Yellow & Fluffy ... again ?!

Oh no - not more - is this woman obsessed with fluffy yellow stuff?   

  

Well, this is different fluffy stuff - not feathers this time but wool ...

Yes, I've had my cauldron  Dye Pot out - creating coloured yarn for spinning (and other) projects.









The wool is Bendigo Woollen Mills ReadySpin sliver - this yellow is a mix of LandScapes' Camomile and some left-over Dylon (name unknown, sorry).  The 1st batch is a yummy bright golden yellow, the 2nd batch came out lighter. 

I'll be using both these yellows to spin up some Australian Botany inspired yarn - the paler yellow will make great wattle flowers :-)

I'm a completely un-scientific dyer and love to experiment - a bit of this with a bit of that colour ...

Anyway, in every dye session I usually manage to produce at least one colour that wasn't exactly planned - let's call it experimental.  And we'll call this colour Rust.  
Mostly Landscapes' Sarsparilla.

Now for the reason I started this dye-session - I needed to make some fairy-floss pink ...

and here are two batches of pinkness spread out for drying.






And a close-up.   Mostly Dylon's Tahitian Rose  with a touch of Landscapes' Sarsparilla.  Very happy with this very sugary pinkness.

Stitches

It has been such a long time since I posted about the things I've been making  - there is quite a backlog!  

Most of the stitches have been knitting and the sewing projects are mostly things I can't really show you.  I can show you the complete mascot costume - one Hound Dog.  

Previously I've posted about the making of the head and about the hind feet - this is the complete costume being modeled by my darling hubby.

And a back view to show the tail.  BTW please do not notice the uneven lengths of those curtains!

 

Of the next project I can only show you a teaser - and tell you that it is all ecru with lace & embroidery - it involves masses of hand-stitching and quite a lot of glue.

And now to the knitting - the commissions for costumes have continued.  Some have been repeats ... and this was a repeat of a repeat   Eh! What!

 

Well, the first tatty & distressed shawl for the Bird Lady in Mary Poppins was a great success and they wanted a 2nd one - which I made from the yarn supplied - half of which was mohair.  That 2nd shawl was quite 'splodgy' and I think the mohair made it look quite elegant (it is the last item in this post).  Perhaps it was too elegant and it didn't look like the 1st shawl  SO I had to make a 3rd one ... and I now consider myself an expert in the art of Bird Lady Shawl Making :-)  For this 3rd shawl I sourced the yarn - it is a long length variegated yarn meant for socks.

 

I've also made a 2nd Cardigan / Jacket for Colline in Opera Australia's current production of La Boheme - there are some cast changes.  It is another distressed and artfully 'badly knitted' thing and I would like to avoid all shades of mustard for the next decade!   Had to hand it in without buttons (they weren't supplied) so here it is with safety pins.

 

And a back view - with those pleats and some of the deliberately 'knitted in' holes.

 Now if you go to the Opera Australia web site you'll see David Parkin wearing the 1st of those mustard cardi/jackets - with the beanie and scarf that I knitted.  I've borrowed one of the pics here ...

 Had my first commission for some knitting for the small screen - the next 'season' of Underbelly (starting in some states (or all?) Sun 21st Aug) is set in the 1920s.  If you watch the show, keep your eyes peeled during some of the more domestic moments for a character knitting a chocolate brown jumper.  Of course, it may all have ended up on the cutting room floor but I provided the knitting in 3 stages - just commenced ...

Up to the 1st (or 2nd?) sleeve ...

And Very-Nearly-Almost-Finished ...

 

  Poor ole' Bruce the Body there with those sharp metal things at his neck - very appropriate for this TV show!  The jumper is based on a vintage pattern and has old-fashioned styling including very deep rib bands.  I also had to source all those knitting needles - making sure that they looked like those used in the 1920s.  

There were some other commissions, not for the stage but via Jonathan Howard The Hatmaker.

 Donuts? toilet-seat cozies? hand-knitted UFOs?   No, but almost as unlikely.  Jonathan was making a top-hat for a client who wanted it hand-knitted and he wanted cashmere.  So these are, in fact, the parts of a knitted top-hat!

 

First I had to find the cashmere - the desired 'look' was chunky, country-fied and natural - hand-spun seemed the best option.  I bought some natural brown cashmere fleece (fluff) from Belisa Cashmere lovely soft stuff it was like spinning a cloud - I put in about 20% wool to make it easier to handle.  However, it was still brown - the client wanted charcoal so into the dye-pot it went ... until it became the colour you see above ... actually the knitting was the easiest and fastest part of the whole process!

