Welcome 2019...

A belated welcome to 2019 and Happy New Year! Wishing you all a wonderful year with many blessings and lots of wool in your life whether is is hand spun, hand dyed, hand knitted or crocheted, or even woven.

Since receiving my little Ashford SampleIt I have been weaving away and loving it.  I have a huge stash of handspun and handdyed yarns in a couple of large bins that I have decided must be used.  I keep spinning either by myself or with my spinning friends a couple of times a month but I don't often use it for a project.  I have always been a "spin for the fun of it" kind of spinner so I never have enough for a large project so weaving is a wonderful answer to destashing.  I also have a much larger rigid heddle loom, also an Ashford, that I have warped up recently.  My SampleIt has an almost finished scarf on it in a soft blue grey 60% merino 40% nylon sock yarn.  It is a birthday gift and should be  a lovely soft drapey scarf when it is worn.

Before weaving the grey scarf I finished a multicoloured scarf in shades of rust, orange, greens with a pop of lavender and purple which I really love.  They aren't my colours but it's a good exercise to work with colours of our one's comfort zone.  I always head towards the blues and am trying very hard to get a colou balance in my fibre life!

The large loom has a mixture of pinks and purples mainly and it will be a shawl rather than a scarf.  I am only working on it slowly as I wanted to finish the grey scarf.  My husband set it up on an older printer stand which was the exact size needed and is mobile so I can move into position to watch old TV series and it's Matlock tonight!

I have found my year starting off slowly with dyeing as our extreme temperatures and humidity have made life around ovens or hot plates quite unbearable.  So I resorted to some solar dyeing which means I can set everything up on my back verandah and stay away from the heat until late afternoon when I check on my 3 litre Consol jars.

In between visitors, my daughter being at home from varsity, and school beginning again for my son, I try to catch a few moments knitting as well even if it's just a simple cowl.  I always like to have something simple on my needles for knitting in evenings and when I go to a knitting group.

I'm hoping to get more organized in February and look forward to sharing glimpses into my fibre life with you.