changeling things

I just had to play with it, I couldn’t help myself after buying a “cheap as chips” polymer clay book.  I’ve joined a couple of spinning groups on ravelry including “spindlemakers”.  I really  wanted to try a bottom whorl spindle…so why not make one, right?!  Several people had made theirs out of polymer clay so I thought I’d give it a go.  Mixing colours was a little difficult as I don’t think the primary colours are “true” - so mixing red and blue did not make purple.  But blue and yellow gave a nice green so maybe the problem was with the red?  Anyway, here’s the result…the shaft is a 99cent wooden knitting needle.

And it spins like a dream.  I was so suprised.  It doesn’t spin out a lot and it spins for a really long time.  The fiber is a wool/silk blend.  It’s a bit sparkly…both the fiber and the spindle.  I pressed pearlescent powder into the fimo before baking.

And since I was onto the fimo - I tried to make some canes.  Not perfect.  Not good enough for beads, but OK for stitch markers I think.

What can one do on a rainy day without a car?  Dye.

Today I rang up the automotive man to see if I could book our car in because it was smelling strongly of petrol.  It had been running really well apart from this curious smell that wafted up through the floorboards when we parked it under the house.  It’s an old car form the 80’s that has been in our possession for little over a week.  We have pushed it hard in that week and it has responded gloriously, apart from the smell.  I, not knowing much about cars, thought that since it was going well nothing much was wrong.  When I rang up to ask the garage about it I was told not to drive it as it might CATCH ON FIRE AND EXPLODE! 

So it has been towed to the service station and I have been left at home with the rain pattering steadily down.  A perfect day to experiment with crafty stuff. 

I have been meaning to try jelly crystal dying since reading an article on it in Yarn Magazine about a year ago.  I think I got a little carried away with adding and mixing colours.  I might try to restrain myself next time.  the article talked about the jelly setting and becoming gooey during the process but mine stayed pretty liquid.  Also I noticed that the diet jelly was thinner in consistency thatn the regular jelly and, I think, more intense in colour.  I’ll have to experiment further to confirm that.

 I have also completed the week 19 TAST stitch - Basque stitch today.  I enjoyed it but I think I kept getting the direction of the twisted stitch wrong.  I’ll have to keep practicing.  But I’m wondering if it really matters?  Does this mean that some stitches are Basque stitch and some stitches are a different stitch?  I didn’t set out to make a picture but it just turned into  one.

I am so pleased to have finished this jumper.  It’s a pattern from Interweave Knits called Notre Dame De Grace by Veronik Avery.  It was a lovely easy knit - just right for train journeys.  Becasue it’s summer though, it’s taken me a long while to sew up.  The last few days have turned all nasty, weather-wise, and so were perfect for finishing up.   The Lindcraft cosy wool is a little scratchy but as I’ll probably be wearing long sleeved shirts under it anyway, I don’t think it will matter too much.   I’m always suprised that I don’t look like the model in the picture though…It hugs my curves a bit too much….But there’s more to worry about than that eh?

Well…I’ve just been tagged by Jessica Marie from Folk and Fairy blog and so have just discovered what it means to be tagged.   I love her blog, she puts so much work into finding fairythings that I love to look at.

This is what it means: There are rules to follow and the rules are:

So I’ll try to follow the rules - something I wish I could say I was not very good at but unfortunately I am such a responsible person that I often follow rules.

Random thing no. 1:

I used to sing to the fairies  when Mum locked me outside because I’d been “naughty” - I truly believed they could hear me.

Random thing no 2:

I still have my diaries, into which I poured my soul,   from ages 14 - 22.   Unfortunately they are quite boring to read, though life certainly seemed a lot more interesting at the time.

Random thing no 3:

I have studied at almost every uni in Sydney  ( 5 different uni’s to be exact - this is not a source of pride - I kept on swapping courses and managed to study Psych 101 twice!)

Random thing no 4:

I am terrible at Maths, really terrible…seriously terrible - this will result in my never being a knitting pattern writer and also meant that I couldn’t continue with Psychology as I couldn’t do the Stats, at all.  I failed stats which was a bummer because I got an HD for the Psych bit.

Random thing no 5:

My party trick is to let my jaw go very loose, open my mouth incredibly wide and put my hands aside my head in a “shocked position” - People tell me I look like the painting “The Scream” by Munch.

Random thing no 6:

I can cook a good Moussaka and very good shortbread - the two don’t neccessarily go together.

Random thing no 7:

I am still very close friends with a girl I met in second grade at primary school when we were aged 6. 

 And I am going to tag:

When I was a little girl in the 70’s, I remember one of my cousins completed a string art picture of a boat in shiny metalic cord on a black felt background.  My Aunt hung it proudly in her hallway. 

The TAST week 16 stitch  - Palestrina stitch - seemed to want to be some string art, like it or not.   It was fun to do.  I quite liked the rthymn of the stitch, even though some of my stitches are not too neat.  I worked with some linen thread for the first time.  This really held the knot well.  I liked the difference thicknesses of threads placed side by side in this stitch - It sort of made a bevelled edge “frame”. 

I also found an amazing beetle sitting on our table this week.  I have no idea what it is called.

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)

Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive.Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

For anyone wondering….yep that’s a pretty accurate desciption of me, I think.  Though I would hate to think this personality type is that rare.  I thought it was cute, though of course I would do, seeing as how I’m perceptive and all.

I’m thinking my brain must be unconsiously caught up with creating some really spectacular philosophical concept that prevents me from accomplishing ordinary tasks in ordinary time.  How else to explain why it takes me so long to complete one miniscule TAST stitch. 

But here we go.

It’s  Week 15’s Oyster stitch.  I think it would have turned out better if I’d planned it a little bit but I really liked playing with where to put the “arm” of the stitch and elongating the last part of the stitch so it sort of produces a stem.  I also have been playing with different weights of thread a bit lately - and I really love the perle cotton.

The other day a beautiful dragonfly decided to visit our house.  Before we “saved” him and put him outside to battle the birds, I took a photo.  He/she makes a beautiful drawing subject, I think.

Just to note - at this stage, if you happen to see 3 comments left on the pay it forward post and are thinking “oh..3 people have already signed up and I’ve missed out”…think again.. No-one’s signed up yet.

And as for my TAST projects…I’m steadily losing hope that I’ll ever catch up…but I’m still having fun with it and learning heaps anyway.  Which is the point, I think.  So I’ve been working on bonnet stitch, which is so sweetly named, don’t you think?   I quite liked this stitch , although I found it difficult to get the tension right so that the loop part of the stich stayed flat.  Nothing that a bit of vigorous ironing won’t fix, eh?  Well, actually, in some cases the ironing didn’t fix it, but I quite like the effect anyway.  So here it it is.

I’m also working on the “Notre Dame” jumper, designed by Veronik Avery.  I love her designs, almost every time I stop to have another look at a design when flicking through Interweave Knits, it will be one of hers.

And I also plyed my first balls of spindle spun wool.  Now I know they are a bit uneven still.  But I think I’ll be able to knit a little scarf out of them.  And if that doesn’t work I can always felt it and make a knitted purse/wallet.