than blue..

2010-09-07T00:23:00.000-07:00

So, we have finally finished moving, and cleaning up after ourselves. We are 95% unpacked and organised, and it is a relief to have a place that feels like home again. Of course over this weekend just gone, most of the state of Victoria has seen a LOT of rainfall. There's been flooding in and around Bendigo, and parts of Shepparton and Wangaratta are on evacuation watch due to rivers having burst their banks.

The rain, when it came was relentless, ferocious, and dare I say it, impressive! We have a lovely balcony at our new house which gives me a sheltered view night and day of a fair bit of Bendigo. It's a really nice place to sit and watch the goings on of the street, and also a nice place to sit and watch the rain - if a little deafening given the tin roof, common of houses this age.

The old house is not entirely filled with new things though. I may have mentioned it before but I LOVE alot of things that are old or quirky. I love to take old things and make them new again through re purposing of giving them some love! Or just finding some things that are just in need of someone to appreciate them.

This is my little teacup collection, and some old glass jars (with proper cork toppers!) that are brightening up the mantelpiece in the lounge with a splash of colour. Yellow, red and orange were all gotten from the local opshop (or thrift store / charity shop for overseas readers :p Hi Sarah! ~waves~) as a set for 7 dollars. The green one is not old at all, but is part of the Turkish Delight collection from T2, that BigMac bought me for christmas last year. The three small jars though, are rather special. All three of them I found while cleaning out mum and dad's pantry, and I am told they belonged to my great grandmother. I've been carting them about from house to house since I got them, though normally I put them on a windowsill to catch the light.

Clearly after setting that up I was in need of some more colour. I had been working on some new pants for Miss Chaos that were destined to be the subject of this particular blog. However the pattern and I disagreed and in an uncharecteristic show of obedience, i did what the pattern said. FAIL. Stupid pattern. Result, unwearable pants. To make myself feel a bit better I pulled out a different pattern, the Bettsy Kingston Market Skirt (link to where I bought it, too!). I yanked out some fabric I bought from a season clearance at Spotlight a while back, and got funky with some bright colour.

The result is a bright, funky skirt that should fit Miss Chaos through this Spring, Summer and well into next Winter too. In under an hour, no less.

As an added bonus, I made it so that it is completely reversible (bonus as she can be a little bit messy). I reccomend the pattern! A line skirts are not exactly rocket science, but for the cost of this pattern, it has a size range from a baby girls size 1, right up to a ladies size 18. Yay for versatility! One for me, next.

She likes it anyways! I think it looks super cute.

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A Moo of Cow(L)s

2010-09-01T04:26:00.000-07:00

So - the move is done. Mostly. There's still cleaning to be done, unpacking to be done, the usual detritus. But everything that must be moved across, has been.

Funny thing about moving though. It always costs a lot more than you think it will. It always takes more time than you think it will. And there is always a lot more effort involved than you think there will be.

Also, there's always hiccups along the way. Like Telstra. Oh yes. Let's not even go there, shall we?

So I can now share a couple of finished items, one of which was a gift I couldn't share earlier.

A friend of mine proposed a 'sad mothers swap'. No deadlines, no massive budget, just a nice simple knitted item swap for those of us who have difficulty being involved in more traditional swaps because of strict deadlines that are often interfered with by the uh.. little people in life.

I had some handspun singles of some Merino/Rose fibre, dyed by Mandie at Ewe Give Me The Knits.

Heavenly soft, this stuff is just gorgeous, and being single spun it spun up into lovely, definitive stripes. Also being single spun means much more yardage out of one braid.

I knit it up into a feather and fan cowl, and some Veyla inspired mitts.

Cowls are one of my favourite things to knit. They are quick, can be textured, plain, lacey - you name it. With buttons, or without. Unlike a scarf, you can fold 'em up and stuff em in your back pocket. They are easy on and off for the constant shifts in temperature we enjoy around here. and you can make them snug, or loose, and if they are loose you can fold them over and secure with a shawl pin or a brooch or even a badge if you feel the need for a bit of extra warmth that day.

So I made another one. For me.

It rarely happens that I see fibre and know exactly what it wants to be. But this one did.

Purchased from Charly of Ixchel yarns and fibres at Bendigo sheep and wool was this wee 50g braid of Merino/Cashmere/Angora.

Which got spun up into 150 metres of 3 ply / Fingering weight yarn a couple of updates back.

And has since become another feather and fan cowl, for me.

Both cowls used pretty much the same pattern, but the first I knit on smaller needles, and threw a garter stitch round in there to take advantage of the stripey goodness.

I love this shawl pin. You might have to tilt your head but it's a treble clef.

Both cowls made with handspun, slight variant on the same pattern, both super warm and very soft.

I like living in my tactile world, wherever it may be based.

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Of Shawls and Spring and OpShopping

2010-08-25T03:55:00.000-07:00

Everywhere around the place, bulbs are pushing their heads out of the ground, wattle trees are a riot of golden colour and cherry blossoms look like small pink and white firecrackers, going off with a fizz and a bang on the side of the road. Nature would have us believe it is spring, and in a week, the calendar would have us believing it too.

I call bullshit. If you were in or around where I live today, that would seem pretty hard to swallow! I doubt it reached double digits in the temps all day long, it poured with rain and even after being in front of the heater for hours now - I still feel like I've barely begun to defrost.

Today was spent starting to take the first (second, third and fourth) of many small loads of stuff over to the new house. So this may explain the frozen feelings. There was a nice interlude though, where I got to give a friend of mine a gift, someone who has been so amazing and supportive over the last 9 weeks or so of hell.

For Lisa, in a riot of bright colour is this Multnomah shawlette.

It is knit from Zauberball 'crazy' yarn, that I managed to score when I went down to the craft show at Jeff's Shed.

It hasn't taken long to knit, is nice and warm, and the striping of the long colour repeats is so effective!

The main thing is that she seemed to like it though, and thats what it's all about :)

I also managed a score of my own the other day on a visit to the opshop. I was trying to find bench stools, and while I didn't find any, what I did find was a few metres of a really nice charcoal jersey fabric, and a pattern I quite like which the jersey will be perfect for.

All for the princely sum of 4 bucks. Bargain!

I love me some opshopping and re purposing.

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The House Of Mouse

2010-08-24T06:41:00.000-07:00

Hi.

My name is Cinder. I belong to a small Mister Mayhem. I was going to be named 'Arthur' but it was pointed out that I was, actually a girl. So he changed his mind and named me Cinder. As in, 'Like Cinderella Mum, duh'.

Of the three mice that live here in our little cagey house, I am the smallest, the fastest, the darkest, and the most daring and brave too. When the dog got a little too close and tried to poke her face into the cage, I nibbled her nose. She won't be doing that again in a hurry.

Also, because I am so small, I often get beat on by my other two sisters. We all live together. Ninja is a bossy so and so, and she nibbled my ear. Not cool, man.

Hey!

my name is Star, and I belong to Miss Chaos. Of the three of us, I am the most timid and easily frightened. But I have my own bag of tricks. I like to climb onto the sides of our cage, and sliiiide all the way down to the bottom. Occasionally I like to sleep on the roof of our little house too. It's a bit odd, but I like it. I'm the medium sized mouse within the three of us. I'm also a bit of a trickster. I like to get a laugh by waiting till Ninja is going flat out on the wheel, then I stop it with a paw, and watch her go shooting out the side of it. Ha!

Hello.

I'm Ninja, and I belong to the writer of this particular blog. I'm the biggest mouse here, so don't forget that yeah? There's a definite pecking order that needs to be followed. My hobbies include sleeping, beating on my sisters occasionally, and I love the wheel. It's my wheel. I use it the most, I get it going the fastest - therefore - mine.

~~~~~~~~~~

It's funny. We spent nearly a year reading Miss Chaos's favourite book 'Shh Little Mouse' I never thought of getting mice till we visited someone who had three of them in a cage. Then the kids wouldn't shut up about getting them. So we did, but I never for a moment thought they would be as.. interactive.. or downright amusing as they are. I could watch them for hours, living out their mousey little lives within the cage. They have squeaky little arguments with each other, they fight, they play tricks on one another, and they curl up and sleep all huddled together, tails wrapped around each other.

~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, we picked up the keys to our new home today, and we start to move the smaller things across tomorrow, so that should be good. I also went to the GP this morning to find I have 5 infected spider bites on my back. I'm unimpressed, but would certainly explain why I have been feeling so craptacular.

~~~~~~~~~~

I should have more purdy pictures soon. A couple of gifts for friends, one crazy colourful, the other muted and elegant, and a cowl for myself made out of the squishy green softness handspun in my previous post. Cast on last night, finished tonight. Hows THAT for a speedy little knit!?

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Wheels are spinning (and I AM going somewhere!)

2010-08-23T00:52:00.000-07:00

Spinning round, spinning round.

With so much going on in my head at the moment, I find the fastest way to calm down and get things ordered, is spin. If I have a conundrum, I sit down at the wheel for a little while, and I soon have my answer, after letting my mind wander a little in the rhythm of the process.

The upside of all this of course, is that it is quite productive.

'Coloured Stone' Blue Faced Leicester Sheep.

I've been going on this for a while. It was a Ewe Give Me The Knits fibre club installment ages back.

3 ply / light fingering weight and 762 metres. Whee! That's a BIG hank right there.

Also, I purchased a weeny 50g braid of Cashmerino Bunny from the lovely Ixchel / Charly at Bendigo Sheep and wool. Such a lovely blend of mossy greens I could not resist.

Again, a 3ply / light fingering weight yarn, this one comes in at 150 metres, and is quite frankly the softest stuff I have ever felt. It will soon be knit up into a lovely cowl, just for me.

I'll endeavour to update more frequently from now, even if it is just a random series of photo's with no seeming link to them. But it is worth noting at this point that the little Mayhem and Chaos family are on the move again - this weekend in fact. We are hoping for little to no break in communications, but of course.. you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men, right?

