Moseley Park yarn plus more!

I thought I had discovered all the good yarn suppliers in Australia but apparently I hadn’t! Moseley Park Yarn is situated on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia and is run by Jane and Ian who grow wheat and sheep. They also live off the grid, so no mains power; they have a solar array, with a small wind generator and a back up diesel generator. They also have another farm at Poochera which is 200kms West of Kimba where Jane has her dyeing and fibre studio. It was while surfing Ravelry that I discovered Moseley Park.

And when I saw the ‘Specials’ icon on the website I had to have a quick look and lo and behold look what happened.

Three skeins of Wilcherry which is a 50% wool / 50% silk 4ply / fingering yarn. AU$14 each!

One skein of Mawula which is a 100% superwash Blue Faced Leicester 4ply / fingering yarn. AU$11.00.

And two 50% Blue Faced Leicester / 50% bleached tussah silk tops in this gorgeous colour. AU$15.00 each. They’re 150g each too!

You can be guaranteed that I’ll be adding Moseley Park to my list of favourite yarn suppliers!!

Here’s a cute little ceramic sheep wearing boots that I bought a couple of weeks ago on my way home from work. Isn’t it just the cutest little sheep!

Protecting some of my spinning wheels!

I also picked up these 5 x 200g balls of Shetland Natural Cream 10 ply wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills at only AU$12.50 each.

They will come in very handy for when I decide to do some more natural dyeing.

I was very naughty this morning as I dropped into Spotlight on my way home from filling up my car with petrol. Couldn’t resist these bargains…

Moda Vera Biscay which is a 70% acrylic / 30% alpaca 12ply / bulky yarn. It is incredibly soft.

Moda Vera Cyclamen which is a 46% wool / 35% polyamde / 19% acrylic 12ply / bulky yarn.

Moda Vera Instinctive which is a 100% premium acrylic 8ply / DK yarn.

Moda Vera Faith which is a 40% acrylic / 30% mohair / 30% wool 4ply / fingering yarn. I already have the pattern lined up for these little beauties.

I don’t usually buy blue yarn but these colours were exceptionally beautiful; they reminded me of the blue ocean…

And finally, the last two ball of this Moda Vera Noir which is a 75% wool / 25% nylon 4ply / fingering yarn. I don’t believe Spotlight will stock this any more so I’ve managed to pick up a couple more balls as I rather like it for knitting socks.

All the Spotlight yarns were half price which was a bonus! You’ve probably figured out by now that when it comes to yarn I have absolutely no self control!

Don’t forget to check out Moseley Park Yarns if you’re looking for a new yarn supplier. BTW this is not a sponsored post. I simply like to recommend any good yarn suppliers that I stumble across as I believe word of mouth is the best form of advertising and us knitters should always tell each other about our good finds!

Until next time…

Melanie

Autumn Citron and Blue Miami Beach Shawls

Another week of work is finished. It’s been a very overcast, rainy and bleak day in Brisbane today and the weekend looks like it will be the same so it’ll be ideal weather for knitting! Tomorrow I’m off to do some more yarn bombing and straight after that it’s off to Knit and Knatter which I am so looking forward to.

At one stage I seemed to be knitting socks and more socks and now I’m knitting shawls and more shawls!

This Citron Shawl is my second using this pattern (and I’ve recently started my third!).

I love this pattern as it’s easy to follow and easy to knit. I would point out however that there is NO increasing when knitting rows 3-5 and 7-11. I get caught out every time!! If you’re going to knit this pattern maybe it would be an idea to write these words beside these rows. This shawl sits beautifully on my shoulders.

The yarn used for this shawl is the extra ball I had specially dyed by Angela from Shorn Fibers. It’s called Tuff Sock and is an 80% merino / 20% nylon yarn. I hit a bit of a snag as I reached the bottom of the shawl as I was fast running out of yarn. A quick visit to my stash room and I found some left over Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light which is a 100% merino yarn. I had originally used this yarn for my Wholehearted Shawl and luckily there was enough left over and I think the paler green edging matches perfectly.

The shawl reminds me of those jellied citrus sweets…

For a bit of a change I added a picot edging. I love a picot edge; it takes a while to complete but does look effective and is great for using up surplus yarn if you have it.

My Miami Beach Shawl turned out perfectly especially using this blue yarn…

which is Cleckheaton Country 8ply in this unusually bright blue colour.

The shawl has a beautiful lace edging…

Both shawls are easy knits as there’s a lot of plain garter stitch.

 

The stitch definition is beautiful!

I hope you’ve got some inspiration from these two patterns.

Until next time…

Melanie

 

Beautiful colours in nature and in yarn!

I love colour particularly autumn colours. I love their rich warm hues and their association with nature. I also love bright colours in particular oranges and yellows. So when my son unexpectedly presented me with the most beautiful gift of flowers I was ecstatic. He told me he had no idea what colours to get me so just selected what he thought looked nice. He certainly picked the right ones don’t you think?

Mother Nature has created some truly gorgeous colours and no doubt this is where a lot of artisan yarn dyers get their creative ideas from.