Jonathan The Hatmaker really likes the look of my hand-spun yarns with all the lumps and fluffy bits ... he commissioned a man's scarf ...  

   The yarn is about 50% alpaca & 50% corriedale sheep, both undyed, naturally coloured fleece.    I used a simple knit/purl pattern with garter stitch edges and as it was to be a fairly short scarf, there are 2 splits.  The wearer can thread the scarf through the splits and the scarf doesn't slip off and get lost.      Here is a close up of the texture of the yarn and the stitch pattern.

I've also been knitting beanies for Jonathan to sell in his lovely boutique.  We've missed the window of opportunity to sell warm woolly beanies this year but inevitably, winter will return!  Here are 2 of the beanies ...

Again, all naturally coloured, undyed fleece, these were spun 'in the grease' so the yarn has retained some of the lanolin.  The mottled yarn is sheep - a grey/brown from the Robinson era with some very dark fleece from another Robinson sheep thrown in :-)   The stripes are 100% alpaca - the same ginger girl as in the scarf above.  Her name is Angelique and the fleece was from her 2nd shearing.

The stripes in this 2nd beanie are the same alpaca - the rest is re-purposed woollen yarn.  I found an abandoned knitting project in an op-shop - following some un-knitting and lots of sorting I plyed 2 of the colours together on my spinning wheel to create a thick tweedy yarn ...

For the ladies I knitted some very vintage, very French berets.  My own pattern but based on a 1940's vintage one.

The yarn is Bendigo Woollen Mills - their very dependable Classic 8ply.

Hand Dyed, Hand Spun Yarniness

Had one of those "D'Oh" moments this morning ... summer here but in the Northern Hemi it's mid-winter and I have some hand-spun yarns sitting about - most of my sales on my Etsy shops have been to folks in the US - perhaps they'd like some of these yarns which were inspired by Spring and Summer flowers. Guess they might like of our spare Australian sunshine :-) so I got busy listing yarn on my Etsy knitting shop.

This one was inspired by Frangipani flowers:


















Blossoming fruit trees here:
Also listed some of the gum-blossom inspired yarn which I posted about previously.

Something Blue

In the last week I've been working with a lot of blue, which is somewhat alarming as I am NOT a blue person at all, at all.

I'm working on putting together a knitting pattern for a pretty lace & beads neck warmer, a button-up collar thing and because the lace stitches I've used are called "little waves" & "fish tales" it conjures up images of mermaids. I wonder if mermaids get cold necks? Anyway - this knitting pattern will fit a young girl 6 to 12 yrs and I'm doing an adult version in 10 - 12ply yarn ... handspun. SO first I must spin the yarn and the first step is to dye some roving in suitably mermaid-ish colours. Like this -Bendigo Woollen Mills' "ReadySpin" dyed with Sandolan primary blue. The green/blue in the back corner had 1 teaspoon of Landscapes "Kelp" added. As there was still some colour left in the pot and I don't like to waste all those chemicals, I put in another 200g of roving which come out a soft sage green - very gum-leaf.


The other very blue project is a very Over The Top dress-up outfit for little granddaughter. Now when my daughter was about the same age her daughter is now, I made her a dress-up outfit inspired by an illustration in a book of Nursery Rhymes ... here she is - what a little moppet!

Yes, she is wearing sandals and socks (the cheapest footwear available at the time) that apricot floral polyester came from upstairs at Coles Variety store in Sydney's CBD ... what a wonderful shop that was! The cream lace was a gift from a lovely neighbour. I didn't own a sewing machine back then - that frock is all hand stitched, I still have it and can't bear to part with it so I've made a new outfit for my moppet's little moppet. This time lots of machine stitching - some quite visible :-)
Difficult to get a decent photo without a little body in it. Apart from the visible machine stitches this one is slightly more "historically accurate" - square neck-line (trimmed with elaborate lace) and very 18thC sleeves, elbow length, pleats at the top of the sleeve head & "engageants" (aka those circular frills).


And the cap is a whole lot smaller -






Had a lot of fun sewing this outfit - using lots of stuff out of stash - that electric blue embossed poly fabric has been hanging about since the 1980's! I hope little one gets some fun from wearing it and being a Princess!