To a new start! (again)

~~~~~~~~~~

I know, I know

2010-08-14T03:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a while.

Short pictorial catch up:

There has been spinning:

'Clown Factory' Handspun. 3 ply, Superwash Merino, dyed by Ewe Give Me The knits

'Golden Orb' Handspun. 2 ply, oatmeal BFL, dyed by Southern Cross Fibre

'Barry' Handspun. Single spun. Merino/Rose fibre dyed by Ewe Give Me The knits

There has been Knitting, too:

'Black Tea and Sympathy' Cardigan (also known as Tiny Tea Leaves) in BWM Luxury

'Goldfish' Cowl. Knit from Merino/Bamboo handspun, dyed by Ewe Give Me The knits

Hand knit socks for Miss Chaos, Knit from Colinette Jitterbug

Of course, in there, the great fest that is the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show occurred, as did the Ravelry events that go along with them. I will say a good time was had by all, and there is no pictorial evidence to be blog shared - mostly because 99% of the pictures I took were of people, and I have rules about not sharing pics of people without their permission on the blog. I had a blast though! Roll on 2011, and in the meantime I will continue to try and whittle down the various stashed to make room for more stash.

Another minor mention goes here to everything that has NOT occurred since my last blog - no sewing has occurred (though there has been more fabric brought into the house, but that's another blog post entirely) and very few Mayhem and Chaos updates have occurred. This is mostly due to life turning to.. well. not to put too fine a point on it - shit. It's still that way, due to a number of catastrophic instances, but I am looking at things with a different perspective now and muddling through. And that's all I really care to say on the subject at the moment.

So where to from here? Well at this moment I have some knit items blocking, two work in progress(es) on the needles, and three work in progresses on the wheel / spindles. One of which is currently being plyed:

The other braid of this has now been spun up into singles, and I am setting about plying. There is 200grams there of laceweight spun BFL singles, in beautiful Jewel coloured tones. I've plyed for two solid hours now and would estimate to be about a third of the way through. And before anyone asks - no. I have NO idea at all of what it wants to be.

I hope to clear a path between myself and the sewing machines at some point this week, and I also hope to be able to snap a few more recent photo's of various interesting things including fabric aquisitions.

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Lounge Room Make over part 1 OR 'Found my motivation!'

2010-05-16T01:13:00.000-07:00

Brace yourselves. This is the second blog post in as many days. AND I've been exceedingly productive. You may need to sit down and grab a cuppa for this one, 'cause I'm gunna hog the entire show 'n' tell session like the naughty girl I am :p

To start with - remember this?

Peas, no carrots handspun yarn. Machine Washable merino, 3 ply.

Well - it's all gone. Pretty much anyways, I only have a small amount left. Half of it became some fingerless mitts for my mum for mothers day, which I forgot to take photos of before gifting, like the idjit I am. The other half became its main purpose - a beanie for the Master of Mayhem, given he chose the fibre for his requested 'bright green beanie'.

He thinks it's allright :) He says it keeps his ears warm, so I guess thats what matters! It was also him who chose for the left over handspun to be used for his Nanni's mitts because 'Nanni likes green too'. Clever boy, that one :p

Akward segway here - not long after mothers day, we had a house inspection. Eek. We have some mark on the wall in our bedroom which - while eminently fixable - we did not have the time to fix before the inspection. I thought and thought, and came up with the bright idea of asking my friend Susan for a lend of a wall hanging quilt to cover it up. She obliged beautifully, lending me something which matched my bedspread beautifully and looked like it belonged there. I was sad to give such a work of art back, but not before I snapped off a few pics of it hanging there for posterity's sake.

Stunning, no? A short note about Susan's work though - it's not only beautiful, and inventive, but meticulously pieced with great care and a fabulous eye for detail. She has won many awards for her quilt, been in magazines and taught classes, and every accolade she has received is well deserved in my book! You will find her blog here: Susan In Stitches and it is well worth checking out.

Now while I am not even close to measuring up to Susan's level of skill or her artists eye for design, I'm giving things a bash anyways.

It was never a purposeful thing you see, for 90% of my furniture and decor to be green. Most of our things are opshop, or hand me downs. With 2 small kids, there's little to no point in having new flashy stuff. It just happenned that way that our dining table has green upholstery, the computer desk is green, the couches are green and so are the window trims in this house. I am over the green, and well over the blend of pale colours in the lounge room in particular.

I feel it is lacking personality. It's boring. Even to me, who lives here, it doesn't feel warm and inviting and homely. Given we rent our home, there's very little I can do about that, unless it is not permanent.

So I have been sewing. A stack of fabrics from Amy Butlers Lotus revisted range, paired with some chocolate mock suede left over from a skirt I made a couple of years ago (see?! It does pay to save your fabric offcuts) made a great blend of colours.

The first Cushion cover is finished, hand cut and sewn paper pieced hexagons injects a little bit of colour into the room where there was none before.

- it does need to be said here though that while the mock suede is soft, and luxurious and fantastic for something cosy - its grippiness does make it a complete bitch to work with. I feel the end result is worth it though!

This cushion cover is the first of many, a plan to inject some life into the room by use of loads of colours. I'm hoping that by the end, with many different cushion covers, a throw rug or two and some thinking outside the square, I can make the lounge room a much nicer place to hang out.

The second cushion cover, this time a much bigger euro pillow size, is already over half done too.

Its been quite the productive few weeks really! And with loads of projects on the go, no time for stopping. There's cushion covers and throw rugs to sew, cardigans and beautiful gift shawls for amazing people to knit, Sock Clubs to dye and get out the door, and of course gorgeous colours to spin.. speaking of, there's some Golden Orb calling my name..

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Food, Glorious Food.

2010-05-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

While there are plenty of crafty type things I've been working on, this particular blog post won't feature any of them. Instead, today I'm feeling the need to take a wander down memory lane on the subject of one of the other great passions in my life. Food.

I set a lot of stock in sensory experiences. I love to touch things, to smell things and to taste things. I listen and I look, sure, but certain tastes and smells bring back a lot of memories for me. The smell of velvet soap will always remind me of my Nana, because thats what she always smelled of. Last week while in a curiosity shop in town I found a box of a particular japanese temple incense that I had and used to burn at home when I was pregnant with Master Mayhem. One whiff, and I could imagine being back there in that space and time. When we lived in Bright, at the foot of the Victorian Alps, I remember very clearly the slightly metallic smell on the wind that meant impending snowfall - unique to itself, and while being subtle it was still distinct enough to cut through the smell of other peoples wood fires and the faint trace of leaves rotting on the ground.

But taste - my goodness, taste. Talking last night, Big Mac and I were taking a wander through the memory of foods past. Certain meals or tastes that years on, we still remember the taste of if we think hard enough. My first food memories are of my mothers food, unsurprisingly. Her pumpkin soup (which try as I might I can never replicate), her vegetable soup and my favourite - her porcupine meatballs. I know the taste of her hand made pate very well, as well as the sausage rolls she made for parties. I smell her sausage rolls cooking, and I expect to hear music going, and be surrounded by a flurry of preparations for impending visitors and party guests. My parents used to hold regular dinner parties, and I remember the dessert she used to make - cherries with rose wine, soft juicy cherries served over a flaked ice concoction of cherry juice and rose wine. We never stayed up for the dinner parties and ate with the adults, but she used to save a little for me if I behaved.

As a child I remember heading to the Dandenongs in winter for a market or festival, where my godparents were helping too. I recall the handmade coconut ice I got at the stall where my godmother was, and I recall the taste and the smell of the roasted chestnuts that Dad shelled for me, standing near the BBQ where my godfather was roasting them. Trips to visit family friends up in Mt Macedon there were sesame encrusted balls made of minced rabbit and spices served with a type of sweet and sour sauce - so tangy and delicious! The same family friends were polish, and their grandmother made these donut things which I still remember thinking I would NEVER taste anything as good as them.

But.. I grew up. And when you grow up, a whole new world of flavours and dishes open up. Talking last night we came up with quite a few meals that we both remembered clearly. Some of them I'll never be able to get again - some are open for the taking. We often say that I tend to navigate around my state by food. I'd say that's a pretty accurate assumption. The food memories intersect with people along the way, making memories of places even stronger though.

*In St Kilda, on Fitzroy street there are two memories - a small italian - ish restaurant called Ciccios. Their woodfired hawaian pizza was to die for, but most of all I liked their focaccia. Covered in slices of potato with cheese and a rosemary pesto it was homey and tasty and full of flavour. I know someone else who might be reading this post remembers most of all their choc mousse cake, so rich that one slice was difficult to finish on your own if you were a newbie to the experience. Ciccio's is no longer there, but I know I am not the only one that laments its loss!

*Further down Fitzroy street, Monroe's where I had one of the most fantastic Lamb Souvlaki's ever, after a night going to see Henry Rollins.

*At the Queen Victoria markets there was a churro van which sold churros by the bag covered with powdered sugar. I've had a lot of churros since, and while some have come close, none have ever really measured up.

*Also at Queen Vic markets, our Saturday ritual of going shopping for fresh fruit, veg and meat, then stopping off for a bag of crostoli for the trip home. Crunchy!

*In Bright, on a Friday night there was a small food van that sold burgers, piled high with ingredients and handmade chutney and relish that made them something very special. We discovered it on the very first Friday we moved up there - and re-discovered it just about every Friday thereafter while we were living locally.

*Lygon Street, Carlton. Il Gusto always did (and still does) do the best risotto I have ever tasted, *Lemongrass does the nicest and most innocently potent cocktail (the Siamese Princess).

*and Koko Black will do you a hot chocolate that is so good it can only be described as pure evil, in a cup.

*All Seasons Hotel in Bendigo once did us a steak, medium rare in a red wine jus, with tiny crunchy pomme noisettes around the outside of the plate, and served with house baked pumpkin dinner rolls.

*Should you ever be in Toorak Rd, there's a couple of stops you should absolutely do - Browns Bakery does the most amazing Garibaldi, crumbly and sweet, soft and crunchy all at once with thick raisins sandwiched between its pastry layers.

*Directly across the road, M-Bar - where I did fill in work for a brief couple of days, and where we had my husbands christmas break up two years running. Their chocolate torte will blow. your. mind. High quality chocolate blended with a berry and balsamic sauce is bitter and sweet all at once with an unforgettable texture.

*Blue Chilli's in Brunswick Street did a very raunchy rendition of a Beef Rendang with Roti bread, super hot but so full of flavour at the same time.

*Brunswick Street also yields a delicious all day breakfast at IddiBiddi, poached eggs with hollandaise sauce on sourdough. Oooh boy. Just the thing at 1pm on a Saturday when you had a long night the night before.

* Moonee Ponds - Jacks Satay Bar. Roti Rolls are an experience and a half, and one that I try to get every time I go to Melbourne. The Ducksi Goreng is also awesome, but Mac and I agree if there was such a thing as a 'number one' on this list, for us - this would be it.

Final mentions need to go to the amazing chefs I worked with who allowed me (and everyone else) to taste some really mouth watering stuff. Naomi's hand made pasta with fresh peas and proscuttio, and Micheal's Irish Soda Bread and Coddle. I wish, so much, that I could still go back now and get those dishes from the people who originally made them. But I can still taste them now, and that, I will have to be content with.

The thing that this list tells me the most is that food does not have to be fancy or involved in order to be memorable. Sometimes the most basic of ingredients combine to pack such a punch, a single flavour addition can make such a difference that someone, somewhere will remember it for a long time. Hopefully for the right reasons, and not the wrong ones.

I could ramble on all day about memorable dishes but I won't. I do want to know however, if anyone else out there reading this has memorable dishes too. What were they? Where did you have them? Are they still available?

I wonder if it's possible to make a map of Australia, with food highlights, both past and present.

(and then I wanna go on a great big tour and try them all!)

~~~~~~~~~~

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers..

2010-04-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

I was having a conversation recently, on crafting - be it spinning, knitting, sewing, quilting or whatever floats your boat. The question was asked as to whether I am more about the 'process' of creating something, or whether I am more about the 'product' that you get at the end. I've been thinking about that.

Initially I figured I was more about the product - because generally speaking if the end result is not something useful, in some form or another, I am hesitant to make it at all. And then I thought that perhaps I was more about the process - being a monogamous knitter I like to devote all my attention to the process of creating a single thing.

I've since realised that for me at least, the answer is neither. I'm more about the potential and the possibility. I am a pretty tactile person. Self confessed yarn sniffer, fabric toucher and fibre feeler. I'm an evil horrible mother who is making my children share a room so that I can have a studio. On one hand, this is necessary for the business. On the other hand I freely admit that I enjoy having a place I can go to sit and just be surrounded by pretty things, hold them in my hands and let them whisper to me about what they would like to become when they grow up. The intricate designs in fabric, cotton and cool to the touch that feel weighty in my hands. Soft, fluffy, barely there fibre in beautiful colours - some bright and vibrant, some natural and earthy. Subtle switches in colour along the length of a skein of yarn that remind me of a present you have to unwrap - you never ever know just how those colours will move while you are knitting them - until you do. I like to plonk myself down on the floor of my studio and just - touch things. Consider their possibilities, the best way to unlock their potential. It's all so pretty and so inspiring and I always walk out of there fired up about what I want to create.

This is the reason though, that I am a mostly monogamous crafter. When I start something I like to see it through to the end, to give it the attention it deserves, and that it needs. I also tend to attach feeling to random inanimate things, so if I have numerous projects on the go, I imagine they are lonely. Then I feel guilty and stressed. LOL! I also let things marinate in the stash a long while sometimes, because sometimes it takes a while for them to tell me what they want to be. I'll go through various ideas rejecting each one till I settle on the right one.

So here is my weekends fruit, spins from two fibres that have been marinating within the stash for about a year, both of them.

The first was fibre picked out by Master Mayhem when he requested I knit him a 'Bright Green Beanie' for winter this year. It's a 3 ply, fingering weight yarn, and 286 metres in it. Machine washable Merino that was custom dyed for me by Mandie at Ewe Give Me The Knits as part of the 'birthday custom' program she ran last year :)

There is too much there for just a beanie, so he might be lucky enough to get socks out of it too :)

The second is some steel grey natural Gotland Lamb. It has been marinating a while, because I just could not figure out what it wanted to be. I've been warned or clued in to the fact that Gotland loooves to felt. Recently I spied the pattern for some felted slippers, and I knew it had found its calling.

Worsted-ish weight, single spun and 241 metres

That's all from me today. I've got loads of stuff to do today, but I am enjoying the much cooler weather.

I'd love to hear what anyone else has to say about the process, the product or the possibilities though! Which part floats your boat the most? And why?

~~~~~~~~~~

Apples and Oranges..

2010-04-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

Two quick items to flash on the blog today.

The first - if some of you may remember from a previous blog post - was knit from this handspun yarn.

Which was spun from some superwash merino and bamboo batts from David at Southern Cross Fibre.

It has since turned into a very thick and squishy cabled beanie for the Big Mac, to keep his ears and head warm this winter, ecspecially as he now rides a bicycle to work in the mornings.

The pattern is 'Habitat' by the very talented Jared Flood. It only took me a couple of days but the pattern was actually pretty challenging. (as in - it actually required me to concentrate).

The second finished object is a 'Citron' shawl. In my view, calling it a shawl is a bit of a misnomer. Knit to pattern directions, it's not really big enough to be considered a shawl, but it IS the perfect size to be a wee bit of texture you just throw around your neck to stay warm. And for that, I love it.

The yarn is handspun, not spun by me, but by the very talented Ali (also known as wooliewombat) and was spun from a merino silk blend in the colourway 'Saffron'. The only real modification I made to the pattern was to change the increases to yarn overs because I wanted the little dots to look like seeds, or a ray of light.

I think it worked. At any rate I love it as a finished item and can see it being just the thing to throw on on your way out the door when there's a bit of a chill about during the in between seasons.

And oh yeah - I got a new haircut. :p I like it! (a rare thing for me).

~~~~~~~~~~

Water and Wheels

2010-04-11T03:09:00.001-07:00

I hope everyone had a great easter! We headed down to stay with my mum and dad over Easter, down to the ocean. The easter bunny came (of course) and delivered delectable treats, and there was darts playing, music and loads going on. We went to the Foster Craft Market, where the kids played on the playground, jumped on the jumping castle, and rode on the wee train run by the rotary club. We also bought the kids a kite each, then headed down to the beach so the kids could fly them while we were waiting for Dad to come back in on the boat.

The kids also collected shells, watched the stingrays fly under the water near the boat ramp and generally had a grand old time when we were away.

Since coming back, things have been busy and flat out. The weather has cooled significantly, which means it's now officially soup making and knit wearing weather - yay! And I've managed to squeeze in some knitting time (everything yet to be finished) and some spinning time too.

This 'Magic Ball' from Ewe Give Me The Knits

I split into three, spun each part, then plyed together. The end result is a very groovy rainbow style gradient.

Which I have named 'Space Invaders'.

Also, yesterday saw the first Farmers Market for Bendigo. We popped along and scored some fabulous currant buns and sourdough from Redbeard Bakery (my fave) tried a while host of preserves and stuff. By the time we got there most of the produce was sold out, and we tried for a snag - we really did! - but it was a case of first in best dressed, and at the time, we were neither. Next month though - we'll be back!

Today though, we headed out to the recycling centre here, in search of a 'good enough' bike for the Big Mac, to get him to work and back. We found an old racer style bike for him which was great, but we also spied a very groovy retro bike for me. Once I saw that it was in fact candy apple red ( I may be just a little obsessed with that colour) I decided it had to come home with me. It's quite old, but in good condition, ecspecially for its age. Master Sports brand, made in Australia and very cute! It's quite the cruiser :)

That's me done for tonight, but I'll be back soon. For more info on any of the above pics, just give em a click and they'll take you through to flickr.