I have taken so many pictures of these flowers as I don’t want to ever forget their beauty and who gave them to me.

Which leads me to one of my latest knitted garments. The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief is a pattern I’ve had for ages and which I keep looking at and then move on to another pattern. However, with my recent Shorn Fibers‘ yarn purchases I knew straight away what yarn I could use with this pattern.

I was after a pattern that wasn’t too fussy so it could show off the beautiful colours that Angela has captured in this colourway called Woodland Pixie.

The colours remind me of a lovely balmy Autumn day with all the different shades of orange the leaves turn.

To utilise the whole skein of yarn I added an additional K2, YO, K to last 2 sts, YO, K2 row and then added a picot bind off to add a bit of a wow factor to the kerchief.

The yarn is Shorn Fibers Merino Superwash DK (115g per skein!). I love, love, love all the autumn shades in this skein.

I actually started this kerchief on the day I received the yarn as I was so enchanted with it.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful….

I can’t wait to find patterns that will suit the other yarns I purchased from Shorn Fibers.

Here’s a very colourful mosaic of my beautiful flowers…

We’re in for a wet and cool weekend in Brisbane so I’m going to settle into some knitting, spinning and reading and I’ll be toasty warm wearing my hand knitted socks and a lovely warm scarf 🙂

Until next time…

Melanie

 

A Wonderful Holiday With Lots of Yarning!

My holiday has now come to a close for this year. I am so blessed to have been able to spend two weeks in one of the most beautiful places in the country….Noosaville on the Sunshine Coast and the remaining time in the wonderful bayside suburb where I live.

I’ve completed lots of projects. Here is a few of them…

Walked up to The Point a few mornings with my backpack and book and settled in at the coffee shop for a relaxing read…

Imagine looking at this every day!

There is nothing like living right beside the water. I love it! It must have something to do with my Zodiac sign – Aquarius – the water bearer. I am only a few minutes walk away from this…

What bliss.

When I walk to Cleveland Point after work in the summer, I sit here and watch the water and just zen out.

Mother nature at her best! What wonderful shades of blue!

There are great places for families to have picnics or barbeques. Plus there’s plenty of play equipment for the kids…

And we even have Queensland’s oldest Banyan Tree…

And on the way home from coffee I spotted this little cluster of beautiful mauve flowers…

And, of course, I found a yarn store in Noosaville called Sheep Thrills…

And it wouldn’t be a regular blog post if I didn’t share some yarn purchases with you. I bought these last week at Spotlight…

Six balls of Moda Vera Hue which is a 70% acrylic / 30% wool bulky / 12 ply yarn.

Five balls of Moda Vera Dalmatian in this burgundy colourway. This yarn is an 82% acrylic / 18% nylon bulky / 12 ply.

And three balls in the grey colourway…

And lastly, two reels of this beautiful variegated green rayon which I hope to use to ply with some green merino I am yet to spin…

And of course, I did quite a bit of spinning. This is what I’ve recently started spinning. Some ‘mongrel’ (I’m assuming this means a mixture of fibre; I bought it at the recent Redlands Spinners & Weavers Open Day). I’m spinning it on my Crofter wheel which I haven’t used to date and I must say I’m loving it!!!

It’s mainly a grey colour with little flecks of other bits and pieces in it.

As I close I would like to welcome all the new followers to my blog. Thank you so much for following my yarn adventures 🙂 I can always be contacted via the ‘Contact Me’ page along the top banner of my blog page. Please, please leave any comments as I reply to each and every comment left. I love the interaction this blog provides. Let me know what else you’d like me to blog about too.

Until next time…

Melanie

BTW, On the right hand side of the home page of my blog there are lots of interesting links. I’m not sure when you receive my weekly posts whether you see these links. If not, what you can do is click on the Home button which is at the top left hand side of the page. This will take you to the home page where you can view all the links plus the most recent post. One link also takes you directly to my Ravelry home page.

Leaves on the Line Shawl

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’ve used quite a lot of Susan Ashcroft’s patterns for scarves. Susan’s Ravelry name is stitchnerd. The first one was my Samothrace Wings Scarf, followed by another Samothrace Wings Scarf in a gorgeous Zen Yarn Garden yarn, followed by the Starry Night Cable Bias Scarf, the Serengeti Cable Bias Scarf, the Leafy Bias Scarf, Chameleon Bias Scarf and the Tangerine Yolo Shawl. You could almost say I’m addicted to Susan’s patterns!

The wonderful Susan offered me any one of her patterns to select from (including any ebook). I had been eyeing off the Leaves, Leaves, Leaves ebook for a while so I selected it. This stunning pattern is Leaves on the Line.

As with all Susan’s patterns I’ve made to date, there’s always quite a bit of garter stitch which helps your project to grow faster by the minute.

Here is the shawl in all its glory…

I am so happy with the finished shawl. It sits beautifully and the match between the pattern and the yarn is perfect.

The yarn I used is Shorn Fibers‘ Tuff Sock which is Blue Faced Leicester nylon fingering / 4ply yarn and the colourway is Urchin.

