Preparation!

Finished all xmas gifts! Yay!It was fairly laid back for me this year thankfully. Secret Santa is a great idea....

This year I've made wrapping paper out of old local newspapers, printed with potato stamps, looks pretty good to me. Specially the pine tree one. The stars didn't work as well.

Recycled but stylish I think!

I haven't done modelled photographs of the cabled vest yet... but here is a shot of the cables after they were blocked, they smoothed out much better.

Progress of the patchwork vest... going to make the vest quite long I think... Liking it so far, quick to put together and the rectangles don't have to be lined up perfectly. Brilliant!

Did some busking with my dad the other day. It was a sunny day and a cruise ship was in town, it was extra busy and people were generous. Busking seems to be back on track! Dad bought us some proper notebooks to write out chords and words. I always write down lyrics in note form to trigger my memory, it helps.

Nice pattern eh?

It was good busking the other day, I felt like I was getting into the music properly and relaxing enough to play solos more confidently. That's when busking becomes fun!

So the next week will be preparing for Xmas, cooking, helping wrap presents and packing. We just bottled a batch of beer today, but it is a commissioned batch for a friend. Although we are going to keep a few for ourselves :)

I'll post some pictures of gifts I've given people after xmas.

N

Random stuff

So it's nearly xmas, I only have one present to make now, simple!

I went shopping the other day because I made $80 sewing a cape for someone. So I thought I'd spend it on a few things I've been needing lately. Among those things I got an awesome pair of suede boots from the opshop!

They just happened to be my size! Feel awesome wearing them and they're extra toasty over tights with a skirt, keeping my legs warm. Haven't had boots for years and not sure why. They're such good shoes to have in winter. 28 bucks is pretty good for a good pair of shoes I think!

Spring is well over but there are still some lovely flowers coming out. These pansies caught my eye, they're growing in our garden. I can see pink and purple lupins growing from the window and the Dahlia's have come up out of the ground again and should be flowering in a months time. The weather isn't very summery, I wonder if it will be a sunny and warm summer or a wet and cold one like last years?

I've been doing a bit of sewing lately, woo! It's been a while since I've had any motivation to sew, but I seem to be getting back into it now. Here's something I whipped up the other day:

It used to be a dress that I made in high school textiles. The bodice was way too small, (I've grown since then) so I cut it off and made the skirt into this top. The Blue silk on the top is a scrap which I think was left in the sun and faded in those interesting pleat patterns.

Here's detail of the top:

Simply gathered the front of the fabric, stitched on bands at the back to hold the zipper tab in place, zig zagged on some decorative silk and added some straps. Easy.

Osk and I saw the last hobbit movie yesterday and I was impressed once again by the costumes! One in particular caught my attention, a patchwork waistcoat worn by a hobbit in the shire. All shades of green woollen fabric, in rectangles sewn in a patchwork. They were all slightly different shapes, and not quite matching up. like they were made from many scraps of fabric. I too have plenty of scrap wool fabric! Mine is going to be dull brown and green tweeds with a few bright patches thrown in.

I haven't finalised the layout yet, I want to get all the pieces laid out and then decide where they should go. I've got the rectangles stacked in 4 different sizes, so the finished fabric will be combination of rows of each size.

Everything is wrapping up for the year! Last production at the theatre, last choir concert for the year... people are graduating uni, holidays are coming... Looking forward to next year's projects, new experiences and opportunities. :)

Now I'm off to play a bit of skyrim, then it's watching a bit of Once upon a time and knitting some more of that green cardigan, lovely.

N

Passed!

Yes indeed, I did pass my restricted car license test a few weeks ago! Strangely this photo was taken before the test, I'm not sure why I look so happy in the photo, I was a nervous wreck then... The woman taking my photo was funny I guess, she made me feel cheerful even though I was about to take a terrifying test! After the test I'm sure I would have had a dombfounded expression on my face, it didn't really sink in for a few hours. I wore my good luck charm, but I think it was my sheer determination and month of driving lessons that got me through. I've been driving my dad's car for a week and missing it now that he's back from overseas and using it again. It was a great reward for passing the test, I got to try driving by myself for the first time!

So lately I've been busy getting my license and also organising a fashion show for the theatre. Talk about busy! It was brilliant having a car to get me around when I was working on the show. It was fun doing the show but also rather stressful, I'm glad it's over. So what am I doing now? Well today I'm waiting for the nasty weather to clear so I can start my bike riding up again. I need to get fit before Feb next year so I can ride my bike to Polytech each day. At the moment, I haven't ridden my bike for about 3 months.... I can get back into it though! Eventually I will be able to ride into town without having to stop and take breaks. So that'll start today, it looks okay out there right now... cold but no rain...

