A lovely Sunday

Tis a lovely Sunday in the 20' mark with little wind and the promise of frost tonight as the clouds are gone after a nice drop on Friday night.It was nice to lay in Bed and listen to the rain on the roof and know I didnt have to get up at 430 am!
Ive done some dyeing,no pictures yet,they are still drying and Im sort of pleased but have to get those other colours in the hand to open up the possibilities.Ive actually mixed one lot to get a lovely teal green!
On the knitting front Ive finished the first of some slipper socks using a pattern kindly given to me by my Aunty,Ive gone on to dye some heavy homespun merino to make a second pair as I feel I need to fudge the pattern abit!I bought a sheep skin to use on the soles if I hadnt mentioned before!
The Mohair cardie is coming along well,a sleeve to go and Im biting at the bit to start another CPH,and more socks as I need to have a pair done for a gift in September and I know if I start now theres a chance they ll be done by then(being sidetracked and all)
The Spinning is stalling but I may hit it later this evening though I been feeling plum tired and drained!
The resume hasnt even been opened,it could show My confidence that it (also) just needs fudging but after a yarn(hee hee hee ) with a staff member Im given an opinion that I should be able to apply now as its been put out in the Dep first before its advertised locally when Im apparently allowed to apply ! It has also been suggested that I seek further advice as well! Anyone else been in this position? Wondering if Im being discriminated against!
Ill be back with some pictures!!

A Busy Week

The end of the holidays here in WA! I ve had a relatively quiet week at work with few tradesmen and a couple of teachers coming in to start on the coming terms work. My assistant had to go to Perth so I had a nice few days to potter around the grounds and catch up on the little jobs I couldnt do with other people around!

The first Monday was abit rough with the Invasion of the poor old Mouse Spider stired up by the demolition of the West Hall nearby.One was found inside the main office complex starting off a panic of "these spider being not native and highly dangerous" ,blah,blah,blah!As a result I spent the first day back at work dealing with a Pesticide man who was more interested in talking about his family and what car he drove! He didnt wear any protective gear save a pair of old gloves and proceeded to spray the eaves ect with poision wearing, only, The Gloves and shorts ,t shirt attire!!!!And he was prattling about he and his wife hoping to have two more bubs!Being his main occupation I would have thought at least overalls be included!

The first sign of a rough day came when he set off the security via the fire alarms, needing myself to call and settle any feathers in that department before we had the local Fire Brigade land on us!

The fire alarms screeched for at least Hour and a half by which time Security did come out from Kal to make sure we were not indeed in dire troubles,bless their souls. As it turned out this was a common problem for the pesticide people as the bombs they use set off alarms!

It was with interest that Talking with the local builder that the nature of the pesticides used to kill spiders became clear. Im a big beleiver of less chemical the better and this builder recommended highly to all who asked him to deal with these insects in their homes not to spray, the impact of the chemicals in the future was much higher than a few cobwebs,I couldnt agree more!

The poor old Mouse spider in the centre of this wasnt what a majority thought anyway, but it did make for some sensational headlines locally and an altered photo of a giant spider crawling over the Plazza Sign here at the Supermarket gave us some laughs! Heres another photo! Aren't they pretty boys, the girls look a bit mean though!

Tell you what though,wouldnt there be stir in one these beauties appeared! If your game click on the photo at the bottom,its supposed to be life sized! They are around here as a specimum was handed in to the library for ID but the librarian was so spooked she wouldnt give us a look,should have seen the masking tape wrapped around the parcel!!!!

Hope I havent scared anyone with these bits! .......

On the spinning front I have around 600 metres spun of that Machine washable laps,had a couple of days off so I should have spun what I had in the bag by now....

On the knitting front I have about 3 inches to go on Hubbys socks, and two sleeves and half a front to finish on that Studio Mohair cardigan jacket!

And Ive started this! I love the pattern now that I have ,dont why it spooked me before,especilly as Ive nearly got it memorized already.Late nights dont make for clear brains....

On another front I acquired a bit of Finn/crossbred and abit of English Leicester.Both were the greasiest fleeces Ive seen and have the 'experience to touch',LOL

The F/CB is quite long as is the EL but I only wanted these to be a texture additive, not sure what Ill spin as the intitial ply but Im texturally influenced by Taueret in her July 5th entry of citris merino plied with marigold English Leicester, not sure what colours Ill choose as it changes with the day and mood!

