Busy, busy, busy......

It's been a busy couple of weeks since my last post. Of course the spinning has kept me busy as has a few weekend jaunts to my parent's place. Since then I have acquired yet another pet, this time from Geoff who we met through a great site - Aussies Living Simply. He was giving away a gorgeous Angora goat called Billie Jean, how could I resist?

Her fleece is mohair and should be a delight to spin. I have also been making candles and soap, I will show you pics of the soap when I cut it into bars. I made the candles from recycled old ones, they look pretty but don't burn terribly well. After a while they "drown" in the wax. Got a lot to learn there....

Off to peek at my soap, shouldn't really I know, but I can't resist!!!! Only made it today, from my parent's homegrown olive oil and lavender oil.... smells divine.

Wow, what a pro!

Looking for spinning info on the net I came upon this, isn't it great! Something to aspire to lol......



The youtube member says this video is of Mrs Helen Maddrell (Isle of Man) demonstrating carding and spinning wool.(This was definitely filmed in 1938 - I have a letter written by her inviting my Grandfather to tea. And a letter from him in which he refers to the film of her spinning.)

How adorable is this?????

Ok I've got the spinning bug bad now.... I was op-shopping (thrifting) today and came across a gorgeous little upright wheel. What's a girl to do??? Yup, wheel number two was soon on it's way to it's new home. After a bit of research on the net I finally found a matching wheel. Here's a pic, mine is missing the Lazy Kate on the side (where the extra bobbins go) and only has 2 bobbins. I am lucky to have a very handy hubby who will surely make me a new LK, if I ask him right lol......
Isn't it cute? The real selling point for me was that the action is just sooooo smooth. I found out a little bit of info about the wheel - Bressay wheels were made from 1971 to 1975 by Rotorua Woodcraft Ltd, makers of all kinds of small wooden items. These double drive wheels were based on a 100-year-old wheel brought from Shetland. They are made from Fijian kauri (dakua) with a veneer wheel. About 2000 were exported to the UK, Canada, Australia, and a few to the USA. Now who wants to buy my other wheel? In perfect order, Ashford traditional $175 lol....

I'm spinning around, get outta my way.......

No it's not the Kylie Minogue song I'm referring to, I have spent this evening teaching myself to spin! Not as easy as it looks, I'm tellin' ya....... I have had my spinning wheel for about 2 years now and finally got around to having a go. Thank goodness for the internet, I found some great videos and sites that are so helpful. Books just don't do it for me I'm afraid, gotta see and do. Check out my results, not bad for a first go. (Ok, maybe the second go, or was that the fourteenth?) Not quite sure why it bunched up like that on the bobbin but I guess I'll work it out.

I also found some great tips on this forum that has info on all sorts of fibre arts such as spinning, knitting, weaving, felting etc. Can't wait now to have some hands on instruction from a real teacher ........

Happy blogiversary to me!!!! My 100th post.......

I am truly hopeless with anniversaries. My hubby and I actually forgot about our's this year until about a week later! And it was only our second lol...... how are we going to remember when it's our 20th? Anyway in keeping with my live for the moment concentration span I missed the anniversary of my blog. Yes folks it's been a year already! But I didn't miss my hundreth post, and this is it! Yay for blogging!!!!!!!

Crafter's toolbelt

I saw a great tutorial for this toolbelt here and decided I just had to have one! Now I have pockets for all my tools as well as the essential mobile phone and iPod lol....I have lost my mojo with sewing lately so I decided to get organised and tidy up the craft studio as well.

Buy this and help promote reconciliation!!!!