Scatterbrained

I have started crocheting scarves. Kind of hard to do in this hot summer weather though. My plan is to have a bunch ready for my market stall come winter. I thought they might be a good thing to sell on a cold winters Sunday morning.

I didn't like this yarn. It is a mohair blend but it looks cheap. It was given to me so I thought I would use it up. I prettied the scarf up with a few vintage buttons and I like the way the buttons look so I expect I'll make a few more like this.

This is this bag after I felted it. I made a little flower to fancy it up a bit.

This wool yarn felts up really well. I still have a bit of this left and I am thinking of crocheting a bag to felt for myself as well. This one is for my market stall also.

Today I am thinking about doing some wet felting. It has been very hot here in Tasmania so playing in buckets of water and with the hose sounds like a good idea.

I turned a dress into a skirt

Ruby had this cutest little dress. I bought it for $2.50 in an op shop. It looked vintage but i think it was a vintage reproduction. Still, it was so cute and made out of a soft cool cotton. She grew out of it though so last night I turned it into a skirt.

Now she should get a couple more summers wear out of it as a skirt and that makes me happy.

Remember this yarn I spun recently?

 

Well I turned it into this little purse.

It is just the right size for my camera, car keys, credit card and my phone:)

Today we have to go shopping in our local town. Groceries, a bot fly knife from the saddlery, the library to drop back some audio books, a parcel to collect from the post office...

These are the very last photos from our Flinders Island trip.

The kids rode their bikes around the boat.

The sea leaving Flinders look rough and I though we were going to be in for a bumpy trip but it wasn't at all!

Here we are again. It is such a looooooong trip.

We finally saw land but then we had to wait two hours for the tide to come in so the boat could get into the channel. I did embroidery and poured a glass of wine.

The kids played on the fork lift and got filthy!

That was a new dress!

The trip was long but the kids didn't mind at all. They had a ball.

Yesterday was Australia Day

I am in the habit of doing my blog posts first thing in the morning. I usually write about the day before but I am thinking about changing it and doing it of a night time instead. Yesterday of course was Australia Day. We had planned a day BBQing on our river bank and having some friends over but Scott's fishing partner really wanted to go on a practise fish for a big fishing competition in a couple of weeks, and to tell you the truth, all the summer socialising is wearing me out a bit.

So I happily gave up our Australia Day plans so he could go fishing. Instead, I took the kids fishing for trout on our river bank. We almost caught a big eal but no trout. Luckily Scott caught some fish which we had for dinner along with the traditional BBQ sausages.

After the fishing it was swimming and play time at our favourite spot on the river.

I went to Launceston the other day and bought four more books in the Sookie Stackhouse series. This one of course is number three!

The kids got naked and decided to to some nude construction building. They dismantled the steps I made to the water on New Years to make an underwater bridge.

 

Then they dismantled the bridge and made a bathtub in the middle of the river.

So we had a nice relaxing Australia Day this year and we woke up this morning to find this, AT LAST!

Clover, the last of my cows to give birth finally had.

Sometime early this morning. We didn't think this one was ever going to come out. Poor Clover could hardly walk.

 

Now there is only one more baby left to be born and this one will be the owner of 'The Secret Project' I am still yet to finish.

Some of the other creative things I have been doing lately are making pineapple vinegar.

If you want to try this go here.

I have started crocheting scarves for my market stall. Not that anyone would buy a scarf in this weather but on a cold Sunday morning at the Evandale Markets a scarf would come in handy if you don't have one already so I am stocking up.

 

This is a little Valentines Day present for Scott. For his phone.

I made it out of thrifted recycled wool yarn which I dyed myself.

I finished another vampire. This one is The Vampire Le Feu.

I spun this wool,

into this yarn.

I'm crocheting this into a scarf as well.

I have a lot of unfinished projects I need to get on with so that is what I'll be doing for the rest of this week. We have an overnight birthday camping party this weekend so I might take a bunch of crocheting along for that.

Crocheting bowls

I have made a few of these in the last week or so. Also hats. I made two hats yesterday. Almost. One needs a little redoing as it isn't quite right. The other one needs more yarn I think. Not sure if it is quite big enough.

The bowls are fun little things that I can make really quickly and they do come in handy.

I was going to felt this one but I thought it would turn out too small so I left it as it is. It sits on Scott's bedside table for his Ipod shuffle. I crocheted two different yarns together for this one.

This one I did felt. It is in my bedside table draw holding lip balm, hair ties and my engagement ring. Very handy!

This one is my favourite because it is 100% made with wool from my sheep which I washed, carded, dyed and spun myself :) It is also in my bedside drawer and is especially for holding pencil erasers which is one of those things I always loose. Along with eyebrow tweezers! I can NEVER find those!

I have my own studio for all of this stuff but it is still all over the house so this one has come in handy for the 'stuff that never makes it back to the studio'.

I used this yarn which is also spun from my sheep's wool except the locks which I've had for ages.

I'm not sure what projects are on the list for today. I'll just have to wait and see but I think I might have to get the sewing machine out :)

Now some more Flinders Island. This is the morning I got up really early, before everyone else was awake and took photos of the sunrise.

