Warning - toy does not come with batteries...

This week's blog will be a departure from the usual work stuff since I am officially 'off' now until the end of January (although the yarn shop and the design shop's current stock will still be available from 8th January.)

So how many of us are running around like headless chickens trying to get a spare moment to wrap the kids gifts - only to find when you do find the time that you have some assembly, batteries/accessories to buy or some work to do on their gift before its ready for wrapping?

I thought I was prepared. I had bought my daughter a simple weaving loom for her to learn to weave on and stashed it away months ago.  Although when I went to wrap it I took it out of the box and found that the amount of yarn on the tiny project that came with the loom was small.  It was not going to make anything that she could use.  Naughty Mummy couldn't help but meddle! So I spent over an hour re-warping the loom with some rather nice varigated 'Naturally' Yarns Merino, Possum and Alpaca with some nylon (wish I'd seen the yarn's contents before gifting it to Miss 6 as it would have made lovely luxury socks, but nevermind, she'll love it and it will make a fantastic scarf!) .

There were no pictures on the instructions and the wording 'you may need to seek some help' was obviously aimed at the child assuming that the parent knew how to weave already or perhaps was an engineer.  Had I not had weaving experience it may have taken longer to fathom it since I had already eagerly ripped off the project that came with the loom without seeing how it was warped.  I even did a little weaving to start her off so that on Christmas morning she'll be ready to go on a scarf project rather than having 5 minutes worth of weaving with what was supplied. 

 I had a lot of fun making Christmas bunting.  It was super-simple to make and looks very festive.  Once Christmas is over I am thinking - seeing as the tree is in our playroom - of making some fun bunting to festoon the room with year-round.

Craft-wise all knitting and designing is on hold at the moment as I make a crocheted gingerbread house - I am not far off finishing so will post pics up once its done.

Time for a break...

I've spent the last couple of weeks knitting like mad for a custom order I took on at a local market.  Unfortunately the only photo I took was such terrible quality its not worth putting up here.  I will be re-knitting the pattern and launching it next year - a scarf and stole in 4-ply yarn.

So whilst my knitting hands have been so busy there has been no pre-Xmas dyeing and also my fibre-prep/dyeing has ground to a halt.  We have a few overseas visitors arriving next week until the end of January (finally got the curtains & a few other desperate home projects done!) so the shop will be temporarily shut over Christmas until 31st December, then will be open for January for existing stock only - no custom orders or new stock until February 1st.

I also will not be attending any markets until the end of January, and am preparing for the Laurimar Town Fair which will be held on 12th February.

Merry Christmas - have a peaceful holiday.

Custom Dyeing and Weaving

Its been another busy week...  I've started a knitting project for relaxation... not one of my patterns, nor a new design, but am knitting up Indigo Bay pattern by Kieran Foley.  I'm knitting it in Vintage Purls silk-merino hand-spun single that I spun on my Sourkraut spindle (I think this was my second ever yarn I hand-spun) and Vintage Purls lace weight in a grey colourway - unfortunately I lost the ball bands for both so have no idea what colours they are but the colors teem up together really well.

 This week I did hand-dye yarn, however it was all for custom orders.  My favourite was this lovely pale greys, blues with a hint of beige.

I also managed to dye a custom order for myself!!  It rarely happens!  Some black for warp on my loom, and I picked up some lovely, chunky merino when I was back in New Zealand and the blues and greys from my favourite custom order caught my imagination... so I mixed up some colours and dyed up a skein each of a bright royal blue and a varigated grey... design ideas are buzzing around my head... my fingers can't keep up with my brain!

I also enjoyed the long weekend - we went to Whittlesea Show.  I had to share the pic of the sheep - this was a primary school age entry.  Very cute!

I have also managed to warp up the loom and start weaving again this week - first time since we arrived from New Zealand.  Am quite glad to be back in the weaving mood.  Couple of beautiful scarves made with Soya Silk, Blue Faced Leicester, Merino and alpaca yarns with a bit of hand-spun silk/merino and some pure silk  in there too.  The first is a beige/grey/pale pink concoction, the second is all blue

With all of the above I seem to be somewhat in avoidance mode at doing the curtains for the house!!  I wonder what I can get up to next week in order to avoid the dreaded curtains?  Oh that's right I have a pile of unprocessed fleece... which will be being washed, processed and dyed and blended into some rather exciting roving - I definitely won't have time for curtains!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Firstly, Happy Halloween!

