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.

Silk Roads...well not really

I've been spinning up the silk I dyed and I have to say it looks GORGEOUS! Yes, even if I do say so myself. Here are some photos of it as singles and plied with a strand of pure merino. The finished yarn is around 33wpi (maybe more as I havent actually done a wpi test) and in the first skein I got 323m from only 26g of yarn. Thats pretty good meterage as far as I can tell.

bobbin full of single ply

Merino/silk 2ply yarn - 'Mermaids Cove'

In the last week or so I have also been buying fibre and books and sending off Christmas pressies and, well...generally having a good time.

I met (well - Vmet)a lovely lady on Ravelry who has been such a sweetie. She breeds gorgeous Angora rabbits and sells the most delicious fibre (and yes, I HAVE joined two of her fibre clubs for the NY). She made me a custom funky bunny batt that arrived last week which I totally love. I also purchased a very cool drop spindle from her which she was kind enough to send off with some lovely fibre for me to try on it and it arrived in the mail yesterday which was very exciting.

Funky Bunny Batt comprising of;
angelina, glitz, angora bunny, angorino, silk,
milk protein fibre, sari silk, yak, alpaca,
Australian heritage mohair & optim top.

My awesome drop spindle:
budgeroo whorl, myrtle shaft

Since this awesome lady is so nice and as she's going through a tough time right now I thought I'd send her a comfort Christmas present, which she received yesterday. It included an original, one of a kind, handmade bear that I designed and sewed in 2003. The bear, which she has named Natsili (Navajo for rainbow) won a second place ribbon in her category (synthetic bears) in the 2003 Bear and Doll show at Coffs Harbour. Also in the care package was a jasmine scented bath bomb and soap, some yummy swiss chocolates and a set of Swarowski Crystal stitch markers that I designed and made especially for the recipient. Thankfully the gift package was received in the spirit in which it was intended so I can call it a huge success. YAY!

The care package
photo courtesy of IxchelBunny

'Angel Heart' - Swarowski Crystal
and glass bead stitch markers

About two weeks ago I ordered a book off Amazon that I've been itching to buy for a while. I wasnt actually expecting it to arrive till well after January but, surprisingly, it arrived yesterday and I have to say, it was WELL worth the money I spent on it. Its totally brilliant and I cant wait to knit something from it.

I also received some fibre I purchased from EGMTK yesterday. 200grams of merino/silk blend and 200g of pure merino tops...plus a little baggie of the cutest angelina fibre. I have joined another fibre club with EGMTK for the NY which I'm looking forward to immensely.

200g 22micron merino - colourway: Sapphire blue

200g silk/merino blend - colourway; Damson

5g angelina fibre - colourway; butterfly blue flash

All in all I'm calling yesterday an awesome start to my Christmas week.

Fun with fibre

I have been having a great time getting organised to start my next big project. I received my mulberry silk and angelina fibre in the mail and have finished spinning up the last lot of merino that I talked about in 'spinning around'. I'm SOOO excited about the silk that I got...its been transformed since its arrival and will be hitting the bobbins some time tonight. But more on that later...

I decided to ply my super fine 'vintage' merino with some commercial 2ply kid mohair blend that I had in my stash. I ended up with just over 900metres of incredibly soft and fine 3ply yarn that will make a really lovely (albiet; huge) shawl one day. I havent decided which pattern I will knit it into yet, so it's going to spend some time marinating in my stash till I do.

Hand dyed merino top - 'vintage'
from EGMTK

Vintage singles

Plied with kid mohair blend

As I mentioned in my last post, I have BIG plans for the silk that I bought. So far I have dyed it a lovely variegated turquoise green/sea blue/white colour to match the 'under the sea' merino that I purchased a couple of weeks back. I have also blended the silk with half of the under the sea; giving me a total of 200g of unblended under the sea merino and 200g of under the sea merino/silk/angelina blended fibre. I will be spinning the two seperately so should end up with singles in straight merino and singles in the silk/merino blend which I then intend to ply together giving me a fine yarn that is 25% silk/73% merino and 2% angelina. I'm very excited to be trying this as I have a gorgeous (enormous, circular and intricate) shawl pattern already purchased and downloaded to knit it into. I hope to get at least 2000 metres of yarn out of my fibre. That should keep me busy for quite some time huh?

200g Merino top - 'under the sea'
from EGMTK



100g Undyed Mulberry silk top
from EGMTK



Silk dyeing in oven



Dried silk



Silk/Merino/Angelina blend