Flat out like a Lizard Drinking

I do love a good Aussie idiom, sadly they are no longer much used as we become increasingly globalised & homogenised.

Flat out like a Lizard Drinking = buzy, very buzy.   Which is what I am this month!  Mostly working on some commissioned hand-knitting for another stage show, I can only show you peeps...

The Aqua plain & striped is a twinset - very vintage, very lady-like.  The costume designer chose the design from a vintage pattern, she chose the yummy colours too.
The yarn is 5ply (Sports Weight) which does give a lovely authentically vintage look (it drapes like thicker yarn never will)  BUT thinner yarn = more stitches to be knitted and I've had to be almost machine-like in my hand-knitting to get it done - has taken 10days for the cardigan.

This soft brown with all the texture is, thankfully, in thicker yarn- 8ply or DK.  This is based on another vintage pattern (one in my own collection:-)  )  but lots & lots of adaptation for this as the original pattern was for sock-weight yarn.  I've adapted the stitch as well, as knitting with twice the thickness of yarn makes a stitch pattern so much larger - it would not have looked vintage at all. 

Even with the highly textured stitch which is worked as a cable, this garment seems to be flying along after the slow progress of the thin-yarn cardigan!

In amongst all of that - I'm also making some more Knitted Cashmere TopHat coverings.  I made the first one last year and posted about it here  -  now they want 2 more Top Hats.  The first a rush-job and purple - not a bright psychedelic 1970s purple but a softer, rustic, crushed berries colour.  Of course I was nearly out of Cashmere fibre and had to order some in (from Belisa) then I spun it nice and chunky / rustic with about 40% sheep wool.
The cashmere is the brown - that is its natural colour and it is really soft, like spinning with cloud!   

Then I dyed it purple and knitted all the shaped pieces - the knitting is probably the fastest part of the whole process! 

Here they are after blocking.



I love the texture.

And now for something non-knitty.

Remember this?

Well Violetta was correct and it was a tutu ...  though along the way, part of this costume became a useful prop for this photo of Lillian ...

Here is the complete finished tutu costume ... Odette, the white swan in Swan Lake, for Blythe.

I sold this costume on my new Etsy shop for BlytheStar  within 3hours of listing it - hope the new owner loves it all as much as Violetta did! 
It was quite an involved process to make it all - first the tutu skirt seen in that previous post, then the satin bodice with its beading ...


And the lacing up the back - I had wanted to use metal eyelets but couldn't get any tiny enough that actually function without getting really rough on the inside - don't want to scratch Dolly's back.  Though, to be honest something worse than scratches has happened to the doll in these pics !!


There I've been drawing the 'wing' design for the top layer of the tutu.  

The 'wings' are lightly quilted satin and heavily beaded with lovely silver-foiled glass seed beads.  And yes, Lillian borrowed them for her Angel photo.


I used the same 'wing' idea for the head-dress - always a very important part of a classic ballerina Swan costume.

Audrey helped me to get the shapes correct.











The head-dress finished, it sits on a Blythe head without needing pins or things.






Here is a back view of the tutu ...

















And one last 'hero' shot.   I'll have to make more complete costumes like this for my BlytheStar Etsy shop ...

Spinning & Spun Sugar

So what have I done with the wool that I dyed & showed you in the last post?

The brighter of the 2 yellows has been spun together with some commercially dyed roving (aka sliver) to make this.

The brown is Bendigo Woollen Mills ReadySpin  in  Russet.

The inspiration is the 'egg and bacon' flowers that are so common in the Australian bush.

The proper Latin name for the genus is Dillwynia, they are part of the 'pea' family - endemic to Australia.  There are lots of species - most have yellow & red/brown flowers that remind hungry Australians of  breakfast.  I've reversed the colours; in the flowers the yellow is dominant - in my yarn the russet brown in about 75% and the strong yellow only about 25%.

I'll be selling most of my Dillwynia inspired yarn in my Etsy shop - should get it listed in the next couple of days.

And now for that Fairy Floss pink dyed wool ... most of it has become "Fairy Floss" (aka Spun Sugar / Cotton Candy / Candy Floss / barbe à papa) for Blythe dolls.

 

There is to be a big meeting of Blythe Fan(atic)s in Sydney on the 23rd June - the theme is "Candyland".  Here is the Poster ...  and here for More Info

Candy - Lollies - Sweeties -  num num   

The Fairy Floss is my contribution to the Goodie Bags ... 

Might have to put in a note that it is not actually edible.








Audrey helped me to make all that "fairy-floss"  and took her job as Quality Control Officer very seriously.

"Now, let's see, the colour is good, but the construction of this stick is a little loose.  Does Not Pass."