Raining, because beach volleyball

Although it never rains in Canberra, it is raining today, because number two son has a day of inter-school beach volleyball on some nice sandy courts outside. I was not aware he played beach volleyball until the note came home ... apparently the school has put together a team. They are not confident of success, but it should be fun. Or it would be if it wasn't bucketing down - although he might still have a good time.

He is mostly excited to use his new debit card, which we finally set him up with; a grown up account with his pocket money going in automatically and a shiny card to pay for hot chips. It took forever to get around to because the bank he is with is most unhelpfully not open on the weekends, and closes at 4 on weekdays, except a special late night on Friday, where they close at five. So last Friday I picked him up, picked the other one up, dropped off and sped into the bank to get there at 4.30 to open a new account.

"You need an appointment to open an account" said the man at the front, to which I said (a) you are SHITTING me, isn't that your core business? then (b, after thought) do you need an appointment to close an account? Noooooo, said the man, so I told him I wanted to close an account, and sat down. Other banks in the mall are open on weekends, so win/win. After a couple of moments a lady came out and said "so, I hear you want to open an account?" and what do you know, she could do it in five minutes, no appointment needed. Idiots. Poor number two son was just trailing along, but he got what he was after, and no-one was (physically) injured in the process.

On a more cheerful note, I used this unusual variegated plied yarn in two scarves. The grey is wool, and the colours are cotton. It is lovely and fine, and pretty, so I thought I would use it in both the warp and the weft, to give a slight plaid effect.





The effect is great, but using it in the warp was a NIGHTMARE. It was easy enough at the beginning, but as it got further along the strands started separating, and tangling up, and would not form any kind of shed to put the weft through. I struggled for a while because it was making a lovely cloth, but in the end I put the scissors to it. So it's not really a scarf length - perhaps a table runner? Or just a bit of cloth....



Given that, the next experiment was weft only. I found a beautiful lace weight grey from a proper wool shop (i.e. expensive, but lovely) that went on the warp beautifully, and then the variegated yarn on the warp. It turned out very soft and with interesting colour repeats. Well, random colour repeats really, but I liked it. And the whole scarf feels very soft, like the colour scheme, and grey as the skies today! Good for the plants.

Such a low-achievement weekend

This weekend was Grade A Lazy - socialising, reading, a bit of weaving and the minimum possible chores. We went out to Bungendore and met friends for lunch at a French restaurant on Saturday - I had moules and frites and the best lemon sorbet with vodka. And actual champagne. Unsurprisingly that wrote off the rest of Saturday, except about sunset when my husband and I dragged ourselves fatly off the sofa and went for a walk.

It was a bit grey and rainy but the sun came through at the top of our street and hit the autumn tree. Most of the autumn colours haven't started yet, but this yellow one is always early. Sunday I did a few errands before another friend's birthday drinks, at a bar, so civilised! Both the boys had heaps of homework and revision to do, so we left them at home both days with instructions like "work hard" and "make sure you get some fresh air" and "have a banana" while we gallivanted off. Hah! Take that, teenagers.

Here is me trying to get the dog to look at me so I can take her photo, but she refuses to because my husband is there and he is a god to her. No time for me when she can gaze adoringly at him.

Scratchy brown alpaca

I kept going with the green that I used with the green and blue in the last scarf - it is 30% angora and 70% acrylic. So I thought I would dye it - knowing that most of it won't take a dye. I used red dye, and ended up with brown, which I expected.

I hadn't expected that the core would be green but all the wraparound fuzzy bits would be red, although if I'd thought about it for two seconds I probably could have figured it out. The yarn used to tied the skein up was white, so that's the colour of the red dye on its own. 

I put it together in a sort of herringbone. There are four green, four brown, on the warp, and two green, two brown on the weft. So it is kind of a squished herringbone. It looks quite pretty, but it is unfortunately super scratchy. The wool on the ball feels quite soft, but the woven cloth is coarse and itchy. I still have some of the alpaca left but I might need to weave it together with something really soft to minimise the feel of it. 

And yes Pam I did do quite a bit of actual purchasing in my damp outlet shopping! A couple of shirts, a pair of jeans, a jumper and a lovely handbag. Actually it's a man bag but so practical ... can be worn across the body and big enough to take an A4 folder. I don't have a lot of time for prissy lady bags, although at least this man bag is a lovely cobalt blue. It was expensive but all my plastic Jakarta handbags are finally wearing out, so I thought it was time to get a non-plastic one. Like a proper grown up.

Shopping in the rain

Not much going on here - I was feeling a bit unwell yesterday so stayed home and slept - back to work today and that is about the degree of excitement for the week. Number two son is doing a stand up comedy competition today that he has expressly forbidden us to attend ... and number one son is buried in preparation for test week that starts next Friday.

He had to be in Sydney on Sunday for the day so instead of just popping him on the bus like usual I volunteered to drive him - leave at 6.30 to get there by 10, and leave again about 3.30 to be home by 7. It's easy driving usually but Sunday it was PELTING DOWN with rain. Absolute torrents until we get about an hour from home, then it stops, because it never rains in Canberra, even when we need it.

