Scatterbrained

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.

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.

Unspun

This is the green merino I posted yesterday before I spun it. I bought it from this shop on Etsy, an Aussie seller so I didn't have to pay as much for postage. Lovely wool and I'd definitely buy some more from her. 

I am going to crochet it into a little winter hat for Dustin. I am currently working on a scarf for him and have just finished one for Scott. I am teaching myself to crochet with a book which doesn't have a lot of detailed instructions and I keep loosing stitches. My scarves keep getting smaller and I cant figure out what I am doing wrong. I think I am going to have to watch some You Tube tutorials.

She spins!

And spins and spins and spins!

Spinning is a lot easier than I thought it would be. I haven't tried to get a consistent size yet but I like all the variations in homespun yarn best anyway. Even when it is over spun it still has a fun funky look that I love. I am just pretending that I meant for it to go that way.

The pink one is from my sheep. Dyed with Wilton rose cake dye. It is much deeper than the colour is supposed to be. I must have used too much. I used the whole tub! I carded the red and natural wool together before I spun it. This wool (I think) shrunk during the washing process because it is all fuzzy and wont felt. The fuzziness is cute though and it was the easiest wool to spin. It is quite rough and not really suitable for clothing but good for bags or art.

This green is an Australian merino I bought from a new Etsy shop by an Aussie seller I'll find her shop later on and put it on my blog. It is lovely and soft and there is enough here for a hat for Dustin for next winter. He likes green.

This one is my favourite. I used a teal merino and spun it with some multicoloured merino I had left over from a felting project. I love this one and I have already crocheted a little bag for my ipod. I'll show you after I put a button on it.

I have spun a few more as well but I haven't washed them to set the spin. I wash them by spraying them with the shower and then hang them up on my windowsill. A cookie cooling rack works well. I am not sure how you are supposed to wash them but my way is working for me so far.

The spinning wheel I have is borrowed from a friend and I already want a new one of my own. I want one which has two pedals and a drum carder would also be a good thing. Still, I need to get my craft room sorted so I can fit more stuff in it. It still doesn't have power either.

I am going to make a needle book

I crocheted both the first two yarns I ever spun together and then washed to felt them. They felted lightly. This photo is before the felting. I am thinking now that I may have washed the wool in water that was too hot and shrunk and slightly felted the wool and that is why it wont felt now. It is very easy to spin though and will be useful for art and bags and home accessories.

I have spun a few other yarns since this first effort now and I love it. It is much easier than I thought it would be. I am now washing the yarns to set the spin and rolling them into balls.

This little red and blue bit I am going to use to make a needle book, something I need rather badly.

My first spinning

I made some more felt yesterday using the wool from my sheep that I have had problems felting. It seems the wool from my sheep is too coarse, it is called kemp I think. It is like the kind of wool they use in carpets, low quality coarse fibre. Not surprising because Butter and Sugar were bred for meat, although no one will ever be eating them.

The merino wool felts to it so it can be used in the middle for some felting projects. In this photo you can see how fuzzy and coarse it is.

 

The locks don't felt either. I am not sure what kind of locks they are. I bought them from Etsy ages ago. I love the way the merino wool locks them in but the locks themselves stay true and glossy.

So last night I came to the conclusion that the wool from Butter and Sugar isn't much good for felting. This inspired me to pull out the spinning wheel which was given to me by a neighbour about a year ago. But first I decided to see if their wool would dye. I read that kemp wool doesn't dye very well but I thought I would give it a go.

It worked really well! I used a Wilton food dye. The colour was 'rose' but it turned out more a watermelon. It is really bright and I have pink hands, which I quite like also. I literally boiled the wool, then washed it out in cold water and wrung it and it still did not felt! I have super-wash sheep!!

So while I cooked dinner last night I had Scott set up my spinning wheel for me (he's a mechanic). He remembers his grandmother spinning in Norway so he had a better idea of how to do it than I did. We watched a few You Tube videos and then it was my turn.

I didn't get it right away. It took a few swear words and fumbling but then I was off. My watermelon wool was still wet so I used some navy blue merino wool. I was surprised at how fast it is.

I didn't even try to get it all even and perfect. I am pretty sure it is over spun in places and under-spun in other places but it is yarn and I did it! I think I am supposed to wash it to set it but I don't know how the hell to do that yet. (I'll ask Jenny)

I was so excited I decided to spin some of my watermelon yarn even though it was still wet and it worked too.

I have decided to crochet the two colours together and then wash the result in the washing machine to see how it felts then. I am determined to get that wool to felt :)