a labour of love

I finally finished my very first homegrown, hand shorn (by Brad, using the old fashioned hand shears), handspun and handknitted jumper. I get a real buzz from being a part of every step of the process, knowing exactly what was done to produce something. So much of what we buy these days undergoes much processing, and we don't know about it. Its just one jumper, but its another step towards self reliance and reducing 'clothing miles'.

Brad with Pedro the alpaca who 'donated' his fleece for this jumper.

Regardless, I am pretty proud of our joint effort!

You know when you are a little obsessive about making stuff, when your daughter asks first 'who made it?' rather than 'where did they buy it?', and she is always disappointed to hear when something was made 'in a factory in china'.

The heat is on!

Tomorrow is forcast to be a very hot 43C. Last week fires were burning only a few km'sto the east of the farm, those have been brought under control (after burning about 30 houses). Now to the west new fires are going, and its expected that they will be well and truly out of control, as the weather is just hellish... Its just so dry right now.

We are one of the few households that don't have airconditioning (by choice). Although our house is not well designed (can't get much worse really as far as keeping cool goes) its not too bad, if you keep the curtains closed, and keep the sun out. There is a small window at around 4pm or so when its still hot outside, but the house has heated up. We went to the pool for the first time last week to cool off after the 3rd or 4th 40+C day in a row... There will be a bit of this here tomorrow!

The kids in the kitchen sink, one sink each!

Keeping the kids cool is probably the hardest. That and the dogs, and the garden, arrghhh, come on autumn!

The kids are well. Our not so little boy is starting to say 'mum' and is very good at sitting up and reaching around himself - 9 months old now - but still not crawling! Our girl has proved herself to be an expert little puzzle doer - she is now doing 50 piece puzzles (for age 4)... such a clever thing, but such an insomniac!

This week, I caught up with one of the ladies from the local spinning group. We swapped some fleece. I gave her some alpaca fleece, and she gave me about 600g or so of sheep fleece half merino (the top staple) and some border leicester (the bottom one) - check out the staple length!!! Its around 30cm or so! I am looking forward to spinning some greasy fleece for a change.


Although that will have to wait till I finish some knitting - I have decided that there will be no spinning till I get a few bits knitted up. Just too much yarn here (yeah I know, no such thing!!)... Getting there.

Promises

This time of year is great in the garden. Everywhere is the promise of bountiful harvests.

I think we will have a good year for raspberries!

Fruit trees and vegy gardens are such a great investment. It doesn't cost much (somethings in fact are free - if you know where to look - like my raspberry patch which started from some suckers that my mum gave me.... - we will easily pick 10kg of berries this year - only 4-5 years since planting), doesn't take that much work (although it does take work, but its fun, and beats sitting infront of the TV), and the rewards are just great. On the downside, once you eat peaches fresh off the tree you just can't buy them ever again... Bought peaches (and most fruit and veg really) are bred to be tough for travelling in trucks etc. Home grown are just the fruit, sweet, soft and just soooooo good.... Mine wont be ready till January :(

I'm almost finished spinning all the blue green merino tops, and next up on the spinning adgenda are some batts of my own creation! Alpaca, mohair, silk and sparkly angenlina!! Yay! Should be fun spinning. I'm going to take that along to the local spinners group christmas lunch, in 2 weeks. Gotta get carding!


I got to meet some other Ravelers last weekend too. This is the first time I've met anyone that I have known via the internet. We had a good time, and it was fun to talk knitting needles etc! And I got the heads up about the new Addi interchable needles! Sooooo tempting.

Happy things!

Its all been a bit doom and gloom on the blog of late. That is not to say that life around here has been that bad, it hasn't. Some bad things have happened, and although they are hard, its still just a part of life. We are all happy and doing well - although I wish I could control time to slow it down a little... Can you believe that its November tomorrow????? Well I cant! I think that 2008 just disappeared somehow. Not sure where, but a minute ago it was the start of they year...

Anyway, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family - her name is "little cass", ironic considering she is a clydesdale - but that is the name that the people who bred her gave her and at this stage we think we will keep it.

She is only 10 months old, but friendly, and about the same size as my horse "jess". She will grow to be a fair bit bigger. At this stage she is untrained at all, so its going to be a new experience for us to teach a youngster everything, but clydesdales are SO quiet and relaxed and very smart.

jess (left) and cass (right)

Our plans for little cass are to break her in to harness and then use her to do work on the farm. That wont be for probably another 2-3 years, till she has matured, as putting a horse into work when they are too young can stunt their growth and they are still playful and frisky like puppies - not a quality you want in a working horse. By that stage we will be at the farm and able to put in the time required to teach her what she needs to know - or more likely that she will teach US.

