Category Archives: Linocut

I’ve just had a nice little computer holiday 🙂 But I’ve been busy doing other things like painting (nothing good to show here though), spinning and knitting.

This is some of the yarn I’ve spun up for the big jumper (sweater) project:

This is spun from that yucky felted merino, it is a real pain to work with, but the results are good.

The wave and shell scarf is finished. I didn’t take a photo before I wore it though and I need to reblock it so I can show it here to it’s best advantage.

I’m now just about to start knitting the Kiri Shawl. I tried to join the knit along, but I haven’t been accepted … not sure what that’s about, but I’m not too fussed. I’ll just try it on my own, see how I go. I had thought about the Faux Russion Stole from A Gathering of Lace, but I think Kiri would look better in the white yarn I want to use.

A report on the Eat Local Challenge… I didn’t Officially join the challenge, but we are trying to keep to our pledge anyway. The main problem is that we won’t be able to attend any farmers markets til the middle of the month, so we shopped at the organic grocer on the weekend. We made pumpkin soup, tuna lassagna (using tuna from our pantry…) and beef patties with home made corn salsa, lots of leftovers, very yummy 🙂
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I’m thinking of setting up a little ‘Little Fish Shop’ on my blog. I’ve noticed quite a few members of The Spinning Wheel blog ring are doing or have done the same thing.

I don’t think I’d have a large volume of stuff for sale, but I would like to sell handspun wool. Perhaps some hand dyed superfine merino tops, and maybe some of my handdyed/printed fabric, art and jewellery too.

It would be great if there was a central web location for us to sell our stuff, The Spinning Wheel Co-op, or something. A page that links to our individual blog shops or perhaps a website like a mall with our individual shops selling our cool stuff.

The advantage of this would be that people who would like to purchase handspun yarns and related stuff would have a central place to look, and hopefully lots of goodies to look at. Thus enhancing the chance of us actually selling the occasional skein LOL.

I’ve asked Riscy if this is possible and he reckons it could be done fairly simply using the blog software we currently use and a bit of tweaking.

If anyone is interested in trying this out, email me or leave a comment.

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On another note, I’ve been knitting continental style. It was very slow at first, but it is getting faster. I’m knitting a 2×2 rib ear warmer/headband/neckwarmer in preparation for our ski trip in August.

The Wave and Shell Scarf is growing very nicely 🙂 I’m almost through the first skein and I’m not looking forward to winding all that thin yarn into a ball by hand… that’s why I want to set up a shop, so I can try and finance my fibre needs, like a ball winder. I wonder if I would make enough to pay for a loom… Hmmm

We saw Sin City at the cinema tonight. It was very good with the classic Tarantino influence of a time loop and parallel, intertwining stories, it was also so violent that I spent a fair portion of the movie with my eyes closed, I don’t have the stomach for it like I used to. It looked like no film I’d ever seen before, all dark and stylised. Well worth a trip to the movies on Tight Arse Tuesday as long as you are prepared to see more gore than you can really take. Continue reading →

Before I launch into the goodies I bought at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo, I want to show you what came off my wheel tonight.

Just as I arrived at the show a very heavy rain started and the woolcraft pavilions didn’t have any electricity, a bit difficult to see anything 🙁 But I went back later to admire the woolcraft entries and winners. I’m thinking I might enter something next year since I’m being coerced into entering some stuff into the local agricultural show this year LOL.

I spent a lot of time wandering through the big tents full of sheep in pens and watching judging of different breeds and classes. The breeds all had their own areas. I didn’t find the merinos though, I would have thought they would be everywhere, but I missed them somehow. There were also goats and alpaca classes so it was all very interesting.

I must admit that I wasn’t a systematic about my mission (finding suppliers) as I should have been and there were more than a few vendors that I missed, but I did get a few goodies to try.

I struck up a conversation with a breeder of Border Leicsters and he gave me a bag full of lambs fleece. It has a lovely luster, but its very dirty and smelly at the moment. I don’t know what I’ll do with it since it is a rather coarse wool. I’ll ask at my guild meeting on Wednesday, someone might have some suggestions.

I also sat next to a sheep farmer at the Poll Dorset Pavilion while some judging was happening. Poll Dorsets are a meat breed, but they sell the wool to the carpet industry. He said that the the wool sales just cover the cost of shearing.
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Some Spinning Content 🙂

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I was spinning and plying the second skein of this yarn whist trying to think of the Best Advice I Ever Got…. for the journal project conceived by Penelope Dullaghan… I received it in the mail today.

