Karen's Craft Odyssey

June 30, 2021June 30, 2021

International Scarf Exchange

This year I again took on the challenge of participating in the International Scarf Exchange. The exchange is run by a different weaving guild each year, and this year the task was taken on by several guilds in the Shoalhaven area of New South Wales. Each participant sends in 150 grams of fibre. You receive someone else’s fibre and you make them a scarf (or shawl, socks etc.). I received three shades of naturally coloured corriedale fibre that I spun up into laceweight yarn.

June 23, 2021June 23, 2021

Green Cotton

A while back I posted about some natural coloured handspun cotton. The tan coloured cotton was marketed as “green” – but it didn’t really look green. Then I found out what I was missing – the cotton needed to be treated to bring out the natural green colour. The trick was to soak the cotton in ammonia!

April 23, 2021June 30, 2021

Catching Up

It’s been a while since my last post. It’s not that I’ve stopped crafting, so in this post I’ll catch you up with what I’ve been spinning.

March 14, 2021March 14, 2021

A Sweet Break

I usually try to avoid having too many sweets in the house. As I’ve been often told, “exposure leads to consumption”! However it’s always fun to learn new skills, so when my daughter suggested a cooking class at New Farm Confectionery, I was up for the challenge and we signed up for the class.

February 19, 2021

A Weekend Break

Last weekend we took advantage of our freedom (and the fact that we are no longer ruled by the academic calendar) to drive up to the Granite Belt. We had a lovely 4 and a half days driving through beautiful country where we tasted wine, cheese, truffles and more.

February 6, 2021February 7, 2021

Huck Lace Rerun

The previous set of Huck towels were so much fun, I had to try again. This time in green and natural cotton. I wanted to make a slight change to the draft – you can see it by comparing these two towels:

February 1, 2021June 23, 2021

Verdant

What a perfect name for this colour! Verdant was the October 2020 offering from Southern Cross Fibre Club. I love David’s colour sense, and the fibre is always lovely and easy to spin. This one is Falkland wool, which is nice and springy.

January 22, 2021February 7, 2021

It’s all about making yarn

Taking a break from the cotton. I found this wool in my stash. I think this is wool that I dyed myself, but I’m not sure when I got it or what type of wool it is. It feels like BFL or Polwarth, a bit on the strong side, and not as soft as merino.

January 18, 2021February 7, 2021

Monday morning…

Monday mornings take on a whole new meaning when you are completely in charge of your own schedule. No more commuting – so we’ve decided to schedule a regular Monday morning walk and breakfast (at least while the weather is warm). Today’s destination was Karawatha Forest. Less than 15 minutes from home and we were walking in the forest, listening to the birds sing. Even at 7am, it was warm and humid, but the 50-minute, 3.5km walk was good exercise. We saw a few joggers on the trails, but it was certainly not crowded.

January 12, 2021February 7, 2021

Spinning Cotton

Spinning is an activity that I usually enjoy in the evening – so each project moves slowly. Several months ago I purchased about 800 grams of natural coloured combed cotton sliver in “green” and “cinnamon”.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31