The delicate leaf edging is simply beautiful and adds a wonderful touch to the shawl.

I have worn this shawl to work and it is beautifully soft around my neck.

The other two patterns in the ebook are Leaf Loop and Leaves in a Line. The latter pattern is made using Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball and I have a few balls of this yarn so I might even use one of them.

I had a wonderful time at my local Knit and Knatter gathering yesterday. We laughed so much which is so good for the soul.

I’m off to do some spinning now!

Until next time…

Melanie

My 2014 Sock Yarn Club Goodies

Yesterday I received my final instalment in the Dyed By Hand Yarns‘ Sock Yarn Club. The theme for 2014 was Australia II – colours inspired by the ocean, sea, sails and coastlines.

Two skeins of sock yarn were posted out in the last week in March, May and July and the yarns included were 2 x Tough Stocking, 1 x Mother’s Love, 1 x Big Blue Stocking, 1 x Silk Stocking and 1 x Blue Chip Stocking.

Each skein of yarn was dyed in a colour inspired by something Australian. These colours are exclusive to yarn club members for 12 months. Custom dyeing of these colours on any yarn base may be ordered by yarn club members for the duration of the club.

# 1 is called Surf Life Saving and is dyed on Tough Stocking which is a 75% merino / 25% nylon yarn. This colourway is incredibly eye-catching and really depicts the Aussie surf life saving colours of the red and yellow flag against the blue ocean and sky. Very vivid indeed.

# 2 is called Blue Ringed Octopus and is also dyed on Tough Stocking. The blue-ringed octopuses are three (or perhaps four) octopus species that live in tide pools and coral reefs in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, from Japan to Australia (mainly around southern New South Wales and South Australia, and northern Western Australia). Despite their small size and relatively docile nature, they can prove a danger to humans. They can be recognised by their characteristic blue and black rings and yellowish skin. When the octopus is agitated, the brown patches darken dramatically, and iridescent blue rings or clumps of rings appear and pulsate within the maculae. It’s hard to believe that something so beautiful can be so dangerous.

# 3 is called Monkey Mia and is dyed on Mother’s Love which is an 80% merino / 10% cashmere / 10% nylon yarn. Monkey Mia is a popular tourist destination located about 900 km north of Perth, Western Australia. The reserve is 25 km northeast of the town of Denham in the Shark Bay Marine Park and World Heritage Site.

The main attraction is the bottlenose dolphins that have been coming close to shore for more than fifty years. The beautiful blue colours of the ocean are captured so well in this yarn.

# 4 is called Purple Sea Urchin and is dyed on Blue Chip Stocking which is a 70% merino / 20% silk  / 10% cashmere yarn. Purple Sea Urchins are found in southern Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. They live on intertidal rocky shores and in coastal waters to a depth of 35 metres. In order to gain protection from predators and the elements, they cluster together and use their sharp spines to burrow into the rock. They normally grow to a diameter of about 4 inches and may live as long as 70 years.

Wow! The colours in the yarn are definitely a true indication of the colours in the Purple Sea Urchin.

# 5 is called Gorgons Head Coral and is dyed on Silk Stocking which is 50% merino / 50% silk yarn.

A four-week expedition to explore the deep ocean south-west of Tasmania in 2008 revealed new species of animals and more evidence of impacts of increasing carbon dioxide on deep-sea corals. A bright red, undescribed species of shell-less coral, called an anthomastid or gorgons-head coral was discovered at 1700 metres deep at the Cascade Plateau, off south-east Tasmania.

This also happens to be one of my favourite colours. Plus the 50% silk in this yarn makes it feel lovely and soft.

And lastly, # 6 is called Bass Strait and is dyed on Big Blue Stocking which is 100% wool. Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the Australian mainland, specifically the state of Victoria.

What a wonderful rich blue colour typical of the deep blue sea.

Now my next challenge is to assign patterns to each of these gorgeous yarns. What would you make with each one?

Until next time…

Melanie

 

Sunday Sunrise Shawl

The colour of this shawl initially caught my eye as I was searching through Ravelry. I had exactly the right yarn in mind to use for the Sunday Sunrise Shawl so it was packed along with lots of other projects on my recent visit to Noosaville.

I’ve had to wait until I arrived back home before I could block the shawl as I didn’t pack all my blocking equipment (my car was full enough as it was with knitting projects and my spinning wheel!)

I did, however, take a photo of the shawl before blocking…

And after blocking…

And that’s the difference that blocking makes, to my friends who have asked ‘what is blocking?’ and ‘why do you do it?’. Your garment can practically double in size!

The yarn I used is Pumpkin Pie Spice from Zen Yarn Garden which is dyed on Serenity 20. It’s a 70% merino / 20% cashmere /10% nylon 4ply / fingering yarn and is beautifully soft and comfy.

This pattern has gorgeous stitch definition in it.

What I love about these crescent shaped shawls is how easily and comfortably they sit on your shoulders without slipping off.

That’s it for now. I’ve spent most of this week blocking all the shawls and scarves I made while away so you’ll be seeing them over the next few weeks.

Until next time…

Melanie