Whooops!!!!!!!

Been quite a while since I have posted.  Everytime I thought about doing it I didn't have the time but I will make more of an effort to do so from now on.

Christmas has been and gone and now we're well into the new year!  I am busy busy dyeing up Merino to take to the Australian Wool and Sheep Show this year.  Dates this year are July 19th - 21st - Feature Breed - Texel,  I love Texel, it's a wonderful wool!

This year I am focusing more on this merino I have, which is fantastic for felting and my fantastic Stitch Markers which are great for knitting and crochet.  I am going to have a wall of colour and I have been dyeing kg lots in the same colour.  Well they are supposed to be the same colour but I would technically have to call it varigated which is just awesome too! The micron level is 17-22 so it's just lovely and soft.

My prices will be $5 for the approximately 100g dyed chains or $35 for an undyed kg.  Photos to come....

Knitting Knittng Knitting, and a bit of spinning and Dying.

I am trying really hard to give my RSI a good workout.  Alas, my new bamboo needles seem to be keeping it at bay as I have hardly been slack with the knits.  Time for some photographs.

 Firstly is this lovely large shawl.  It was orginally from the same ball as the small red one below but visited the dye pot again as the reds were far to busy and the pattern got lost.

 

 This one is again, Blue Faced Leicester Superwash, A lovely shawlette that doesn't need blocking when washed.

 Blue Faced Leicester Superwash, my favourite medium, it's a most soft wool and very versatile.  Dyed in reds this is a lovely little accessory for any outfit.

 This poncho has been dib'ed by the model if it doesn't sell at the show, it is made from English 56's Superwash.

 This one looked lovely at the time of the photo but it has changed a little since.  It was made from Merino and didn't like to be wash so now looks a little felted.  It doesn't matter for the use of the scarf except to make it a bit sturdier.

I have also made a hat in this time as a gift to my tattooist who has just found out he is quite ill.  I hope he will be fine at the end of his treatments, we are doing another piece on Friday which will be my last for a while I would guess.

SPINNING, KNITTING, FIBRE, BOOKS.

That's is for my life at the moment.  I am going to the Australian  Sheep and Wool Show again this year with all my goodies.  This time teaming up with another seller of yummy yarn Tam's of Never Ending Obsessions
.  So I am busy busy, importing some fibre and other goodies to sell, making my gorgeous stitch markers and spinning yarn to knit into things to sell also.  Aiming for really cute shawlettes that I can knit fast and sell for a decent price.  It's very hard to get an hourly rate for knitting, especially when you spin and dye the fibre to knit with.  Currently I think my going rate is about 1c an hour and I think it is actually less than third world countries with child labour.


So to do all this lovely knitting (trying furiously to tamp it down with spinning so the RSI doesn't put me on the bench), I listen to A LOT of audio books.  My favourite genre at this time is Paranormal Romance.  Werewolves, vampires, dragons, witches, fae, elves, ghosts and ghoulies...OMG..you would not believe how many takes on these themes there are!!!  Currently listening to Coreene Callahan and her dragonfury series, yet another take on Dragon shifters.  So far I am enjoying it.   Another favourite is Nalini Singh, she's awesome and a fellow kiwi so has my vote purely because we're kiwi's, oh and her books are pretty darn good too... 

It's really hard at this point as I am waiting on the next books of series' and sometimes they don't come out on audio immediately.  Drives me nuts so I tend to spam the authors about it.  So far Devon Monk has ignored me and the many others who are waiting on her next book on audio.  So if you see this Devon, PLEASE tell the publisher to get a freaking wriggle on!!!!
Some books make you laugh and cry and yes, it does happen in the penny romance too!!! Apart from Nalini, two authors have done this for me with every book, please take a bow Jeaniene Frost and her fantabulous Night Huntress series and Molly Harper with all her books!!!  WOW..I am doing a lot of listening, especially since if you go to those sites, I have read every book they have out on audio....hmmm I think that lot combined is over 20 and that is not counting all the Charlaine Harris and Jennifer Estep books that I have read too..


These are just the tip of my audio book arsenal, most of which I have read and re-read.  Thank goodness for audio because if they were hard copies I would have worn them out by now.  I have about 380 books on my ipod and I have listened to most of them more than once.


Anyways..back to work.  Here is one of the skeins of Blue Faced Leicester Superwash that I have spun up.  It's about 400g and SO soft.  I have done two of these, dyed them and currently knitting stuff.  I have finished one shawl that I need to block and photograph.  Onto no. 2.

 

This stuff below is my own blend for spinning sock yarn.  It has Texel top for elasticity, Silk for strength and shine and BFL for it's softness and warmth.  I have made some of this by hand on the carder but now I can get it commercially done into top.

 

Well...I will have to add more photos when I have them but right now.  I have wasted enough time..back to work!!

Latest Knits

OK..here are the pics of the knits I have completed lately..finally..
Firstly, the boy units jumper.  Wool is handspun romney cross from Moseley Wools , handspun by me of course.  He didn't like the natural cream colour of the wool so he had my dye it.  The pattern is one I made up myself and you can't see it well in the pics but there is a diamond pattern down the front and around the bottom and cuffs.  The jumper is knitted from the top down in one piece using the contigious method for the shoulders.