I remember growing up in the UK, cold Autumn nights this time of year - unlike the 30 degree heat we have in Melbourne at the moment... and one memory sticks in my head particularly... since Halloween and Guy Fawkes night are so close, my Granddad, who was a farmer and a very artistic chap, decided to amalgamate them... He happened to have a big empty field, and made a huge bonfire, carved swedes, yes pumpkins were very exotic in the 1970's in North Yorkshire!! He had swedes that were legendary in size!  But the magic of that night, fireworks, bonfire keeping us all warm, sparklers in hand (probably highly dangerous in those days too!) and our swedes with scary faces and candles burning in them came back to me in an instant when I was wheeling my trolley round the supermarket this week and saw monster sized Pumpkins... Well - it was too much for me to resist recreating a bit of magic for my own children.  So armed with knife just as old Granddad did, I sat and carved out my pumpkin much to Mr 2's delight.  It was messy, yes, but boy was it fun!  I might not have a field to have a bonfire in (and I doubt, since we live in bush-fire area, that it would be welcomed!) and I may not be allowed to light fireworks (again because of the bush-fire area) but I can bring a little Halloween magic to the family...

Here is the last installment of Christmas Gift Yarn Club - gorgeous colour - Tree Snake 100% Australian Organic Merino 4-ply and the knitting pattern for Snow Garden Cowl.

The pattern for Snow Garden Cowl will be available 26th April 2013 to non-club members.

My new knitting pattern, Aphelion Cowl, has been released today - its a free download on Ravelry so go, help yourself - recommended yarn is any dk yarn.  I used Madeleinetosh Tosh DK in 'Well Water' colourway - its gorgeous!

Time for a rest?!

Well - there was me saying to myself that once Christmas Gift Yarn Club was over I was going to take a few weeks off designing and get the house and garden straight ready for the stream of overseas visitors we have arriving from December...

Less than 24 hours after getting the last parcels ready to mail off, well 10 minutes later!!, there is me with a new design on the needles, I've also secured some lovely spinning fibre which should be available before Christmas, and have applied to do the Laurimar Town Fair on 9th February next year... procrastination on the house-front? - oh yes!! I see a mad-panic rush going on at the last minute on the day the guests arrive...

The new pattern that I'm currently working on will be released at the beginning of November and is a quick and easy knit using DK yarn, and best of all, the pattern will be available for FREE! on Ravelry.  I will post the link when its available.  This is as much as I'm prepared to show at the moment...

This is the last week to grab a Christmas Box of Charlisa Yarns for bargain price...

Box of Goodies!

I attended St Andrew's Market on Saturday.  Despite it being an overcast day I had a great time meeting knitters, crocheters, hand spinners and other creative people that work with yarn.  Next time I will remember to take some photographs!

New yarn instore now:

'Galah' 100% Australian Organic Merino - grey through pink to pillar-box red

and 'Whitsunday' Blue Faced Leicester - turquoise to greeny-turquoise to bright turquoise.  A gorgeous colour-way!

also I have added a pre-sale of a Christmas Gift Box of yarn for the discerning knitter - one skein of 100% Australian Organic Merino (100g), one skein of Blue Faced Leicester (100g) and one skein of Baby Alpaca/Mulberry Silk lace yarn all hand-painted by me.  Fabulous Christmas gift for the knitter.  Its on pre-sale until the end of October at the bargain price of $56- and will go up to $60 on the 1st November so get in early and get organised for Christmas!

Boomerang Shawl

School holidays are at an end.  At the beginning of the holidays a friend and I took our kids to the zoo - they had an amazing exhibit to celebrate 150 years of Melbourne Zoo with 50 decorated Mali elephants which are being auctioned off to help conservation work at the zoo.  Most of them were painted, but I HAD to put up a photo of this - love it!! A knitted elephant!

The second installment of Christmas Gift Yarn Club was shipped last week - Boomerang Shawl and a skein of the new lace weight Baby Alpaca/Silk yarn.

I knitted the laceweight yarn (which at 800m per skein is bordering on cobweb weight) using 2 strands which gives a gorgeous draped effect.  A skein of Charlisa Yarns Baby Alpaca/Silk laceweight yarn gives enough meterage for 2 shawls knitted with a single strand, or one knitted 2 stranded.  You could equally use a luxury sock-yarn such as Charlisa Yarns 100% Australian Organic Merino for the shawl. 

The shawl will be launched to non-Christmas Gift Yarn Club members on 1st April 2013.  All patterns for Yarn Clubs are exclusive to members for 6 months.

I am aiming to be a stallholder at St Andrews Market this coming Saturday 13th October providing its not a rainy day.  If you're local do pop along to say hello.  All of my yarns will be taken off Etsy on the Friday and any unsold will be re-loaded on the Sunday - so if there's a particular colourway you're keen on it might be a good idea to nab it before I take it to market.

Happy Knitting!