On our last night we stayed in one of the islands two hotels so we could freshen up before the long boat trip home. It was great to have clean kids and warm showers.

Creativeness

Look what I made yesterday!

Yes... I know a cow REALLY made him, but I participated. I called the dairy farmer across the road and had him come and pick up my cows and put them in a truck and take them over to the paddock his bull lives in where they had a nice holiday for a couple of months and lost their virginities.

That cow in the pictures with the little calf is not his mother. That is his Aunty Clover. Her calf is due any day now. In the next picture you can tell which one is his mother. Check out those udders!

I have been very creative lately. Karma and I crocheted a bag while we listened to Stephen King audio books in my chair in my bedroom.

I have felted this already and it is OK but the handle is a little bit wonky. I made it for my market stall but I don't think it is good enough to sell. I'll take a photo today. It is the right size for my wallet and keys, phone and a paper back novel though :)

I bought a bunch of natural wool and silk roving from the US which arrived this week and I plan on spinning some today. I have decided to start making scarves for my market stall. They might sell well on our cold Tasmanian weekends during winter.

I also plan on finishing off my third vampire today.

OH, I almost forgot. I did some work on 'The Secret project' for the other new baby which is due soon.

Vampires and vegies

We had a little vegie harvest.

Big yellow zucchinis, two different kinds of squash, beans and two different kinds of tomatoes. They are all delicious.

I have to find some good zucchini recipes because these yellow ones are growing fast!

This lovely wool came in the mail at the end of last year from an online friend and I pulled it and spun it on Saturday night.

Here it is drying after I washed it. I'm not very good at spinning but fortunately I love the over spun bits as much as I love the underspun bits :)

I have already crocheted it into a little purse. I haven't taken a photo yet but I'll do that today.

I spun this one from wool from my own sheep. Some is dyed red but most of it is natural. The yellow and orange wispy bits are locks from those curly wooled sheep. They are not mine but I think I need some :) I have already crocheted this into a little 'pot'. Photos to come.

So here is the Vampire Isabell (with no E on the end). She didn't take as long as Petunia because there wasn't quite as much stitching but I like her. I still haven't quite gotten her fangs sharp enough. I like how the ink comes out on the cotton fabric. I need to get some more of this.

I am starting another vampire today.

I also have a new kitchen bench :) This is what the old one looked like.

Pretty ugly hey! I got our builder to use plywood for the new bench because I wanted something cheap. Eventually this kitchen will be pulled out and will become a walkway to our extension when we get around to doing that, sometime in the future.

Here the new bench is in its raw state. Looks nice.

And then I rubbed it down with linseed oil.

A year of creativeness

So I have been doing something everyday like I promised and it has been easy to find something quick to do. There was one day I was feeling unmotivated and didn't do anything but I made up for it by working on two projects the next day.

This is a little vampire lady I am stitching up. I was inspired by Charlaine Harris's Sookie books. I used white ink for her face and a little water colour for her make-up and lots of stitching. I'm really enjoying this and expect you will see a few more vampires coming from me in the future. It is my original design. She needs ears!

I have finished the vintage duck but I didn't do a very good job on it. I have a habit of using too much thread on projects which are too small.

I finished Dustin's scarf too. Ruby asked what I was making and I told her but said "Don't tell Dustin. It's a secret". Dustin came back forty-five seconds later to see his new scarf :) 

Jasper is here!

Have you ever seen a cuter nose? We picked him up yesterday from The Tasmanian House of Fibre and got to meet all the cute bunnies. Dustin and Ruby especially loved the big white German angoras and want to get one of those as well, and we just might too. Sue was very helpful answering questions and letting us cuddle the bunnies and she has a bunch of adorable alpacas too.

I should have taken some photos of the alpacas but I was too excited about the rabbits. She has them in all the colours. Jasper's dad is particularly pretty he kind of looks like a seal point siamese only prettier.

We love our baby bunny though. His colour is called 'smoke'. He is currently in his cage in my craft room getting used to the new sounds and smells. We are trying not to bother him too much and let him rest after the long drive home yesterday although I did take him out this morning for a quick photo shoot.

I have been sticking to my everyday creativeness in small amounts over the last two days. I picked up a little scarf I started making for Dustin a few weeks ago and worked on it a little in bed on the 2nd and along the way on the drive to collect Jasper yesterday in the car.

The green yarn is mulberry silk and the brown is a mohair blend and I am crocheting the two together. It seems a little strange crocheting a scarf in the middle of summer but these yarns are light and I want to have a few little projects like this ready for Dustin's birthday in March.

Today I might get the scarf finished and also work on a project I started while I was away on Flinders Island, which brings me to day 2 of our holidays :)

These are all the fish Scott and Jesse caught that day. We had fish to eat for the rest of our holidays and some we froze to bring home.

I learnt a new stitch

I have been teaching myself to crochet. Now I know two stitches, double crochet and treble. This little dish cloth is in treble.

I love this gorgeous cotton yarn. It is 'Peaches and Cream'. I don't think you can get it in Australia. I have had a bunch sent to me from friends in the USA. Sadly I only received one ball of this great multi coloured one. I love it.

I appeals to my inner hippie :)

If anyone knows where I can buy some of this let me know as I'd love some more in this great colour.