Some Spinning

This has been a ‘few minutes here and there’ project. The fibre was Malabrigo Nube 100% Merino wool that I bought in Poland at Magic Loop. (Seriously, if you are ever in Warsaw visit their store, it is awesome).

I decided to see if I could spin to match Malabrigo’s DK weight yarn Rastita.

Here it is with the commercially produced yarn as a comparison.

My yarn is on top, looking a bit rougher. The commercially spun yarn is a lot more consistent than mine. I have problems spinning a consistent thick single – consistent thin singles are much easier for me.

This was a project that I really didn’t like while it was on the wheel. I worried about how the colours were coming together. However, once off the wheel and skeined and caked I really rather like it…

as evidenced by the multitude of pictures I took of it.

Unfortunately there’s not very much of it, so now I need to work out what I can make with it.

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The ongoing hexagon quilt project

It’s been a while since I shared a photo of the hexagon quilt in progress. I’ve been working on this since March 2012. Since I’m making it queen-sized I’ve still got a way to go.

 

It’s now wider than a small single bed mattress, but not as long yet. I started piecing this by adding rings to a central hexagon. Now I’m working on squaring it up so that I can add rows to make it fit our bed. (Not that we need a quilt here in PNG, but I’m planning for the ‘one day’ when we live somewhere a bit cooler).

Here’s how much it’s grown since the last time I took a picture of it.

I love the riot of colours going on in this.

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First new socks in 30 odd years

When I was a little girl I had a lovely big doll. A few months after getting her a parcel arrived in the post. It turned out that one of my Oma’s (Grandmother’s) friends had crocheted her some lovely dresses, trousers, shirts, hats and booties. I still have the doll and she still has her clothes, but they are starting to look a little worse for wear after approximately 33 years.

Recently I was knitting some baby socks, intending to donate them to charity, but when Gorgeous Girl saw them she asked if they would fit dolly. (When the doll was in my possession she had a name, but Gorgeous Girl refuses to name any of her toys and so it’s just Dolly or Big Dolly…). Anyway, as we were trying on the socks she bent Dolly down  to her ear and then told me that Dolly would very much like the socks. How could I refuse that request.

Especially when I realised that Dolly had not had any new booties or socks since the first parcel of clothes when I was a child.

Pattern is a free pattern from Sheri Berger: Baby Monkey Socks.

The details of this yarn are lost to time. I do know that I crocheted a receiving blanket for my niece in this yarn. She turns 17 this year… That means that this yarn has been moved to South Africa and Papua New Guinea before being used up. There are still a few walnut sized balls in the stash that will make their way into projects at sometime in the near future. I’m hoping I’m not the only one with ancient vintage yarn in their stash.

The socks are a little bit big for Dolly, but since she won’t be running around in them I think that’s OK.

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Sewing

Our car recently spent some time at the mechanics. It went in for a service and some other repairs. Having one car makes it very difficult to get  Gorgeous Girl to school and back when it is out of action. Fortunately, some friends of ours lent us their car so that we could get to and from school.

So I made them some placemats to say thank you. One thing I love about sewing is the speed at which the projects come together (if I don’t screw up the cutting or sewing…)

I picked up these placemat panels before we left South Africa, so they have been marinating in the stash for a while.

I backed them with traditional African fabric that I was stunned to see one of the local supermarkets here in PNG selling. This is the same brand as the fabric I picked up in Zambia during our holiday there.

Hopefully they like them.

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A very quick finish

Last Sunday Gorgeous Girl was watching a documentary about wildlife in India (she loves watching nature programmes) and she asked me to come and watch with her. So I grabbed my needles and  some yarn and by the time the show was over I had this little guy sitting on my lap. I am incapable of watching TV without some sort of craft in my hands…

Handspun yarn. I’m tempted to make a whole flock of these. If you would like to make one of your own you can find the free pattern here.

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Here’s one I prepared earlier

As I was putting my last two scrapbooking pages away I realised that I’d made another layout which I had neglected to share on the blog. This is a nice simple layout which lets the lovely paper speak for itself. I can’t get over how much Gorgeous Girl has grown.

These photos were taken on a trip to the Netherlands in 2010. Yeah, I’m slowly dealing with the scrapping backlog…

I started out in paper craft as a card maker. These days I do much more scrapbooking than cardmaking, but I still make all my own birthday cards. This one is heading out the door soon.

After looking at the photo I’ve since added a white line around the black tag to finish it of a little more. The patterned paper is up-cycled from my 2013 diary.

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More Scrapbooking

I’m entering this page in the Let’s Capture Our Memories challenge number 80.

Here’s the sketch we were given to work with.

This is my take on it.

I wanted to add journalling to the page, so enlarged the photo mat to add room for the journalling.

Thanks for looking.

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A scrapbooking page

It would appear that a few weeks away from my scrapping supplies works wonders for the scrapping mojo, as I’ve managed to crank out two layouts and a card since being back in Papua New Guinea.

I started with the Berry71blue Pattern Palooza challenge.

The challenge was to use three different patterns on the page. Here’s my take on it.

This photo is of Gorgeous Girl who fell asleep on the floor of the Brisbane airport after catching the midnight flight from Perth last year. She was sound asleep for several hours.

 

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A handspun shawl

I started this shawl just before we headed to Europe as I wanted something simple to do in the few moments of down time between conferences and sight seeing. Then it travelled with me to Australia earlier this month and I worked on it a little more, but couldn’t finish it there because I needed my little scale to make sure that I used every last ounce (towards the end I was weighing the remaining yarn after each row to see if I had enough to do another row or if I needed to cast off). Without further ado I give you my Old Lady of Poland shawlette.

Pattern is a free Ravelry download and can be found here: Old Man of Storr Shawlette.

I’m pleased with how it came out.

The yarn was handspun by me quite a number of years ago (2010 according to the stash entry on Ravelry) and I don’t know why I didn’t get around to knitting it up sooner.

It’s a merino/tencel blend from Girl on the Rocks, who has wonderful laser cut knitting and sewing notions in her etsy shop. I adore the sheep WPI tool.

I made two trips into town as the passenger today, Gorgeous Girl had a role in her school assembly this morning and so Gorgeous Man and I both went in and Friday afternoon is school pick up + grocery shopping. This meant that instead of having to deal with our awful traffic I could knit. Here’s the progress from today’s journeys.

Using up some leftover yarn from a pair of socks knitted a very long time ago. It’s a little baby hat for charity.

I’m hoping to find some crafty time this weekend: a bit of scrapbooking (I have lots of new photos to play with) and perhaps a bit of spinning, I’m hoping to replicate some Malabrigo yarn using their fibre that I purchased in Poland. Wish me luck!

What do you have planned for the weekend?

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A few finished objects

These booties were finally finished and popped in the post while we were in Australia.

Hopefully they will get lots of use. Pattern can be found here.

This hat didn’t get finished in time to go into the post. It’s destined for charity.

Pattern can be found here.

I love that this is a historical pattern. It was knitted for the troops during World War II. The decreasing is very clever.

The yarn colour is more accurate in the first photo.

I’ve finished a shawl as well, just need to weave in the ends and have a photo shoot.

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