Coastal craft

I decided that my holiday crafting was going to be very very simple and brainless, so I took down the tub of random yarn ends and half balls, and used them for warps to weave into stripey scarves. Basically any length of yarn over about two metres is useable, so I had a very satisfying time finishing up many forgotten and ugly ends and not worrying too much about it. 

This type of weaving is exceptionally brainless, although the results are variable. Some worked out well and some are clearly godawful brown acrylic. I did about ten, made absolutely no dent in the amount of yarn I own, and brought them back home for fringing and wet finishing. A nice frugal way to get the creative urge dealt with when my brain had melted out my ears.  

I am slowly starting to recoup my ability to deal with things. I have made some lists, but it is hard going. 

Yarn day

Saturday was hot - 31 and sunny and humid - then the cold change came through and Sunday morning was this. 

Nasty! But a friend had promised to pick me up and take me to the Capital Yarn Regional Showcase so off we went ... It was at a working farm / school camp on the edge of town and I was a bit worried that the weather would mean that nobody would come, but I was WRONG. So very very wrong. Yarn-starved Canberrans flocked there (boom, boom) and covid restrictions meant that the buildings had capacity limits, so queues of middle-aged and elderly women waited in the rain and wind for a chance to buy some beautiful local yarn and general wool-related happiness. 

It was all very lovely and I was quite restrained given that I'm not weaving at the moment (having gone back to quilting) but a couple of the fine alpaca blends called to me. It's not always easy finding nice 2 ply or laceweight and it's not going to go off.... it can just sit in the drawer until I need it. 

More weaving

I'm finding a heap of good things to binge on Netflix and Binge and SBS On Demand ... which fits in nicely with lots and lots of weaving. Ages ago I ordered a very cheap microfibre yarn from Ice which I have never used - it looked incredibly shiny and plasticky and ugly, despite being a pretty blue. I wove a sample and it weaves beautifully; looks like twine, feels like silk. 

But I couldn't get over the appearance of it so left it in the cupboard until I was feeling adventurous a couple of weeks ago. I put it in narrow stripes with a plain mid-brown on the weft, and the pale blue fluffy alpaca blend on the weft. And it's lovely! The bit of shiny is fine, and the colours blend beautifully.

I was so pleased that I did the same thing with green: plain wool and shiny stripes on the warp and a fluffy mohair blend on the weft. That turned out nicely as well, it is very light and flowy.

So I decided to go the whole hog and do a full warp of the peculiar microfibre (which made it much easier to deal with, unsurprisingly it stretched completely differently to the wool yarn so stripes was a bit awkward to manage) with my dyed blue/yellow on the weft. And I'm pleased with that too! 

Except for the ugly plasticky fringe. I might just cut it fairly short and forget about it. You can't tell from photos but it is very soft and drapes beautifully.

And finally here is one that has no shiny bits at all, just the brown and green in a 3-1. This is a cool threading because it makes two quite different patterns on each side as you can see below. The colours aren't very exciting but it would probably be quite a practical scarf to wear.

Busy!

I am trying to learn the ropes at my new job - spending a lot of time talking to people which is lovely but tiring. And very little else is happening ... we had a social weekend with friends round for dinner on Saturday and then lunch with other friends on Sunday. I dead headed the roses and pruned back some very shaggy things, but otherwise no exercise. Saturday I went up to the new Spotlight in Gungahlin which is the new suburbs right to the north - I go there about once every five years and remember why I don't bother. Outer flat suburbs with not much going on and lots of sky. Didn't stop me buying a heap of material though :)

I have done a bit of weaving, including with this I dyed myself. It is a lot more yellow than I thought it would be, but quite pretty. Note unfinished crossword in the background, a sure sign I am busy at work and need a holiday.

Weaving with the Ice Yarns

I've been very happily using the Ice Yarns in every possible combination, and with random things from the cupboard. Scarves are great - they take enough time to get a feeling of accomplishment, but not so long I get bored. And then on to the next one! I will no doubt get sick of it soon but not yet. 