Anyway the reason I volunteered was because he had to be in Alexandria, which mostly a light industrial area and has heaps of proper factory outlet stores. So I walked very damply from shop to shop with occasional cafe stops, and had a lovely day. There was no-one else about because the weather was so atrocious and many of the roads were flooded, which suited me fine. Contemplative bargain shopping, the best sort.

More green and blue

I had a bit of the green and blue left over, so rather than put it back in the cupboard I put it on the warp straight away, and went and found another remotely-similar yarn to use it with. It is green, but that is possibly the only similarity.






It is an alpaca / acrylic blend from Ice, and is a bit fluffy, and a bit scratchy, and quite yellow-green. I thought it might be too fluffy for the warp but it was fine. Perhaps it helped just having it in stripes, along with the blue and green nice wool.






I did all alpaca on the weft. It is fine, but I'm not sure if the colours really go together well. I like the blue and green on their own better. The one below looks a bit too brown - the photo above is more realistic with colours.

 

A long weekend with an extra day

It was the Canberra Day long weekend, so I did the traditionally Canberra thing and left town for the beach. They have fireworks for Canberra Day (Skyfire) but they have to have it the week after the long weekend because nobody is around to see it .... strange but true. So the traffic to and from the beach is appalling, but I got around it by taking an extra day off work, going down on Sunday morning and back Tuesday afternoon. This also gave me an extra day at home to ferry the children to their various social and other engagements.



Monday was overcast but I still had a lovely swim, and did some sewing. There was a little cloud just sitting over our beach. It didn't seem to deter anyone. This is a black and white filter on the photo - isn't it artistic? I thought you might all be a bit sick of boring photos of my beach by now. But it is so pretty I really can't help myself.



This is Tuesday, which was glorious. And incredibly peaceful because everyone had gone home or was back at work or school.... except for lots of happy retired people walking their dogs, or going for bike rides. I heard a burst of noise from one place I was walking past and there was a posse of retired people arriving at each other's house for coffee. Life Goals.



These photos have filters on them as well, although the sea was pretty close to that colour. Just beautiful.

Green and blue

I finally used a blue and green I dyed ages ago with food colouring. It is the 50/50 wool acrylic again, so it gives a nice mottled, almost pastel, feel to it.  This is deliberate dyeing - I tried to get the colours of the spring drive back from the coast. Most of the year it is yellow on the ground and grey in the sky, but in spring the ground is actually green, and the sky is actually blue. Sky-blue.

It is two of each on the warp and one of each on the weft, and so blends all together. The colours on their own are quite different. This is a winner in terms of drape and softness - I can never tell from the ball. On a ball it was quite unyielding, but woven up it's much softer. Weird. 

There and back again

I was in Perth for the first half of this week - fly all day Monday to do a day's work on Tuesday then fly all day Wednesday to get back home again. I like Perth and I don't mind travelling for work but it is an awfully long way. And then when I turned my phone on after landing it comes up with this:

It was really HOT with a really hot dry wind. Normally I'd go for a long walk to shake off the plane cramps but not this time! I wandered round a shopping centre for a while. That is fun too. So no dyeing, weaving, cooking or even reading to report. I watched two movies on the way over - The Wife, which I had very high expectations of and it lived up to them! Fabulous - and A Simple Favor which I had no expectations of at all, and it was very good. A bit silly but an excellent plane movie. On the way back I watched The Favourite and loved it! I had to google it for historical accuracy of course, but putting all that aside it was highly enjoyable.

Not at all proper dyeing

So I bought some cream fine cotton yarn to dye with my fibre reactive Procion dyes that I've been using for years on cotton fabric.

There is a right way to do this, and I do know what it is. You should put the balls into skeins, wash them to remove the residue, soak them in soda ash, apply the dye, batch for twenty four hours, rinse, dry, and wind into balls.

You should not just take the paper labels off and stuff them into plastic cups half full of dye and soda ash. You should not leave them in that dye for two weeks while you go down the beach. You should not then try and rinse them out, without success, so leave them a tub of water while you go to Cambodia for a week. You should not then try to dry them in a towel, realise they're never going to dry, and leave them on a plastic plate outside for a week while you go to Hobart. This will not work well.

I was aiming for a ball that was half dyed and half not, with perhaps a difference between the outer and inner of the balls. I actually dyed them all navy blue. I was hoping for an indigo look. Here is one half way through - like a used tampon from a very unwell giant.

But I wove with it, because why not. And the purple got less as I went into the balls, and even less after I'd washed it. It is light and summery, and strangely randomly blue, and I actually quite like it. 

Melbourne

I spent a day and a bit in Melbourne this week, and it was very sunny and clear and lovely. Melbourne can be quite unpredictable on the weather front so I was very pleased, especially because we got a stroll in the evening before heading back to Canberra.

My stroll may have taken me past the excellent Morris and Sons, which is a very very nice wool shop. With lots of very very nice wool. I bought some variegated lace weight that I think will go with the blue of the latest batch of mohair/silk. Now I just have to make sure there is less working and more weaving.

And no Pam, I don't do the dusting. Nobody really dusts in our house, except occasionally the fortnightly cleaning lady, although she focuses more on the real filth. But my life certainly contains plenty of soul destroying housework and mindless tasks... while that red and blue wool was boiling I cooked dinner, unloaded the dishwasher and cleaned up two dog vomits, but who wants to read about that? Nobody, that's who.