I've got a date with mah spinning wheel!

~~~~~~~~~~

Pic a posy (image heavy)

2010-03-18T03:35:00.000-07:00

It has been a big few weeks around here. Both creatively, and life wise.

The last three days have featured some pretty heavy migraine duty going on which is never a good thing. I suppose I didn't really need the nutrition out of everything I ate according to my body, but it's certainly a nuisance getting rid of it. ~sigh~

The bad news is - our car crapped itself a couple of weeks ago. This is not your standard 'oh man that's gunna take a lot to fix' type of curling up of toes, but the big nasty 'it's going to cost more to fix than the stupid thing is worth' type of toe curl. So, the 'bloocah' as Master Mayhem called it has now gone to god, or the wreckers as it were, and we are now car-less aside from a car generously loaned to us from my father in law.

The good news for this is that Mayhem and Chaos is now offering awesome prizes that you go into the running for by signing up to our next sock club. It's going to be an 80's themed sock club, three months of yarn and treats mailed to your door. The segway of course of this being that it helps me get funds towards a new car. So if you want to have a chance at winning some Wollmeise, sulky silk and camelspin, or alternatively fabulous fibres by M & C, Southern Cross Fibre, Ewe Give Me The Knits and Ixchel bunny - not to mention the gauruntee of some seriously sexy sock yarn - check it out!

Moving right along - I participated in the Ravelympics. Timed to co-incide with the winter Olympics it's run on Ravelry, and you can sign up for different events. I signed up for the spinning, the sock challenge, and the challenge of finishing a work in progress. The only one I even knit a stitch on was the work in progress, but I triumphed, and on the final day I pulled one blocked cardigan off the floor, sewed on buttons and wore it proudly. I also think it looks awesome over my favourite black dress.

The yoke is knit from a handspun corriedale in a 3 ply I was sent in a handspun swap. The spinner was Verabee, and the yarn is spun from PigeonRoof Fibres in the colourway 'Vitals'. The rest of the red yarn is Bendigo Woolen Mills 5 ply Classic in 'Cherry' and the gorgeous buttons:

are from a second swap. They were sent to me by the lovely Liedra who is currently living in Belgium. They are vintage buttons, handmade in the 1920's that she bought for me on a recent trip to Paris. Things like that tickle me pink and I treasured them as soon as I received them because of their history, and how far they came.

I made up the design on the fly and am calling it 'CandiCaneCardi'.

Once that was done, I was itching to cast on something quick, but interesting. Miles of stockinette and garter stitch like in a cardi DO tend to bore the hell out of me, no matter how worth it the end product may be. Now, Miss Chaos seems to have this thing happenning whereby whenever you put her in a beanie she winds up looking like a hobo. For whatever reason the shape of a beanie makes her look kinda bedraggled and what not. Regardless of how practical they may be! I had been wondering what a Tam / Beret would look like on her. So I pulled out a skein of Mayhem and Chaos Socky Goodness in the colourway 'CherryBomb' and cast on a 'Snapdragon' Tam for her, pattern by Ysolda Teague. (I love Ysolda's patterns, so much). It was a small enough project to satisfy my desire for a quick knit, but certainly interesting with its intricate cables.

I obviously modified it, given it is an adult pattern written for worsted weight yarns. I knit the band on 2.5mm needles, and the rest of it on 3mm needles, and the Socky Goodness is a 4ply or Fingering Weight Yarn. I knit the largest size given, and it was a really enjoyable knit!

I think the end result suits her down to the ground. It's a perfect fit and can be pulled forward and over the ears to keep them warm quite easily, and as much as I may hate to admit it, she DOES rock the pink. She seems to like it too - judging by the fact that it had to be wrestled off her before she went to bed the night it was finished, and she begged me to let her wear it to kinder.

Finally, I realised that it had been quite some time since I had really sat down and done some spinning. I pulled out some 'Coffee' batts that I actually managed to snag at the second to most recent Southern Cross Fibre update. (For those that don't know, David's Southern Cross Fibre updates go so fast you generally don't even get time to see the stuff, much less buy it unless you are an itchytriggerfingered ninja of the lightning fast variety)

I plan on making a cabled beanie for the Big Mac this winter and the fibre was lovely and tweedy and brown, so I spun it into a worsted weight 2-ply yarn, because I think it will be perfect for the pattern I had in mind.

It's luscious and tweedy and oh so soft - a blend of Superwash Merino and Bamboo Viscose that I can't wait to get on the needles - just as soon as I finish up this shawl that was accidentally and rather sneakily cast on while I wasn't paying attention. Ooops.

There will be another blog update soon, I'll have some details to share about a HUGE project that I've been stealthily working on for ages after tomorrow night.

~~~~~~~~~~

On Turning 30 and the simple things in life..

2010-02-20T23:57:00.001-08:00

It's been a busy and often hectic few months. There was kindy break up, chirstmas and new years and all the hilarity usually involved in those times of year. There has also been the launch of the first Mayhem and Chaos yarn club, and two sizable updates in the shop thrown in there too. There was also the non stop hunting for and applying for a new house, which took all my time and got very scary in there, followed by the subsequent moving to a new home as well. In that time there has been no small amount of dye poured, tea poured, miles covered and tears shed. Much of the time, most things had to fall by the wayside in order to reprioritise other things - like finding a new roof to put over our head. Out the other side of all this, I have emerged to look around me, and be blindsided by turning the big 3-0.

It's a fairly momentous thing in my life, this turning 30. It's not something I dreaded or feared at all, I have always maintained that women only get ~really~ interesting after they turn 30. The last few weeks in the lead up have seen me re assessing things a little more. Wondering what lays ahead but for the first time in a long time, appreciating what I have right now, and letting go of a few things I've been hanging on to, and shouldn't have been. It's very cathartic.

I've realised that I really do enjoy some simple things in life the most, and that there's naught a thing wrong with that. I've come to the conclusion that some people really do enjoy playing high school games, some people really do enjoy being miserable and negative, and I need to let go of my annoyance with that, and just move on and leave them to it. And I've decided that when it comes to my family, it's ok to fight for the things that I believe in, to state my thoughts and opinion, and that I have just as much right to be heard as anyone else.

I'm wondering if this is a midlife crisis, (of sorts) but have decided if it is, that's ok too. Some people get fast cars and faster women (or men), I get emotional and mental revelations. Fair enough.

Enjoying simple things is something that many of my lovely friends understand about me, judging by the gifts I have received. From my mum and dad I received a new food processor and blender combo - my previous one was killed from over use through time, so I am pleased to have a brank spankin' new one, and wasted no time at all in cranking out something tasty.

From my sisters I received the first series of Miami Ink on DVD, and a Dymocks book voucher. With the voucher I went and bought myself a recipe book I had been eyeing for a while - 'Apples For Jam' by Tessa Kiros. My husbands lovely family gifted with another of her books also - 'Falling Cloudberries'. Both books are filled with stories behind recipes, beautiful photography and fantastic homely recipes that cross many cultures. As a bonus, both books are extremely beautiful to look at, too.

From another of my sisters I received some delicious loose leaf tea, a brand spanking new beautiful teapot, and some matching tea mugs. From a gorgeous friend of mine Darrow I received a tea tray, some madagascan vanilla loose leaf tea, a big infuser, and a mug that is more of a BUCKET than a mug. It seems people know of my love for five minutes quiet (when I can get it) with a hot strong mug of tea. Is there anything better, I ask you? It forces you to just SIT for ten minutes, assess your day, and just be a little more aware of your surroundings.

Not pictured but loved just as much I was also gifted with two free fiddle lessons from the lovely Gillian, a beautiful necklace from the stunning Jen, and some cashmere to spin and a felted project keeper from Susan :) I have most certainly been spoiled!

Last but certainly not least there is the gift I received from my husband (and children, by proxy) which detracts from the running theme of simple pleasures being the best. Co ordinating it was not simple, and it in itself is not simple either - intricate and detailed is a better description.

After five hour in the chair, I have a complete outline which I love. More pictures from start to finish coming in a month or two when it is fully completed on glorious colour.

Adios!

~~~

A Stitch In Time..

2009-10-19T01:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a big week around here. There's been knitting, there's been new additions to the household, and there's been cake of the birthday variety. Lots and lots of cake.

Wednesday of last week saw my wee boy, Master Mayhem, turn 4. He was such a tiny baby - 5lb 9oz when born, and even the 00000 size baby clothes swam on him. But so cute!

He was an IVF baby, and we tried for many years to get him. I remember saying when he was in the special care nursery when he was born that he was sooooo quiet. He almost never made a peep! I was assured that would change and it did. By the time we got him home, colic kicked in and he routinely screamed the house down every night from 9pm till 1am. We got that sorted out with the help of a chiropractor, and things were pretty good from then.

Until of course, he learned to roll. And then we got the first inkling of the daredevil within. He would roll at lightning speed around the house, getting himself wedged under coffee tables, entertainment units. I would go to the toilet and come back and he would be, just.. gone. I would have to search the whole house to find out where he had rolled to. It only got worse once he pulled himself up and started cruising the furniture! Then he got into the pantry, and the fridge, (and the cat) which was a sign of things to come.

Since then there has been numerous emergency room trips - the screw he got out of the kitchen cupboard hinges then deliberately swallowed - the faceplant into the fence outside that split his head open from eyebrow to eyebrow - the faceplant into the coffee table which cut open the underside of one eye. The measles. So far, no broken bones, touch wood.

However, he is a fiercely affectionate kid, who is only too happy to hand out kisses and cuddles, and who often tells us he loves us. (he tells the cat too, but thats besides the point) He's really creative, he loves music, and has impeccable manners 80% of the time, almost always using please and thankyou.

Like most kids he loves a good chocolate frog, 'pink milk!' (strawberry milk) and of course lollies, but his favourite food remains broccoli with cheese sauce, and he will knock over a hot jam donut faster than I can :p

Happy 4th Birthday my boy! (how'd you grow up so damn fast?)

**********

Since I finished the Swallowtail for my sister, I had not knit anything. I felt a bit knitted out after the mammoth effort it required to finish in a short spanse of time. As often happens though, during the week, I had a moment where I HAD to knit, and it HAD to be handspun yarn. I have little fits like this sometimes. I had a skein of beautiful merino and seacell sitting here, in about a sportweight, in really subtle dark colours. I cast on a pair of mitts, and less than ten rows in, Mac proclaimed they were 'his'. I was dubious he would continue to like the colours as they were knit, but I was wrong. The seacell has knit into a really soft gorgeous fabric, and the sizing and colours suit him right down to the ground. They were a quick, and immensely satisfying knit.

**********

Finally we have a new addition to our household. On Thursday I took a little drive and picked up she who has now been named 'Stitch'.

She is a 7 week old Jack Russell mix, cute as a button with a lovely nature :) She has made herself quite comfy in her new home, follows her chosen favourite (Master Mayhem) around everywhere he goes, and his adoration is certainly mutual. We are in the process of beginning to train her, but that said - she has most of us wrapped around her wee paw (particularly Mac - it's hard not to love someone who is smaller than your foot and has big brown eyes, huh?)

~~~~~~~~~~

For Whom The Bell Tolls..

2009-10-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

You know, I'd love to have a big cottage garden. A massive vegie patch out the back, filled with potatoes, plump carrots, brightly coloured capsicums, piles of tomatoes for eating straight, and making sauce. And elsewhere within the garden, fruit trees, laden with goodies, spring being heralded by massive shows of tulips, daffodils and irises pushing their way through the earth. Huge climbing vines of roses in loads of colours (particularly yellow), a big kitchen garden of herbs in every flavour, along with Lavender, pansies, gorgeous colour and flowers.

There are a couple of obstacles to this though, not the least of which is the fact that big mac is allergic to bees. You see, I have been living a double life. I am of course, me - music nut, knitter, spinner, sewer, food freak. But although I might try to hide it I also have quite the black thumb. One might go so far as to say that I am the botanical grim reaper.

Got a plant you want to die, quickly and horribly? Give it to me. Through over loving it, neglect, or plain stupidity I will manage to kill it in under a fortnight. They catch horrible diseases. They wither and crack. They burn, they get mould on them, they flatten out onto the earth and sometimes - they plain just up and vanish. 'What the hell? I swear to god I planted a gardenia here two days ago? Now there's just a hole?' I am of the opinion it upped and ran as soon as it got a chance, one moonlit night.

A few christmases ago, my mum gave me a lovely planter box, filled with four different varieties of herbs. Surely, thought I, this lot will live? They were a GIFT after all? And so began my battle with a neighbourhood tomcat. Who decided on top of my precious herbs was the BEST place to sleep. Every morning they were curiously flat and I got up really early one morning and discovered him asleep, and discovered the WHY for the flatness. So I moved it up higher, onto a ledge. He knocked it off the ledge, thus tipping the herbs out, and went back to sleep. I replanted the herbs, put them up even HIGHER, and he did this little trick again. After the second replanting, I put chicken mesh over them. He pissed in the planter and every last herb died. I guess he really did show me who was boss. I can compete with many things, but tomcat urine is clearly not one of them.

When we moved into this house it was February, In the middle of one seriously hot summer. The weekend we moved in it was above 40 degrees celsius both days, and water restrictions were in full force. So, you see the tree out the front never really had a chance. It was a really young tree, you see, and it was already convulsing when we moved in. It was the heat that truly did it in, not me. Although I suppose Master Mayhem ripping it out of the ground didn't help? At any rate, it did leave a round paved area of garden bed in the front yard looking rather bare.

Meet Barry.

Barry is, as you can see, a lavender plant. He is also, however, a hostage of sorts. You see - I said to Mac that if I could get Barry to live, maybe I could try again, you know? Get some more plants. Maybe some pansies, or again with the herbs. But first, Barry has to grow.

Here he is, freshly planted, and has been told of his fate. Live? Get friends. Die? Bin. He looks confident in rising to meet the challenge, dontcha think?

Still. I'm sure any thoughts you can send Barry's way would be appreciated. It's a lot of weight for a $6 lavender from Bunnings to bear all on his own.

~~~~~~~~~~

Sproing!

2009-10-09T01:48:00.000-07:00

Well, there's a definite feeling in the air outside. It smells like sunshine and wet earth, and the mornings are crisp and cold, but more often than not warming up into mild and sunny days. Spring is well and truly here, and summer is on the way.

From October through April, Master Mayhems kindy has a 'no hat, no outside play' rule. It's a good rule, and I like it alot because I am fairly anal retentive when it comes to sun protection. However, the rate at which he lost hats throughout the first half of the year had to be seen to be believed. Given how much my kids love hand made things though, (ecspecially mum - made) I bought a great pattern, some nice fabric and made them a brand spanking new bucket hat each.

The pattern is the 'Lazy Days' hat pattern from Make It Perfect. It comes sized from infant right up to adult, and I think it's awesome! The hats have enough brim on them to make them truly protective, where a lot of bucket style hats aren't really protective at all. I like them so much I think I may make myself one.

The hats are fully reversible, and for Master Mayhems I used an Alexander Henry fabric of soccerballs and a New Zealand print fabric with classic holdens on it ;) For Miss Chaos, both fabrics are from the midwest modern range, by Amy Butler. Tres cute!

*****

Also, I can finally reveal one of my secret squirrels! Last weekend we headed on down to my sister's 40th Birthday party. A good time was had by all, and I am pleased to report she loved her gift.

For her birthday I knit a 'Swallowtail' shawl. It is knit from Kaalund Yarns 'Enchante' which is a 2 ply pure silk laceweight. The colourway is 'LillyPilly' which is a beautiful soft pink colour, and I used foil lined glass beads instead of knitting the nupps.

There is a total of 22 repeats of the main budding lace pattern, and I left the final 6 rows off the edging chart and bound off where I was. I like the not-so-pointy edge this created, even though it was done more out of necessity than choice. (the necessity being it was finished at 2.30am the morning of the party and I could push on no longer). It is light as a feather and barely there at all :)

*****

Things are fairly hectic around here - it is Master Mayhem's 4th Birthday on Wednesday. So sad! I don't know where my teeny boy went, in the blink of an eye. He has gone from being a tiny almost premmie sized baby, to a small tank of a boy who does everything at top speed and breaks down any and every barrier in his way. ~sniff!~ So until I manage another post (hopefully soon - I have the Hostage Lavender to post about next time) enjoy spring, in all it;s forms.

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It's a herd of Secret Squirrels!

2009-09-20T03:12:00.000-07:00

What does one blog about, when everything one could blog about, is a secret? It's a toughie.

I mean there is a brand new knitting project in the works - but it is to be a gift. If the recipient saw it, it would wreck the surprise. So I can't blog it. Yet.

There's also a beautiful new blend of fibres on the wheel, in stunning colours? But it is for a swap, and again, if the recipient saw it, it would wreck the surprise. So I can't blog about that, either. Yet.

Instead, I will blog about the knitting project that just came off the needles, and a whole swag of fibre club deliveries that arrived last week. Heads up if you are a member of the Southern Cross Fibre, IxchelBunny or Ewe Give Me The Knits fibre clubs, don't have yours yet and don't want a spoiler, you may not want to scroll down much further.

So a few weeks ago, I bought some fiftyfifty merino and silk yarn in a 4ply or fingering weight from the lovely Knitabulous. I wanted a short sleeved lightweight shrug, something to just throw on over a summer dress that covers up the upper arms, but isn't overly warm - and here it is. I knit the Dream In Colour Shrug pattern, which is written for a ten ply, but worked out well in finer yarn. I love the finished object and can see it getting a lot of wear.

Meanwhile (back at the ranch) the postie made regular visits here this week with parcels of goodness. Southern Cross Fibre fibre club arrived, bearing 80g of polwarth and tussah silk fibre in the gorgeous colourway of 'Sprout' which I really really wanted. (really. No, really)

Followed by some equally gorgeous and very interesting fibre blend as the first installment of Ewe Give Me The Knits fibre club. This is an 80 percent merino, and 20 percent Milk protein blend. Yup, thats fibre (which feels very soft and silky) made from milk. Can't wait to load this baby onto my wheel!

And last but not least is the 100g of Blue Faced Leicester and Angora blend from IxchelBunny. The interesting thing about this braid (aside from how very soft it is) is that all of these colours are acheived with natural dyes, from things like lichen and walnuts. Impressive, no?

.....

So anyways that is it for me today. I could post about rearranging the kids room today, cleaning everything up and out of there, but that is a horror I am currently trying to regress.

Instead, I will leave you with all the pretties above and hightail my butt off for a cuppa tea, and to try and round up a couple of wayward secret squirrels.

