My new crafty blog

Yep, I've set up another blog, not to replace this one just to tidy stuff up a bit. This one was getting a bit messy so I decided to make a new one just for my crafty stuff. I have called it Clever Chook, not cause I'm vain but because that's what my darlin' calls me! I also hope it keeps me more focussed on making stuff, cause I'm thinking of setting up an etsy shop. Let me know what you think......

http://cleverchook.blogspot.com/

Hey, this felting thing is pretty cool!

Yesterday I decided to have a go at using last year's fleece from Pearl. As we did the shearing ourselves the fleece was VERY bitsy, lots of short bits. It was also filthy with our red soil, and had loads of debris such as thistles, burrs etc. After some net surfing to find out how to do it and six washes later (next time she's having a bath!) the fleece was finally clean. I carded it to remove any remaining organic matter and then had a go at dying it. I used food colouring as it is cheap and easily available. I just wet the fleece, added the food colouring and zapped it in the micro for 2 mins at a time until the dye was all taken up. It was fun, and very messy lol.... BTW that is purple not black, I was a bit heavy handed with the first lot!

This morning I pulled it into little tufts and randomly placed it on the bubble wrap to begin felting a bag. I got the pattern for the bag from here ages ago.

Because Pearl's fleece was so bitsy my bag was different thicknesses in places so I will make a lining to strengthen it. I haven't decided yet how to do the handles.

Turned out ok for a fully homegrown amateur effort. The colours are different to what I'd usually use so it was fun to try something new.

Mongolian felt making, this is fantastic!

I learnt to felt today!

And it felt goooooood lol...... After many moons of reading felting books and looking at people's work on the net I finally had an opportunity to attend a real live felting workshop. It was so much fun, we made a cushion top and a scarf. Such a bargain, all the needfuls were included and so was lunch and morning/afternoon tea, all for $65! Here are my attempts.

The cushion top was inspired by my insomnia, so it is a cloudy night with a silk moon and some stars. The moon is a bit dodgy so I will probably add some embellishment to it to make it a bit more secure.
The scarf was heaps of fun to design, and I was pretty chuffed with the result.
The pic is a bit dark, it's a gorgeous rusty red with olive green vines and leaves. I am so inspired to do more felting now, thanks Cindy for teaching the workshop, and to Bron for letting me know about it.

Well at least we'll be clean lol.....

Is it normal for one person to do so many different things? Most people seem to choose a hobby or three and concentrate on doing them well. Not me, I flit from thing to thing like a voracious honey-bee in a flower garden. I sew, embroider, spin, make soap and candles, do punch needle and rug hooking, make prim dolls, knit, crochet, make braided rag rugs, and so on. And that's not to mention the preserves, bread, pickles, jams, etc etc etc. I just love producing things with my hands. I may not be an expert at any one skill but I never get a chance to get bored! I am in full-on soap mode at the moment. It's becoming an obsession. First it was the olive and lavender soap with oatmeal and hemp. Now I have produced a massive 3. kg lot of canolive soap which I am in the process of hand milling, or re-batching, into different varieties. Merran (11) and I made chocolate and vanilla soap today, and tonight I made a batch of cinnamon soap. It has real cinnamon and cinnamon leaf essential oil in it. Yummo! I had no idea how long it would take to melt down the canolive soap, it took about an hour. The first batch we did in a saucepan over a low heat. I was stressed out thinking it was going to burn. So the following batch I did in the Pyrex jug over a saucepan of hot water. Took just as long but not as scary. Apparently it can be done by double bagging the grated soap and immersing it in hot water. I'll try that next time.
This is the canolive soap curing so it can be hand milled. Who ate the top of the bread? Hot bread is just soooo good.......If I can't get the hand milling process sped up I'll just make small batches of the gourmet soaps. I made extra of the canolive so I can use it to make my laundry liquid anyway. Hmmmm, wonder how long this phase of my creativity will last?

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 ........

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.

Project number one!

Here's my first project from the book I mentioned in my last post. These came up a treat and are so comfy. I might make the next pair a little smaller, I think I might have to felt these a bit more to make them fit my feet better. I tarted them up a bit with the button and topstitching, not too bad I reckon!

I did it!!!!!

Yay, I can make beanies!!!!! I came home from the expo very inspired with lots of ideas for new projects. So I finished my (Toddy's) beanie last night to clear the way for more creativity. I was pretty happy with it, and he loves it! Louie the lamb thought it smelt pretty good too lol.... I saw some skeins of handspun wool at the expo yesterday for $20 each, so that made my seven skeins for $3 a real bargain. There was some great stuff at the expo, and lovely people too. If anyone wants to check it out (Bron) it's on every day this week until 12 noon Saturday at Kinross Wollaroi school in Orange NSW. I left there determined to find a spinning teacher so I can make use of the coloured fleeces I've been given and eventually spin some of Pearl and Louie's wool. I am thinking of taking the girls to a coloured ram for a "sleepover" when Louie is old enough, much cheaper than buying handpun wool. I must learn to dye the white fleeces too, so much to do and so little time lol.... Off to check how my recycled jumpers are felting in the washing machine. I bought this book yesterday and I am keen to get started!

