Bobbin lace

I received a lovely surprise in the mail the other day from a dear and very, very talented lady Alison Dews. Alison , from the United Kingdom, is an expert bobbin lacer and she made this gorgeous red mat for me, which I will always treasure.

Bamboo fibre spun

Soul Collage cards

Two recent transpersonal Soul Collage cards I completed - Witness and Humour.....

Magic loop knitting

I am knitting socks using the magic loop technique - this involves knitting two socks on the one circular needle (albeit a larger needle in length). It is much easier than it looks and certainly avoids the "one sock" syndrome.

Today is a public holiday so I took the opportunity to dye some fleece - EL and EF.

Bamboo fibre

I just LOOOOVE getting mail. Here is yummy bamboo fibre I received today from EGMTK - can't wait to spin it and I know exactly what I'm going to ply it with.

Chrysanthemum Lace

Here is my first attempt at a Chrysanthemum lace lappet - the spider ground is riddle with mistakes but towards the end of the sample I knew what I was doing wrong. If I ever choose to make another piece of this type of lace I think I will have a better understanding next time.

Inga crochet bag

I finished this bag today - yeah. It's called Inga and it has many crochet squares from a gorgeous discontinued cotton yarn. I might even use this as my normal handbag.

Metallic ply handspun art yarn

Here is some art yarn I recently completed. Firstly I hand dyed the fleece (? merino) purple, then spun the fleece and plied it with commercial charcoal metallic yarn. I like the thin/thick texture of the yarn as well as the shiny effect.

Handspun yarns

Here is some recently completed handspun yarn. I am really enjoying the "freeness" of art yarns. -

Plain Polwarth

Polwarth, spun with sequins

Art yarn - purple texture

Isabeau Purse

This is a picture of a knitted purse I recently completed as part of a monthly bag challenge. Got to love those bag challenges.

Knitted Bangle

Here is a nice quick and easy project I completed in one night, while watching my boys MELBOURNE STORM win their way to the grand final next week.

This is basically a bangle with a knitted cover.

Castella Spinning Wheel

Here is my new pride and joy - my Castella spinning wheel. It was made by Jim de Castella from Victoria. He made around 1500 and sold some to Japan and America. His wheels are made from either pine or locally sourced blackwood and all are uprights. The flyer has three whorls on the whorl, and the ratio depends on the band. Jim recognised the need to reduce friction on a wheel and included ball bearings everywhere on the wheel, even where they can’t be seen and there is no need to oil his wheels due to this. Towards the end of his career Jim made the wheels more portable. In his heyday, Jim used to show his wheels at the Royal Melbourne show. A Japanese lady bought one (she was related to the Emperor) and word of mouth in Japan resulted in many more sales there.

Merino/Soy/Bamboo

My finished crochet scarf from handspun. It's so soft.

Handspun Merino/Soy/Bamboo

Here is some recently spun Merino/Soy/Bamboo. Whilst I didn't dye the fleece, I spun it. It is lovely and soft, with gorgeous variegated colours. I plan to make a scarf with this yarn.

Knitted Socks

I have just finished knitting my first pair of socks! Now, it did take me a long time to do this, with a couple of hiccoughs along the way however I now know why they are so addictive. It was fun knitting them, and they are just so warm!

Handspun texture

I attempted to replicate some yarn I fell in love with at a shop, but refused to pay $18 per skein to buy. To get this effect I spun fleece onto a core (cotton). I'm very pleased with the textured look.

White Flower Necklace

I just completed a gorgeous crochet "White Flower Necklace". I slightly modified the flower so it looked more "flowery". Unfortunately the necklace doesn't hang that well on the pictured bust , but the stems and leaves hang down and it looks lovely on.

Thanks to Creative Yarn for being so generous in supplying the pattern.

WICKED

A friend and I spent last night on the town. We went out to dinner and then went to see WICKED - one of the best musicals I have seen in a long time. What a spectacular musical with creative backdrops and costumes. The show certainly puts a different slant on "The Wizard of Oz" but it fits in oh so nicely..

I can't wait until they make it into a musical.

PS - They killed the wrong witch!

PPS - Witches Rule!

Bolsters

Here are matching bolsters I recently made for my bed. They look much nicer IRL, with the lace complementing the calico and fabric. The patterned fabric shown on the frill is also on each end of the bolster.

Happy Birthday

I received a gorgeous bunch of flowers from my girlfriend for my birthday on the weekend. It's the little things that count - she remembers after all these years that tulips are my favourite flower. We have been great mates for many, many years - true friends are worth hanging on to!