~~~~~~~~~~

Spring Has Sprung!

2009-09-07T02:36:00.000-07:00

Around here, it's been kind of a tough week. Master Mayhem and Miss Chaos have been a little more full on than usual - there was the fridge incident (way to say buh bye to 3 litres of milk, 500g of cheese, nearly a half a kilo of butter, a jar of minced garlic and a whole tin of strawberry quik). The next morning it was followed by a pantry incident (1 kg sugar, a whole box of cheerios, and a packet of crackers) and the morning after the medicine cupboard. (Those omega 3 blackcurrant flavoured fish oil capsules? The cat asked to be oiled and massaged. truly. But at least he smells fruity eh?)

Before anyone goes there, all three of these places have locks. We forgot to lock the fridge for the first time in months, and the locks on pantry and medicine cupboard now represent zero challenge it seems.

You take pleasure wherever you can get it though, and this week spring really has sprung around here, and it is everywhere you look. Tiny snow white lambs frolicking in the paddocks, animals everywhere doing that thing that.. animals do in spring, humans feeling the similar urge (everytime i drive past a couple of high schoolers doing the disco-pash around the corner from our place I lean out the window and yell 'BUSTED!' and watch 'em jump six foot in the air. Hy-st-er-i-cal I tell you). Then, of course there's one of my favourite things about spring - the flowers. I love daffodils, and I love tulips - but most of all I love, love, love the cherry blossoms. We have one in our front yard and she is doing a marvelous rendition of snow white this year :)

Since my last post, there was a scheduled stocking of the store - there is still a few things left this time also, which is good because I finally managed to organise some advertisements on Ravelry. I still get a wee thrill every time I see one my own advertisements. I know. I'm pathetic. :p But I am happy this way.

There's been very little spinning or sewing to show this week, however there has been some knitting done :) A couple of weeks ago I bought some sock yarn from knitabulous in the 'Count Sockular' colourway. I paired it up with the 'Froot Loop' pattern from Knitty, and freshly finished are these babies - I'm calling em FrootBat socks.

I also had some more Knitabulous yarn delivered today in a lovely bright orange / red colourway, a 50/50 merino and silk blend which is destined to become a shrug for me. It's very bright, and I love it. I have a feeling my need to accessorise my usual black black and black with a little colour is turning into a full blown wardrobe makeover. Eeek. (stop laughing. You know who you are.)

I also cast on my sisters 40th birthday present last night. It's beautiful so far, which is great, but in my usual style, I have left myself less than a month to complete it. Nothing quite so spurring as working under pressure is there?

~~~~~~~~~~

A slow weekend..

2009-08-23T00:56:00.000-07:00

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!

~~~~~~~~~~

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)

~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~

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)

~~~~~~~~~~

Too cute.

2009-08-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

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.

~~~~~~~~~~

Long time no blog...

