Pride of ownership

As anyone who has been following my adventures would probably know, I have been spinning for a little bit more than 12 weeks now. I have been spinning my yarns on an Ashford Traditional wheel that my very good friend loaned to me along with her bobbins, lazy kate, niddy noddy and learn to spin CD-Roms. Yes. She does indeed; rock.

Yesterday I had nothing on the bobbins and wanted a small spin, so I spun up 22g of pure mulberry silk that I had laying in the bottom of my fibre stash. I've never spun straight silk before and I honestly wondered if I'd do it justice as its such a beautiful fibre. But I needn't have worried; my 22g of silk fibre soon turned into 177 metres of super fine 2ply lace weight yarn...its gorgeous...even if I do say so myself ;o)

As green just isn't my colour I plan to give this little skein of turquoise heaven to my good friend tomorrow as a small thank you gift for loaning me her wheel for 12 weeks and getting me hooked on spinning.

I've been planning on getting my own wheel as soon as possible and I'm so excited to report that I have organised to purchase an Ashford Traveler from a lovely lady I know. It will be arriving some time next week and I look forward to its delivery immensely.

However, I also came across a second hand Ashford Traditional today for only $100...obviously that's just too good an opportunity to pass up so I bought it, and now I have my first wheel and a second one on the way...how awesome is that?

My Ashford Traditional
"Figgy"



Already spinning singles on her :oD

The wheel I bought was originally bought for an elderly lady; the mother of the man I bought it from, and he had a lovely little metal plaque put on it with her name engraved into it. I wont tell you her name for privacy reasons but as a tribute to this woman I've named the wheel 'Figgy'. Obviously I got Figgy home and cleaned her up, then immediately took her for a test drive....and she spins beautifully. She is an older wheel but she has been hardly used and you can still smell the natural scent of the timber that she is made from. She is solid and true, not a wobble in sight and her treadle doesn't make even the slightest squeak. But best of all, she is all mine.

Its all about the pot

A few days ago while I was out and about I stumbled across a copy of Loani Priors Wild Tea Cosies. Now, I've never knit tea cosies before, but I've stalked Loani's blog from time to time and been charmed by some of the delightfully whimsical designs that she produces. So of course, I bought the book; then rushed home to start building my very first tea cosy.

I received a gorgeous Japanese tea set for Christmas that included a lovely teapot but realised immediately that it wouldn't fit either the size or the design of the cosy I was knitting. So, on Monday morning, I had to rush out to buy myself a traditional type of tea pot. Ergo; the creation of the pot monster. It's Wednesday now and I have collected five more tea pots and last night I finished knitting the lovely 'Rosie Posy' tea cosy from the book.

The beast that started it all
Japanese Tea Set

Pretty Pink Pot

Japanese Influence Pot



Fantastic Earthenware Pot



Pot-full-o-shiny



Country Cottage Pot



Evil Posy Tea Cosy

Inspired by the mini bar, I mean baa

After building Eugene the sheep I was totally inspired to make a teensy little toy that looked like my cat Moo. The pattern is an original design, and admittedly he turned out a wee bit bigger than Eugene (which you can see in the pic) but all in all I'm calling this experience a success. I worked on it for a couple of days and ended up with a teensy cat toy that looks almost right and even like the real Moo, he falls over a lot. I'm calling him mini Moo.

Mini Baaa

I stumbled across a thread on Ravelry yesterday asking spinners if their wheel has a sheep. I'd never heard of this but being a whimsical (read; channels inner six year old often) type of person the concept REALLY appealed to me. Some of the people on the thread had the cutest little sheep living on their wheels. At first I was faced with a bit of a dilemma; my wheel is borrowed. So I didn't know if it would be appropriate to make a little sheep to live on it. Then of course, I stupidly went searching for toy sheep patterns, 'just in case' I found one I could use at a 'later date'. Pfft.

The rest writes itself really. I found an adorable pattern that I just couldn't resist...needless to say three hours later I had a teensy sheep who I named Eugene. The pattern is totally free; you can make your own teensy wheel inhabiting sheep toy by going to flutterby patch where you will also find loads of other delightful little knitted toys. Anyhoo, meet Eugene, he stands 5.5cm high and from nose to bottom he is 7.5cm long.

A crafty kind of update

I had a lot of errands to run this past week so I havent had much time to stay home and work on crafty things. I did get time to skein up my first batch of plied bunny batt though. I have to say it's turned out beautifully. Its such a funky yarn and has such a shine that I think it needs to be knit into something 'fun'. I named it 'party with your harem pants on' in celebration of my tenth week behind the wheel. Here is a pic...

I have managed to list a few more things on Oztion today. Some more stitch markers, more handspun and a couple more wearable items. Click on the images to go to the listings.

Floral foil stitch markers
~SOLD~


Rose heart stitch markers
$5.70 + postage


Honey bee stitch markers
$5.70 + postage


Pink pearls stitch markers
$5.00 + postage


Silver bells stitch markers
$6.40 + postage

Since I spent so much time running around trying to sort out my TAFE enrolment last week, with a bit of luck I'll have a bit more time to spin and craft this week...fingers crossed that I might even get my 'party with your harem pants on' finished.

Making space for fibre

Over the last twelve months or so I've made so many things that I no longer have room to store them all. Many of the things I've made were intended to be sold at markets but I have some health issues that prevent me from being overly active at the moment so I've listed them all for sale on Oztion (an Australian auction site) and posted pics and details here. I'm hoping that from now on I'll be updating my sale items once a week (health allowing). You can buy any of the items listed here by signing up to Oztion using this link. Membership on Oztion is free for buyers; you dont have to pay fees unless you register as a seller. Now...onto the shiny stuff.

Angel Rose stitch markers
~SOLD~



Butterfly Blues stitch markers
~SOLD~



Butterfly Garden stitch markers
$5.70 + postage



Mystic Moon stitch markers
~SOLD~



Springtime buzz stitch markers
$5.70 + postage



Vintage Purple handspun 3ply
~SOLD~



Vintage Purple handspun 3ply
$10 + postage



Vintage Purple handspun 3ply
$20 + postage



Hand knitted chenille lap rug
$10 + postage

This is the first of hopefully many posts listing sale items. Feel free to PM me on Ravelry if you have any questions, but the item listings on Oztion are fairly detailed so please check them out first. Alternatively if you have questions regarding sale items or just want to request something (within reason...lol) you can email me using the email information in my blog profile.