New Zealand Fibre Swap v6.0

I am participating in the NZ Fibre Swap 6.0 over on Ravelry, and have been really spoilt by Frances, my swappee.  She is an organised woman, and sent me two parcels ahead of time.  One as a teaser, and the second today.  Thanks so much Frances, you are just lovely.  I can’t wait to get started spinning.  🙂 Kate

The package:  two beautiful lavender floral cards (one in each parcel), enough packets of seeds to keep the girls’ and I out of mischief for some time, ‘The Natural Confectionary Company’ Snakes (much appreciated being natural flavours & colours thankyou!), Schoppel Wolle INSilk 75% merino/25% silk (VERY spoilt receving this) and two hanks of Kate Mahoney hand dyed fibre in the most brilliant lime green/deep purple/dusky blue colourway.  How I love fibre goodies!!  By the way, Morag over at Vintage Purls has just got the pencil roving in, enable, enable.  Happy spinning everyone!

 

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New and Old

It seems that it’s gift season at the moment.  Everyone is busily preparing for gift giving of some kind or another, whether it be Christmas, birthday, koha or swap related.  I am reminded that my latest wool dyeing efforts have eluded the camera, so I thought I should snap some piccies before they disappear.

 

I won’t go into too much detail as these are yet to be gifted, but they were dyed using my new powder dyes and were steamed on the stove top.  I’m finally getting my dyeing technique sussed, and LOVE the effect of using variable dye percentages and tones that steaming allows.

 

My new spinning buddy, Sam popped over a couple of days ago with her latest invention.  A swift case!!  She had one for me and one for herself to house her new swift when it arrives.  Thanks so much Sam, it is just perfect and makes a much nicer home than the brown paper wrapping :-).  Miss Sam is going into production with these I think, so support young Kiwi talent and buy one!!!  Check out her lovely blog too.

  

I finally finished spinning my first attempt at sock weight yarn.  This was the chocolate and neopolitan roving that I bought a couple of months ago from Vintage Purls.  I’m happy with it now that I have it on the needles, it’s lovely to knit with and is shaping up to be a scrummy little pair of socks.  The pattern is Up, Up and Away by Megan S. Wright.  Thanks to Kristy who gifted it to me in our latest Naki yarn swap :-).  Ooh, and I have finished my Opal socks too.  Thank goodness.  Note to self; NEVER knit a pair of plain knit socks EVER again.  B.O.R.I.N.G!!  I’ll take some piccies sometime :-).

We have finally got most of our ‘junk’ out of Mum and Dad’s garage now that we are in a larger house.  Here’s some little treasures I found amongst my folders of work from Uni days.  They are by no means the best of work, but they are nice to have around.  It’s rather strange looking back, that seems like a lifetime ago.  Those of you with children will understand what I mean.  I love being a Mum, but I should really get back into illustration and life drawing in particular.  I miss charcoal and oils and the freedom and endless possibilities that they allow.  One day.

Freebie Monday, yipeeeeeeee

Sorry for my tardiness, life with kiddies is busy!

So, our winner of last weeks ‘Bib and Tucker’ handpainted breastpads is:

NOVA!!  With her ‘boobie monster’ design.  Love it!  Email me your details and I’ll get them in the mail for you :-).

THIS WEEK  we have something for all you wool nuts – a thick & thin hand dyed hank of subtle pastel scrumminess. 

 

Simply leave me a message saying ‘hi’ and you are in the draw.  Don’t forget to blog etc for another entry.  Good luck :-).

NZ’s own yarn sampler box!!

Have you heard about ‘Blendy’s NZ Yarn Sampler Box’?   If you love yarn & fibre, then you must visit Belinda’s site and take a wee look.  It’s super scrummy and the list of contributors is pretty fantastic!!  Here’s the blurb from Belinda’s site:

“It’s a treasure-trove box containing a variety of artisan yarns and other knitting-related items in sample quantities, which you will be able to enjoy touching, feeling, knitting, spinning, felting… and then you’ll know just what to buy for your next project. 

It’s a wonderful try-before-you-buy deal, because you don’t get the full touchy-feely experience with photographs when shopping online.

