and the wheels go round...........

I know there is a focus on bobbins full of spun fibre on this blog, but that is what we do best. And spinning just 300gm of fibre into a fine yarn can take a couple of weeks if you are only able to sit at it of an evening.
This gorgeous green is Pear Tree merino fibre and I'm spinning it for a special birthday gift.

Elke, Joy and Cathy were filling their bobbins also.

Patchwork Friday Sept 4, 09

Isn't this just so sweet? It's Bev's work in progress and one we haven't got to catch up with before. Hopefully I'll soon be showing it finished.

And here is our beginning patchworker, Joy, starting on her post and rail quilt.

We had a storm not long after our patchwork group and here are the pics of the magnificent rainbow -- yes, a double, and the pot of gold is near our pond! You could actually see the end of the rainbow on the grass. Well, this WAS a goldfield.

What I find so interesting are the shades of the sky.

Broomstick crochet lesson Mon 31st Aug 09

For our 'Something Special' Day, Chris gave us a lesson in broomstick crochet. And very importantly, we welcomed back Joy, to the spinning group, after having other commitments for a few years; having welcomed back Ann to the group the week before; and welcomed our three visitors Daphne and Lyndy from Melbourne and Sue from Chiltern.

Lyndy, Kathy and Joy start on their broomsticks and Maree helps before her work shift.

Chris shows Fran how to start while Pam concentrates.

The room was full and the only place to go for a pic was up the stairs!

Chris was helping Sue to start off.

Broomstick crochet around the room

Pam and Elke were casting on:

Daphne was wearing her lovely Shawl and admiring some dyed yarn while Sue cast on:

Sue and Ann wielding the broomsticks:

Lyndy and Kathy counting stitches:

Broomstick crochet success

Daphne shows how much the broomstick crochet resembles the eyes of a peacock feather.

Sue's

and Lyndy's

These ladies were all visitors from the Crochet Lovers' Victoria group on Ravelry.

Spring and sprung

We keep having hints of sunny days behind the grey clouds, and no one at all is complaining about the rain showers we keep having when the washing has just blown dry. The grass has finally grown and is beautiful and green, a colour we've been very deprived of lately, and has been mown!
My hellebores, the winter roses, are fabulous.

And the violets know it is spring. This has to be my favourite shade of purple, and popping up amongst the green leaves they are just gorgeous, although computer monitors don't do them full justice and make them a paler shade than they really are in the spring sunshine.

We've had breezes, and strong winds, but our predominant breeze brings the perfume of the daphne bush which is under the shelter of the pergola, and quite enormous in size.

Here is the result of some very strong wind. The poor black wattles are past their use-by date and this one lost some branches onto the cottage. My new car was called into service to be the tow truck, although John, our right hand man, is pretending it's all man-power!

Blue Swap revealed

The Ravelry blue swap has been sent. My partner was Bec from Queanbeyan and this was the parcel I sent to her, with some wool to knit for her son, daughter and herself (my handspun was cashmere and merino for her) and some to felt with, stitchmarkers, a project bag, stationery, choccies, Kool Aid for dyeing, tape measure, vintage stitch holder and needles, sewing dolly and a crochet neck warmer.

This is the neck warmer I crocheted, and the cashmere from Fibreworks spun and plied with merino from First Edition, and the shiroshimi bag that I always send with my handspun.
The handspun was lovely and soft being 50% cashmere.

I have received my parcel from Danni in SA and it comes with a little story. Danni kept asking questions through the moderator as this is a secret swap. Several times I had to send measurements of my feet, so we assumed she was knitting socks. Maree was jealous :) (in a best friend's way). Then I got a message to say it had all gone wrong. So when my parcel came there was a note from Danni, and after attempting her first pair of knitted socks several times, she had to give up and knit the yarn (which she had spun herself from EGMTK fibre) into a scarf to get it done in time. I haven't included it here but I did take a pic of the scarf fitting my feet perfectly! We've all had a laugh.
The scarf is a pattern I've been meaning to try, and there is hand dyed fibre and yarn and hand made soap, and a dinky stitch marker holder, and matching hook wrap which Danni did herself. Then knowing I collect toby jugs, she found one for me, and a wonderful tin with pics of toby jugs around it. What a great swap!