Here's the random few balls on the sewing table. I wind the bobbins up in my sewing room and it is getting covered in fluff and bits of wool. The orange and the green at the bottom of the picture are the same wool in different colours, so I put them together in a straight houndstooth.

The grey is a similar weight but has bobbly bits hanging off it, which gives an interesting texture. I put that with the orange in a log cabin style (yay! quilting term!) that is more subtle than I thought it would be but still quite nice.

The green on the top is a lovely fluffy wool / cotton blend and the colour seems to go with everything. I used the 'zucchini' colours that I dyed ages ago on the warp, with the fluffy green on the weft, and it turned out really pretty. It is super soft as well.

I wanted to keep using the fluffy green so I put a very random collection on the warp of bits of left over green. It is different but I still like it, and of course nice and fluffy. What is the point of a scarf that isn't snuggly?

We had a great weekend once I'd recovered from the week and had some naps. Lovely, lovely naps. I did the 16 km walk again (anti-clockwise this time! quite a different experience) which was easier than the first time. We went out for a fancy lunch with friends and I even managed an hour or so of gardening before it got too hot. 

Yarn!!!

My Ice Yarns order arrived in record time! I have no idea why, I thought shipping was taking ages at the moment, but I am not going to complain - according to the label it came via Istanbul, Liege, Dubai and Sydney. From my Postal Industry Ombudsman years I retain some interest in international postal hubs, mostly because they are often places you wouldn't expect. And, given 2020, they all sound ridiculously exotic at the moment ... I would be delighted to have a week in a three star hotel by a commercial airport in Belgium right now. DELIGHTED.

And this is the haul. Mostly I went with no-fluff lace weight or fingering weight wool that would sit nicely on a warp. However that blue is a self-striping alpaca blend, and the pink is the beautiful silk-merino blend that I've had before. The light blue is also alpaca and very soft and fluffy so only wefts I think. The cream is an interesting wool-cotton blend that I had hoped to be able to dye for warps but on closer inspection I don't think it's strong enough, so will use for wefts.

That cost me just under $200 Australian including shipping, which is a bit of a bargain. Certainly enough to keep me quietly weaving for many months - I am still mesmerised by putting together different yarns and making them into a length. And yes, I know have dozens and dozens of scarves. I am justifying this by deciding (in my head) that when we retire and move down the coast I will have a stall at the Moruya markets where I will sell them. This may never happen of course, but it has nicely moved my frame of reference from "pointlessly making more scarves I will never wear" to "industriously building up stock for my future cottage industry". Much better.

The wool I dyed

 Here is the wool I dyed - it started as just a plain cream four-ply that has been in the cupboard forever. 

Dyeing wool has many advantages over cotton; it doesn't matter if you leave white bits, you can use different colours without it being splotchy and even red doesn't look too much like blood splatter. And the dye exhausts when you use it, which means when it's done you pour off clean water. As opposed to the endless (endless!!!) rinse and squeeze and repeat of cotton dyeing. 

This is what it turned into- the photo is a bit blue. The turquoise of the top photo is probably more accurate. There is a plain reddish-brown alpaca blend on the weft that has appeared in my scarves before many times. Many many times - I think I bought six 100g balls from Ice Yarns and they seem to be breeding in the cupboard. Not that it's a problem because it is a lovely soft yarn that it is beautiful to weave with and I think it's a pretty colour. Speaking of Ice Yarns I may have done a massive yarn order during a weak moment at work last week. I have been so good with not adding to my stashes! But I fell to temptation, and much yarn is slowly meandering its way to me from Turkey as we speak. I think it will take a very long time....

Scarves

I'm having a lot of fun weaving up a storm at the moment - scarves of course, nothing but scarves. I'm just using the yarn that's in the cupboard, and putting it together in simple ways without overthinking it, and enjoying whatever comes off the loom at the end. I haven't taken photos because scarves are not photogenic or interesting.

