Country Hospitality

It was very opportune for me that the Kureelpa Spinners’ Friendship Day was held today while I’m still on holidays at Noosaville. Kureelpa is a rural/residential area six km west of Nambour on the road to Mapleton in the Blackall Range. It is thought that the name derives from an Aboriginal expression describing a native rat or mouse.

When I think of a country town two things immediately come to mind and that’s hospitality and community-minded and today’s Friendship Day had those in abundance.

A number of traders had their tables of wares set up to tempt us.

Barbara was there with her collection of Weave-It looms and pattern books. Needless to say, I own most of these 🙂

One thing that did catch my eye was this very interesting spinning wheel made from a bicycle!!

Have a look at that treadle. It’s the best use of an ironing board I’ve ever seen!

I wonder what makes someone wake up one day and decide to make a spinning wheel from a bicycle 🙂

We were plied with copious amounts of food consisting of cakes, biscuits and slices followed by hot soup and sandwiches for lunch and lots of tea and coffee.

A display of members’ handmade garments was presented and there were some amazing garments to be viewed.

One of the most prolific knitters was a gentleman in the group whose knitting was stunning. Amongst other things, he made this blue jumper.

We spent a bit of time just chatting and crafting. I brought this Melissa scarf I’d started a week or so ago. It’s an easy garter knit so is an ideal project to work on when there’s a lot of talking happening. The wool is Bendigo Woollen Mills’ sock yarn which I solar dyed using Queen food colours.

And these two little sheep just jumped into my bag 🙂 How could I resist them at only $5 each?

As we left I took some photos of the beautiful mountain scenery.

Thank you Kureelpa Spinners for such a wonderful day. The best part is I’ll be seeing a couple of the women tomorrow at Pomona when I meet with the local spinners and knitters for another session 🙂

Until next time…

Melanie

Holidays!

It’s that time of the year when I gather lots of knitting projects, pack my car and drive to the beautiful seaside town of Noosaville located on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The only downside is that most retirees from the southern states do the same thing to escape their bitterly cold winters to enjoy our balmy winter days.

It’s practically my second home and I love grabbing my chair and knitting and then stroll to my usual spot and gaze at this tranquil view for a few hours.

I have started knitting another Pebble Beach Shawl although this one will be the small size as opposed to the large one I made a while ago.

I’ve only given you a glimpse of the shawl; more will be revealed once I’ve finished it 🙂

I was going to bring along a spinning wheel but at the last moment changed my mind and brought along my Weave-It looms which I bought this year. I haven’t used them much so I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to practise some more.

This particular Weave-It is a 6″ stretch loom and is perfect for weaving handspun yarn, 12ply yarn or in this case, mohair yarn.

Not long ago I found this absolutely gorgeous baby garment pattern on Ravelry called Watermelon Baby Cardigan. It is a quick knit and looks adorable.

This is what I call addictive knitting; something quick, colourful and so pretty.

My internet connection here is soooo slow so I’m not sure how many posts I’ll be able to release as I don’t want to spend all my holiday time on the laptop!

So I’ll leave it there and get back to some knitting!

Until next time.

Melanie

Find Your Fade Shawl

What is it that suddenly makes a Ravelry pattern very popular? Photos? Word of Mouth? Or maybe both reasons. Find Your Fade is a pattern that has appeared everywhere lately: Ravelry, Facebook and Instagram. And it’s for that reason that I decided a couple of months ago to give it a go.

The pattern takes seven skeins of yarn which are meant to ‘fade’ into each other. This was the fun part for me: shopping in my stash. This is the selection I came up with.

A combination of beautiful, luxurious and super soft merino, cashmere, alpaca and possum. Yummy!!

Here are the colour choices from left to right:

Colour A Dyed By Hand Yarns Mother’s Love superwash merino 80% / cashmere 10% / nylon 10% Monkey Mia
Colour B Touch Yarns Merino Brown/blue
Colour C Flock and Needle Merino/Nylon superwash Luke
Colour D Flock and Needle Merino/Nylon superwash Stormy Shoreline
Colour E Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 Superwash merino 70% / cashmere 20% / nylon 10% Tree in Autumn
Colour F Loris NZ Alpaca 15% / Merino 55% / Nylon 20% / Possum 10% Roast Chestnuts
Colour G Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 Superwash merino 70% / cashmere 20% / nylon 10% Samaratin

It was a pleasure to knit this shawl as all this luscious yarn slipped between my fingers.

Blues faded into browns which faded into oranges which faded into brown.

It’s difficult to describe in words all the beautiful colours so I have provided lots of photos for you to view.

I also highly recommend you use a different centre double decrease (CDD) for a crisper look. So glad I found this hint in someone else’s notes and it does give a nice crisp look. I used slip 2 knitwise, k1, pass the two slipped stitches over.

Not all of each seven skeins is used so with the remaining yarn plus an additional skein I will be able to make another Find Your Fade shawl.

I have replaced Colour F (orange) with a paler orange skein from Zen Yarn Garden.

So the new order of yarn from top to bottom (left hand side photo) is

Colour A Flock and Needle Merino/Nylon superwash Stormy Shoreline
Colour B Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 Superwash merino 70% / cashmere 20% / nylon 10% Tree in Autumn
Colour C Flock and Needle Merino/Nylon superwash Luke
Colour D Touch Yarns Merino Brown/blue
Colour E Dyed By Hand Yarns Mother’s Love superwash merino 80% / cashmere 10% / nylon 10% Monkey Mia
Colour F Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 Superwash merino 70% / cashmere 20% / nylon 10% Pumpkin Spice
Colour G Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 Superwash merino 70% / cashmere 20% / nylon 10% Samaratin

The actual pattern is quite easy; just rows of garter stitch and some very basic lace. The secret is to ensure you always start with a K1, yo and finish with a yo, k1. Those yarn overs are very important!

My shawl was entered into the recent Redlands Spinners & Weavers’ Open Day fashion parade and I have since sold it. I am gradually getting used to not forming an emotional attachment to my garments. It is so lovely to see someone else fall in love with what I’ve made 🙂 The funds enable me to buy more yarn and make more creations!

Soon, I will be venturing back up to my favourite holiday spot at Noosaville so you’ll be getting my news from a wonderful part of the world. I will be visiting a group of spinners and knitters at SpillDEBeans café in Pomona on most Wednesdays and hope to have a couple of my crafty friends visit too.

Lots of rest, relaxation, knitting and weaving! Yes, I’m taking my Weave-it looms so I can have lots practise while I’m lazing on the banks of the Noosa River 🙂

Until next time…

Melanie