2009-08-18T05:14:00.000-07:00

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!

~~~~~~~~~~

Knit / spin / shop - pic heavy

2009-05-20T17:01:00.001-07:00

Long time no blog! Apologies, I've had some health issues recently. I still haven't sorted them but have gotten to the stage where I have to suck it up and carry on regardless.

Whats been happenning? Well, planning for Ravelry events at Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show has taken up alot of my time. Organisation actually takes freaking ages, and loads of effort. Would be easier if everyone else operated to my schedule, but living in the real world means that expecting that is just rampantly stupid.

There has been spinning, and knitting, and plenty of both really.

First, Fibre! I can flash both of these recent purchases now, as it isn't spoiling anything. The most recent fibre club arrived this morning and as much as I adore it and love it, I can't post pics because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. However I have pics of last months, so I can share them.

Last months fibre flub is a bamboo / polwarth blend, colourway 'Canopy'. It's goorgeous, deep and dark and so soft. I am a huge fan of Polwarth anything, it would have to be my favourite fibre to spin with.

This one is machine washable merino in the colourway 'Sugar Candy'. It's not my usual style I know, but I had such fun spinning the stuff below and loved the resulting yarn so much I thought I would break out and get something with ~gasp~ PINK in it. It's very smooshy.

This is a spin I don't have the pics of the fibre. Given to me as a gift around christmas time, it's a merino fibre, an old one from when Mandie at EGMTK first started dyeing. It spun up into a worsted weight type yarn, with plenty of barber poling and was unbelievably bouncy and squishy.

I can't lay claim to being the knitter who knit it up into this cute hat, that was my friend Helen, but I can lay claim to spinning the yarn and producing the gorgeous one modeling (and keeping) the beanie :)

Last spin for this blog update is called 'Desert Moon'. It's a Navajo 4 - ply with one of the plies being a variegated rayon thread flowing from deep gold to chocolate brown. It's quite fine, and really deep in colour. The fibre I started with:

A Blue Faced Leicester fibre, also one of my faves.

And the resulting spun. 15 WPI, 3 ply or light fingering weight, and 218 metres.

And now, the knitting.

From top to bottom:

*A pair of little fingerless mitts for Miss Chaos, made from some left over Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn. So cute.

*A pair of 8 ply / DK weight socks for the Big Mac, knit from the new Bendigo Woollen Mills 'Luxury' yarn. I love this yarn. Machine washable, very soft, and doesn't pill anywhere near as much as I thought it would.

*And lastly a 'Hurricane Hat' beanie for my sister in laws mum, a lovely lady. It is knit from the 8 ply 'Luxury' as well, with some Moda Vera 'Picchio' merino / silk in there too.

Currently I am working on - a matching scarf for the hat in the Moda Vera Picchio, and a 'Wicked' jumper for myself in the 10 ply 'Luxury' yarn. Both are coming along nicely! I would say I am perhaps 3/4 of the way through the jumper, and halfway through the scarf.

That's all for now, proper update with actual life content soon, I promise. For now it's a sunny day, great for hanging washing out, so I had best go and do exactly that!

The wheels on the bus go...

2009-03-23T03:50:00.000-07:00

Long time no blog! Have not really had much to be blogging about, or rather not much I felt like sharing, for a little while now.

Bare with me while I find feet again.

Since last blog, there's been birthdays galore. I turned 29, and the big Mac turned 35. I think we are both feeling a little older than our actual years at the moment though.

There's been a little spinning, a little knitting, and a little shopping along the way there.

Spin wise, here is a little 'Good Day Sunshine' for your Monday evening:

She is a 2 ply, Polwarth / Mulberry Silk blend that comes in at roughly a 5 ply or sport weight.

Yummy!

Knit wise there was a little lace, and a little girl.

Forest Canopy, in The Knittery's Merino Slim Sock, 'Bloody Mary' colourway. This is going to a swap partner over in the west. I do hope she likes it!

(Modelled by me, don't worry, I've lost weight since this pic, not quite so ala porkess now)

Also, a nice grey snuggly cowl, from the 'Precious' yarn from spotlight.

And lastly a cute wee cotton dress for my girly girl.

Not all that much in the way of shopping really. There's been fibre club, but I don't really share that on the blog, because I never know who is reading and who has theirs and who doesn't. I will however share the hand dyed baby alpaca that arrived in the mail the other week, from Ewe Give Me the Knits. It's the 'Luka' colourway.

I love love love it and I'd like to sleep with it, if only it wouldn't felt if I did.

So there's the eye candy. There's more quilts in the works too. I'm currently test knitting a little something for a friend, and scouting out quilting fabric. I need to make Mr Mayhem a little something for his bed - leaning towards a green batik and Jungle theme at the moment. And for my Little Miss Chaos I will also be making one to coincide with the graduation into a 'big bed'. ~sniff~

I'd like them both to be tiny babies again, no doubt about it, but given they've both shot up numerous inches in the past few weeks, that is NOT going to happen.

We've made good progress with the toilet training with the boy who is now nappy free except for night times, and very happy about it too. Shows off his 'dundies' to everyone who cares to enquire. He also started three year old kinder one afternoon a week a couple of weeks ago, and now the fridge is filled with paintings and glue-ing galore. Picture display spots are at a premium around here now, dontcha know?

That will have to do for the current catch up - I need to go finish compiling the list of what I will do with this weeks tatslotto winnings. ('cause I'm winning - oh yes, I am. positivethinkingpositivethinkingpositivethinking)

The one where a new year begins.

2008-12-31T19:42:00.000-08:00

Shock! Horror! This will be a blog update sans photos. This is basically because since my last update there has been very little done by way of spinning, knitting or sewing. I've managed to spin a little bit of some Ixchel merino angora, but not enough really to make photo's worth while. And I sewed a pencil roll or two, but did not take photo's before I gave them away as gifts. As for knitting, I currently have one the needles another Forest Canopy Shawl, this time in The Knittery's Merino slim sock, 'Bloody Mary' colourway. I'm a little under halfway done. I also have a very very boring sock for the Big Mac. It's grey. And it's in ribbing. It is also sapping my will to live with it's plain boringness. Every stitch strips me of a little shred of sanity. The things we do for the ones we love, eh?

Most of my time since the last update has been taken up by preparations for christmas, as is the case with many of us. I made far less of a production of christmas this year and am all the more happy for it. I went with simple this year - simple pleasures, and cut down on the amount of drama involved wherever I could. Santa brought Mayhem and Chaos some lovely things, a swing set for the backyard, some colouring pencils and books, for Miss Chaos a Tinkerbell doll, for Mister Mayhem a Thomas train set. Santa also got into the swing of encouraging music this year. A junior drum kit and a ukelele were found under the tree. Plenty have said Santa must have some sort of brain malfunction when told about the drum kit, but it's actually ok. Both kids have the beat, and both of them enjoy having a bash at it. I'd prefer the noise of a drum kit over the noise of flat out whinging and it has thus far proved to be quite the outlet for frustration.

We made it up to Wangaratta for the briefest of times away - 2 nights and 3 days to be exact, so big mac could help his parents with the building of their house. While there I dropped into a little yarn shop, and we headed off to Milawa to the cheese factory there, and also dropped into Gapsted Winery too. We came home with a few souvenirs, a wooden shawl pin and a bottle of lime pressed olive oil, some Milawa cheese, and a bottle of tawny port. Tasty.

We also made it through another 29th of December. Thanks to everyone who sent me emails or texts to let me know you were thinking of me on that day. It was a sad day, but we were home for it, and that made it a little easier.

And now, here we are on the very first day of a brand new year. Time to pick myself up, get all those ducks lined up in a row and approach it with energy and fervour. As always I wonder exactly how much I can pack in to a stretch of 365 days? We're about to find out.

5...4...3...2...1...GO!

The Jolly Fat Man cometh...

2008-12-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

Long time, no post, I know.

I'm not sure exactly where to begin to try and play catch ups, so I am considering bypassing any and all catch up attempts. But I will at least, share pics of recent handspun and hand knit efforts. I've been just a little busy.

First out of the gate here is Mossy, a merino angora blend of fibre I bought from Charly at Ixchel. Beautiful spin and a beautiful resulting yarn. I finally managed to get another of her braids onto the wheel last night, which is super cause I have been drooling over it for a while - it's been sitting here a month!

Next was 'Honey and Mint'. A BFL / Soy blend I bought from Mandie at EGMTK at the Bendigo Show. It's original name was 'Nymagee' but it's gorgeous honey colour begged a name change once it was spun. It now lives with a swap partner of mine on Ravelry, who now gets to pat it instead of me :) That's ok though - I like giving handspun new homes, and new leases on life.

Here is some masham in a choc berry colourway, also from Mandie. I am not entirely sure what I will do with this one. It's not really suited for next to the skin wear, but the colours on it are just so darn pretty.

That's it for skeins of handspun - I'm not showing off everything I have knit or spun since the last update or I would be here for hours, so I am just flashing a selection.

Remember the handspun skein of 'Imperial Reign' Merino / Angora from the last update I did those months ago? (Feel free to scroll down. Go on, you know you want to. I'll wait.)

Well that became this:

A glorious cowl with amazing colours for me to wear when the weather gets cold. I love cowls. LOVE THEM.

And finally, there was a triumph squeezed in since the last update - a triumph over lace. Which may now, even as I type, be launching itself into a full blown obsession. I said I would never knit lace. It was just too hard. But as is often the case, when something is too hard in my head, it becomes a challenge. So I present my own source of pride, my Forest Canopy Blues.

Although - I shouldn't call it mine given it was posted off to my sister last week. It's yet to arrive though so in the interim while it is floating around the countryside, it's still mine. Knit from Bendigo Woollen Mills 4ply baby wool, then dip dyed and sponged to give it it's colour, it's beautiful and I do love it. Alot.

I may or may not also be sitting here patting some other laceweight, and the 'parcel dude' may have just bought more. But it's not an obsession. No intervention required. Really.

-------------------------

Anyways. On with the update, of things I really wanted to say. Of cabbages and kings.

There's been a fair amount of sickness in our household this past fortnight. Luckily, I was hit first - a touch of a sore throat that lasted a couple of days. It didn't worry me too much, but it heralded what was coming, expecially for Master Mayhem who seems seriously prone to throat infections. Sure enough a day or two later, it hit him, rather suddenly. All of a sudden it was all we could do to try and keep his fever down, and keep his fluids up. When that kid gets hit by something like that he gets hit, HARD. That lasted about 3 days, and then-Miss Chaos copped it. She wasn't too bad, it only really hit her for a day. But as of last night Big Mac informs me he has a sore throat also. It's certainly doing the rounds!

We now find ourselves almost half way through THAT MONTH of the year. You know the one. The one where the Jolly Fat Man visits.

Now, normally, I do my best to keep the blog upbeat and happy with just that slight touch of smartass, but bear with me here. We are taking a turn for the serious.

I've always loved christmas. I love the colours, I love the lights, I love the carols. I love the smell of fresh christmas trees. I love the food, dear lord how I love the food. Christmas in Australia is something completely different to Christmas in the states, or in Europe. While they have snow we have blistering heat. They pull on their hats, mitts, thick socks, winter coats and boots. All the while we are peeling off layers of clothing pulling on the sandals or thongs and going for a dip in the wading pool with the kids. When I was a kid we used to go camping on holidays after christmas, and I would like to start that tradition again this year, but it may not happen. I may have to wait until next year because I have left my run so very late. No matter. I've always felt it strange that so many Australians still insist on a hot roast lunch at christmas despite the fact it is generally a hot christmas day. That said no one had better stand between me and my slice of plum pudding, or there will be a forking.

Since I grew up though, Christmas became hard. For me, ecspecially hard. I go into every Christmas season with the best of intentions, to make the christmas the best one yet for the kids, to really enjoy myself. And every year ever so slowly and surely, that gets harder and harder to maintain. Some 5 years ago now (good lord. 5 years?) round this time of year, I was a big round bellied individual with a lot of hope and dreams. But in the three days leading up to christmas they were shatterred. Modern medicine can provide a picture of whats going on inside a big round firm belly, and we found out first hand how it feels when that picture is not the story book you had hoped - or just assumed - it would be. We went through that Christmas with that knowledge, and the knowledge of what was to come. On the 29th of December that year, our first child, a little girl was born. Born far too soon, and far too ill equipped for life in this world. Every christmas since, I do my best to enjoy the season with the beautiful bright young siblings that came after her, while also doing my best to remember her, and to think about all she could of been. I don't want to forget. It seems wrong, to forget. But it's a very fine line, and one I frequently have trouble maintaining.

Then, there are the other things that wear you down. The rudeness of some people, their entitlement. Going shopping at this time of year is always a hazard but some people make it more difficult for everyone else than others. I'll never understand why some people seem to think they are in more of a hurry than everyone else - more entitled to that parking space - and more hard done by than others. With every catalogue that falls through the mail box, with every commercial shown on TV, with every implication in the media and society at large that christmas should be BUY! BUY! BUY! and MORE! MORE! MORE! the whole point of christmas, the thing I've always loved about it is lost.

To me, the whole point about Christmas is that it is the PERFECT excuse. For just about everything that you wanted to do or needed to do throughout the year but just couldn't justify because it took up too much of your time, it is the perfect excuse. You can hang around with friends and family.. take your time, have a few laughs share some food. There really is nowhere else to be, nothing else you should be doing. It's christmas. Enjoy the company. Hang out on the floor with your kids, play with play dough, make monsters and aliens. It's kinda the whole point. Why be a grown up? It's christmas! Christmas is ecspecially important for children, so be a child. Remember what it was like through their eyes. Hang out on the couch on christmas eve, watch the carols on TV, knit something, sing along. It's christmas! Just be yourself. Screw the responsibilities, screw work, screw all the people who tell you that if your kid doesn't have the latest playstation / new bike / nintendo DS / portable dvd player they will be scarred for life. They won't be. The whole point is that they get to spend time with you, with family, with people they love and that love them. It's not the about WHAT they love, or WHAT they want, it's about what they love DOING, what they want to DO and who wants to do it WITH THEM.

When I think back to the fact that I have a small girl named Brannwen who *would* of been nearly 5 years old this christmas, and I look at my cheecky and mischevious 2 and 3 year old, I realise the most precious gift any of us have, for our children, for our families, for our partners and for ourselves, is time. This christmas, give them your time. Give yourself your time. After all, you are worthy of a gift too!

Hop, hop - hippity hop. Welcome to Monday.

2008-10-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. Mondays. I really hate them. I think I may have been garfield in a previous life. Todays Monday however, it's raining and pouring, I had a very busy weekend which I am exhuasted from, and Daylight savings began so my wake / sleep clock is buggerred. Pleasant, no?

I managed to start and finish in a little under a week, the Dream In Colour Shrug.

I am really quite happy with it. It is knit directly from the pattern, in the yarn called for (such a rarity for me!) in the colourway 'Cocoa Kiss'. The colour is perfect for me and my kick of all things kinda natural coloured at the moment and it fits really well aside from one little issue.

Once it's on - I can't get it off without assistance. My arms simply don't move that far behind me because of back issues. I continue to wear it anyways, because I love it so. I may even make more of these, slightly modified, because they look good and are so handy just to throw on. I never thought I would get into the 'shrug thing' but I guess I was wrong. Just like I was wrong when I thought cowls were pointless. NOW I want about 500 of them. All in different colours.

Planning for Bendigo 2009 has begun in earnest around here. I can't say anything yet, but I am running myself fairly ragged over it!

Finally, I introduce the newest member of our family, who came to live with us this week.

Meet Cap'n Jack (wabbit). Named after both Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Jack Harkness, take your pic as to which you like more. Jack is 5 weeks old, unbearably cute, not timid in the slightest, and is now Master Mayhem's new best friend. Upon waking this morning the first thing he said was 'Jack? Jack wabbit?'.

Miss Chaos is also rather interested, but Master Mayhems interest borders on total adoration. That kid just LOVES animals.

Once more, with feeling!

2008-09-11T04:02:00.000-07:00

A-A-A- CHOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Yup. The lurgy has me in its grip. It's miserable. My nose hurts from constant blowing and even the mega soft aloe vera and vitamin E tissues are no longer easing the pain. Bleeeeeeergh.

However as is the case in times of misery, it's good to find cheery things to lift the spirits. Like the fact that we are suppossed to have 23 degrees here on Saturday. Wooohoo! Heatwave!

And the fact that I had a parcel of pure unadulterated joy land on my doorstep this morning. The delectable Susan (Catsmum) recently ran a competition on her blog to celebrate her blogiversary. I was one of many people who left comments, and I won! What did I win may you ask?