Poor Mandie must think Im loopy as I suggested that I would be after some pastel dyes and what did I put in my list?,heaps of colours that are Not pastel!!

Anyhow...

The first picture,Before bath, this sent the kids out of the kitchen

The second is the Bath.....

And the End result,lovely clean nice smelling locks that curl and gilt with their lusterous wealth! Now bear in mind I rarely wash my wool before spinning as is normally fresh of the Baas Baas back and only extremely good wool that the staples fall apart like little creamy(depending on colour of course) islands that I would flick with the old trusty wide tooth dog comb and spin straight up!

This is a learning curve for me,washing the wool that is,Im petrified of matting the fibre but oh my! Id forgotten the joy of fluffing the staple! I wanted to dye some today but its windy and half raining( just heard a rumble but it was the Wattle Dam mine exploding more 'dirt') so the wool wouldnt dry quick enough,rats... Oh well theres always tommorrow! Now Im off to make a Pav Roll for desert!

My Big Day

Well it is to me!

I ve a reasonable day,got to go to town and spend an ammount on flowers for the school as we gardeners have heard that our school has been attracting attention for its presentation etc and we're going to keep it up and get a spring petunia display going!!!

Secondly I made into the LWS to get some more supplies including some white and some gold embroidery thread to ply with the wool I have sitting there in the hidden recesses of the huge kitchen Ive found myself in!!!Hidden so Hubby wont see them too often....

Lastly i think the new knitting book I also picked may be the one for that lovely grey natural wool that Aunty J gave me!! A mans pattern, but Ill change a few things to 'feminate' it!!! This picure has a round neck but imagine a v neck thats rolled not ribbed and that may be used on the wrist and hem as well.....

My big day,

Have some of my fav flowers up there !!!(want to grow some.....)

Its my annual big day for which I was treated to morning tea and cake by the staff working during the holiday break, a worthy voucher to the best jewellers in Kal and my friend sneaked a lovely set of gold earrings in as well, And to cap it off Hubby and I may go out to dinner, all dressed up swishy at the best Italian Restraurant!!!! Love the food there.....tommorrow night as Im bushed......

On the knitting front Ive finished the back and made a good start on the left front of Studio Mohair jacket!

Nearly to the heel of H 2nd sock in handspun BFL,

and Spinning, could finish the 3rd bobbin after plying the first spinning and gaining about 200 metres in that I calculate i have to do at least 8 bobbins all up for around 800m to dye and knit that vest Im hoping to do.Hopefully thers enough of the laps to do this but Mandie has abit to save the day !!! Thanks Mandie!!!!

Saturday!

Two days left of my leave,Waaaaaaa...................

Anyhow I decided to get cracking on some spinning,this a lot of machine washable laps that Yarnivorous had in her de stashing list,its gorgeously silky, soft though in pieces is fairly easy to spin. I aim to finish this lot and hopefully have enough to knit a vest though i may have to look for some more to finish off,a normal vest will need around 800m to 850, and Im trying to get the first bobbins done to measure what Im spinning so to order any extra,I think Mandie may have some?

On the knitting front,the success of the jumpers made or should I say finished in time for the Big trip,Ive started another that would have been just as nice, done in Studio Mohair and the same colour as in the Book and best of all scored as a sale from Kmart... worst part is the unending K1P1 rib.....maybe finished next winter?

And at last the photos of the lovely home grown merino given by Aunty J,it so soft and Ican feel some lanolin in it so it should be fun to knit.Just as well it was squishy Hew had to help get the bag closed,ha ha ha ...A huge thankyou AJ!!!!

Some of this lot has been solar dyed and it cam up a treat! Im thinking of a jacket/ cardie style knit in cables if only a few to make it interesting(still liking cables...) and maybe spinning some extra up for an additional colour or if enough of theis grey I can overdye it! Half is balled up so before doing 2nd I will calculate the length and work on that. The skein holder is not quite big enough to easily roll with the ball winder so tis makes a time consuming job but fun all the same! Still thinking of that black fleece...maybe I should wait and combine it with this... I saw some fleece on the net I wouldnt mind trying either,Finn X Border Leciester,long staple and lovely crimp! Anyone tried this cross?

Im dreaming again of Mandies very pretty Merino on Acid......

Home again!

I still have the rest of this week before going back to work and althogh I havent done much in the way of fibre fun, its been nice to have some time to do things a bit slower!

