Beanies

In January I blogged about spinning up yarn in "Manly Colours" (as in masculine) ... time I showed you what that yarn has become.

Beanies -
Here is one in close up - this colour-way I've named "Green Shoots" :-)
And this colourway is called "Sydney Harbour " - when you sit on a wharf and stare into the water of our gorgeous harbour - these are some of the colours of the water. A mix of deep blue / greens with pale, almost yellow, shafts of light a quiver through the water ...

"Deep and dissolving verticals of light
Ferry the falls of moonshine down. Five bells"
Only you have to think falls of sunlight instead - sorry Kenneth Slessor. I've knitted a child sized beanie in the Sydney Harbour colourway - so it is a Father & Son set.

All those yarns are handspun from Bendigo Woolen Mills roving (or sliver) the charcoal and dark navy are BWM dyed, the other colours I dyed.

This beanie is made of re-purposed yarn. I found a half knitted jumper and lots of unused yarn in an op-shop - un-ravelled the knitting and used my spinning wheel to ply two colours together for a tweed effect.












And finally - a Gumnut - I spun this yarn from undyed, naturally brown fleece and undyed alpaca - using the alpaca to make tufts. It really does look like a gumnut that has been on the ground for a while.

All these Beanies are currently for sale in a friend's hat studio in Newtown.

Lance a Lot has a Frilling Time

Lance -a Lot of Knitting is finished:

This is for our grandson - it'll be a bit too big but better too big than too small, he'll grow (gosh, I sound just like a grandmother!) Adapted from a vintage pattern circa 1930s or 40s - the lovely stitch pattern is just knit and purl stitches.
Usually when you adapt a vintage pattern the original calls for very fine yarn and the modern knitter opts for something thicker & quicker to knit up - not this time :-) the original pattern was for 8ply yarn (DK) and I used 5ply (sport weight in the US). I kept the vintage styling, making the armholes quite shaped and the Vneck quite high.

In other news - I'm currently sewing costumes full-time for a big musical that will open in Melbourne in a couple of months. At the moment we're doing lots of mends and alterations on existing costumes made for previous runs of the show overseas. Some crochet frill trimming needed replacement and I got to do it yesterday :-) simple shells in cotton yarn - very effective.

Pirate Oufit Aaarrh - and Pretty Birdies

Our grandson loves role-play and dressing up, his current favourite character is ... Pirate Aaarrrrhh!

Daughter found a cheap "Pirate Captain" bicorne hat for him and I've just finished a quick Pirate vest

Striped lining because Pirates wear stripes, a little triangle neck-kerchief and ... a birdie. Not really a parrot, more like a sparrow with pretensions.

Quite a few gift shops have been carrying these great little birdies of late - not sure what the bodies are made of but they are very light-weight, reasonably realistic and often covered in twinkle stuff. Usually instead of feet they have a clip which makes them very useful and they are quite cheap. With the addition of a few more feathers you can make these birdies rather fabulous. The chap above had a very stumpy little tail until last night when I glued in 3 nice long green ones. He has a spring instead of legs and bounces about nicely - here is another of these birds (also green - they do come in other colours but Grandson & I like green!) posing with Lillian before his new feathers ...









and after his make-over!

Angora Knitting

Spent the Easter week interstate with daughter and our grandchildren - now need a holiday to recover!

Thought I'd share my angora hand-knits with you. All are very vintage inspired - the 2 baby bonnets you've seen before, but here they are with the ribbons on.


The "gothic" one got grey velvet with a touch of palest pink - very Victorian. The "Petal" bonnet got just the palest pink ribbon but with visible stitches in the angora yarn as decoration.

I also made a bolero / shrug for granddaughter. I have lots of vintage patterns for pretty angora boleros - they were much 'the mode' in the 1950s. However, they were mostly for much older children ... angora is not so practical for a toddler! So I had to invent my own pattern and I'm pleased with the result.

The fronts tend to roll so it is more shrug than bolero - which is good, as it keeps the angora from getting dribbled on :-)

Making Lace amongst the Ducks

We've been finding lots of lovely images of French lace-makers on the web - most of them are from old post-cards.