Within the parcel was a beautiful book on spinning (how she knew I loves me some technical type manuals, I don't know) two lots of fibre, one a bright funky orange, and the other a thankyou for a pattern book from the lovely Jeanette whom I met at the Bendigo Show - various deep reds. Ooooh lush, I love yellow and red based colours, yellows, reds, oranges, rusts. *drools a little* Also a wee book on Faerie Folklore which I will have great fun reading to and explaining about to the kiddies. Last but certainly not least, a CD by the Mafumani School Choir whom with Susan recently performed as part of the Castlemaine Choir. I desperately wanted to go along, as I just adore the vibrance and energy of African music, but sadly the Macbeast was still on nightshift, and a babysitter for the kids is not easily gotten. This CD is the next best thing!!

There was also a package of lollipops, which, predictably have been 'claimed' and are now living in the pantry to be doled out as treats. That boy of mine is very clever - he sees the postman walking down the path with a package now and starts going "yum!" - there's no sneaking anything past him anymore.

Thankyou so much Susan, you really lifted my day! And with the Cd my days will continue to be lifted. Happy music is the best.

And while I am on all things happy, here's my happy picture for the week. I didn't really need to take a picture, as it is directly outside my front window, but I did anyways. One of my favourite things is Cherry Blossoms. White, or pink, I love them. 2 days ago, the one in our front yard was bare except for the tiniest, most barely visible smattering of buds. Over the last two days it has exploded, like fireworks. Apologies for the dodgy picture taken at night but it truly is a thing of beauty and a sight to behold. They even LOOK like fireworks the way they shoot off in a zillion different directions.

Spring has most certainly, sprung.

Update 3 of 3 - Rockstardom

2008-09-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

Socks. Hand knit socks. There honestly is nothing better. The best hand knit there is, ecspecially in this yarn. These are my 'Rockstar Socks' - so dubbed because they were mostly knit in between rounds on Guitar Hero. Hahahaha, let me tell you I rock! BUT they are knit in Misti Alpaca Internation HandPaint in the colourway 'Bird In Paradise'. They are an alpaca/silk/nylon blend and man are they COMFY. I love them! New faves, it's bliss.

In other news, I finally bought some yarn for a project that I have been lusting over. That's right, LUSTING.

Dream In Colour Classy (worsted weight) in the colourway 'Cocoa Kiss'. It's for the Dream In Colour Shrug. (look it up, sorry I am link retarded) It's beautiful, and I can;t wait to cast on - but I am currently using my 5mm tips for Fintans Jumper so will need to finish that first. I can;t be naughty. (But don't think I didn't consider it).

And finally, some more handspun, which had not even started being spun when I did my last update, and as such needs to be included here.

This is Merino and Angora blend from EGMTK, dyed in a colourway called 'Imperial Reign'. I was in lust at first sight with this baby, and upon being spun up, it sure didn;t dissapoint. It;s just my sort of colours, lush, vibrant auttumn tones. Again I have no idea what to do with it, but I am thinking perhaps a cowl for myself for next winter. It's 170 metres of 8ply-ish equivalent.

Fibre

Yarn

And if this post seems a little scatterred to you, and a little like my brain is AWOL - that would be because it is. Both kids are sick, the Macbeast has been sick and now dum-dum-dum - I am sick. Blergh. No rest for the wicked though and must battle on, but am having a great deal of issue concentrating on anything for any real length of time. Welcome to the house of *cough* -sniff- ~sneeze~...

Update 2 of 3 - The new wheel and the handspun.

2008-09-03T20:37:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, my new wheel arrived. She is a 'Rose' from Majacraft. Double treadle, upright wheel. Amazingly smooth, fast, and easy to spin on. And so quiet!! Not to mention far more portable than my old one. Absolutely money well spent, which is really saying something because she was far from cheap. And we all know what a tight ass I am.

Since she arrived, I have been trying to keep an even keel on my knitting and spinning time, but the fact remains I have two skeins of handspun here, and one not yet completed pair of socks. Hmm. buh-bow. When the spinning 'experience' (wank wank) is this good, it's kind of hard not to gravitate toward it though.

So far I have taken her to The Bendigo spinners and Weavers group Come and Try day. I have taken her for a visit to Catsmum's and I have also taken her to visit another friend. Just pop her on the passenger seat, put a seatbelt around, and off I go. Brilliant!

My spinning has improved with the new wheel too. Don't believe me?

Here is 100g of merino / bamboo in the 'Harvest Wine' colourway. Spun fingering weight, Navajo plied to keep the colour repeats intact.

I have no idea what to do with this yet. It's so girly, and would look great on Miss Chaos, but in what form I don't know.

However this - well I love this. Initially spun to be a beanie for Mister Mayhem because he lost his blue cabled beanie. Halfway through spinning it, he found the beanie, and now that its done the weather has started to warm up. So I think it may just become a yarn pet for a year or so until the weather cools down again. I love it alot though, so thats no hardship.
100% Polwarth in the 'Rifle Butt Road' colourway. A fractal spin, 2 ply that is about worsted weight or ten ply equivalent.

LUSH!!!!

I was also RAOK'ed with some Noro Silk Garden Lite a couple of weeks back, which is living on my desk. Such beautiful colour. It's always good to have things to touch, things that make you happy, sitting around where they are accessible. I am a tactile person (yes - a tactile person. NOT a fibre/fabric/yarn whore, thanks lol) so when feeling a bit crappy the odd squish of some handspun, or just looking at something beautifully coloured or patterned makes me feel a bit better :)

Update 1 of 3 - Mayhem and Chaos

2008-09-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

I have lots and lots and lots to update with. So I am breaking it down into three updates. This first one is concerned with Mayhem and Chaos, both Version 1.0 and version 2.0 - the kids, AND the shop I named after them.

The kids are going well. I've popped the photo up there as a reminder that nine times out of ten they really DO look like butter would not melt in their mouths. Even when you realise it is suspiciously quiet, and round the bench to find a tin of milo has been poured all over the kitchen floor, they look at you and grin, for all the world like total angels. It's lucky they are cute!

Master Mayhem now goes to daycare for 6 hours on a Friday, which has proved to be much better for him than I thought it would be. He's become more wordy since then, and alot more confident and independent which is a good thing. Although the wordiness I am in two minds over. We were so worried about his lack of speech for so long, but when I am working away on the computer with them next to me, and he drops something and goes "oh shiiiiit!" it makes me wonder why I worried at all. All in good time as they say. (Although I will admit to having to turn away so he wouldn't see me fighting my uncontrollable laughter)
He also appears to be going through a growth spurt at the moment - well, they both are actually - it's like spring has sprung and weeds and kids need to grow. All of a sudden our little boy who was kinda short, and a little bit swarthy and gnome-like because he was so broad, has shot up. Pants are becoming too short, as are sleeves.

Mistress Chaos has always been on the tall side, however she is shooting up even further too. There is 13 months and 2 days difference between my kids, but she is about 2 inches shorter than her older brother, and there is about a millimetres difference in the sizes of their feet. They have both already worked out their shoes are interchangeable. This is a problem because Miss Chaos has inherited the shoe loving gene from her mother. Whereas Mister Mayhem inherited the bowerbird gene from his father and is obsessed with anything sparkly or shiny. Throw in one pair of silver sparkly glitter shoes, the realisation by Mayhem that he fits them too and you have trouble. A world of trouble.

Miss Chaos you see, is.. well.. a bit of a drama queen. And when I say a bit, I mean I need to enrol this kid in acting classes when she is old enough. She doesn't get a drink at the exact precise moment her brother does? Have a paddy. Accidentally dropped her dummy? Have a paddy. Something doesn't move out of her path when she looks at it sternly? Have a paddy. We are talking throw self down onto the floor, wail and squeal like its the end of the world, paddy. She's a princess too. If she has socks on or is barefoot, and steps in something? She will hop around on one foot, wailing, waving the dirty foot in the air until you clean it off. It's really quite amusing that one!

I am partly bemused and yet partly of the feeling its typical that my two really are far more speedy, and far more sneaky, than other kids their age. I look at other kids out and about who will sleep in a pram, or hang on to the trolley and walk with their mothers when Shopping and I think "Why can't mine do that instead of running off in the other direction hand in hand before deciding to have a headbutting competition in another aisle?". Then I realise if they didn't do that, they wouldn't be them. And for all the sneakiness they really are very clever, beautiful kids who are alot of fun. They make me giggle on a daily to hourly basis.

That's not to say I don't have my days where I feel I will scream if I have to say the words "no", "put that down", "look with your eyes not your hands!" , "don't touch that" , "get off the bench", "put the cat down", "don't kick your brother / sister" or "get back here!" again. Although having to tell Mister Mayhem the other day "don't lick the cat!" kind of made me feel like I had fallen down the rabbit hole and lost my mind along the way.

As for Mayhem and Chaos version 2, I am nearly ready to do another stocking. I am hoping to do proper, regular stockings from now on, and am looking into getting my own website up and running down the track rather than relying on Etsy. This update will have hand dyed 18 micron sliver for spinning, and sock yarn in 5 new colourways, and one old colourway. There will also be handspun yarn go up, but I have a few things on the way for future updates. Keep eyes peeled!

And while I am speaking all things handspun, hand made etc - I have a question to ask the blogosphere at random. (It also helps as I know some of the people I am addressing the question to read this lol). If you or your kids received hand made gifts for christmas be they hand knit, handspun or whatever - would you think the giver was stingy? Or a stooge? Would you mind receiving gifts or your kids receiving gifts that by their nature are not seasonally appropriate given christmas falls in the Australian summer - but would be useful when winter rolled around again? I am considering making some of my neices and nephews some hand knit stuff for christmas gifts, but am unsure of how they would be received. Any excuse for me to thumb twiddle over a dilemma and avoid the washing piling up in the laundry eh?

Finished - in more ways than one.

2008-08-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

A quick entry in between other commitments (ie just before I put my wee girl to bed so I can get some other things done).

What a busy busy busy week we have had around here! I am going to have to put this in bullet point form I think, there's just so much whirling around in the headspace.

*I have ordered a new wheel, to be paid for when the tax return comes in. It's a Majacraft Rose, and hideously expensive BUT - I am hoping - worth every darn penny. I am now checking the bank account for the tax return on a daily basis, and near climbing out of my skin in anticipation of it arriving. Finally more than 50 grams out of one bobbin! yay!!!! Pics are promised when she arrives.

*I have finished the Helena cardi for Miss Chaos, it's very cute and suits her well. Perfect fit too! I was worried it would be too small on her and stressed even once it was finished. But the old adage is true - it really does all block out in the end ;)

* Things are getting a wee bit busy on the business front - there's been dyeing of some sort almost every day this week, and I'm enjoying it, but running myself ragged too. The need to get some care for the kids at least one day a week, or have a better set up so I can work with them around is very obvious.

* The Macbeast is looking to be transferred to dayshift (heh.. I almost just typed dayshit) as it seems night shift has become more of a sortanightshift. They are now starting perpetually at 9.30 pm, and this is a schedule that doesn't work for anyone in this family, least alone him. He is speaking to the shift co-ordinator about it this afternoon, so we will see what the outcome is.

*And finally.. I have resigned my post as moderator on EB and will be switched over to normal member this week sometime. With all the work going on with the business, and alot of other stuff regarding opportunities, something had to give. And that was the thing that had to give - I'm sure the person who is stepping up will fulfill everything admirably! I'll still be around though, don't get rid of me that easy.

It's a little girls nap time! I had best be off! I will be back to do the Tracey tags ;)

d00d! srsly.

2008-07-28T05:44:00.000-07:00

A second blog update, on the SAME DAY. Have I been smoking crack? Well, no. If you count delicious fibre and yarn as crack though (and alot of spinners and knitters would) then you are close, very very close.

I said I would be back with pics of show purchases and whatnot, and so I am. I tried to take a picture of it all in one spot, but bench space is limited at the moment, and the fact that I managed nearly break a bloody hip tripping over one of the kids toys last night, pretty much prohibits climbing in a chair to ake a photo from a height my dodgy camera will allow. As a result - this post is seriously pic heavy. SERIOUSLY.

First off, some people pics from the show.
Here are Donnie (first two) and Mandie (third one). I think it's a great shot of Mandie , and the second shot of Donnie shows off the utterly STUNNING shawl she was wearing that she knit. A shawl which, I believe, found itself a new owner.

Here is a quick shot of Sally, shopping the EGMTK stall at the show:

And the gorgeous Naked Pippi (with vintagegrrl closeby) Flipping me the bird. Oh come ON, it had to be in at least one pic?

I did take some other pictures at the bbq and the show, however due to aforementioned dodgy camera, they really aren't even worth posting. There are plenty of other who took great shots, and posted links to them on Rav, so I will just let those with fabulous cameras and mad photography skillz do the showing :)

A quick note on a couple of things I bought at the show but did not photograph: one was a niddynoddy, for helping the skein up my yarn :) yet to try it out, but am pleased to finally one! Now I have the niddy, the swift, all i need is the ball winder.
Also, from the lovely Donnie, I bought a set of nickel plated knitpicks options. I put buying a set off for aaaaages, justifying it by saying I don't use circular needles *that* much. MY use of circs has increased, but I still put it off. Finally I bought a set at the show, and I have been a knitting a 'Helena' cardigan for miss chaos from them and OMG. WHY did I wait? WHY did I put it off? So smooth! SO much easier on my hands! They certainly come HIGHLY reccomended from me. And considering I now know hoe to magic loop - I bought a couple smaller pairs of fixed knitpicks circs too. For socks, y'know?

Onto the montage!
To save some room on the blog, and not spend four and a half hours uploading effing pics because blogger isn't terribly good at allowing me to do that, I photoshopped up a little montage-y thing of the purchases I made.

From left, to right, top to bottom there is:
Two batts, from ArtemisArtemis on etsy, colourway 'Narcissus'. Technically not a Bendi purchase, but as they arrived on the Friday I have encluded them anyways. They contain silk, bamboo, firestar, merino, jeebus, a whole host of stuff!
Polwarth Merino and Mulberry Silk blend by Wendy Dennis. I spotted this on the Friday, but left it till the Saturday to purchase. I am a fan of yellow and this colour was spied by me from clear across the shed lol.
'Coldstream' mega blend from EGMTK. This is a blend of Optim, Soy and Bamboo and was chosen by Mac (watching him squish fibre is kinda amusing.. "ooh! oo-oo-ooh!" ROFL)
Chocoholic part uno - alpaca / merino / corriedale blend
Chocoholic part duex - merino / corriedale blend
Merino - 50g of each colour which i am planning on doing a gradient type spin with.
Fibreworks alpaca/merino/kid mohair blend yarn - so pretty with such lustre! I think I am going to use this one for a shrug for Miss Chaos to go over the top of whatever dress i make for her birthday
'Imperial Reign' merino angora blend from EGMTK. I love love love this
Finally some BFL soy blend, again from EGMTK. With those greens and yellows, I couldn't say no.
The red shot with black is merino and silk, blended and dyed by VintageGrrl and from all the girls is a thankyou for playing hotel :) Awwww
The beautifully bright and majorly funky orange yellow and blue is merino, from EGMTK. I haz no idea how it got into my bag. (thanks Mandie!!!)
Back to the left bottom is some Optim from Virgina Farms Woolworks
a small smidge of a preview of the scarf I am working on using some 8 ply Fibreworks yarn I bought, the colours of which are amazing
And finally my new spindle, gorgeous Apricot wood, hand turned By the lovely Lewis who was so friendly at the show. I was totally ecstatic to find this one was the last one left by Saturday when I got there - there had been about 20 there on Friday!! And it was the one I wanted. It is sitting on top of the other batt I got from artemisartemis, in rainbow colours. Such beautiful fibre, and a gorgeous spindle - I think this is my new happy picture of the month.

And lastly I will squeeze in a better picture of the scarf I am working on - yarn and pattern could not BE more made for each other than these two, and I am hanging out to get it finished, washed, blocked, and on my neck lol.

Let's do the time warp again

2008-07-27T18:51:00.000-07:00

I am exhausted. Still! Bendigo sheep and wool show, and the additional bbq, were over a week ago now, and I have still not fully recovered from the amount of energy the whole thing sapped from me. It was the driving that did me in in the end, I know but phew! There ain't enough sleep in the world!

It all went very well though. The bbq was an absolute blast, with loads of people turning up for a feed and a good time. I had great fun with questions being asked to win the prizes, and everyone wearing handknit socks lining up and flashing their feet so I could choose two winners of sock yarn. Anyone else at the Lake that day must have thought we were a crazy bunch but what the heck! We are! lol.

The show itself was totally awe inspiring, with so many pretties to look at, so much amazing stuff by way of fibre, tools, yarn, and just colour, colour, everwhere you looked! I was shown so much love by ravelers as I walked around, it was brilliant and as corny as it sounds, i felt really uplifted by it all. I am set for stuff to spin for quite some time, but more on that a bit later - the next post I do will be fairly pic heavy once I get around to snapping shots of everything I bought (some of which is already in use lol)

Moving backwards though, I did head out to the show on the Friday to meet up with Catsmum, and that was thoroughly enjoyable, and aslo went to visit her on Thursday of this week gone also. I was shocked and awed by the amount of gorgeous things she has, and totally enamoured by her very cute little puppy. Miss Chaos also seemed to like the puppy, Mr Mayhem was not so sure, but they both really liked the goats! It was a nice trip all in all, and one I hope to do again soon.