So that is exciting.

I've had so little time lately, that my crafts have started to really suffer... I still spend an hour or so each night either knitting or spinning, but I have so little to show you... Well, the main project I'm working on is a secret christmas project, so I can't show you that. Its going along well though, and will definately be finished by the required time. I have been spinning though. Here is some nice green/blue merino. Lovely, very easy to spin, and my last easy spinning project before the alpacas get shorn... then its back to lots of preparation, carding etc. Here are the singles, and I'll be ready to ply soon.

Fun with mud

Well, typical to our methods we have gone off and started a new project (we have been working on our other started projects too!). We decided to make a mud pizza oven for our daughter's birthday in mid august. On saturday we mixed up the first layer of clay to put over the oven. It was fun and a bit of a practice run for when we start making mudbricks for the house.

First we built a dome out of sand and shaped it how we want the oven to be.


Then we mixed clay, sand and water on a big sheet of plastic, till it changed consistency.

Next we applied the clay mix to the sand dome, which we had covered in wet newspaper. Our mix was a bit wet, so we were not able to apply it like little bricks.


This first layer ended up being about 2-2.5cm (an inch) thick.


We will add another layer of clay of a similar thickness after a week or so. After the photo was taken we put finger indents all over the surface to help the next layer stick, and also increase the surface area so that it will dry better. Then there will be a thick layer of clay, sand and straw, and then a render. Once its fairly dry we can dig out the sand, and hope that the whole thing wont cave in.... Then it'll be yummy wood fired pizzas every weekend (until the novelty wears off!).

Not much crafting lately. Have spun and plyed 2 bobbins worth of grey mohair that was given to me, and have been contemplating doing some dyeing. But the garden is calling to me, despite the horrible weather today. Now I had better go and take the dog for a walk...

Autumn

The weather has been fantastic lately. Chilly nights and mornings, and lovely days (not hot so you can get lots of work done) and rain! I love autumn!


We have been so busy trying to get jobs finished etc. Finally got the engine back for our trusty old ute, so that should be back on the road soon. Brad couldn't help himself, so he had to respray the engine bay.... MEN....

At the farm we have been finishing off the outside of the shed, a few small projects, and planning the next stage. Finally got the flashing up, and cut off some bits of tin that still needed trimming. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to put the last bits of tin up and have a fully enclosed shed, but we shall see!


There has been crafting too! I'm now spinning the last of MY own alpaca fleeces, this one will be 'something' for me. Not sure if it'll be enough for the raglan I had planned, but we shall see... Its lovely and soft, and very nice to spin though... Brad has scored me some rovings from his Tai Chi teacher, so I will have plenty to go on to once the alpaca is finished! I'm almost done with his vest too, which is good. Then I'm planning some small projects! No pics sorry, I am lazy... Next time!

Oh, and we haven't heard from the lady who has taken Cookie, so I guess we can assume he hasn't caused her too much trouble.... YET! I do miss him, but its nice to go to the farm, and not have to spend all my time sorting his 'issues' out. Now I can go and burn off, or tidy up, or actually tend my plants! Wow a revelation.

Looking forward to the weekend and marshmallows on the fire - yay! Love autumn!

Winter already???

Wow, what is it with our weather??? For 3/4 of March we had not a drop of rain, and a week or so of full on heat, and now... winter!!! Its turned cold and wet! I'm glad about the rain, but it would have been nice to have some mild days with rain, so that maybe the grass would grow... oh well, not much we can do but complain about it, and get over it eh?


Well, the Cookie saga (Cookie is our goat who wont stay in the paddock) continues.... We have tried added extra wires to the fence, putting on various variations of yokes around his neck, but he still gets out, harasses neighbours and their animals (he is TOO friendly, raised by people not animals - I wont ever get an animal raised by people again, they just don't bond with the herd, but want to be with you all the time), hops into people's cars (yes, literally). So I'm looking for a home for him. He is back on the tether now, and unfortunately I just can't devote my entire day to him alone (yes, I do have other things to do too...) so he has to go. We are very sad about this, as for all his vices, he is a nice boy and deserves a good life....

I've finished my Jaywalker socks, they turned out well, and I'm happy with them. Next I will have to make a pair of sock for our little one, as I'm yet to knit her a pair. Crazy, since she has the smallest feet, and toddler socks would take me very little time at all....


