Category Archives: Photography

I’ve been knitting and spinning all weekend. The merino and silk has taken me weeks due to it being a very very thin yarn. I haven’t worked out the length yet, but I think it has to be over 700m.

I’m thinking about knitting it into the Long Way’s Scarf from Heartstrings FiberArts. I’d put a link here but I can’t seem to get to the site this evening. But I’m gonna do a bit more searching before I committ 🙂

I finished my first lace item this afternoon. It is long enough to go around my neck, so I put a series of eyelet buttonholes in one end so I can button it up and and wear it as a neck warmer.

I’m blowing off some cobwebs tonight by spinning up some thick yarn. Its so much fun.
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I can’t believe that I’m actually doing this. I’ve worked out what yo, ssk and psso mean and after a few false starts, here it is:

It’s the yarn spun from my hand dyed merino. The pattern is Little Leaf Lace Scarf from Sivia Harding’s site. I don’t have enough yarn to actually make a scarf, but I’ll have a nice rectangle to admire 🙂 Perhaps I can frame it and hang it on a wall LOL

It’s a practice piece so that I can tackle the very thin silk/merino yarn that I’m currently spinning, perhaps I’ll be able to do it some justice. Maybe.

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Well, I’m getting pretty fast at this. This photo was taken last night at about 1am, I’d drunk a hell of a lot, but I also finished this beanie. I feel crap this morning, totally self inflicted.

I thought I’d share this quilt with you. It’s at that touch and go stage that nearly every project goes through. I’m not overly taken with it…. but I’ll push on.

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I’ve nearly recovered from Sunday’s gardening. Riscy came home with pizza so I didn’t starve to death after all.

I also finished this beanie. It’s made from my homespun yarn which is a mixture of merino and an angora/alpaca blend.

I didn’t use a pattern for this beanie (thus turning out smaller than expected) I just knitted up about 4cm of ribbing, then about 3cm of stocking stitch (which was the fatal flaw, I should have knitted about 8-10cm). I also decreased in a zig zag fashion. This was to disguise an error I made, but it turned out pretty cool :-).

I cast on for another one last night as I am determined to knit a decent beanie if it is the last thing I do. Continue reading →

Sorry this site was offline for a while today. There must have been a power outage which turned my computer/server off.

Now, onto the story. I took my knitting to work today as I was out in the field again and I knew I would have a 15 minutes to fill in after lunch.

So yes I did get a nice 15 minutes in. Then I continued on with the rest of my working day.

I was rushing back up the freeway trying to get back to Traralgon by 5pm so I could drop my quilts off for the show this weekend. Murphy’s Law kicked in and I got a flat tyre. After calling Roadside Assistance to come out and change the bloody thing I climbed up the batter with my knitting and happily amused myself ’til the guy turned up and whilst he was working.

I almost wished he didn’t work so quickly. It was very, very pleasant.

We’re off to a BBQ tonight. Tommorow morning we are taking a 1/2 hour joy flight, then we will be working like trojans in the garden for the rest of the weekend. We’ve hired a rotary hoe to help us make the new garden beds (the ground is very hard and dry at the moment). Continue reading →

It’s pretty hard to look normal when trying to take a photo of the hat on your head… I’m afraid this was the best one. I had to do some major cropping too, otherwise you would have copped an unfortunate eyeful of my cleavage.

This is my first NON SCARF since my uni days. I had to learn stuff like increasing using the ‘Knit into the front and back of one stitch’ method, abbreviated KFB. HUH? that name makes things totally confusing… Luckily I have a trusty book on how to knit.

I’m off on a junket to Lakes Entrance tommorow. I’ll probably post again on Thursday (if I have anything interesting to say LOL) Continue reading →

Well. Remember yesterday I blogged about my beret and how it would work providing I got the maths right? Well um, this is what it looked like prior to unpicking tonight!

I can’t believe I even got that far before I realised that it was going to be around 10 times too big. I have decided to just follow the pattern and see what happens. I suspect it will still be too big, but if that is the case the I will know for sure that the pattern is up the creek. The gauge is for 4 stiches to the inch and I’m getting more stiches/in than that at the moment.

