Sneak Peek

A little bit of what I am working on at the moment.  Can't show everything just yet.

Dyeing With Walnuts

I received a bag of walnuts to dye with from the lovely Leslie of Fibresmith, thank you Leslie.  The dye pot was a deep brown.  It is interesting to see how the different fibres take up the dye.  On the left is a merino superwash, next some perle cotton, then a merino/yak mix, on the top a piece of linen from the stash, and below a piece of wool felt.  All from the one dye pot.

Fairisle Knitting

  

  

This is a 'this time last year' post.  I was making reindeer and showing all the knitted fairisle panels, but not the reindeer with them until later in the year.  I hadn't knitted colour work in a long time, so these were fun to do.  And since the back was going to inside the reindeer, there was no pressure on how the back looked.

New Acquisitions

  

Last Thursday was Sit & Stitch at Can Do Books.  Bought two new books, one for dyeing information and one for inspiration.  And my friend Janette gave me a gift of a box of crochet cottons, an old pattern book, a hook, and some worked crochet.  This came from a friend of hers whose mother had passed away who was a crocheter and didn't know what to do with the stash of cotton.  Thank you Janette of thinking of me.  I use this kind of thread to crochet, embroider and needle lace with, and I absolutely love old pattern books.

Dyeing with Pomegranate

Surprisingly it is yellow that comes from dyeing with pomegranate, a lovely rich yellow.  Thank you to the lovely Leslie and Amanda of Fibresmith for the gift of the pomegranates and advice.

New Chairs

  

  

Last weekend found chairs at IKEA and a chaise lounge at a garden centre in Springvale.  Everyone was very quick to try them out.  The IKEA charts are actually wall hooks.

Dyeing with Black Beans

The first purple ball on the left is the first dye session with black beans I shared last week.  The next two pink balls are the black beans with citric acid mordant. The last two greens are the black beans with alum and cream of tartar mordant and bicarb of soda in the dye bath.  I still haven't got blue yet, but loving the colours I am getting.

Jar Lid No.15

  

Little Bunny.  This jar lid is for my sister-in-law Martel, who LOVES bunnies, and her husband Stevin who LOVES the Rabbitohs, South Sydney Rugby League team.

Jar Lid No.14

  

Naval Uniform Button.  One of Piers' old buttons.  This is a small jar, just the right size.

Jar Lid No.13

  

  

Little Happy Pear.  I ended up crocheting two little pears because the first one was too big for the lid and looked a little squished in there.

Jar Lid No.12

  



A Tiny Pair of Shoes.  Made of felt on a Harris Tweed rug.  The Russell house is a shoes off house.

Jar Lid No.11

  

Antique Crochet.  A while ago I bought on Ebay someone's mother's stash of crochet cottons and unfinished crochet pieces.  There were quite a few motifs like this one and some lengths of crochet lace.  This one was the perfect size for the lid.  There is a crochet circle of the yarn left over from the reindeer cardigan I made the other week underneath, but not really visible.

Dyeing with Black Beans

Stephanie at Can Do Books told me about dyeing with black beans and the lovely rich colour.  ON researching the black beans people did get lovely rich colours, blues and greens, I got purple.  It is a beautiful shade of purple, I love it, but not blues and greens.  The yarn at the bottom of the photo is Bendigo Woollen Mills Shetland Wool, the yarn above is Ixchel I picked up on Sunday at Coburg Town Hall.  I also put some embroidery perle cotton and antique crochet pieces I had.  They all turned a very deep purple.  I got very excited with this dyepot, I went and got more beans and they are soaking now.  Going to try different mordants to see if I can get the blues and greens.

Little Pomegranate Reindeer

  

I crocheted this little reindeer using one of the yarns dyed in pomegranate tea that I posted about last week.  There are hints of pinks and purples which aren't quite visible in the photo.

Some More Dyeing

The one on the left is Passionfruit and Hibiscus Tea, it was selling off cheaply at the supermarket.  A lovely yellow.  The one on the right is avocado, hibiscus tea and commercial dye green spots.  I was cooking the avocado and it was looking pinkish, more brown though, so I added some hibiscus tea to get some pink.  Then I sprinkled some of the dye I had left from the variegated green yarn I did, for speckles on the yarn.  The colour is subtle, but I quite like it.

Jar Lid No.10

  

Litte Robin.  My Mother-in-law introduced me to Iris Folding several years ago. Worked from the back little strips of folded paper are worked around a shape which is cut first.  Although this paper isn't folded as it is quite thick and textured wallpaper, so wouldn't work folded.

Jar Lid No.9

  

Embroidered Letter R.  This is one of the smaller lids, the circle of linen is 3.5cm across.  This is worked in two threads:  the thicker is crewel thread in size 8, the finer is sewing thread, and the red is also sewing thread in a larger french knot and tiny one wrap french knots.

Jar Lid No.8

  



Martel's Drawing.  My Mother-in-law sent around this photo she found to the family.  Piers' sister drew it of him when she was four years old.  Piers was nine.   As soon as I saw it I thought it had to go into a jar lid.  That's a happy face to see when taking the lid off your canister.

Happy Mothers Day

Wishing much love and happiness to all the mothers with us, and remembering those Mms who are not.  Have a wonderful day with family and friends.

Little Cardigan

 

Finished this little cardi for a reindeer last night.  The yarn was lovely to work with, although it is a 3ply on 2.5mm needles.

Coat Hangers

I covered the green hanger at Can Do Books yesterday, it's the green variegated yarn I dyed, and the grey one last night in Fibresmith yarn.  I went through the cupboard and there were five more coat hangers that needed a bit of a revamp.  It is a nice easy project that I was in the mood for yesterday.

Re-Working the Wreath

  

   

  

Today is Sit & Stitch at Can Do Books.  I forgot to show what I worked on last week.  Remember the large wreath from the Christmas Window four years ago?  Well at the time I didn't know how to store it, or have the room to store it, so I dismantled it  (a hoola hoop is at the base for a size indication).  All the little animals, houses and pom poms have been sitting in a couple of tubs in the craft room.  I thought I would re-make them into a garland for my stairs.  There are large tables at Stephanie's so thought it would be ideal to layout and start making the swag.  Not as easy as I thought, I attached a few, picked up the rope and they all went a bit wonky.  Need to hang the swag to get them to sit properly.  So everything was packed up and is now back on the shelf, try another day.

This Time Last Year

Can't show what I'm working on at the moment, so here is one of those this time last year photos.  Amigurumi Girl was a commission for a lovely lady who I have made 7 of these large wrapped balls, and one for her friend.  This one is about her daughter, a lawyer living and working in Chile who loves to mountain climb.  I had a message the other day asking if I would make another large wrapped ball.  I wonder what challenge she has for me this time.

The Unpredictable Nature of Dyeing

  



For me anyway.  At first it was exciting, a free packet of pomegranate tea from T2 which boiled and steeped to a lovely rich red/pink.  The remnants in the little jug.  When it hit the dye pot and the mordanted yarn, it went purple, very purple.  But then in the end, it nearly all washed out.  I put the yarn into another dye pot and re-dye it, but a bit disappointing after all that rich colour.