Spinning

I’ve been playing with my spinning wheel. This was a batt dropping from Nunoco. I was so eager to start spinning that I forgot to take a picture until the batt was almost finished.

It had lovely pops of silk through it.

On the wheel.

Wound into a cake ready to ply.

I was seriously tempted to keep this as a single.

But in the end I plied it. This is pre-washing.

Gorgeous Girl has requested fingerless gloves from this. I only have 50 grams, but she has little hands, so I should be OK.

This was wonderful to spin.

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Spinning

I’ve spun up the first of the fibre purchases from Nunoco. This was a dream to spin. Practically spun itself.

This is agate, a blend of silk and 21 micron merino wool.

Spun worsted and finished up a light fingering weight at roughly 20 wraps per inch (some bits are thinner than others). I’m very, very happy with this.

Can’t wait to spin more of the fibre from this store.

Right now Gorgeous Girl has commandeered my spinning wheel for her own spinning, she’s doing really well, it’s looking much more even than her other efforts and she seems to be getting the hang of drafting (proud parenting moment).

 

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Growing the (yarn) stash

During our time away we drove down to Gorgeous Man’s father’s place. It’s a drive we’ve taken many, many times. On the way back to Brisbane, instead of passing straight through one of the small towns along the way Gorgeous Man turned the wheels of the car towards the Town Centre. We hadn’t driven more than 20 metres down the side street when I spotted what looked like a yarn store.

Once the car had stopped I hightailed it to the store to investigate while Gorgeous Girl and Gorgeous Man amused themselves in a secondhand books store.

Fibre Delights is a charming little store which sells a variety of handknit and crochet items as well as a small range of spinning fibre and yarn.

The stash grew as a result of this little visit. Some spinning fibre found its way home with me.

I’m looking forward to spinning this up.

If you are passing through Ulmarra in north New South Wales, this little store is well worth a visit.

 

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Discovering a New (to me) Shop

Do you read Red Pepper Quilts? If you don’t you really should, lots of eye candy and wonderful inspiration. She also hosts wonderful give-aways. A few weeks ago she hosted a giveaway from Little Crafty Shop, an Australian based store which sells both yarn and fabric.

The night before we flew to Australia I received an email from Rita telling me that I’d won a $50 gift certificate to spend in the store. I perused the website carefully and when I arrived in Australia placed my order.

The website was really easy to navigate and shipping was really quick. We only had 13 days in Australia and the package reached me before we had to come home.

I purchased both yarn and fabric. Since it was a gift certificate I splashed out and got yarn that was more expensive than I’d usually buy for myself.

I thought I’d see what all the fuss was about over the Madelinetosh yarns…

There was also fabric.

The two on the left will go into the hand-pieced hexagon quilt and the sheep will make a knitting bag at some point.

Shipping is free for orders over $50, this came to just over $50 so I qualified for free shipping.

Thank you Rita and Little Crafty Shop. I’m looking forward to using my purchases.

 

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Spinning

When I was in the USA in April for a conference I was lucky enough to be able to spend time with a very old friend that I hadn’t seen in person for more than 20 years. As we were strolling around her neighbourhood I spotted a yarn store and some fibre came home with me.

It turned into a really lovely tweedy yarn.

These are pre-wash photos. I ended up with just under 200 metres, so not the best yardage. It’s a bit scratchy, so I’m not sure what I’m going to make with it just yet. I’m thinking some sort of toy perhaps.

 

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Dyeing yarn

Gorgeous Girl loves all things science and recently we bought her a chemistry set. She’s been having a great time doing the experiments and creating her own. I came home from work about a week ago to discover that she had filled my two big dyeing jars with colour. Further discussion revealed that one jar was food colouring and the other was purple Kool Aid. She can play with as much food colouring as she wants because it is easy to get here, but the Kool Aid requires either a trip to the USA or the kindness of friends, so we didn’t want to waste it.

I dug into some yarn that my mother had sent me a while ago. She had found it in and op shop (thrift store) and thought we might be able to dye it. It was a pretty funny cream colour. The yarn came wound in a ball and so we dropped it straight into the jar and then put the jar in the sun. There’s lots of sunshine in Papua New Guinea and so we decided to give solar dyeing a whirl. After a few days in the sun the water had turned clear and it was time to take out the yarn.

