Margaret Miller

Have been working on ideas for B&W. Flirted with the idea of not doing marle but actually trying to reproduce the yarn used in the original for the Jacket   a very slubby wool/linen blend . But I only had a bit of hemp for the sample. I made a batt from white and black tops fed in side by side, I removed the batt to add a little hemp and then recarded. Trying very hard to minimise creating grey. I spun thick and thin singles then knitted swatch (approx 9-10wpi). The result was too much grey and the singles were not thick enough for the jacket project, but I loved the effect and will keep it in mind for something else. There are no pictures of the preparation, but here is the swatch and a closer view of detail. Mostly garter (which I love) with a few rows of stocking stitch. On with the marle which I will need to cable ply to get it thick enough. And just to add some colour - I finally wound the pink merino/silk into balls. Week two also saw me winding balls from recently f...

Not much spinning, but plenty of thinking. I finished drafting one of the articles I am writing for our Guild's new book. The book will be fairly a eclectic collection of spinning/weaving/felting tips, stories, ideas, patterns, instructions. I am writing the wool combs, Andean plying and drop spindle (short) articles.

Not much happening today. It was a guild day but I had too much chasing around to do getting people to test patterns for the new Guild Book that I didn't get much time for my own spinning. I did get to watch the solar dyeing demonstration which was being done for the photos, though. The Yarn Store didn't have any silk throwsters waste, so I will have to rethink my plans for an inclusion into the black singles. Although I bought 200gm black merino I've decided that it's probably not going to be soft enough for what I want (I did spin 10m!), so I will, with great trepidation, attempt to dye black some of the white I have already spun. BTW - all this B&W is for next year's Guild Exhibition with the theme "Black and White with a splash of colour:" So no exciting colours for me over the summer :( I did manage a tiny bit of spindling at Guild - I had the spindle made for me when we moved from QLD to TAS. The shaft is Huon Pine for Tasmania and the whorl is B...

Day 1: Finished plying pink superfine merino which I had previously blended with silk on wool combs. I also finished plying the last of the Merino Lamb's wool (16micron) which is for a project I am doing for our Guild's Exhibition next year. And finally began washing an Alpaca Fleece which had come straight from the farm, which is also for the Exhibition.

Possum_Merino , originally uploaded by Hypatia2 . I finished this yesterday (along with my NANoWriMo novel!). The carded fibre was clean but still in the grease. It was fun being transported back to the 1970's when everything we did was like this. Only then we usually had to wash and card it ourselves. The texture and colour is also reminiscent of that era, very "homespun", but quite soft and I suspect super warm. As there is only 100gms, I'm not sure yet what I will do with it. Too late now to wash and skein the yarn, so that will be the first thing I do in Tasmania (maybe) and by then I might have some ideas for it. Actually the thought of a teacosy has just struck me, ... perhaps...

First Father Doll , originally uploaded by Hypatia2 . Finally I've finished. I began this little doll seven years ago (obviously when I had more time) and now he's finished. There is a mother, son, daughter and baby to go! If history is repeating, that will just about see me out of this life! The body is made from 12 ply commercial yarn - too long ago to remember what (if I even knew then). The hair looked like 5 ply Bendigo Yarn and the coat has been handspun from 4 separate colours which has produced a surprisingly rick optical brown. The individual colours were: lime green, orange, purple and a dark pink. I am very pleased with the result, although it was a complete surprise. Hmmm, I should try to get another photo without the ugly pool thingy in it just behind his shoulder. How I long for my beautiful film SLR camera where I could see exactly what was in the picture.

and beside, I've been extremly irritated by blogger. I haven't been able to upload photos easily for a couple of weeks and when they do arrive they don't have links so that you can enlarge them. So we continue to pack, I've decided to stop spinning until we arrive in Tas. (at least on the wheel). I'm stuck on a pair of socks, I'm trying to write for NaNoWriMo, and I'm finishing off some knitted dolls before we leave. (Oh and there's always homeschool to supervise!) More later. OK so the upload is working - let's see if we've got the enlarge links. NOPE,.

6:00am Turned the heel and began work on the gusset 9:00am Sorting, sorting, sorting .... 10.30am Took a break to do some spinning and take the photos 4:30pm Can you see the difference?

I made my first posting to SSofS earlier today, although it was a bit of a 'cheat' in that these socks were started before I knew about the KnitALong. It was quite pleasant knitting them up, although they are a size 12. The diameter of the multi-coloured yarn was smaller than the green which made the socks pull in a bit tight across the toes, but not uncomfortably so. I tried doubling it, but that then became too thick. One of the woes of using up handspun stash I suppose.

I've just posted my latest spinning photos on Mandie's fibre gallery, but as that is only open to her customers I'll repeat it here. Green Agate was one of Mandie's commercially blended fibres. This one is a merino cross. I liked the subtle colours and I hope to make some socks with it. (Unless of course it gets hyjacked for something else :) Below is the predrafting and the first bobbin of singles. The rovings were so fine that making nests was not possible - I just let them fall into the bowl and picked up the ends as they surfaced, to spin. Plied yarn - 14 wpi I'm really enjoying seeing all the different spinning styles - they're all so beautiful. Thanks Mandie (again) for starting this gallery, and thanks to everyone for contributing. Margaret And the last image exclusive to this post is my attempt at "artsy": Our bauhinia was beautiful this year and as it is the last time I'll see it, I felt compelled to take photos. PS: I think I will use the...