Blendy’s NZ Yarn Sampler Boxes are like a mini craft fair – you get a little bit of everything that knitters would enjoy, such as yarn, fibre, stitch markers, buttons, embellishments, gift cards, delicious treats – all made by fantastic (mostly) NZ creatives. I want to share my love of supporting the amazing crafts New Zealanders make with the rest of the world. There will also be a few amazing international samples, because we love them too.

If you like the samples in your box, please make sure you check out the suppliers websites and see what other great stuff you can buy!”

Belinda has created a Ravelry group, so you can keep up to date with the latest Blendy news and oogle over the scrummy goodies that have been contributed, and she has also set up a wee Blendy blog with even more piccies & yarny info.  CHECK IT OUT!!

🙂 Kate

Scrumdidlyumptious

There’s nothing more satisfying than dying your own wool.  It’s just such an addictive wee hobby isn’t it?  Here’s yesterdays effort, some bulky handspun steam dyed with good old food colouring.  I love it.  It’s actually for a gift, but I don’t know if I can part with it! 

I’ve been experimenting with new techniques to try to gain a little more control when dying.  There’s nothing worse than spending the good part of an hour painting a hank of yarn, then to have the colours merge when ‘cooking’.  So for this hank, I painted the yarn whilst steaming it over a large canning pot.  It worked a treat, very minimal colour left when rinsing and the colours are rich (much richer than the photo illustrates) and most importantly have STAYED WHERE THEY WERE PUT!!  Yeehaaaaa.  Yay, I have sussed out my new dying technique.

The only downfall of scrummy food colouring yarn, is the bottles of dye that get soaked up during the process.  But, one of the lovely spinning ladies mentioned that the kindy she works at use powdered food colouring.  Ooh, ooh, I said, tell me more!  So now I have ordered a batch of powdered food colouring in all 12 shades (well you need to test them all out you know), and will pick them up on Monday.  How exciting is that!  And best of all, the colours are so intense that you only need to use a smidge (technical term) to achieve intense yarn dyed goodness.  Can you imagine how much fun it’s going to be mixing the powders together to create new colours? Mmmmmm. 

 The best part is, little Miss 3yr old helped with the dying yesterday.  She hasn’t been able to do this with the acid dyes as they are a bit toxic.  We just did the whole dying process in our kitchen using everyday equipment.  Fantastic!

Monday Madness!!!

Hi all 🙂

I’m just popping in to remind you to check back at 5pm tomorrow for ‘Bib and Tucker’ Monday Madness.  I’ll be releasing the first colourway in my new hand illustrated Designer Nappy Collection, AND there will be freebies.  Oh yes, it’s the start of  ‘Bib and Tucker’ Freebie Monday tomorrow, so I’ll be loading piccies of what’s up for offer this week.

See you tomorrow!  🙂 Kate

Bib and Tucker ‘Freebie Monday’

I’ve decided it’s time to give something back to the crafty world out there, considering how much inspiration all of you give me.  So, from this coming Monday I’m introducing Bib and Tucker ‘Freebie Monday’.  I’ll be offering handcrafted goodies (yes, there might be quite a bit of hand spun, bwah haa haa haa haa) for you to win each week. 

Come and visit on Monday at 5pm, NZ time and I’ll pop on here with a wee piccie of the weeks freebie.  I’ll announce how you can win on Monday’s post.

This coming Monday is also the launch day of our new Designer Nappy Collection, which will be released in limited editions each Monday.   The website will be updated with the collections each week.

I’ve just returned from spinning this evening, you know, the whole day event that I was talking about the other day.  Whoa, I’m a bit shattered, but learnt so much today.  I finished spinning the ‘Wave Waltz’ hand dyed merino single for my Naki wool swap, so will see if I can get that plyed tomorrow.  Piccies to come once it’s completed.  We are working on silk dying at the next Saturday meeting which promises to be fantastic.   See you there Naki girls!!

Right, I’m off to bed so that I have enough energy to start this wee crafty freebie that I have planned for Monday.  Bye.  🙂 Kate