Tommorow I will be back in my sewing room. A little swap is happening between Sophie and me… we’re swapping one of my bags for one of her hand dyed silk scarves 🙂

I have been enjoying the blog of the Dijanne Chevaal recently. It was her mentioning the use of linocuts to print on fabric which inspired me to ask for linocutting supplies for my birthday. I really need to finish the Lino Extravaganza so I can do the fun printing part… I’ve been diverted by my spinning and knitting, but it isn’t forgotton :-).

Check out this week’s illustration by my mate Bertha. She has been doing some simple but oh so effective (and funny) stuff for the Illustration Friday project. Continue reading →

The rhubarb patch merino yarn I spun is being knit into a beret. Well I think it’s going to be a beret… this is dependent on a number of things, including:

1) that I’m reading the pattern right and my maths is good enough to convert the pattern which calls for 4 st/inch to my wool which knits at 6st/inch.
2) That I have enough wool. I had one very large skein… I’m winging it here. I’m out of fleece in those colours, so if I’ve mucked up, I’ll have to finish it off with a different colour.

I commented to Riscy that I need to get one of those free standing lamps where you can direct light to your work area and he suggested I try using the headlamps we have for camping. It works if I don’t move my head around too much.

I feel crap today and I think I look like it too. I took this afternoon off work due to intermittent nausea and a persistant headache (which was not helped by the headlamp band LOL).

Since I was at home I decided to cook up a chicken soup from scratch. We can’t have it for dinner tonight as I need to wait for the fat to solidify on top so I can scoop it out.

I had ingredients for Spag Bog, so Riscy decided to make that for tonight, got everything bubbling away then realised that the recipe calls for three hours of simmering. I never wait that long, but he decided that he needed to follow the recipe. So the last ditch attempt for food tonight was Bean Enchilladas, which were DELICIOUS!!

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Today’s photo is of my Ugly Duckling Scarf. It is definitely getting better looking though, so I’m thinking of changing it’s name to Swan Scarf.

There is a big difference between the feel and look of the wool on the new ball. It is a lot skinnier and not as nice feeling. It will improve as I get into the ball though.

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This next part in my blog is on behalf of my sister, Megan, who rang me last night to ask if I remembered the rest of this ditty:

Fatty and Skinny had a fight
up and down the toilet pipe…

We could not remember the rest. Riscy looked on the net for the answer. But, whilst there were many other Fatty and Skinny dittys recorded, this one seemed to be missing. We gave up.

THEN

She called me back about 5 minutes after we hung up, she remembered:

Fatty and Skinny had a fight
up and down the toilet pipe
Fatty pulled the rusty chain
and Skinny was never seen again.

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I’m losing hope of buying the Tara Spinning Wheel as Bev has not been able to contact the lady who wants to sell it.

There are a couple of wheels for sale on ebay currently, so I’m toying with the idea of bidding for them. I’ve never done ebay before. I’m not sure about the idea.

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News of the BAG

The auction was yesterday The bag was auctioned off with a box of chocolates for $70, I’m very pleased by that! Our Environmental Officer bought it for his girlfriend.

All up we raised $4000 for The Worlds Greatest Shave for Care and a Cure. Pretty good for an office of less than 100 people!

I over spent (but console myself that it is a good cause AND tax deductable). At the auction I won a car wheel alignment and a 1/2 hour joy flight. Lets just say that I will NEVER bid for a house at auction. Someone had a bid for $120 for the flight and I was thinking to myself that my limit was $150… then I blurted out “One Hundred and FIFTY dollars!!!”… that stopped the auction dead and I won. Still, I can’t wait to take the flight! Continue reading →

I had a fairly lazy Saturday, although I did finish Scarfzilla… which I will wear as a stole I think. The damn thing is about a foot taller than moi LOL

I was watching Terminator 2 when this photo was taken (thanks Riscy XXX). It’s a classic, but I can’t stomach the violence as easily as I did when I was younger. I still love Pulp Fiction though, so it mustn’t apply to all films.

I went to Big W today to check out their yarns. There was only one type of 100% wool fabric (which I needed for the felted bag I was thinking about), but the colours didn’t grab me so I decided to leave that idea alone for the time being. I have enough projects at the moment anyway.

I’m back to quilting tommorow… I promise :-)))

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