We flew into Sydney just after lunch and spent 3 1/2 hrs waiting for the connecting flight to Dubbo and finally arrived there at 8.30pm after a 50min flight.I was auto pilot and simply marched up to Budget Cars and gained the keys while Hew waited on baggage to come out.I got the opinion that the man behind the counter looked a bit scared,LOL but the little Nissan Xtrail wa ours quickly and we were on our way to Nannas.

Dubbo has changed abit since our last visit 4 years ago with more trees and islands and definitely more houses!!!!

We travelled out to Cobar and onto Louth to Dunlop after battling roos,wild goats and Angus cattle on the very rough dirt road sometimes only going at 35km with the potholes and bad lights on the Xtrail.It was dark and hard to see but made it there by 7pm. It was great to see Mum and Dad and we sat up quite late to talk and catch up!!!

Some Baas Baas wandering past the house,super fines that I hope to try at having processed later.... at least it looks green for the time being and the sheep were in good order

The next day we walked(Mum Hew and I) to the weir to check out the water levels... note this is the remains of water released up near St George to flush the Darling and it has blarely made it to this weir below louthe and is only trickling over.The people at Wilcannia are now complaining that they havent seen this water yet and I seriously doubt they will....The photos are of the weir itself and below!

This is me on the first bike Dad bought me over 20 years ago and its back in working order, with I might add, a new front tire as Dad is trying to get Mum to ride it so she can give him a hand chasing goats.......

We walked a fair bit over Dunlop and boy was it cold!!!! The possum jumper got a real work out as did the scarf that I took as a second thought!!!!!

With heart break we left on Saturday morn to arrive back in Dubbo at 2pm (we spent a short hour with SIL at Cobar) where we had lunch and returned to Nannas house to finally get a long hot,hot shower(Mum 'n Dad have generator power with a old hot water system so baths were cool.......)

The little Xtrail was superb and I hated giving it back as my own Tarago is in need of hubbys TLC...

On Sunday we went to my Auntys for a chat and boy that was fun,she and my Cousin are right into fibre in a big way and I came away with a Kilo of lovely soft yarn from there own sheep that had been put through a Mill in Kyneton Victoria I think,anyone know of amill there who will do small lots? Photos later....

On top of this they tried unsuccessfully to offer a gorgeous Black Fleece and really I didnt know which one was the nicest as K also had one there,they were seriously scumpious and it was hard to say no. My eyes must have lit up at the sight of them... hope I didnt embarress myself but I havent seen a fresh fleece for years and these were just gorgeous...anyhow Ive since been onto my Aunty J and shes going to send it over and Im sending in return a bundle of BFL for her to try as neither knew much about it!!! Im so excited!!!

On top of this Mandie at EGMTKs has that Buffalo in and waiting.... I can see this month being a beaut one.....

We flew home on Monday which is a shame as we could have gone Tuesday and managed a trip out to Cousin B to have a gander at his farm that he has made a success of... hes in this weeks Land paper too, holding a bucket which I took as being protection from the red bulls wrath for removing him from his girlfriends....... visit next time for sure!

The kitchen is nearly finished but I havent managed to get everything in the right place but the space is just lovely!!!!

On the trip I managed to finish apair of Patonyle socks that went to a surprised Mum and scarf that I made up in Sensation, merino angora wool from naturally, I wore it home...

In Dubbo I made it to the only Wool shop I know of and bought 4 balls of the new Tapestry in blues for thick socks and 2 balls of white Patonlye as my own LWS hasnt been able to get yet,not sure whether to dye them or just knit some nice whiet ones, Embossed Leaves pattern,perhaps?

There were not one but 2 shops that apparently stock sewing and wool items in Cobar but I didnt have time to assess them,I had intended to visit just to say I bought these balls from XYZ,part of my holiday foolishness,HeHeHe

Now its back to work on Monday and the additional chore of getting my resume ready to apply for my current position next month..........

I shall make an additional entry for "Dunlop" for I took heaps of photos and for history need a special space and also the scarf I knitted while there......on top of these i will have a bit more in photo content later,Auntys wool etc......

The trip was fun including the scary landing in Perth due to high winds tossing the Jumbo 747 around,we had to hang on for a moment but Hew was delighted and I think our enthusiasm helped a couple of other kids coming back to Kal on the same flight with us as well, cant wait to go home again.....