The work so far in the journal is great. I’m a little intimidated. But I’ve decided to keep it simple so I don’t get overwhelmed.

And thanks to Moze and Spaaz for the very welcome advice regarding the scarf. The decision is…. I’ll knit on regardless… I can handle it. Really.

The new Knitty is out. Yay!!

Wow, how’s that for a link-o-rific blog post. Riscy tells me I should put more links in ’cause that will make me a better prospect with google or something. But I don’t give a toss about that. Me and my three readers are happy over here in our corner of netdom, so there 😛

I won’t blog about the issues brewing between the people next door and us. But I will say that if you illegally build extensions to your house and they are an eyesore to your neighbour, then, duh!! They’re gonna call the council on your arse. Continue reading →

I’m keen to see how these will look in as a two ply yarn. I’ve recently been spinning lots of beautifully prepared superfine merino tops which has been wonderful. But there is something special about getting a fleece, picking the locks out, giving them a comb and spinning them in the grease. I love the smell of lanolin.

This is the feather and fan variation scarf I’m knitting, Wave and Shell:

I have made a mistake and I can’t decide whether to try and unravel it back or just continue on. At the moment I’m inclined to just continue as I fear that unravelling will just mean I have to start again because it will be impossible to pick up the stitches.

I’m not feeling great at the moment, I’ve got a killer sore throat and I’ve been getting regular overwhelming urges to nap. I just hope I didn’t pass it onto Riscy’s Aunty and Uncle who visited us yesterday 🙁 Continue reading →

photo screen print of the dredger: veiw of the underside

I screen printed this image of the Dredger mainly to see just how much detail I could get using the photo screen print method, I was very impressed!

You are SO going to be sick of the damned dredger by the time I’m finished with this LOL. If you want to see the thing in real life check out this link
This particular dredger is retired and sits beside the freeway as a reminder of the three large open cut coal mines and brown coal fired power stations located in the Latrobe Valley.

The To Do list has worked:

I have also washed a heap of fabric ready for dyeing. I’m going to invest a bit more time planning before dyeing though because I wont be able to resist starting if I have the fabric ready. I’m thinking perhaps I’ll have one background fabric (pale green?) and the dark areas will be full of detail. I want to enhance the strong lines, but I don’t want everything running longitudinally up each ‘truss’.

To Do Tuesday
Spend at least 1 hour on detailed design
Find a mail order source of Vleisofix (WunderUnder)
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Thought I’d show you a recent spinning effort.

It turned out way prettier than I thought it would. I don’t think it’ll knit up as yummy as it looks in the skein. Actually, that’s nearly always the way for me. I love the swirl of colours of my skeined yarns, but I know its gonna knit stripey, not as nice 🙁 Continue reading →

Last night I tried my hand at dyeing merino top in the microwave using Landscaped dyes. The colours came out great, but my treatment of the wool after dyeing caused some felting. This stuff is so fine you just have to look at it sideways and it felts. In future I will allow the wool to cool naturally and I will not even squeeze water through it.

Here are some pics of the results:

I was up very early this morning for our inaugural bike group bike ride. It was about 18km from start to finish, so I feel it was a very reasonable effort since it is over 2 years since I last rode.

I need to get some fitness back for our sea kayaking trip to Fiji in June. I’m working to lose about 4kg too, as my weight has crept back up a bit over the last few months, so far so good 🙂

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Before I launch into photos of the very exciting delivery I got today from TreeTops Colour I want to tell you that using my sewing machine is not as fool proof as I imagined. I taught Riscy to use the machine on the weekend and now I’m in the market for a new bobbin case. Perhaps freemotion quilting was too ambitious for his first sewing experience since grade 7. I think I can still sew ok with it, but it is damaged.

OK, without further ado, I’ll launch into photo yum yum:

I also got 1kg of beautiful undyed merino tops so I can dye some myself. It’s gonna sit for a while so I can spin the beautiful colours I’ve got already.

And some skeins I plied on the weekend.

I also plied up a skein of the angora/alpaca verigated single with the light yellowy merino. I’ve already rolled it into a ball and I attempted to cast on about five times last night. And bloody hell I’m a bad knitter. My ambitions far outstrip my abilities. But I will persist. I want to use this yarn I’m spinning! Continue reading →