This is the scarf I'm wearing to work today - not one of mine as you can see, but the Hufflepuff one that number two son bought me at Universal Studios in January. Which seems like a lifetime ago! What a good decision he made to bring his sixteenth birthday trip forward (his birthday will be in October) and do a school trip instead of a family trip. He would be one sad little bunny now if he hadn't. 

The Hufflepuff emblem is a badger apparently. I love the scarf because it's yellow and very warm. 

Scarf selling .... again

We went down the beach last weekend for the long weekend - for a break and also because it was the local "art on the path" craft market and I had booked myself a spot to have another go at scarf selling. This time I was slightly pre-prepared and ordered myself a vinyl banner. Isn't it fancy? There was no cost for the stall space so I splashed out $40 on a lynley banner.



In the end it went quite well. I don't know exactly how many scarves I sold because I kept giving discounts but I left with $210 more than I arrived with, which more than covered my banner cost. It went for five hours and was very laid back - lots of chatty people, lots of people who knew each other, lots of families and generally more about the community than the buying and selling. Which suits me fine. Husband and number one son assisted me, which was lovely, and we sat, and chatted, and went back to the house for toilet breaks. I still have SO MANY scarves though. I don't think selling them is really a viable option given the mental effort and physical time it takes.



The rest of the weekend was rainy, but given I wasn't up for long walks that was fine. A bit of sewing, a lot of reading and sadly watching the Canberra Raiders lose the NRL grand final ... robbed I tell you, robbed. I must have been feeling the lack of exercise because I cleaned various things that needed cleaning. On the left, a sink I have scrubbed. On the right, a sink still to be done. It was very satisfying.

A pastel scarf

In the ongoing quest for pastels I think I might have gotten closer ... just a tiny hint of green, and of pink, and the rest cream. And plain cream on the warp as well, in case it was looking a bit vibrant.

This looks a bit wrinkled because the warp is the linen blend, and it certainly holds its body and is not a springy as pure wool.

There is just a hint of green, with a bit of pink, and a couple of points where they blend and it gives a brownier-green (or a brownier-pink, depending). What these photos don't show is that I used two skeins and my dyeing is terribly random. One dyed more green and one dyed more pink so there's a distinct shift in tone about two-thirds of the way down the scarf! Perhaps no-one would notice but me, but I think it's horribly obvious...

Yellow and grey scarf

I am still weaving as I finish up the projects I'm halfway through, and try not to start any more. I'm also still sewing of course - the new machine is sewing beautifully, and it's very pleasant to be quilting again. I've started with a scrappy trip around the world (so I didn't have to make any decisions) but I have lots of ideas for what I'm going to do next.



So this was a work in progress that I've now finished. For dyeing, I went with yellow and grey, not too bright. Of course it ended up super bright, I can't seem to restrain myself from putting more dye in! This may be a hangover from dyeing cotton fabric, where it's the saturated colours that are the hardest to achieve.



It looked much better woven up into a cake, but given the yellowness of it I decided to use my second-to-last ball of cream mohair on the weft. It it is still super fluffy and still smells like goat. It made for a very quick weave.



The cream made it much more muted, which I think is a good thing. Look at those tassles! A full scarf in that might have been a bit much.

Purple scarf

I've worn this scarf a couple of times this week because it is lovely and soft and matches my purple jacket.

The warp is the very soft and silky merino (I may have ordered some more, oh well, it was on special) dyed in various shades of purple and a bit of green, and the weft is more of the red alpaca blend. Of which I still have three balls - it lasts forever!!!



When you look at them just as balls they don't go at all, but once it's woven up they look fine. I am still surprised by this, I wouldn't normally put together a bunch of bluey purples and green with a reddish brown.


We all survived the first parliamentary sitting week. The first time the bells went off I nearly jumped out of my chair but you get used to it pretty quickly. Back to the grind...