Handspun Mohair

Here are two handspun balls of mohair. The one on the left is plied with wool and the handspun on the right is pure mohair (ouch, very itchy!)

The handspun was completed as part of a spinning SAL - now to find a project to use the handspun.

Gift

Today I received a gorgeous magnet of a "Lace Building" from a lovely friend of mine, Lyn. Lyn recently got back from an overseas trip which included Belgium.

Newspaper

Here is a photo I took for a "Newspaper" challenge. I tried to take a different slant on the interpretation - I certainly like the "textured" look.

Polly's scarf

Here is a scarf I crocheted in one day. At afternoon tea on Sunday, Polly kindly gave me the pattern, thus I have named the scarf in her honour.

It's really a gorgeous scarf, hangs and curls lovely.

Hot

I was experimenting with light exposures and here is my favourite photo from this.

Pithy Hat

I’ve succumbed to winter and knitted a hat. I always swore I would never wear a hat; having curly hair, wearing anything on my head flattens my hair and makes the curls look even messier than they are already. Anyhow I have decided I’d rather be warm than have nice hair.

Knitting Needle Knitting Bag

Here is a knitting bag I recently completed. What really appealled to me is the stitching and also the bamboo knitting needles at the top closure.

Boats

• Went to Williamstown today - such a glorious day. We went to Sciencework then for a drive along the waterside. We then found a park, overlooking the Bay - what more can you ask for!

A photo of some rocks/pebbles I took recently for a photography challenge. I just love thexture of the rocks.

Art Canvas

Two art canvas' which I painted with many, many backgrounds (aka Paulette Insall's wonderful techniques) and added a couple of pics.
Whilst this is very time intensive, I thoroughly enjoyed making the canvases and I just love the "circles" added to the background, what a wonderful idea to brighten up a background.

Movement

Gorgeous webbed feet I recently photographed. I got "up close and personal" with the goose.

I have loved photography since I was 18, when I was snapping rock stars using my first SLR, a Zenith. I must admit now though I sometimes get a bit disillusioned when looking at photographs because I am unsure what has been altered with Photoshop/ sharpened/ whatever and what is an unadulterated photo.

I have Photoshop but do not use it, maybe I'm a purist?

Shawl pin

Here is a shawl pin I made a while ago from a knitting needle. I have made a few of these but my favourite one (and I can't find it at the moment) is one made from a white needle - I always get comments when I wear it with a scarf.

I also have many bracelets made from needles in the same fashion, and get comments too (only from "crafty" people though who actually know what it's made from.

Corriedale wool

Some more handspun wool (single ply at the moment). This is some Corriedale which is YEARS old but is still in fantastic condition when I recently spun it. The breeder coated her sheep thus the fleece was beautiful and clean, such a joy to spin. I only need to fill another bobbin and ply it.

Jane Thornley vest

Here are the three sides of my KAL Jane Thornley's Sunset Bolero vest all ready to sew the seams and add a trim. I adore the texture and different stitches.

I just love Jane's patterns and will be doing another of her KAL's shortly.

KOGO

Here are two beanies I knitted using the kit provided for the KOGO (Knit One Give one) challenge. All items knitted by volunteers are donated to the disadvantaged. There is plenty of wool left to make another two beanies.

Brotherly Love

I've completed a few scrapbook layouts recently, here is one of my eldest son with youngest son, taken 9 years ago. My, how time flies.

The title "Brotherly love" was a play on words, it cannot be any further from the truth.

Homemade socks

I've finally started knitting my first pair of socks! I tried and tried with DPNs and two needles/ two socks at the same time, but I have resorted to one sock at a time. I found this technique the easiest and quickest. My husband laughed when he found out I was knitting socks, saying it's cheaper to buy a pair of socks rather than buy a ball of wool, and also said I should only knit one sock because we always tend to lose the other one.

Vest

Here is the yarn I plan to use to make a Jane Thornley vest. I love her style and plan to slowly work my way through her patterns, the first one being the Sunset vest.

Dishcloth swap

Thank you to my swap partner, Denise, for the gorgeous items I received today. They include a lovely handknitted dishcloth and some bathroom accessories. I love being spoilt. Denise this is much appreciated.

Handspun wool

Here are three balls of handspun wool completed on my trusty spinning wheel. I find spinning really relaxing. Recently I visited a local alpaca farm and bought some beautiful (low micron) alpaca fleece to spin and dye. So many interests, so little time...............

Knitting brooch

zephyr

Here is a Knitting Brooch I made to wear to a SNB get together today but I didn't end up wearing it (I made it to identify I was a knitter and ready to stitch 'n bitch!).