Brad's vest is comming along slowly.... Note to self, don't do cables on men's clothing, Man Size items should be simple and quick, they just take SO long to knit! But I am up to the armholes now, so at least the back will be done soon.


I went along to the local spinner's group the other week. It was good. I've been meaning to go along for some time, but just never got around to it. I was the youngest one there by a good 20 years or so, but it was nice to see other's spinning. They all spin such fine and even yarn, made me look a little silly with my think and loosely spun stuff, but then again, one lady said that although her spinning is really good, she wont knit it, as its just too fine! I guess I spin the yarn that I like to knit, rather than striving for perfection. Maybe one day I will aim for a perfect yarn, but now I'm more interested in doing it as a way of being self-sufficient - grow the fleeces on the farm, then spin, and knit our clothing. Better than buying some cheap factory produced jumper...

sustainable living festival

Just got home from a lovely day in the city - we rarely go to the city, too far away and too busy, and we can do and get most things locally anyway. We took the train, the first time as a family, wasn't too bad, but the little one was pretty tired by the end of it all! We were in at federation square at the sustainable living festival. We had a good day, and actually caught up with a friend, and were interviewed for a TV show!! Brad got to talk to a company who convert electric cars (he is in the process of building an electric motorcycle), and we saw the solar taxi from Switzerland.


Much of the information was stuff we already knew though, so it was more a positive experience to see so many other people also interested in sustainable living. There were many stalls on solar power/solar hot water, and how to save electricity and water.

Going on the train meant that I got a little bit of knitting done. I'm currently working on the jaywalker sock, using my february Tofutsies yarn. I had to restart the pattern, as for some unknown reason I could actually do as the pattern said, and made my own assumptions up! Anyway, got it figured now, and I am pretty happy with it.


Also have been spinning the chocolate brown alpaca fleece. I'm probably about halfway through now, and have 3 skeins done weighing about 400g. Its a fairly chunky yarn, as it will be raglan sweater for me and I don't like knitting big things on small needles!


Looking forward to getting this fleece out of the way, as then I only have one more alpaca fleece, and a few odds and ends of mohair and sheeps fleece. I'm in a real stash busting mood at the moment, and want to clear up all the old fleece and yarn, to make way for new and different things. I am also looking forward to trying a few new things with my spinning, such as loopy yarn and adding beads etc. We shall see!

Wet

Well, suddenly the weather has changed from mild nice days to constant rain, with an icy wind. We had about 50ml of rain! It'll be a nice good drink for all my trees hopefully it will see them through what is likely to be long hard summer. Hopefully not too long and hot, but I guess we will just have to wait and see. My poor goats were quite taken back by the sudden change, and were shivering today, poor little things. I wish it would be so simple as to just bring them inside...

The little one is walking and running now too, with quite a lot of confidence. Rarely crawls at all. Her latest thing is to carry bags and other things with straps she can get over her neck. Here is a picture of her with my handbag, and her precious wombat toy. She LOVES wombats, I'm a little worried about once she gets more mobile, that she will try and visit them in their burrows, but we will figure that out once we get to it....


Not much knitting happening, but I've been doing lots of spinning as well as lots of fibre preperations. I've had bits of different fleeces lying around the house for many months, so its nice to put them through the drum carder, ready for spinning. Here is some mohair fleece I have spun,

and the final result the first 200g or so of mohair, plyed and ready for washing. I'm planning on dyeing this as mohair takes dye really well. It will probably become a christmas gift for someone.

Spring is yellow!

This time of year is just so yellow in our part of the world. The silver wattles are flowering, and the hills are YELLOW. Plus there are heaps of daffodils in flower too. At the farm so many 'wild' daffodils are popping up all over the place. They are remnants of the old house/farm that once was there. Apparently these daffodils are quite a rare type, although they seem so common in the area.

Most of the tree planting is now done, just a few plants left to go in, but the mad rush is now over. Fingers crossed that we will still get some more rain, so that they might survive the summer. Its already dried up so much here, I'm a bit concerned that we will have a worse year than last year. Scary stuff really. Good thing our politicians are taking the whole climate change thing seriously and not really investing in CLEAN renewable electricity and low emmission transportation.... Frustrating - our lives and those of the future generations are at the mercy of people who think money is more important than the PLANET!!!! Who can reason with that!

Anyway, should stop raving!

Here is what was going to be a photo of some of my recent handspun yarn, but she took over the photo shoot, throwing the skein on the floor everytime I tried to take a photo! You can sort of see the yarn though, blue, pink, purple and black.