Homesick

Even after 10 yrs of being here and making some lovely friends and owning my own home ( well- paying it off), which is a lifetime dream- I am still homesick.
Homesick, family- sick, friend-sick, tree-sick... the whole lot.
Not everyday, but often enough that I wonder that even if we won the lottery (Which we don't play, BTW) would moving to the bush/countryside make me happy enough to want to stay? I don't know how one figures this kind of thing out.

I know I should be thankful for what I have- and I am- but I long for more peaceful surroundings. Sirens and loud vehicles, smelly exhaust, and constant human voices are my daily life and it doesn't sit well with my interior. I don't know how to help that either.

It was a lovely day today- mostly sunny with cooler temps- about 23C as the high.
I got laundry,dishes, and two skeins of handspun all washed and dried. That's saying something for a Monday!
I also got an entire batt of fibre from Kathy (www.KathysFibres.com)spun!
Just into singles at the moment.
Last week I did a pair of slippers (as a test for a designer) in crochet and finished up a hooded scarf that I was testing for someone else. I have been quite prolific for someone who seems to get little done in a week most weeks! I am feeling happy about that.
Now I've agreed to test crochet a pair of baby slippers- if they turn out nicely I'd like to send them to Karla- my friend Jane's daughter - who, along with her DH of course, is expecting their first child this September!!!! I am so very excited for them!!

Thanks for reading.
Hope you are well.

Yarns Made Recently

It's nearing 6 am- been up since 4 am....after going to bed around midnight(?)-

so I am not going to try to be fancy or even too coherent !

Just thought I'd show some yarns I recently finished- washed and everything (now, but not in the pictures)- although not measured. Some show the singles before plying, too.

This yarn is from 2 Romney sliver balls from Kathy's Fibres (http://www.kathysfibres.com/) that were done in the "Tequila" colourway. Very easy to spin and made the nicest yarn- it passed the 'prickle test' on a 6 yr old's bare skin! Pretty impressive! I love the colour.

Singles on the bobbins above, the yarn is below:

This shows a partial bobbin left of singles made from a special extra batt made by Jane of Moseley Wool ( http://www.moseleyparkhome.com/ ) that had been included with the last fibre club mailing of 2010. ( or was it the next to last- can't remember at the moment...)

and I plied this singles with some plain dyed English Leicester ( EL) /Merino in the Electra colourway - also from Jane.

This singles made from alpaca,tussah silk, & wool was plied with a solid purple singles spun from wool batts in the most divine purple from Kathy ( the photo I took of them turned out MUCH too blue so haven't included them here....

to create the yarn below: Soft and squooshy- I think it will make a very interesting hat and mittens set... I hope there's enough anyway! ;)

Thanks for looking!

Hope all is well.

July is Busting Out All Over

Hello!
Gosh- it's been so long since I posted- things have changed from the pre-published side of things.
I think I like them!
:)

So- how is everyone?
Not much new here at the moment- but soon RJB will be starting kindergarten!
Little did we know that at the tender age of 5, he is out of the loop already with school things!
We called the local kindy place at Moana and were promptly told he couldn't be there as he was too old! Children who are 5 go to first grade!
Now- for most children that may be OK- but we live rather unsocial ( for lack of a better word) lives so being among a bunch of strangers AND expected to know all about school and how it works ( being in first grade and all) seemed daunting to US let alone DS. He had even lately gone into hiding behind me when people spoke to him...much to my embarrassment. I mean- I didn't expect him to talk away,but did think he would be able to say HI or at least wave!
Ah well- how the tables have turned- we've got an interview with the Willunga Waldorf (Steiner) school this coming Tuesday (followed Wed. with a dental appt. for me- can anyone say 'suffering with nerves?'), then at some point they come for a home visit to chat, then he should get to start their Kindy program ( first year of Kindy is age 5 and three part days a week, age 6 is second year kindy where he goes all day...not sure how many days a week- I'll worry about that when we get to it......). They have a gentle approach it seems, and while I think he will be disappointed that he is not going to have a desk and all that- I am hoping he will enjoy getting the social skills that we were unable (or unwilling in the case of daycare) to offer him. PLUS he has now taken to wanting to go ( alone! "Mum/Mom- you stay here") visiting the neighbours. Thankfully the folks he goes to see are very kind and caring and don't mind at all that he comes to visit.....although I am sure if he visited like he wants ( every day all day) he'd wear out his welcome quickly.
These folks have places to go and things they do!
Anyway- trying to cut down the visiting to one house/person per day and only once a week per person! lol The odd part is how he much prefers to go alone! I will not lie and say it doesn't hurt my feelings. It does. But only because ( I think) it feels as though I've done something wrong that he doesn't want me around while he talks. Not sure what I've done to create it- if I have...
but while it's nice to have him out and being social and having a bit of time for myself- it does feel weird/odd. I figured I'd lose him to school before I'd lose him to friends! lol
So- I do intend to update things about school and all as it happens- or during.....
fingers crossed we can afford to keep him in the Waldorf system- all school costs 'something' here (as opposed to the USA where public school is free to attend), but this one is def. more expensive. But hey- what price can you place on FREEDOM!? -He doesn't have to wear a uniform! YAY! Although- again, is this my child?- he actually wants to wear one- he has a shirt all picked out for it- a deep golden yellow colour. Not sure if he has the bottoms figured out yet. We'll worry about that part later too! lol
We'll be driving him there- about 20 mins each way....... which I am mostly not looking forward to- but there are no school buses that I am aware of to take him there and I wouldn't put him on the public bus ! I am also not keen on early mornings. But that too will be dealt with.....it'll be interesting to see how it goes for DS as well. He likes mornings- but gets up when he wants- no schedule. I don't expect I'll have any trouble the first day. ;)

