But I've been busy...honest!

Warning: image heavy post

Warning: some images may offend sensitive viewers.

Once again, I've been slack.   I have been very busy though so I have a legitimate excuse this time....watch, I'll show you...now, lets see...where to begin...

I signed up for a few swaps on Ravelry in the past month or so.  The first one was the 'I cant do that' swap.  The idea of the swap was that you got to ask your swap partner for something you don't have either the skill or time/space to do yourself.  I don't have a sewing machine and I don't quilt so my request was for a quilted item.  My swap partner sent me a gorgeous quilted bag including a needle holder, an abacus style row counter and a thimble pip (which currently houses my teensy tallywhacker stitch markers...more on them later).  My swap partner requested a braid of hand dyed fibre so in return for the bag I sent her a big (120g) braid of fibre (that I had  hand dyed) but I sneakily included a little (25g) baggie of white pure angora rabbit top, six hand made silk flowers and some hand made stitch markers.  This was my first swap so I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

I've been busily making a mass of fimo things, mostly stitch markers of one type or another. and for some reason I've had this thing with miniatures...miniature food, miniature penises...that kind of stuff.  I've already sold three sets of the teensy tallywhackers...who'd have thunk that there were other knitters out there with a naughty sense of humour? ;o)

Minature Hot dog stitch markers

Miniature cake slice stitch markers

Teensy Tallywhackers en masse

I've also recently been stash diving...into other peoples destashes that is.  I picked up a couple of gorgeous  skeins of Italian lace weight yarn (which I'm ITCHING to start knitting up) for a very reasonable price.  They're 100g per skein but have 1400m in each...that's a whole lotta lace I see in my future.  I also scored a 100g skein of pure silk yarn in the most gorgeous magenta shade which, when I first received it, I thought was only 1ply because it is so fine.  But its definitely 2ply and I'm sure is begging me to become a pretty shawl or something else delicate and wearable. I also got my mitts on a big 200g cone of Bendigo Woolen Mills 2ply wool in a dark blue to go with the three others of the same colour in my stash.  I have 4 cones in this colour now, that's 4720mtrs and I have NO idea what I'm going to do with it, but on the up side, my best friend has a knitting machine that should make short work of it.

Filatura Di Crosa extra fine merino yarn
x 2 @ 1400m each (phew!)

1084m of pure mulberry silk lace weight

1180mtrs of commercial 2ply wool

I decided to buy myself some knit picks (knit pro in AU) symphonie interchangeable needles to see what all the fuss was about and I  have to say I'm very glad that I did.

Yay! Knit Pro interchangeables.

I snaffled some yummy fibres from the lovely Mandie over at Ewe Give Me The Knits...she's such an evil fibrey temptress that Mandie, you really have to watch out for her ;o)

 

 

Since I was snaffling EGMTK fibre I thought it only fair to share the love with my favourite bunneh lady so I grabbed two 100g braids of my favourite blend; twinkle bunny which is Merino Angora & Tencel (70/10/20%).  If I can spin it fine enough, it'll definitely be enough to make something purdy.  This blend is SUPER soft and so lush, its almost a crime to spin it up.

Ixchelbunny twinklebunny fibre in 'dollhouse'

I managed to get involved in (read: over commit myself to) three more swaps on Ravelry.  One of which is a crochet lace bag for a lady who is making me a needle bag in exchange. One of the other two swaps was an ABC swap where I had to find 5 items, one for each of the letters V W X Y Z to send to a swap partner in secret.  I cant post a pic of that because, although I sent her parcel on Monday and its actually scheduled for delivery today, she hasn't actually received it yet. and it was supposed to be a surprise.  The other swap item is a lovely lace shrug I'm knitting, but I've only just cast on so there's no pic yet.  Here is the only pic I can show you so far...the crochet bag.

 

So far so good

I've been spinning rather madly to get finished on some spinning projects that I've had in various stages of completion for months now.  So far, I finished spinning up a massive batch of merino/silk/angelina that I'd specially blended up to make myself something sparkly for evening wear.  I have 2 huge 140g skeins of the stuff now.  Don't ask me the meterage because I haven't actually counted it out yet but because its 25WPI I think it should be somewhere around 1400mtrs.  Also, I'm still in the middle of a lace spin which might actually come close to reaching my ultimate goal (1000mtrs from 100g).  Its slow going though, but I've been assured this is normal for true lace weight hand spun yarn.  The last spin project I have going is 100g of pure merino which I hand dyed using food colouring.  It's looking to be about sock weight and I'm hoping to finish it tonight.

Purdy sparkly yarn...I'm calling it Nebula

Half my lace spin.

50g of pure merino, hand dyed by moi.

I joined an Ixchelbunny fibre club once again and have received my first installment.  A lovely braid of BFL/Bunny called Early Bird.  I also was lucky enough to win a competition that Charly was running in September and received the gorgeous skein of yarn below as my prize.  Its 100g of hand dyed yak/bunny/merino sock weight yarn, it is smooshily soft and, of course, in my favourite colours.  Charly knows me so well :oD  I was TOTALLY surprised to win her comp but also totally squeee'd for about half an hour after I found out.  Who me? Excitable? Hell yeh!

 

Early Bird Ixchelbunny fibre club #7.1

500m of hand dyed Yak/Bunny/Merino

And finally...last night I finished the shrug I've been building for my friend Misha.  Its made from 100% hand spun yarn (all by me) most of which is from Ixchelbunny club fibre with about 5% EGMTK fibre thrown in for good measure.  It's turned out really bright and super soft.  I think it will keep my friend very warm next winter.  The good news is, her birthday is coming up and even though she knows she is getting this, it will make a nice addition to her other birthday pressie ;o)

The hand spun rainbow shrug
for my good friend Misha

See? I have a great excuse for not keeping my blog posts as regular as I should...I've been SUPER busy.  At least, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. :oP