A couple of days before the bbq, my package in the 'we've got you covered' swap arrived, and the clever organisers had made Bex my swap pal, so oh my - the haul of awesome stuff I got was great! There was much squealing and jumping about on the bed as I opened my 'pirate treasure' parcel. Inside was 50g of laceweight from the knittery, undyed! two badges with skulls on them for the children (got to warn the world of what is coming their way lol) two beautiful soaps, one cinnamon and one banana (I have been using the cinnamon one which I just love) a pair of gorgeous fingerless mitts in black, red and grey, and the most stunning cowl knit in pearl ten malabrigo. In all seriousness I have barely taken the cowl off since I got it, I love it that much. All nicely packaged in a leather jewelry box, shaped to look like a pirates treasure chest with skull and cross bones on top.

SO. AWESOME.

As for my swap pal? I sent her a nice teapot and cup set called tea for one that all pieces together. I made her some fingerless mitts, in nice autumn tones, the same pattern I then made for myself. I also sent along a block of maya gold green & blacks chocolate, and I bought some Merino and soysilk blend from Mandie of EGMTK in the 'brewed' colourway of copper and charcoal tones, and then spun it for her into a lovely hank of handspun yarn. Man, I hope she liked it! (it hurt to give that skein away, I loved it so!)

Next post - pictures of show haul and bbq!!!

Show us ya pink bits!

2008-07-07T01:01:00.000-07:00

First off - last post I mentioned the symmetrical braided gauntlets I made for my swap pal, and how much I loved the fit. As it turns out, I had a skein of mmmalabrigo just begging to be made into a pair for me, and truly - who was I to say no? Out came the needles, and out came the malabrigo, and when they bred - they became my new mitts. Super warm, super cosy and just beautiful to wear. (please excuse the dressing gown - it's cold!) I love them a lot!

All in all it has been a really busy week around here. More planning for the Bendigo BBQ has occurred, knitting the gauntlets, the kids have been a smidge on the nutty side, and there's been loads going on. One of the main takers up of time though has been the quilt for my neice, which I wanted finished by Sunday morning, when we were headed to the IL's for a large family get together. I started cutting on Tuesday morning, for a single bed sized quilt. (yes, I can hear the screaming from some from here, and I am well aware many people just thought "you are an idiot!!!")

It is now known as the quilt of many lessons due to the many things that making it has taught me. The first of these lessons is that yes - a single bed sized quilt IS doable in less than a week from start to finish even for a beginner. However - you don't really want to do it quite so quickly. It's far from ideal. I had planned to make the quilt according to the pattern in a charmed quilts book Ihave. I bought one charm pack of 50 squares, then bought other fat quarters in matching and contrasting fabrics, and cut them into the same sized squares. Sewing began in earnest. I then cut out the appliques, and ironed them on. By this point, the squares on top were all sewn together in two halves, and appliques were ironed on, but certainly not sewn. I had the fabric for inner and outer borders and backing and batting sitting there ready to go, but they weren't cut either. It was Saturday morning. It was at this stage I decided to be tricky and satin stitch the appliques down after I had sandwiched the quilt together. I wasnt sold on them to be honest and I wondered if they made the whole thing just, too 'busy'. It was around this point I vividly remember telling online friends *ahh.. I'll be right. If Iend up finishing it at dawn, then thats ok. Won't be the first time I have pulled an all nighter!*

I sewed the two halves of the top together, then began cutting the inner and outer borders, and sewed them on. Ironed it all very carefully, then got Mac to lay out the backing on the loungeroom floor and sticky tape it down, and lay the batting over the top. I brought the quilt top down, lay it over it, and pinned it within an inch of it's life. It was, at this point 12.30am, Sunday morning. I headed back to the machines and began quilting.
By three 3.30am Sunday morning, those appliques were becoming a major issue. They were starting to look REALLY busy and I was itching to rip them off. I still hadn't satin stitched them down and I knew I had a choice to make. Either rip them off, and get it done in time for the gathering - OR - leave them on, go to bed and accept it couldn't be done in time, suck it up and post it in a week or two when I could bear to look at it again. I took a pic of it, partially quilted, appliques still on at this point, for posterity. Tell me - what would you have done?

What did I do? Ten minutes after I took that photo, the quilt top was sans applique. It hurt to pull them off, and I felt bad because pulling them off meant - in my head- admitting defeat or being lazy. However afterward, I hooked up another redbull to the metaphorical IV bag and headed back to the sewing machine, and something odd began to happen. The quilt which I had started off loving, then became less than enamoured with, began to get a nice sheen to it again. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a real big fan of pink. It's just - not me. So for me to be falling in love with it, ecspecially at 4am, and given it's pinkness - was odd. It was then I realised I really did like the combo of fabrics I picked for the squares. They were pretty, and girly, without being overwhelming in their pinkiness. And the appliques had seriously been overwhelming the plain beauty of the colours and patterns in the squares. Removing them was the best thing I could of done.
I finished the quilt, hung it over the couch and headed to bed at 6.30 am Sunday. By 9.30am I was out on the back deck, taking pics of the finished item.

Then, it was off to the IL's for a family gathering and present the birthday girl with her new quilt which was very well received.

I did learn a lot though. I learned that sometimes, less really IS more. I learned to trust my instincts again - if I had of ditched those appliques when I thought they were going to be a bit busy for the quilt, I would of had it finished a day early, and retained what little modicum of sanity I have left by actually sleeping. And when I finally got to bed last night, while I really did sleep the sleep of the dead, I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a steam train, and entirely unable to bend or twist. The muscles in my back are frozen and burning and I am in quite a bit of pain. And so I learned that I am no longer twenty years of age and able to pull an all nighter without batting an eyelid. Not that that is likely to stop me from doing it again.

Tonight - a long overdue date with my spinning wheel, followed by another rare, and early night for me. I MUST be getting old.

Sweet Hearts for my sweetheart

2008-06-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

I am back with an update! (see, I even amaze myself with this)

There has been quite a bit going on round here. I am flat chat between here and Bendi with quilts to make, jumpers to knit, things to organise and fibre to spin.

Todays update though is concerned with objects of the finished variety though!

A couple of days ago I completed a pair of fingerless mitts - the symmetrical braided gauntlets to be precise. I can't post a photo as they are for my secret swap pal on ravely, however I got to say - I love the pattern, and SUCH a good fit! I think I may have to make another pair, for me. Perhaps in the mmm mmm mmmalabrigo which arrived the other day in the post. I got a skein or velvet grapes, and one of paris nights. One skein is destinned to be a ziggy slouch hat, the other.. well, yeah I think fingerless mitts are on the cards. Thanks Ribs!!

My main finished object though is the quilt I have been making for Miss Chaos. After many trips to spotlight to just.. browse lol with no clue of what I was doing, and quite a bit of work it is finished! Completed last night, thrown in the wash then hung to dry. I love it and am very proud of it. I learned alot along the way and am now confident that my sewing machine is the best thing since sliced bread. Awesome!

Here she is hanging up outside for a photo shoot:

and here she is having a close up and showing off her bee-hind ;)

To come in the next update: a 500g bag of black lamb fibre. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Steep colour gradients ahead, and even steeper learning curves.

2008-06-12T03:12:00.000-07:00

I like learning new things. New ways of doing things.
And in that vein I tried 'fractal spinning' with the other half of the happy hippie roving. Fractal spinning is spinning one half of the roving slit into lengthways strips (worsted spin) to get short colour repeats. Then you spin the other half from the top, or along the width of the roving (woollen spin), which gives you looooong colour repeats. You then take the two yarns you pade, and ply them together, and the result means you rarely get overlapping colours in the ply. I prefer a really tight ply, so thats what I did.

Here's a pic of the finished product, yarn wise. It's a dodgy photo and the colour is slightly askew, but you get the idea.

And today, I knit it up into a calorimetry for myself. The fractal spin gives it a speckled look close up, but from a distance you can see the long colour gradient repeats over all. I like it a lot!

Also this week I finally succuumbed to the lure of quilting. Not that I have done anything yet. But I scrounged and found my cutting mat, went and bought myself a rotary cutter, and a stack of fat quarters. There's also a dusky purple not pictured below, don;t know why I forgot to put it in - brain was evidently not operating fully at the time.
And no. I have no idea what to do with them lol.

I also hit the mills the other day and got myself some 'Cameo' - 10 ply, 85% wool and 15% angora. I got two oversized balls in Eucalypt which is a nice sagey green. It's earmarked for the February Lady Sweater for mum.

And finally, today I got packages!!! Two of them!!! Anyone who knows me know the highlight of just about any day for me is if I see that parcel dude headed on down the white stone path. Today he brought me a copy of the 'any hat, any size, any yarn' book by Sarah Bradberry. And a box containing a special something for a special someone, a 5 pack of dyes, and my next fibre club of the month - merino/soy! Woo!

Yay for package days :)

Put a spin on it....

2008-06-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

Brrr. Old man winter has certainly arrived in our part of the world. More frequently lately the overnight temperatures are dropping to 0 degrees or below, and we have had plenty of our usual frosty mornings.

It is lucky then that I have finally knit big Mac a pair of his own thick 100% wool socks, which he loves. He rarely takes them off and I must say I am pretty happy with them. Here is his massive clodhoppers in his 'Thuja' socks

I also finished another pair for myself. These are 'Pomatomus' socks, by CookieA, knit in cashmerino from The Knittery which was purchased with a gift voucher mum and dad got me for my birthday. It was a tricky knit, that hurt my hands with all the knitting through the back loop, and I stuffed the first sock and had to re-start repeatedly. Once everything was said and done though, they look great, and are deliciously soft and fuzzy.

And lastly, I am finally starting to churn stuff from my spinning wheel that LOOKS and FEELS just like.. *gasp* yarn!
It took me a few goes on a the spinning wheel to get the right feel for it, and after a couple of yummy efforts, things then would fall apart. I've learned a lot from this. Mainly - don;t keep spinning if it doesn't feel right, blaming yourself for being shite and hoping it gets better - DO actually attempt to adjust the tension lol. And secondly - oil the wheel regularly. I had an issue last night with constant backspinning, and a hard to treadle wheel, which was making me increasingly frustrated. Until I realised I had not oiled it since I got it. A little bit of oil later and she span like a dream all over again.

Thus far here is my pride and joy, from roving, through to yarn, through to a finished object.
Firstly, the roving. This is what I received for the first months installment of the Ewe Give Me The Knits mixed bag fibre club. It is 100% BFL, labeled as 130grams +, in a colourway she calls 'Happy Hippie'. Appropriate name, no?

From there, I divided it in half, and used half of it to spin a single ply at a DK / 8ply weight yarn. It's a little thick and thin in parts, but overall I was pretty happy with the level of evenness it spun at. I got 113 metres from it! Only HALF of that roving!!!! It had such sheen and was so very soft.

As tempted as I was to keep it a pet and just pat it every so often, my wee Chaos girl took quite a shine to it, and colours looked lovely against her ever so pale skin. So, I started knitting. a little contrasting plain 8 ply and some crochet flowers I had sitting about (thanks Sue!) and we have a cute wee hat wich will see her through this winter, and hopefully the next too. She's too cute, and I love the hat - so pleased with how it turned out.

She looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, doesn't she?
We are still not speaking of the incident earlier in the week where both Miss Chaos and Master Mayhem broke into my craft room and my stash.. and then Master Mayhem proceeded to pain and wipe and smear with something that came out of his nappy. I'm sure one day in the distnat future I will laugh about it, but at this stage I can barely speak about it. Mac and I were smart though - we went out on the same day and bought latch locks for the top of the door.

And Finally - we are getting closer and closer to the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show! Very excited! However if you were hoping to pop along to the BBQ brekkie on the Saturday, we are very close to reaching capacity for the event - so if you want to come along, get your skates on and get RSVP'ing!

But, why is the rum gone?

2008-05-24T23:40:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, again. I am going to be a good girl though, and not include pictures in this post. Mostly anyone reading this is a member on ravelry, in which case you can see recent finished objects over there. These include a non chevron chevron hat, done in jumbuk wools hand dyed (beautiful rich colours). A set of evangeline fingerless mitts which I love and wear constantly. Thankfully I had the good sense to make them initially in an acrylic because they've been through the wash multiple times already. Beanies for both my boys, and although they aren't up there yet, finally some socks for Mac. He's been nagging me for a while for his own pair of handknit socks, and I finally made them. It took him less than one day to start bagging me for more of them lol. Apparently, real love, means real socks. Or, so I am now being told.

Also, I finally succumbed. I started spinning.
The delectable Naked Pippi sent me a spindle, and some fibre. From the second I gave it a turn I knew it would be the end of me. I now have that spindle, a couple of interchangeable whorls for it, and a spinning wheel I bought on ebay. I also have a respectable fibre stash. (not as respectable as some, but thats ok.. I like to leave myself time and options for things to get REALLY out of control). It is relaxing though. God knows I need more relaxation in my life. So far I have also completed one of the beanies and a twisted drop stitch scarf out of yarn I have spun myself. I still feel like some sort of magician whenever I do it. Currently being spun is the 'happy hippie' colourway I got in the first installment of Ewe Give Me The Knits mixed bag fibre club. Such lovely colours, and when I am done I will knit it into an earflap beanie for the wee chaos girl. Her pink and black beanie is starting to get a little on the small side. It still fits, but barely, and I don't see it lasting the winter.

I am currently working on an ice queen in some GORGEOUS red laceweight that I was RAK'ed by the lovely Sandybags :) It's stunning stuff and perfect for the project, though slow going because time and space to work on it is hard come by. It will be finished by July however, I promise that much.

The only other thing on my needles at the moment is my Pomatomus socks. Also known as the socks of death. The first sock was frogged and re started three times before I got the hang of it. Each step along the way has taught me something new, and they are certainly a challenge. I am knitting them in the 'Water Lillies' cashmerino from The Knittery, which I bought with a gift voucher mum and dad sent me for my birthday. It feels fitting to be knitting these socks from it given the pattern is that of fish scales - mum and dad being folk of the fishy persuasion. I'm not big on boats and fishing myself but they are, so they will be a good reminder to me to call mroe often :) I have promised myself they will be finished by the end of this month so I can enter them in The Knittery groups monthly competition on ravelry. I am one and a half chart repeats into the second sock, with the first sock complete.

On family life news, Mac is enjoying his new job. He has been there a bit over three months now, and they offerred him a full time position basically as soon as his three months was up. He has recently moved across to night shift, which is suiting all of us well. I only wish there were more hours in a day.
The Master of Mayhem is now finally coming out with words more frequently. Previously classed as being non verbal, it seems he has finally decided that saying words and deomstrating his understanding them more than ONCE, might be a good thing after all.
Princess Chaos becomes more of a diva with each passing day, though her hair is finally growing enough to make her look like she has some.
Tales from the crypt of 'How can two small children be that mischevious?' include this weeks escapade where they broke into the pantry at 5 am, covered the whole house in cheerios, and marinated my mobile phone in tomato sauce. It is very dead. I had to buy a new one.
In my less than impressed state I did some hardcore shopping, moved them into a room together, and bought the most houdini proof baby gate I could find for the hallway. Get into the pantry NOW will you???? Bwahahahahah.

The added bonus of this though means I will have my own craft room now - oooh. Dreams DO come true!!!!!!

Pics in the next entry, hope everyone is doing well. If you can make it to Bendigo sheep and wool, and you haven't put your name down for the bbq yet, do it!!! I'll be there!!! Hungover, but there. Come laugh at me as a wince at sudden moves and loud noises.

Anyone know where I can petition to get a few extra hours in each and every day? I know I am only going to use them for sleep, but my sleep is compromised at the moment. All that useable time, spent comatose.. what a waste.

An update! gasp!

2008-02-24T19:17:00.001-08:00

Long time no update! As per usual. I do tell myself I will update more often to avoid long, rambling posts like the one ahead, and yet never manage to stick to that promise. Take that as a warning.

Right into it, a random assortment of finished objects. We have in order of most recently finished, the Kaibashira socks, made in Colinette Jitterbug yarn, colourway 'Summer Berries'. Made short because they are stingy on the yardage in a skein.

Followed by the Rainbow Socks I made for Master Mayhem, aka Captain Drum Solo. Knit from Bambino Merino 4 ply, they are lovely and soft, and he just adores them, never wants to take them off. He's a lucky boy though , he very nearly lost them permanently.. but more on that later.

My first socks, made in 8 ply pear tree merino from Jolly Jumbuck. I decided I had to finally learn to make socks, and metal dpn's were too slippery. Lacking the funds to purchase wooden DPN's at the time (and lacking the patience to wait for them to show) these were knit entirely on bamboo skewers, of the variety you chuck on the barbie. Full of pride, am I, says Yoda!