I'm also working on xmas presents... but that's all hush hush of course! I did dye my handspun yarn though, take a look:

It's the same colour as a aloe vera plant with a variety of greens mingling together. 10 skeins!

So far I have a sleeve, which is growing at a tremendous rate..

The pattern is Geometric shrug from Daniel Yuhas's book Knitting From the Centre Out: An Introduction to Revolutionary Knitting. Another brilliant pattern from this book! I'm about to start increasing for the body. I can tell this project isn't going to take long to finish. It'll be my 3rd garment finished this year. Yes, I did get that cabled vest finished after all. Need to do some proper photos of that one.

Another blank I dyed today, I think it will go better with the other blanks in contrasting stripes. Blue dye makes such a difference! So many more colours I can make...

I also finished this beauty, a thousand shining suns cowl. It was a bit wonky after sewing the edges down but I gave it good blocking and that relaxed the stitches enough to transform it into a better shape.

Alright, I think I'll be off soon for a bike ride, I can see the weather as it comes from the south and it looks okay. Let's see how I go... expect a post of bike related accessories to come soon.. I'm going to deck it out with satchels and saddle bags soon... I think I'll need a rain jacket at some point too. You never know what the weather will do here in Dunedin!

N

Colours

I bought some yarn cakes from the Milton woollen mills when I was there last, 1 dollar each! I've wanted to knit and dye some new blanks for a while now, especially for stripey socks. I've run out of blue food dye so I'm only getting reds, yellows, greens and greys. I think I'll get some blue to make that contrast, it makes the most saturated purples and dark blues.

I've knit two blanks up so far on the knitting machine, and had less of a problem with it this time. There's just a certain trick to that machine! Not to fast, not too slow and stopping at just the right time seems to stop stitches from popping off the needles. 

This is before steaming and drying, the colours tend to run together more when they're tucked up tightly in the dish. These colours remind me of sickly looking lollies with all the food colouring you can get! Food dye doesn't seem so bad when you don't eat it....

When dry it looks like this!

Pink... damn, that red nearly always goes pink without a bit of yellow to strengthen it.

So there are two blanks, and bpth have different colour orders so that when I knit my socks they'll be contrasting stripes and constantly changing. I'd love to do this in another more obviously contarastin set of colours too. Like knitting Noro, probably the closest I'll get to that!

And this is the crochet bag all lined and finished, a good size for stashing away projects, books and bits and bobs.

I've got my restricted licence test on Friday so I'm pretty nervous but excited. If I pass it I'll be able to use my dad's car from time to time and eventually get my own car. What freedom that will be!

Currently planning a fashion parade/auction for the theatre, should be good fun :)

N

22 today, well yesterday..

I'm back!

Yesterday was my 22nd birthday and the day before that my partner Oscar's 22nd birthday as well. What a fun two days we've had! I'm tired now... We went out for dinner on the 21st and went to a nice Italian place. Hadn't been before but enjoyed it :) I had a beer from the Invercargill brewery which was called wasp and was a honey beer. You could just taste a slight honey note and certainly smell the honey too. It would be interesting to try honey in our beer too. It was Kamahi honey from the Catlins, I've had that honey before and could taste the particular flavour. Delicious Pav for desert... then I felt ill! Too much rich food like at Xmas...

Mmmm my favourite! Stramberries and grapes a bit of a treat too.

 I made Oscar two hand crafted presents...

A magic the gathering playing mat:

It's a bit creased from being folded up when wrapped but you get the idea. I had fun dyeing the different sections, painting the food dye and vinegar mixture on by hand and drying and setting the dye with a steaming iron. Then I stitched the five elements of magic on with the sewing machine. I did a rough outline of each symbol with pencil or tailors chalk and stitched around the lines twice. The hardest was the yellow sun. The flame one is hard to see, I probably should have chosen another colour, but oh well it was an experiment the whole thing! I had no idea what it would turn out like, but I'm happy with it and Oscar loves it! He was awestruck when he saw it! The top fabric is silk so that the cards will move easily when you turn them or pick them up. The bottom is a light woollen fabric and the inner is some flannel cotton. 

I quite like the swamp symbol :) Kind of cute in a dark way.

 

The sun looks the best I think, but was tricky to draw. I had to divide the circle into eights to get the even spokes (what word would you use?!) on it.