The dye hadn’t penetrated very far into the ball. So I asked Gorgeous Girl to choose another colour to add from the Kool Aid stash. She picked strawberry lemonade. We put the yarn in a pot with a very small amount of water and vinegar and sprinkled the strawberry lemonade Kool Aid straight onto the yarn. There were still a few white patches so she went back and choose orange. This time we didn’t need to use the whole packet, just sprinkled a little bit here and there directly onto the yarn. We heat set it on the stove and this is the end result.

Really happy with how this turned out.

It reminds me of self-striping sock yarn. Gorgeous Girl has said she is choosing the pattern for this one. I’m hoping it might inspire her to knit as well.

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Spinning up the souvenir fibre

I bought this fibre in Poland in 2014. The two braids on the left have been spun already, but the one on the right marinated in the stash for a while.

It’s all spun up now.

Pretty…

Love how this turned out.

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Yarn and fibre goodies

When I was in the USA I had one spare day in Los Angeles and I was thrilled to spend it with a very old friend that I haven’t seen for over 20 years.

Here we are having Mongolian Hotpot for lunch.

I discovered that she is a sometimes knitter and we visited a yarn store. This gorgeous yarn came home with me.

I’m going to knit this up as a memento of a wonderful day out. I just need to find the perfect pattern to use with it.

After visiting the yarn store on the way to my friend’s house we took a walk around her neighbourhood where I amazed my friend by spotting a yarn store from a distance of over 500 yards. Of course we had to stop (OK, I had to stop) and this lovely fibre came home with me as well.

I’m really looking forward to spinning this up.

 

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Crafty shopping

My outing with Sam was not the only visit I made to a yarn store. Once we had unloaded our gear at the cabin we headed into Estes Park to get some groceries. I had used the fabulous Trip Planner tool on Ravelry to discover that there were two yarn stores in the town and so I had my eyes out for them. Imagine my joy when we parked right across the street from The Stitchin’ Den. Some yarn came home with me. I think this store was a little smaller and less overwhelming than Fancy Tiger.

The neon is for Gorgeous Girl and the Tofutsies is for me. I’ve been wanting to try this yarn for a while and this was the first time I’d seen it in person.

We also visited a Jo-Ann’s so that Gorgeous Girl could pick up some embroidery thread for making friendship bracelets and this fell into my hands.

Gorgeous Girl has taken a liking to hand knitted face washers (wash cloths) and so I’m happy to indulge.

We also visited The Loopy Ewe, but I was very restrained and only picked up some new needles for myself. Gorgeous Girl made a beeline for the fabric (she has a fabric stash even though she doesn’t sew very often) and half a yard of this came home with us.

I wish the exchange rate had been a bit kinder to us as they had so much lovely fabric that I dearly wanted to bring home.

And that my friends is the sum total of crafty purchasing while we were in the USA. We won’t talk about the scrapbooking supplies I bought on return to Australia so that I could scrap the last few trips we’ve made…expect to see them appearing on layouts soon.

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Visiting

I have been reading Sam’s blog Madfabriholic for a number of years now. I really admire her quilts and knitting, and was thrilled to be able to meet up with her when we visited the USA.

She graciously set aside a day and, along with her lovely daughter, took me to her favourite yarn and fabric stores. Our first stop was Fancy Tiger Crafts. I have to admit that I was a tad overwhelmed by the selection available and only ended up with some fabric and a few stitch markers.  I only got two because I haven’t tried this kind before and wanted to make sure I liked them before buying a whole stack.

I’m not sure what I’ll make with it yet, so it’s going to marinate in the stash for a while.

Next up we visited Colorful Yarns. I was feeling a little less overwhelmed by then and some yarn came home with me. I also found the type of stitch markers that I had been looking for and so added a packet of them as well.

This is yak yarn. I’m really excited to give this a try! Just need to find the perfect pattern for it.

We then had a very tasty meal at a Mexican restaurant whose name escapes me and a wander around a mall for a while.

Thanks for the wonderful day Sam it was great to meet you.

 

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