Wonderful wool and fabulous fibre......

I am so into raw, natural fibres at the moment. I found this gorgeous handspun wool at an op-shop a while ago and decided to make Toddy a beanie.

He's been after a heavy, greasy wool beanie for yonks. I have only knitted scarves and one or two simple jumpers so the whole shaping thing is new to me. Oh well, worth a go. The wool cost me an unbelievably cheap $3!

I am off to a fibre expo today, I'm so excited.... I only had a very short time there last year and the goodies were divine, camel fibre for goodness sake! Never knew it was available! Can't wait to see what they have this year...... kids are on holidays but I managed to farm them all out so I have a whole day to touch and stroke and smell and..... ok I'm rambling but it's gonna be great!

Just for fun.....

Haven't had a chance to do much crafting lately, so when the opportunity presented itself today I jumped at the chance. I've been dying to give this idea a go. Who would have thunk ya could make a hat from a recycled wool jumper? Well, the idea never entered my head til I borrowed this book from the library and found this pattern! So easy and just what I needed, a quick frivolous project just for me......
I just made the flower from scraps of felted jumper and added a bit of stitching. Whole thing took about an hour and was heaps of fun. I can see myself making a few of these for the chilly days ahead.

The land of milk and honey.......

Ahhhh.....bliss.... I love this life.

First the exciting news - we are the proud "parents" of a baby girl. Ian found her in the middle of the road with no sheep anywhere in sight, and no houses either! We can only assume that she fell off the back of a truck. Amazingly she is uninjured and feeding well, with proud step-mum Pearl babysitting her between feeds. Her name is Louise as she was found near Louis Ponds.

I have been indulging myself in homemade skincare products. I hit the op-shops, eBay and the library and have amassed a few great books on herbal/natural skincare. I have made Quince cleansing gel, rosewater toner and lavender moisturiser, and lots more. Just waiting on a delivery from this site which has great stuff dirt cheap! I have sourced beeswax from a local apiarist at the unbelievable price of $6 a kilo, it's $56 a kilo at my local health food shop. Great for adding to moisturisers and lip balm and at that price I can see some candles being made. I made rosewater yesterday, I nicked some open blooms from the council gardens lol..... they smell so good but would have been dead the next day so I didn't think anyone would mind. Besides I pay rates! I have also been making soy melts for the oil burner, so easy and much nicer than burning parrafin wax. I got the wax from here. I have experimented with loads of essential oils, I have about 15 different oils that I have collected. Got heaps of books on aromatherapy too. I would love to do a course on all this but they are so expensive to do..... one day.......

My gifts to Mill.....

And here's what I sent Mill.......

I am sooooo spoilt.......

I have been the lucky recipient of some gorgeous goodies in our P4P Advent Swap. Thanks Tea for organising this...... Each person sent 24 small pressies to their swap partner, one to be opened each day until Christmas. At least half had to be handmade. Then on Christmas Day we got an extra special pressy! My wonderful, talented and generous swap partner is Mill (in the middle with the cowboy hat lol...) Here's what she sent me, thanks so much hun!

Furry ornies and my raggy tree skirt......

I love Christmas decorating, but it is a "trifle" tricky with my little helpers...... Nutmeg decided that the reindeer atop my tree was fascinating and must be hunted down!

Cinnamon thought impersonating a panther was a good idea...... Nutmeg wasn't so sure.....

Put the two together and the tree became a wonderful playground! But not for long, I have my trusty "Puss Off", a concoction of citronella oil and water in a spray bottle designed to repel even the fiercest panther...... My real Christmas ornies are too precious to be hunted by this dastardly duo. The girls may adorn my bed instead......

BTW I made a raggy tree skirt! Turned out pretty good I reckon....

Pretty pleased with this......

For the longest time I have been searching for a clock to suit my primitive decor. They were all too small or too cutesy. So I made my own! Well sortof anyways....... I bought a very modern stainless steel rim, white faced, big numbered, cheap clock. I pulled it to bits and painted the face and rim matte black. Gotta love spray paint - too easy. I sprinkled the face with cinnamon, letting a little float on to the hands. Then all I had to do was hot glue some rusty stars (some of which I painted with the spray paint) onto where the numbers should go. Put it all back together and wahlah! A prim "rusty" clock........ gotta admit I was pretty pleased with the result!

Great skirt tutorial........

Been looking for a pattern for one of these for ages. I have tried on heaps of tiered, gypsy or peasant skirts over the years but they are always too short on me, making my legs look stumpy. This tutorial is great, you just enter your measurements and it calculates the size of each piece! There is a choice of two lengths as well..... Now excuse the pics, I have had this fabric in my stash for about 10 years and I still have 10 kgs to lose on WW so those two factors combined don't make for the best shot lol...... However I was really pleased with the result and it is soooooo comfy, great for the hot days ahead. Now I know the pattern works I might just splash out and buy some more fabric to make another couple.