We tried it out by playing a game, it seemed to word well! Really need a table that allows us to sit opposite each other though. Playing on a corner doesn't work so well.

Pretty flowers from the garden, brighten up the table a bit. The lavender smells amazing.

I've been knitting a bit lately, on socks of all things! I knit the heel of these at the fair last weekend and since then couldn't stop. I'm now nearly up to the knee. Sort of a combination of other patterns and my own invention :)

Toe up obviously so I can use all my yarn. It's working out at being 3 balls for each sock which is perfect, that's how much I have to spare.

I'll leave you now with some pics of me when I was little. Aren't I funny! Especially the one with the coat and hat, I look so very sinister... 

I'm still dressing up in crazy costumes and loving animals :)

N

Keeping busy!

Hmm.. I haven't blogged for more than a week have I?

Well I haven't done much crafting, in fact I only got into my sewing room yesterday and got things organised and did a bit of sewing! I've been keeping myself busy with different things :) I'm having driving lessons at the moment so I can get my restricted license before my course starts. I rode into town on Monday and went costume material shopping. I should really share what I got that day! I'm finding that if I go out at least once a day to do something I'm less frustrated and happier. If I can keep myself busy this way till February the time will pass much more quickly. I'm volunteering my gardening skills tomorrow and helping organise a fete for Saturday. So the next few weeks are nice and full :) And our birthdays are next week too! I'm working on a wonderful surprise present for Oscar... photos of that soon...

The weather is lovely and warm these days, I'm loving it! I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt on Monday, any hotter and it would have been to hot. We made a beer on the weekend - a stout of our own using dark amber malt, several hops and chocolate roasted malt. Looking forward to that one! The most recent batch we bottled is nice, but needs more ageing to get a proper taste to it. Oscar got a new super duper computer so we've been setting it up and playing Skyrim again! I'm enjoying it but finding the quests a bit boring as I have done them before. But there must be more that I haven't done already, it's such a big world! I'm an Argonian mage who specialises in illusion magic and sneaking. Before my character was a Khajit who used war axes and healing spells, so it's good to try something different.

I don't really have any pictures this week! I will take some photos on Saturday of the fete and what I'm currently knitting and sewing. I'm sure I'll get plenty of time to knit as I man a stall.

Well right then, I'm off to make some fudge and knit the heel or my current sock. I think knitting with a poly thread might help it hold together. I wear my hand knit heels out very quickly!

N

Silk! Colour! Pretty!

So today I planned to go into town and do some random fun things like go to the library, buy fabric and play around with costumes... but the weather is rank. So I'm at home again today, itching to go outside but put off by the nasty weather. The weather keeps changing from Winter to spring to winter to spring with a little summer chucked in. Spring is mental! Tomorrow is set to be warmer, calmer and drier than today.

Anyway, I got around to finally dyeing that silk I bought I while back and the results are incredible!

Started off by tying many rubber bands around in circle patterns... I wanted to get an all over kind of design.

It helps to soak the fibre before adding the dye, it helps the fibres soak them up more easily. I mixed up three different combinations of food dye mixed with vinegar, bluey green, purple and plain blue. Set up the steamer and placed the silk tie side up in a glass dish. I really wanted the colours to blend together so started by randomly dyeing different points with the three different colours and then started to fill in the gaps and overlap them. Then to avoid getting a murky colour underneath I let the fabric drip into the dish and poured the extra liquid out. I think that really helped.

Before steaming:

 
I steamed it on low for about and hour, that usually does the trick. Rinsed in cold water and un tied all the rubber bands. Every one was a new surprise! One final rinse and.......

 Isn't it beautiful? The camera doesn't quite capture it's beauty, but you get the idea. It looks particularly good held up to the light! I love how the colours blended and especially like the purple spots, they seemed to have the most contrast. It's almost organic really... could be more so if I had made the shapes a bit more meandering rather than so circular. I have another piece of fabric, so expect more dyed fabric soon. Not sure if I should hand paint or do more tie dyeing... Tie Dyeing tens to be more reliable I think because it fits better in the steaming dish. A big piece of fabric folded over itself would just bleed colours and become a mess. So perhaps just stick with the tie dyeing for the moment. But some different colours perhaps.

And here are some flowers (I can't remember what they are called, but I've seen them before in the Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne) and they grow like weeds here. Such vibrant colours! Similar to the dyeing in fact...

Well right now seems like a good time to go for a walk, the sun is out, so I think I'll make some lunch and head out while I can. Then it's knitting time! I would really like to finish a knitting project.. I have 6 on the go at the moment...

N