And we have The Bat scarf. I am so fortunate to share my love of bats with such a groovy sister in law as I have, and so when I saw this pattern, I know it had to be made for her. The squealing when she unwrapped it was well worth the hours of ripping out it involved. Point to be made though - this is not something I reccomend as a first lace pattern. Lovely result though!

Recent dye jobs done by moi -

'Cherry Docs' - did anyone else polish their cherry red doc martens with black shoe polish, then as the polish wore off the cherry came through? I did, hecne the name of this one. I love it! Just wish it was on something much nicer than Bendigo Woollen Mills 8 ply.

'Jacaranda Tree' - made for a swap with a friend, I do adore the colours in this. Dyed onto the lucious Bendigo Woollen Mills 'Cameo' - a squishy wool and angora blend in a 12 ply that knits as a 10 ply.

Tales from Captain Drum Solo -

in the past fortnight alone he has destroyed two tubs of butter. I don't understand his predeliction for butter, but it is always his medium of choice. The medium of mischeif, the medium of painting the hallway, the oven, the floor and the cat. He will eat it by the spoonful if I let him, but the most recent mishap nearly destroyed his favourite rainbow socks!!! He is learning you see, that occasionally mum will be a little upset if you are found doing something she has repeatedly told you not to do. He didn't realise this however until after he had coated the floor in butter. Needing something handy to clean it off with, he whipped off his sock, and started scrubbing. The result? One rainbow sock, caked in butter. Only one way to get it clean, and it involves HOT water. In they went, our fingers crossed, backup plan of teeny tiny baby booties as gifts at the ready... luckily for him, they came out the other side unscathed, the same size, same stitch definition, just a little halo of fuzz about them. Lucky!

He has also been returned by the neghbours twice now, and had me chasing him down the street about five times. The boy is a climber, this I know. What I had not counted on was his stealth - he can climb straight over the front fence and out into the street without making a sound. Given that he also knows how to unlock doors, and sleep walks this is a terrible thing. We are in the process of fitting lock up near the very top of doors.

The Mistress Of Chaos has finally learned to get a little of her own back though! Now walking with great confidence she will occasionally rile when pushed over and give him a taste of his own medicine. You go girl. ;)

Lessons Learned -

Our street isn't quite the lovely quiet street we had imagined - our car stereo was stolen last night. Charming!

Don't ever even vaguely attempt any lace knitting while the children are awake and rampaging, you will fuck it up every. single. time.

Apparently anti - reflux medications such as Somac will cause false positives for marijuana on urine drug tests. You know, the kind you generally have before you start a new (much needed) job with new (much needed) income? Ask me how I know :)

Other trollop and tripe - Big Mac has a new job, and has left the old one. Fingers crossed this one turns out much better. My birthday sucked some fairly major ass, with the not-so-darling one making his usual half assed last minute effort. Thanks for the still warm hastily whipped up cake with melty icing and the card dear. On the upside cheers to the parentals for the gift voucher for the knittery, and to pip you too for such awesome swap timing :)

Back another day another time, because the children are trying to choke each other. Argh!

Long time no wokka wokka wokka

2007-12-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, long time no post and all the jazzamuffin.

Short Snacks!

*New hair - peroxided and dyed vampire red bwahahahaha. Love it!

*Have joined Ravelry and am loving it. So many cool things - so few needles and hands to hold them. Anyone interested will find me under the name of FiestyWench.

*Mayhem and Chaos is taking a very. vey. very. long time to get going, due to low time, low funds, the silly season being upon us and all that usual stuff. Hoping to look at it with fresh eyes in the new year!

*New hobby (like I didn't have enough) sewing needle rolls! Will be available on Yarn Collective soon :) Will post a link in right hand panel once they are up.

*Some finished objects for the meantime:

The tomato / strawberry beanie - needs more length added to the pattern in my opinion but looks cute and goofy anyways.

Debbie Bliss shrug, adjusted for three quarter length sleeves and in a much smaller size than the previous one I made - I had no idea the pattern was so generous, but this one is a much, much better fit.

Current WIP's are a knitted bucket type thing in Sean Sheep wool that will be felted and used for.. something. Deoending on size, either a knitting basket thing or storage for kids rooms. Also A long scarf done in 100% silk 4 ply, in a variegated red colour way. It IS lovely, but it IS taking me forever.

Other than that we are currenty working on Master Mayhems diet, to see if we can make him a little less.. errmm.. well, Master of Mayhem really!

If I don't update again before then I wish all of you a very happy and healthy christmas and new year! Enjoy the awesome food!

Finally! A new post!

2007-10-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I have a few finished objects to share at long last. It's been a rough couple of weeks here, I started getting quite sick a few weeks ago but wasn't intelligent enough to take stock and realise there may be a reason my blood sugar levels were fluctuating. As it turns out, I had an infection in one of my teeth. While my body was fighting that though, another infection came in and king hit me - this time a UTI. For me, with a kidney reflux issue, this meant that it very quickly progressed to a kidney infection and a breif admission to hospital only to be discharged very quickly (thankfully!) with a fistful of antibiotics of a few varieties. I am on the mend now, but in the meantime, I'm trying to think of them as not-so-tasty smarties. lol.

First off, a soaker knit for a friends soon to come along wee chicken, knit in MonsterKnits 'Tiger Cub' colourway.

Secondly a beanie I made for my own gorgeous Mr Mayhem, in the same yarn. See that photogenic quality? He doesn't get that from me.

Thirdly, a soaker for Miss Chaos. Not sewn up yet, as I am still debating embellishing.

And lastly some photo's of a pair of shorties I made to take the sting out the tail of a bad situation :)

I am more than likely going to be kept busy at the moment however! I have One of my babies birthdays in two weeks time, and the other one 4 weeks after that! As much as I love the growing and exploring stage they are in right now, sometimes I wish they could stay wee and cute forever. They grow up too darn quick!

And finally, a note on why I have closed my store on WAHMania. I don't want this to start arguments all over again, but I feel my reasoning behind it has been misconstrued.

I did not close because of the administration of WAHMania. I closed because of the lynchmob that occurred.

I will not be held to be indebted to people I provided a product to - I will stay at home to care for my kids, business or no business. And I will not be told by any outside party (aside from those I have paid for the pleasure) how to run my business. I will not be held to ransom via threats made about boycotts, or bitching on public and not so public forums.

And while in hindsight what happenned was silly - that is all it was. I am not an easily offended person by any means, and I was not offended by it. There are far more important things in this world to be offended by and worried about than an internet prank. I feel much of it has been taken out of context by people who have something to gain, and I am also not much one for following blind sheep without the questioning of peoples motives.

Please if you feel the need to bitch about what I have written, take it up with me in here, please leave the people (and moderators) of Wahmania, EB and NC alone. Comments are enabled should you choose to do so.

Bits, bobs, this, that and the other.

2007-08-09T04:38:00.000-07:00

Be prepared for a possibly rather long winded post. Some things I am sure, will be of note to some, and others, well, not so much lol. Certainly time for an update of sorts however.

Those of you playing at home will have noticed BalderDASH has dissappearred from WAHMania. And we have indeedy - but we have re opened as Mayhem and Chaos. I have a couple of reasons for that, and short and to the point they are -

*As I wasn't making any money from the BalderDASH store, I had not gotten off my ass and registered the business name. I did check it was available before opening, but that was some 4 months ago now, and in the meantime someone else registered it.

*I also felt like a new name, to show that I had decided to go in a different direction with the store. See - I am a bit, well, anal about what I dress my kids in. They don't wear merchandised clothing, and I get a little bit over all the pastel pink pink and pink available for the girly whirl. The boy looks good in just about anything, but again, there was just so much of it I didn't like. I solved this problem by making their clothes myself - my mum was a seamstress and I have helped her make everything from kids clothes, to adult clothes, wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses etc, for years - so to me, no hassle. The problem with knitting however is, much as I love it, it takes a lot of time, that I just don't have chasing my two around. Sewing is marginally quicker, and judging by the compliments I get on my kids clothes, I figure there is a call out there for funky stuff that doesn't cost the earth. (Oilily anyone?) With Mayhem and Chaos I aim to fill that gap.

*I just like Mayhem and Chaos better lol. It's named after the kids - Mr Mayhem's nickname is obviously Mayhem, and I didn't realise until a couple of weeks ago, but you can actually get Chaos from the letters in my daughters name and she has been The Mistress Of Chaos ever since lol.

So there's the reasons. That said here are some pics of recent completions.

These are a pair of cargo longies I made for Mr Mayhem - they are a bit long in the leg, but I made tham that way to as to get two seasons out of them. They are knit from Posmerino from The Knittery, and incredibly warm. I then overdyed them in black landscapes dye and I quite like the mottled look they came out with - makes them appear well worn already.

And this is the set I currently have for auction on WAHMania under the new store name. The set is a size 1, and the bottoms are knit from 85% wool and 25% angora that I got from the Bendigo Woollen Mills. It's one of my favourite yarns I have ever used, because it knits up so unbelievably butter soft. I would say softer than the 100% alpaca I have used.

In other news - The mistress of Chaos has decided pulling herself up on her knees is a good trick. She still hasn't figured out how to get DOWN from that position, but immediately progressed to hauling herself to her feet, overnight. I am a bit aghast at that!

Mr Mayhem however decided to live up to his nickname yet again yesterday morning, by painting the entire hallway with a jar of vegemite about 5mm thick onto the wall while his (very stupid) mother had fallen asleep on the couch. Thankfully it cleaned off remarkably easy, but I can truthfully say that the smell of pink grapefruit pine o cleen 4 in 1, mingled with the scent of vegemite is right up there with the worst things I've ever smelled.

And finally, I recently purchased Regina Spektor's current album and I highly reccomend it. She has such a great voice, and I am singing along with it like summer is here already - the vocal chords are just as good as they ever were (back in the good ol' days of gigs and guitars and all the shit that goes with it) and the freedom of singing again seems good for the soul.

And speaking of good for the soul I am also working my way through season 2 of Supernatural... how good is Jensen Ackles? He can park his boots under my bed any day... mmmmm.

Thanks for the comments on the set in previous post below - very pleased with how it turned out, but the memory of it is still giving me nightmares!

2007-07-22T05:47:00.000-07:00

I know I said I would post pics of this only once the intended recipient had received them, but I figure I can flash a few pics if she can ;)

So here is the custom Set that I have been working on every spare minute for the last three weeks plus. It is in the equivalent of a size 0.

Front:

Back:

Close Up Of Embroidery At The Back:

I am very very happy with how it turned out in the end. I had quite sometime of unpicking, re-diong, and trialling in order to get the finished result to look like what I had pictured in my head when I started it, but in the end it is spot on and I couldn't be happier or more satisfied with the result. I can only hope the recipient feels the same!

2007-07-21T03:57:00.000-07:00

Here we are a Saturday night, and I thought I would post an update of seemingly random stuff.

First off, today saw me at the Australian Wool and Sheep show. There was loads of interesting stuff there, no doubt about it. Wool in many varieties and breeds, loads of colours, dyes, patterns, wool craft goods and exhibitors. I am not entirely sure what it was I was looking for, but no matter - I didn't find it. I left feeling a little dissapointed in the offerings, with a small scented melt for my oil burner, and a pair of stitch markers.

I am nearly finished the custom order I am doing, and looking forward to posting a few pics of it once it is finished and it's new owner has received it. I am also about one third the way through a pair of cargo style longies for Mr Mayhem in posmerino, thus breaking my own rule of only working on one thing at a time. I am 99% sure I don't have enough wool to complete them, however it is ok, as the wool is available and I am knitting it undyed and dyeing the finished product black at the end.

Also in the very soon (next week) pipeline, are two soakers for a trade I am doing, and two calorimetries for a friend.

All progress has been severely stunted however by a rabid abcess that has had me howling like a wolf throughout the night for the past week, and unable to eat properly. As a result I am feeling drained of all energy, and entirely lacking in mojo. I am hoping the course of antibiotics I am on will help with that alot.

Other ideas whirling in the dervish that is my brain include:

Do I really want to make longies and a matching hat with the 'Turkish Delight'? What about a dress?

A wrap style jumper for Miss Mischief in the mohair/silk/alpaca/ wool blend that I have sitting around in a deep deep burgundy. Completely forgot I had it until I went wandering into the spare room / floordrobe/ bottomless stash pit in a forage for the posmerino.

A little under 400 grams of my current Bendigo Woollen Mills favourite - a 12 ply 85% merino / 25% angora blend, as yet undyed and squeaking in it's rabbit like way to be given love in the form of a simmering dye pot.

I would really like to attempt to make a shawl for myself, nice and large, in a lacey type knit. I am unsure of pattern, but I definitely want it in luscious colour - not neccessarily bright, but certainly deep.

A new type of set to go in the store, first one to be auctioned, just to see the reception it receives.

That's about it for me this evening. Lots to do, lots to do! Will be back soon with pictures, I promise!

Knitty Bit Episode 1

2007-07-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on the pastel rainbow type wool I dyed up for something I am doing.

Here is what it looks like knitted up:

I love it! Quite enjoy it when I go for a certain *look* and get it right!

So very girly girl too!

Having a ball (or two)

2007-07-05T04:40:00.000-07:00

Finally, finished and dry and wound into balls, here is the wool I have dyed for a custom order. I started off with 2 x 200 gram balls of cream wool, then handpainted using landscapes dyes and a steaming method to acheive a very pale and subtle pastel rainbow. I'm very happy with the final result and looking forward to seeing how it knits up.

I am hoping to start on the knitting tonight - if Miss Mischief ever admits defeat and surrenders to sleep.

The First One

2007-07-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

First post in a new blog... it's like a blank canvas really. Unlike my other blog though, this one is about creativity, rather than how my own lack of sleep is hindering creativity.

This blog is for me to post ideas, comments and pictures of items I want to start, am halfway through, have completed and also inevitably (for a shopaholic) things I have bought. There will be wool, knitting, fabric, sewing, embroidery, and probably just a few snaps of modern cloth nappies thrown in for good measure.

It's all good! And it is all an outlet of some form.

Here is my current list of -gotta get to it- items. (In no order of priority)

Mums pistachio alpaca hat and scarf - finished and posted but yet to arrive and needing follow up

Miss B's pistachio alpaca daisy embroidered wrap dress - I've started it? But thats about all I can say there

TOT's custom set, wrap dress and soaker with matching embroidery - Wool is dyed, and dried, and ready to be wound into a ball to begin

Mr Mayhem's Posmerino longies - I've bought the wool and it's been sitting there for a month!

Miss Mischiefs longies and hat set in Monster Knit's 'Turkish Delight' wool - as above - wool is bought and languishing within the stash

Mr Mayhems shorties in Monster Knits 'Artic Forest' colourway - done! pics below

Mr Mac's beanie in remnants of 'Artic Forest' - also done & pics below

Calorimetry for myself in 'Passionfruit' mis dyed wool - done, finished this afternoon - Got to say fabulous quick knit for ~squeezing~ in between projects, and very useful. Also the model this one is on - she's bloody stunning! *chuckles*

So that's that. Back soon.

Mayhem, Chaos, and Anarchy..

Swankymink a shawl of risks!

More finished objects, party frock edition!

Pumpkin. Pie. Doughnuts.

Spinning around.. and around.. and around..

Creative spaces and not so big places.

What's your style? Dress Me Up!

The List and The Toadstools (Giraffe Cameo!)

Return of the Crazy.

Idle hands? Hells no.

They call me mellow yellow..

Of pixies and autumn...

Finally a new shawl for me.

Single-Minded Insanity.

Small things and small roadblocks.

Photo A Day 6/1/11 & 7/1/11

Photo A Day 5/01/11 - snapshot of gestational diabetes.

Photo A Day 4 - Where do you wear your heart?

Photo A Day 3 - Wait, what?

Photo A Day 2 - From Dusk (till Dawn)

Photo A Day January 1st, 2011

Unwrapped, to wrap it up.

Beginnings and endings.

Old, new and so much more than blue..

A Moo of Cow(L)s

Of Shawls and Spring and OpShopping

The House Of Mouse

Wheels are spinning (and I AM going somewhere!)

I know, I know

Lounge Room Make over part 1 OR 'Found my motivation!'

Food, Glorious Food.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers..

Apples and Oranges..

Water and Wheels

Pic a posy (image heavy)

On Turning 30 and the simple things in life..

A Stitch In Time..

For Whom The Bell Tolls..

Sproing!

It's a herd of Secret Squirrels!

Spring Has Sprung!

A slow weekend..

Too cute.

Long time no blog...

Knit / spin / shop - pic heavy

The wheels on the bus go...

The one where a new year begins.

The Jolly Fat Man cometh...

Hop, hop - hippity hop. Welcome to Monday.

Once more, with feeling!

Update 3 of 3 - Rockstardom

Update 2 of 3 - The new wheel and the handspun.

Update 1 of 3 - Mayhem and Chaos

Finished - in more ways than one.

d00d! srsly.

Let's do the time warp again

Show us ya pink bits!

Sweet Hearts for my sweetheart

Steep colour gradients ahead, and even steeper learning curves.

Put a spin on it....

But, why is the rum gone?

An update! *gasp!*

Long time no wokka wokka wokka

Finally! A new post!

Bits, bobs, this, that and the other.

Knitty Bit Episode 1

Having a ball (or two)

The First One

An update! gasp!