Show us ya pink bits!

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

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.

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....

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?

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!*

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

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!