Well- that's about it for me....
I continue to spin- am loving this time of year with lots of fresh fleeces available...
the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show is happening in Victoria at the moment- so most fleecey folks are at that this weekend. Maybe next year for us. But for now I have so much fibre to spin it isn't funny ( delightful to know, but guilt inducing when I buy more and cant' figure out where to put it as the spare room is about full to the ceiling with boxes of fluff now!), and Aug. 8 is the second of two events we like to attend- Mt Pleasant's SACSOS fibre event day. And this year- Jane from Moseley Wool over in Kimba is making the trip to sell her fleeces- which will be the first time I get to touch before I buy! and of course I am looking forward to Kathy B's things- her batts and 2 new colourways in the roving/tops!!! By the way- she has a new online store- I haven't posted since she opened I believe- all her colourways are there except the 2 new ones- I am sure she will be adding them soon..... why not go have a peek and treat yourself to some amazing colourways on 24micron wool? Plus lots of other things on offer- including matching yarn to the spinning fibre colourways! I think that is brilliant. She offers lots of interesting fibres on her webstore- click HERE for Kathy's webstore . :)

Well- I hear my little angel calling for his Dad- so I better get going.
This has been an EXCEPTIONALLY wet winter for us here in SA and I am loving it.
This is the most rain I've seen in 7 years in Australia! Woo hoo!
Everything is so green and lovely.
I do wish winter would not hurry so much.
Spring will see the grass start to turn brown and I am not ready for that-haven't had enough of green yet.
Maybe we will go to Kuitpo Forest tomorrow!

Must go- "Dad" is not responding the bleats!

Hope all is well.

Back for more!

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.

Hot enough for ya?

While my friends and family in the USA are generally suffering the harshness of Winter- we here in Australia are having a wild summer.
Once again this year we are having a heatwave.....
temps near or over 100°F (39°C) ( and UP!) we are breaking 70 yr old records for the state of South Australia and I, for one, am NOT loving making history!
We had an overnight low of 33°C the other night- ( that's over 90°F) - in the house it never got below 34°C! The day temps were then well over 100°F with a high of 45 being recorded in the city of Adelaide- it was likely 43 or so here. I didn't venture out to guess. Sweltering in my home in front of a fan is plenty enough confrontation with it all!!!!!!! lol ( I can laugh now- at the moment we are having gusty winds and the temps are nearing high 70°'s (24°C). This is like heaven for us.)
We have another week of this to go. Temps all above 35°C being forecast for the next week- here's hoping we are a bit cooler than they say. Times like these I really sincerely kick myself for not having an A/C!! Most times of the year we dont' really need one.... it's just these blinging summer heatwaves that keep coming back...
ah well.
Anyway- I didn't come here to just write about the weather- I got yarn and fiber to write about as well! LOL
OK _ I actually just came to add my SARK button along the side bar..... it's time for some serious SARK-dom! ( yeah right- oxymoron there!) Check her out. I have been a fan of hers for YEARS now- ever since I found one of her books at the Waldenbooks bookstore I worked in at the Lycoming County Mall in Muncy,PA.
I do NOT miss working retail..... not one bit- but I sure do miss the stores.
and the discounts! ;)
Will try to post a bit more when the weather has cooled- I really have spun yarn and washed it and dried it and we even tried our hands at doing our own hand dyed merino tops/rovings! What a hoot- once we got started I mean! I can see us doing more real soon. We 'cooked' it in the car even- solar power at it's finest!
Will post pictures soon- need to edit them down to the right size.
PS) Garden is all but dead with this heat and no rain for weeks and weeks and weeks.
I do still have some flowers hanging in there- even SALPIGLOSSIS!!!! yes! I grew my own- well- two! One pink and one yellow one..... the yellow one had the unfortunate timing to come out just as the heatwave hit.....but it is doing OK!
We got some corn, cucumbers, and zucchini from the garden before this though- so I feel fortunate. :)

Hope all is well.

Scarf Exchange 2008

This year I participated in the International Scarf Exchange put on by various spinning groups of Australia.

Last year it was held by the Gumeracha SA guild- where I first learned of it... so with the help of my friend Kathy I joined in on the fun this year. This year it was hosted by The Handweavers, Spinners and Dyers' Guild of Western Australia.
I got my scarf/extra yarn back today in the mail- so thought I should post my photos of the one I made. I'll get photos taken of my received items asap. :)

The fibre and one of the spindles I chose to use to spin the 150 grams.

Below shows the two spindles I used- the Pansy (by Spinsanity)
and The Magpie (by Yorkieslave Artworks).

This is the singles (^) which ended up being plied upon itself to create:
these 3 skeins- which when all put together - created this large bundle of yarn- shown with a full roll of paper/kitchen towels- for size comparison. :)
It was so soft and squooshy. I so hope the person receiving it loves it as much as I did. ( if you are reading this- please contact me- I would love to hear from you!)

Below you will see photos of the scarf I made in progress and then the finished scarf.

I crocheted the scarf in a pattern I found online, then added on my own free form 'fringe' on the ends- which I called gumtree leaves in order for the whole item to fit the "Outback" theme that was chosen for the year. :)


Hope you are well!