And here are my socks, dyed and handspun by me too...and of course, toe up, at the same time.  Pattern is mine again.

 

Yet another flying year!!!

I cannot believe how fast this year is going and how little I seem to be getting done.  I am trying to spin and knit up a storm for the upcoming Australian Wool and Sheep Show at Bendigo in July.  But it feels like little is getting completed.


I also have a old/new obsession with body art.  Of course now I am not having anymore children I thought it was time to get some more tattoos.  Firstly was my little ode to the homeland with this piece.

 

 Its a very loose interpretation of the ole 10c coin with some of my yarn/fibre addiction added to it.

It was just after this that we made our annual pilgrimage to Warrnambool for a home edders camp..it was awesome!!! We went a few days early so had a full week away.  Here's our little footprint...

 And a family that makes smores together stays together.....

And what is a trip to a beach side location without a nice cold cider

From NEW ZEALAND!!!! omg...what a find in the local bottle store..talk about bringing back old memories.

Then came the re-vamp of one of the very old (24yrs old) tattoos from my misspent youth.  Which turned this..

Into this...

 

It hurt like a mongrel as the origninal was done badly and left quite scarred.

 I am not too happy with the tail, it's not quite right but it will be integrated into more work I have planned for that area which will fix it up.

Onto the new stuff.  The first of my kids works..

 Needless to say, Pip's was absolutely thrilled that hers was first.  But we decided after that to get onto doing the bulk of the rest at once.  Firstly, the outline...

Colouring comes next week.  I love it!!!  

I have actually done some knitting too...My lovely sister got married last weekend, so I knitted her this..

 

Oddly enough, my older brother and I were excluded from the wedding (yes that's right, not invited),  Neither of us have a clue why.   What can I say...you can't choose your family.......

Here is my mum wearing it at the wedding, apparently my sister told her she could have it..Gee, nice to know my handspun, handknitted creations aren't appreciated either.. (Mum refused and hopes she took it home with her and didn't leave it behind at her inlaws)

I have more knitting I have completed but will have to add photos when I have taken some.  One was a jumper for a boy unit and he has been wearing it since it was completed.  

And more fish stories!!!!....My Bristlenose Catfish went and made these....

there was about 60 when we bothered to try counting...we stopped there.  A friend gifted me with another 3ft tank so I have been furiously cycling the new tank and moving Mum and most of the other fish into it so these guys have room to grow....

the new tank...

Mum of the babies...

Some of the other residents...

So far things are chugging along nicely.  I love the new tank set up, so relaxing to watch.

Nice Girls Don't Bite Their Neighbours.

You're invited to the wedding of Nice Girl Jane Jameson to Gabriel Nightengale. NICE GIRLS DON'T BITE THEIR NEIGHBORS hits the shelves on Feb. 28.

Written by Molly Harper, one of my all time Favourite Authors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll be there knitting in spirit, I just finished this...

Another Proud Karate Ka moment

OK, so the little guy did his third belt grading.  

His grading was on a normal class day.

 The big boy helped out,

 He passed and is now an orange belt (orange? really)

 His grader giving him a wee pep talk.

 So...a couple of days later, they had another grading and all my black belts helped out.

We were sent a text message a couple of weeks before saying that Quinn was going to get a special award after the grading.
  He actually got two, first was an award of appreciation for all his help over the last 3 years with the junior class.

 He also got promoted to the rank of Sempai, teacher.  Part of his first Dan is a new uniform, he now wears a black gi with a red collar.  When he gets his second dan, the gi will also have red sleeves.

To denote his teaching level, this gi has a red stripe on the trousers.  This is a pretty huge deal for a kid of 14.

 Kyoshi giving him his gi.

 

 

Ceremonial donning of the top.

The certificate.

There was one other person promoted in his grade (a young girl, not this guy but he was promoted too)

.

 

At the end of the ceremony, one of the mother of a young boy approached us and congratulated us  on raring such a fine boy.  We are very proud of him.  Sorry for the crappy photos..had to use the phone on some of them.

Mother Henna

OK...so we finally got around to using henna on our hair.  I wanted black so I also used indigo.  Both natural herbs and very good hair dyes.  My hair is long but very fine, the girls is short/mid length and again fairly fine.

We used just over 300g of henna powder mixed with lemon juice and left to sit overnight.

Here it is going onto my hair..

Afterwards we wrapped it up in cling wrap.

We left it for about 4 hrs, but apparently we could have left it for a shorter time.

My results were pretty impressive since my hair only had a little regrowth.  You could certainly still tell it had been henna'd.

The girls was vibrant!!!

 It will settle down and darken over the next couple of days..I'll take another pic then.

 So here is the indigo going on, I used 200g mixed with water.  There was a little left over..

it stayed on for an hour..

 and the results..

 Top veiw...I think she could have put a bit more paste down the part line..you can still see a bit of red..

Over all, fairly happy with the results.  Worth the extra planning and time.  It's like putting mud on your hair so if you are squeemish, you probably won't enjoy it much.  And I did find that my hair needed alot of conditioning after the indigo.  It feels a bit dry so I might look at putting an oil treatment on it in the next week. 

The biggest plus is that it's all natural and I'll keep on doing it.  I was using commercial dyed every 4 or so weeks and was a bit concerned about the exposure.

Now to do some dying of wool with the indigo.........