Gum Blossom - Inspiration & yarn

The inspiration






Wish I knew what sort of eucalypt ... growing in a park in Melbourne, there are a few of them with various shades of pink blossom in early spring. They are in sandy soil (secondary sand dune?) rough black bark, sage green leaves and a weepy droopy habit. Very pretty.













Here is the Yarn - currently drying in my garden, having just been 'set'. It is Bendigo Woollen Mills "ReadySpin" which I kettle dyed, sage green and peachy pink. It's about a 10ply and it's a 'Colour-Block' yarn - it'll knit up in bands. Say, a wide band of the green then a short transition through white into a wide band of the pink then a short transition through white into a wide band of the green ... ...

Grandkidlets

Back from a lovely time in Melbourne with our gorgeous daughter and the grands :-)

Finished the madly purple twinset for granddaughter while I was there:

Loosely based on vintage (early 50s) patterns, I kettle dyed the yarn which is Bendigo's "Luxury 4 ply".

Here are both littles wearing their twinkly capes:
Whenever I go to Melbs I take my Blythe doll, Lillian so that she can catch up with my daughter's doll, BiBi. Lillian travels in a shoe box in my hand luggage, I've put a "window" in the lid of the box and she often causes consternation with airport security staff. Lillian shows up on the xray machine and if they open my bag, the last thing they expect is a huge eyed dolly looking up at them - snicker snicker evil grin!

Here are BiBi and Lillian wearing their new blouses and skirts made from the Simplicity sewing pattern - the skirts are in a lovely vintage cotton and that is the very last of it :-( there is now not enough left to make "Tippets for Mice"*.

* Beatrix Potter "The Tailor of Gloucester".

More Blossom & Anna Karenina the Tea Cosy

More blossom inspired yarn - hand spun and (the coloured parts) hand dyed. Pretty peach blossom



I was thinking of citrus / lemon & orange flowers as I was spinning this, but now it reminds me frangipani -









A little while ago I had been busy torturing a doll and promised to let you know more about the project ... well here is that poor tortured dolly

She has become a tea cosy - my entry in Leichhardt Public School P&C Association's "Creative Tea Cosy" competition. Entries available at "A Coffee and A Yarn". It's a good excuse to knit up an idea I had a while ago when a friend said that she liked Russian Caravan Tea ... surely a tea pot full of Russian Caravan Tea would require a suitable cosy? BTW: she is sitting on a ball in the photo, she does have the side splits for spout and handle.

Tea Cosies are essentially kitsch and some of the kitschiest cosies are those with a dolly - they were often dressed as "little Dutch girls" but sometimes as very frilly crinoline ladies. It is probable that those tea cosy dolls were the ancestors of toilet-roll dolls. But back to Anna Karenina ... thick chenille yarn (beastly to work with but it has that velvet look) with white eye-lash yarn (even worse to work with). There is a knitted lining, of red wool. Glass beads for the 'buttons' and on the hat which also has feathers.

The tips of ordinary feathers picked up when walking through parks - thoroughly washed and I curled the barbs.

Today I also made some hair clips for my granddaughter - went through my stash of bits & pieces, stitched things together and a bit of hot-glue gun for good measure -

Spring Things

Wanna see wot I've done with the wool I'd dyed a pretty peachy pink? This:

A celebration of blossoming fruit trees - fresh new green leaves and lots of white blossom with that blushing of pink in the middle of the flowers. Slightly thick&thin it's a 10/12 ply, nice and soft. Pretty??

I do love spring and the magnolias have been wonderful this year - we've a star magnolia:

Pretty Pretty

I've also been busy on the sewing machine: I made grandson a dress-ups cape early this year and it has been a great hit with both grandchildren so I thought I should make granddaughter her own.

Mad purple fake-sequin fabric (strange but my digital camera does not like purple and always tries to make it blue). Cape is a full circle, lined with silver fabric like the first one, I used the rather wide "selvage" which lacked the fake sequins to make a frill collar (quite regal!). I'm quite proud of the SuperChild logo on the back:

B for Blythe (granddaughter is named after the dolls) and a ducky because she loves them.





Rather less fun has been work on another shawl - this one bought on eBay and quite a bargain, lovely silk and a splendid fringe ...





only the fringe needs a lot of TLC. It has become seriously tangled ... Before






It takes quite a while to untangle and iron it out - luckily it is so very long it can take a bit of trimming. The result is definitely worth all the work ...