They are in Le Puy-en-Velay in France. I presume they lined up outside for the photographer and didn't normally make lace in the poultry yard :-) Love the wooden clogs and their head-wear but just look at how many bobbins are on those pillows!


I don't believe I'm contravening any copyright by posting this image here - but please contact me if there is a problem.

Some Knitting, Some Lace and the Dolls' House

Knitting - found a bargain on my last trip to Spotlight ... Patons' Bluebell at $2 a ball! There was a nice dark tealish green and my grandson lurvs green so I grabbed enough (plus a bit) to make a vest for him. A vintage styled vest. In the 30s & 40s textured stitches were very popular for masculine knits, lots of twisted stitches, some cables and lots of patterns in simple knit & purl.

I had a lovely time trawling though my vintage patterns and eventually selected this knit/purl stitch pattern - the original is called "Lance" or perhaps that was the name of the dog. I'm using a more modern pattern for the maths but will adapt as it has 80's armhole shaping.

Lace - lots of lace news :-) At Epping Lace group on Thurs I only managed to do 1 tiny exercise - The Footside from Jennifer Fisher's book "Torchon Lace for Today" but that night I had the bright idea of making that exercise - in much finer thread - to put on the ends of the towels I'm making for my dolls' house. Only problem was that I'd had the book on loan and had returned it. So next day I had to try to remember how it went - luckily it is very simple. Not sure I got it quite right but in 1 strand of embroidery floss it does make quite a good, very fringe like trim for a miniature towel. Cheap Emb floss does not wash well though - I think this will benefit from a bit of ironing.

I must say that it felt wonderful to make my first pieces of Lace for a Purpose - not just a sample or exercise - even though the purpose is rather a silly one, being trim for miniature dolls' house towels! Here are some of those towels in situ - with new "perfume bottles" and new "plant" - it is a new species, the African Sage Violet.

The bathroom is almost done now - solved another little problem too. As the dolls' house is a cupboard all the rooms are quite deep - which means that the small rooms are awkward to arrange - with one bit of furniture hiding others and those at the front dominating. The ceramic wear was a cheap set (which I then painted) and I've always been unhappy with the base of the hand basin, it's clumpy, but how to disguise it? plants? a little rubbish bin? Had another bright idea looking at my sewing thimbles ... I had one that is too large and has a flat tip ... paint it up and voila!


But back to Lace - also went to the Lace Guild day at Linnwood on Sunday, spent lots of credit card and now I have my own lace-making equipment YEA! pretty pearwood bobbins :-)

Celebrated last night by making that sample (it is not an amoeba!) lace-makers will recognise it from Rosemary Shephard's book (I hope!)

My new Winder and the Dolls' House

My latest Gadget ...

a ball-winder. Have been wanting one for winding up my home-spun and home-dyed yarns as they look so lovely and professional when wound neatly on one of these gadgets - however - the retail price of these quite simple gadgets is bizarrely astronomical. So I waited (not very patiently) and on the weekend, browsing through the 2nd hand shops ... found this one for $25 :-)

Have been 'playing' with my dolls' house this week - finally solved the problem of suitable fabric for miniature towels (more later - when I finally finish them!) and have done lots of work on the bathroom. Lots of fun with tiny pots of smelly paint!

In my previous post I was probably a bit confusing about how this dolls' house works - it is a cupboard - an idea I copied from one I saw in a tiny museum in Queensland almost 30yrs ago. Here are photos with the doors shut and open

3 rooms per floor / shelf, no doors or stairs but some (fake) windows.





And here is the bathroom - newly painted.
I've filled in the hole in the ceiling, added cornices, skirting tiles, and a border at the top of the tiles. Also I've made a flower pot for the wire stand and fixed the light fitting so it hangs straight! And I've sent away for a proper window. Once the towels are finished, the flower-pot 'planted' and that window installed and curtained ... I think I'll be able to say the bathroom is done! Dolls' houses are like real ones - once you start ... ...

Will I work on the Nursery next?

It needs: a new light fitting, more pictures, better curtains - lots of soft furnishings. At least I think it has enough toys :-)