Strange dyeing, good weaving

The strange multi-coloured dyeing experiment from a couple of weeks ago (where I added the rust) continued to look odd even after I'd dried it ... but it wove up into something quite lovely! Wool is unbelievably forgiving; no matter how unpromising the colours the finished product looks quirky rather than revolting.



I did two scarves with the dyed wool on the warp - the first one had a fine browny-red fluffy alpaca blend on the weft. You can't really see it because it's so fine, but it's soft and lovely and blends in well with the warp.



The second scarf I used a chunkier bright pink wool blend that makes the whole thing super pink! But in a good way.



Here they are side by side by comparison. Both of the plain wefts calm the warp down, but in different ways. I didn't have quite enough for the second scarf so it is a little narrow ....

A dyeing afternoon

I spent a very happy afternoon in the kitchen of a Fellow Yarn Enthusiast dyeing up some wool. She had a starter pack of Ashford wool dyes, which are different to mine, so we did the techniques they suggest and it was fascinating to see the different results. I think the colours are a bit more saturated - I might give them a go for my next dye order. I am still trying to dye pastels but not really with much success - I keep using too much dye. It always looks inadequate so I add more, more, more .... even though I know I shouldn't. I wanted soft rose tones, with a bit of grey - and got this.



No, no, no. I thought if I added just a tinge of rust then it would give the browny undertones I was after.



No, no, no. Now I have orange with my hot pink and weird police uniform blue. My second dye bath was a bit more successful because I went with very restrained blue and green stripes, but it's still not the pastels I was after. The Fellow Enthusiast had more success with a rainbow blend - and done in the microwave! I had put that to one side after a less than stellar attempt with the food dyes, but I might come back to it. Much quicker than boiling on the stove.

On it goes

A cold and sleety day today so on with the fire! It is making such a difference with the very bleak grey weather. And I still enjoy lighting it, putting more wood on it, even cleaning the ashes out. We will see how long that lasts. 

I bought some strange bobbly wool from Lincraft on sale - I don't usually bother even looking because it is mostly acrylic and oddly expensive - but this was a 100 gram ball of 100% wool for $4. It looked interesting and was a bargain so I bought it, dyed it fiery yellow and orange and wove it up.

It's strange but I like it. I deliberately did a very fine warp quite far apart, so the weft would draw all the attention, which I think it does. It's very solid, almost like a rug.

I have some more that I've dyed blue and I'm going to make a wider thing, almost like a blanket. 

Other than that not much is going on. I did my week's work and now I have another three weeks off, for what it's worth. I'm going to make sure I leave Canberra a few times otherwise it just gets sucked into an endless whirlpool of boring chores. I traipsed around town today following recommendations on fixing my handbag - but it's not possible apparently. You can't get grease stains out without destroying the leather. So that's a bummer. On the plus side, I went to a vocal workshop on Saturday afternoon - like a group singing lesson for very beginners. I certainly learnt a lot (I didn't even really know how vocal cords work, and now I do) and it was fun to sing in a group. I might find a choir with very low standards....

Variegated wool

I bought eight balls of multi-coloured wool a while ago, and then did the pull test on it, and discovered it wasn't strong enough for a warp. Which is fine, I will use it on wefts ... and I did. And then took some crappy photos just before the suitcase rummage because I was worried that I would sell them all with no record! Hah!

I thought I would start with left over dark and light yarn, in stripes, to see what looked better. There is black, light blue, and cream, and they all look quite cool.



So I did a darker one - this is the leftover Bendigo wool/silk blend in dark red and blue stripes. Different again, although you don't get many of the weft colours coming through.



Then I thought that perhaps I would do a grey warp to really let the variegated colours stand out. I'm not sure if it worked so well.



And lastly two random balls of crochet cotton - yellow of course - that I had in the cupboard. This is actually quite cute in person, although the cotton's not very snuggly.



Have I used up all eight balls? No I have not. Has my enthusiasm for this wool vanished? Yes it has. I am at work again this week, although just showing my face until I take another chunk of leave. It is very very quiet in here but I'm glad I came in to keep things kicking along for a while.