Peacock Shawl finished

Happy Fibre Arts Friday! Today I have a finished project to show, yay!

This is a birthday present for my Ma who is turning 70 in October. I spun the yarn from some silver grey merino rovings from Bendigo Woollen Mills then dyed the yarn into mother's favourite colour. The whole project took a little over five months to complete, but I could have finished it much sooner if I'd worked on it consistently.

Pattern: Peacock's Tail by Rose Beck
Yarn: handspun merino and hand dyed, fingering weight, used 120g
Needle size: 5mm
My project page: here
Notes: I love the stitch patterns, they are very pretty and flow nicely from one into another. The construction is interesting where you increase at each end as well as fan out from the middle, creating a gentle crescent shape. The only thing I would change next time is to use a different cast off, the ones given by the pattern did not provide a stretchy enough border in my opinion as I had trouble blocking out the points. I might use EZ's sewn bind off if I were to make it again.

That's it from me, thanks for dropping by, please hop over to Andrea's at Wisdom Begins in Wonder for more fibre fun.

Scarves-a-rama

Happy Fibre Arts Friday! This week I finally finished off two woven scarves, one had been on my loom since April and another one I had done weaving a few weeks ago but it was not finished until yesterday. I realised that I am not very good at finishing projects although I like starting them, which explains why I have so many UFOs. The lure of a new project is greater than completing one, perhaps I should only be allowed to start a new project in exchange for a finished one, I will need a stern enforcer.

This scarf was started back in April, with my hand-dyed warp and weft. For some reason the tension was all over the place and I was so disheartened with it that I didn't touch it for months, then one day I forced myself to forge ahead and finished it - because I wanted the loom for another project. I was very pleased to find that once washed and dried, all the imperfections with the tension was gone and the scarf looks rather nice ...

 

The second scarf was started at the beginning of this month, so it's not quite a marathon project as the first one. It only took 3 days to weave but again it took me weeks to finish it off. I'm calling this Blood Orange Tweedy Scarf :)

Now my loom is empty and I need another project!

Thanks for dropping by, please hop over to Andrea's at Wisdom Begins in Wonder for more fibre fun.

Checking on the Spindle Candy forum is a dangerous thing...

... because you can so easily get hoodwinked, and I can prove it! I was just having a look (no harm in looking surely?) on the spindle de-stash page, the next thing I know I was spinning on these two little cuties:

The one on the left is a trindle, I have wanted one ever since I saw the one appeared in Andrea's posts over a year ago, even though I hadn't started spinning back then. So when I saw someone was destashing theirs I decided to grab it. I LOVE how the trindle spins, albeit a little wobbly but it spins and spins and spins, and it's so easy to wind on. The right hand one is a Riley's Turkish spindle, it's a little slow than I thought but still spins beautifully, maybe once there's more fibre on it it will spin faster.

The rolags are made on my blending board, of various dyed merino, silk, mohair locks and some sparkle, they are pretty easy to draft and very addictive to spin!

Meanwhile my production line for Christmas presents kept running, and I finished my scarf #4 the Yorkshire Moors scarf that was on the loom last week. I love how the self striping yarn in the warp make the colours shift.

And here's scarf #5 an Alpaca blend in greys and naturals, same yarn for both warp and weft.

That's it for me this week, now show us yours!

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!

A last minute gift + Craft & Quilt Fair

A friend's birthday is coming close and I couldn't think of anything to give her, a delve in my project queue turned up this little thing :-)

Pattern: Earring & Key Holder free from Ravelry, my project page is here
Yarn:  Cotton thread size 8 from my stash
Needles: 3.5mm
Start/Finish Dates: 25 - 27 July 2012
Notes: The frame is 10'' x 8'', CO 44 stitches and did 5 pattern repeats. Found some cute pushpins at Typo to secure the lace panel at the back.

Verdict: I love whimsy little things, this is a perfect last minute gift pattern, you could make it in a couple of hours if you want to. I just hope the recipient loves it.

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Thursday saw the opening of the Craft & Quilt Fair Melbourne 2012 and I was eager to check it out. The Melbourne Exhibition Centre is a fantastic venue with modern facilities and in beautiful surroundings. From my selfish point of view (as a non-quilter) I gave the fair 5 out of 10, it should've been called Quilt & Craft Fair as quilting has a much larger presence than all other crafts, wool/yarn related exhibitors were only about 5%, but I didn't come away empty handed (when do I ever!).

Bought a signed copy of this book from the author's booth. I've always admired the dramatic designs, and when I saw a lady wearing a swagger coat in the street a few months back I knew I had to make one of these. Not sure when I will make a start yet, need to decide on the colour combination which is always a challenge to me.

I also bought some banana fibre:

This is 100% banana fibre, the seller says it has very good drape. Anyone has any experience with this fibre please let me know... and, any project suggestions?

Thanks for dropping by, there is more fibre arts fun at  Wisdom Begins in Wonder. Indulge your creative side and join the party!