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After two days of less hot ( still above 30°c/in the 90°'s f) weather the old heatwave has decided to give us a 1-2 punch in the kidneys and we are meant to be 40°c (103°f) plus today with humidity and an overnight temp of over 30°c!!!! And then tomorrow is meant to be WINDY and HOT until the cool change comes through- but they can't (or won't) predict just when that will be- meanwhile they are forecasting another HOT day. I know you are doing it rough in parts of the USA with such cold temps..... I wish you some of our heat and we'll take some of your cold,ok? Please? Just looking forward to Sunday now.
OK- enough about the weather- how about some yarn and other pictures to see?
(Can you imagine!? On this blog!?? ) ;)

First off is a continuity set of photos of a roving I got back in Aug of last year... created by Kathy Baschiera of SA. ( There are rumblings of the birth of a new website for this talented lady- updates as I know them! )



This photo below is not so great but shows the whole hank/skein in not it's quite true colours. The camera we have doesn't like greens, purples, or oranges. I've tried different settings,etc.- no no avail- so now I try to find something that will colour balance the item I am trying to get.

Sometimes it works- sometimes it doesn't. This one didn't- but you can see the whole amount of yarn I made and then see the closer pictures for true colours.
The next photos are of some fibre called Rockmelon Fizz from Moseley Park Home. It was this most amazing electric peach colour- until I left it to soak (unintentionally, it was the rinse and I forogt about them being in the basin!) with another skein that has some blue in it and that coloured the water and didn't this take up some of it and toned it down! :( I bought more so this time it will be washed by itself!! ( Lesson learned!) It's soft and squooshy. :)

This is the fibre in lock form and after I hand carded it into rolags...

Light and airy rolags are fun and easy to spin!

The singles before plying...

The finished 2ply yarn. :)

This next picture shows lovely dark purple and lime green machine dyed merino blend I did after reading about it in Spin-Off magazine. It was an interesting experiment- doubt that I will try it again any time soon- wsa very prep. intensive and I am not keen on alot of prep time. I like to SPIN!!!!!!!!!! : D This was as close to purple as I was going to get- nothing else added to the picture would make it more purple...*sigh*

Speaking of shocking colour differences- here is nearly the true colour of a skein of yarn made from some mixed wool ( can't remember the combo- romneyX?) batts Jane of MPH sent dh and I as a surprise at Christmas! He spun a batt and I spun one- then we combined them. Each plying a skein. This is Dh's... since they showed up awful on camera- I didn't bother to try the other one! lol Such a lovely dark Teal colour- verrrrry nice! Once again- I apologise for the awful picture.... it was the best i could do to get close to the real colour. Another squooshy yarn,too.

But here's how the skein shows!! Shocking/Crazy- isn't it??

OK- and now I have to add on just a few garden photos of pre-heatwave....Here is the beginning- corn and various squash/pumpkin vines.

It was nice to sit in the early morning and late evening then and enjoy the garden and its changes.
Then it all grew and grew and grew!!!!!!

Some zucchini's are in there!

The corn did well- the best we've ever done

And here are the spoils!

Here are some sunflowers and my butterfly bush in bloom- the honeyeaters love the butterfly bush! I love them both! :)

And this little beauty is my Salpiglossis! I didn't get a photo of the yellow one. :(

But I had three that looked like this. They didn't get as large as they could've- I've seen them in Longwood Gardens, near Philadelphia,PA,USA- but am so delighted I finally got some to grow!

I will try for a better place next year!

OK- been here for hours now- need to get up and move, plus the rest of the family is awake! lol

Hope you are well.

ps. Happy Birthday Mom - Feb. 5 - I miss you every day.

Pics of Yarn, Yarn, and Oh- Did I Mention Yarn?

Will keep this short word-wise ( don't be shocked! )
and will post many photos of my current FY- ( finished yarns ) - and even some hand dyed roving we did!~
Before all that though- Happy Groundhog Day! ;) Go Phil!

Below is a photo of our first attempts at dyeing wool roving/tops with food colouring.
These two were dyed with leftover dye......







Then the 3 pictures below this is the one RJB did mostly on his own-the top one shows the true colours best.

OK and to the yarn- this I just finished today- not even washed yet! It's English Leicester Locks in the "Fairy" colourway done by fabulous Jane at Moseley Wool. :)
On the spindle is the small amount I had left over of singles so I navajo plied (3ply) them on the spindle so I could free up my bobbin for the next yarn. The yarn skeins show yarn I spun on my Ashford Traditional spinning wheel- 2 ply. Don't know the WPI or the length yet- sorry!







This shows it up close- I really wanted to have lots of 'hairiness' to it. While it isn't as much as I had hoped for- it is still wonderful!

The next bunch of photos are of a Merino roving I got given at Christmas from DH- (also from Jane's store)- called "Kalaidascope" (2 ply)... the top picture is of the fibre after I split it into thinner long pieces to do less drafting of the fibre so I could keep the colourway intact as much as possible. :) It's always so soft and fluffy in this state- you just want to bury your face in it! yummmmmm. :)

On the bobbin- the plied yarn waits for the niddy noddy ......


Then here are the before and afters of some EL locks ( From Jane's store Moseley Park Home, of course! lol! ) done in the 'Hotshots' colourway- the yarn is once again a 2 ply.... LOVE this one- one of my very favourite colourways- I hope she does more one day! :) I took OOOOOooooooodles of pictures- but only chose a few for here- the bottom picture shows the colours most true... yellow and pink and white and peachy colours!



OK- need to call it quits for now. More to share- but see I need photos of it! Thought I had done so before washing! Ooops!

Thanks for looking- will post some garden/flower pics inthe near future- from before the heatwave that is! ha!

Hope you are well.