Gift Planning

I know there is three months till Christmas (don't groan) but I am starting my planning now.

Handmade takes time so I have to line my projects up and have some sort of time frame in place.

This year we are excited to have our travellers returned after three years roaming so it will be a special time having all the family home.

I'm planning to do the knit projects now rather than later as I notoriously loose interest in knitting when the weather warms and I have a couple of sewing projects in mind for later.

This is something I'm working on for Ted and we'll have to keep it a secret. I spotted the yarn some months ago and knew straight away that they were her colours. It pays to have a vague plan for your gift box all through the year so when you spot things you can ferret them away for the right moment, saving anxiety, time and usually always money.

Now is also a good time to plan cuttings or sow seeds for garden gifts.  

Do share your ideas and plans here to inspire us.

Paper Trails

After we left Callington Mill precincts, we travelled up the main street of Oatlands to "Alan's Verandah" the next venue for the historic skill of wood graining and a discussion of other faux finishes and decorating styles of the Victorian era.

What happened next was nothing short of "historical porn" and an unexpected meeting with a genuine wallpaper guru, Alan Townsend.

We did legitimately dabble and ooh and aah with some paint finishes like flame cedar and birdseye maple but then what followed was a history lesson that sent me to 7th heaven.

We were invited to tour the mid 1800s timber constructed cottage and peer at it's most intimate layers, and I DO mean LAYERS!

Layers upon layers, decade upon decade.....

Tragically beautiful and exquisite in it's decay.

So the very basic construction of this cottage, and in fact other similar timber cottages of it's era, is timber weatherboard exterior with some stone foundation and the interior walls are a patchwork of split shingle-like timber rather than commonly known lathe and plaster. These interior walls were never meant to stand alone but to be thoroughly swathed in decorative papers.

Upon these crazy patchwork timber bases were laid the first layers - newspaper. A very effective and indisputable dateline for the cottage's construction. Next came the fabric layer. Whatever was cheap and recyclable. In this one front room is found hessian, the very coarsest and cheapest material and also some recycled mattress ticking. Then upon that is the decorative paper. Drafts are excluded, the room "insulated" and then decorated. 

Alan is a professional researcher and historian and sensitively handles and documents the life of the building on it's preservation/restoration journey. Large segments of "art" paper is collected and saved, the floral 1970s wallpaper treated as deferentially as the faux stone paper borders of the late 1800s.

And not just the wallpapers, but also the layers of floor coverings from many decades that chart the years of various property owners and fashion stages.

I wish I could have reproduced the colours faithfully for they were truly beautiful.

Can you imagine the plethora of documents and interesting ephemera tucked into these layers? I couldn't and I was totally flabbergasted at the range of invoices and documents.

Marriage certificates, lengthy shopping invoices, doctors bills and fashion pages.

  

So much history is revealed about the community and the way of life of the town and attitudes of the eras. It speaks also of a time when paper and fabric (things in general really) had a real value and nothing was taken for granted or casually wasted. He said he has also found the practice sheets of copperplate handwriting of young students copying over and over religious verses simultaneously learning their moral code and handwriting in one lesson.

Alan is currently working on techniques to renovate the space of each room but also keep it's history intact and enfold it's precious layers. As you would imagine, several decades of wallpapers tends to distort the planes and corners are lost to rounded swells and even the very foundations shift and twist over time too. Any other person would have stripped with gusto and brought in the plaster sheeting. He is a far braver man than I and most skilled.

Only a creative eclectic like Alan could live within this chaos as he learns and works with the house. His crazy mix of superb antiques and art juxtaposed with the slow and complex decay, but slowly and sensitively he transforms the space back to a home.

It is quite an extreme form of "shabby chic" don't you think?

We were truly privileged to meet Alan and bask in his enthusiasm and freely shared knowledge and experience.

My favourite quote of the day from this historian was "By all means, people should enjoy their homes and express their style, change the paint scheme and improve their comforts but resist stripping and removing. Above all, avoid removing anything, leave it for the telling"

 Here is a link 

to experience more of the world of historic recreation and wonder of Alan Townsend.

Yarn Tour 2016

I love this pattern so much I'm going to make one in every size. It comes in a boy and a girl version and can be perused, purchased and downloaded here $6.50USD.

The body is knit in the round until the arms and then split and worked front and back with a sew at the shoulders. 

 

I was being very frugal and using up scrap so ran out of the lighter coloured wool for the sleeves. In the pattern the sleeves are in the same design as the body however I chose to go a bit plainer using up the wool I had and I don't mind this version at all. You can find my project notes here on Ravelry.

I'm getting the posse together again and we are doing another yarn tour Tasmania on 16th July. We will be touring from Launceston to Hobart with a stop at historical Ross on the way down and then into The Lucky Ewe in Oatlands on the way back. Everyone is welcome but we are limited to coach numbers so it's first in with payment to secure your booking. Please feel free to contact me via comments or email this page or our facebook events page in the link above.

You can find our event page here and keep up to date with the info and shenanigans. This year we have yarn enthusiasts joining us from QLD and Victoria! 

Personalised Shopping Bag

A personalised shopping bag is another great gift and I really love this one my step-mother made for me some time ago. The picture is entirely stitched on her sewing machine using a programme.

She used this photo in her programme and reproduced it with thousands of stitches.

Pretty amazing huh!

Knitted Silk

My mother is allergic to wool so for Christmas I have knitted her a scarf in silk. This should be very comfortable next to her skin and it has lovely drape. It could even be used as a table runner really.

The pattern is "Fern Lace Scarf" by Knitting Pixie and is available as a FREE download on Ravelry.

I've used a combination of two different hand dyed silks that I purchased from

The Lucky Ewe in Oatlands

The pattern is a very easy repeat over 12 rows. Admittedly, it was much easier if I put the knitting down at row 12 and I did have to unpick a couple of times because I forgot where I was at sometimes. My yarn was about sport weight so I used 4.5mm needles. It is not a very long scarf but certainly enough to knot in front. I am very happy with the end result and the pattern really showcases the yarns lovely textures and colour variations.

My Ravelry link here

Lavender Sachets

Home made from our house this year are simple lavender bags for drawer sachets.

Simple in style but a twelve month process to get to this point.

The lavender is home grown and harvested on a warm sunny morning after the dew and hung upside down in paper bags to dry for the season. After quite a few months the heads then have to be rolled and stripped by hand. I haven't found an easier way, perhaps you have one? It takes a lot of lavender to produce 10g of heady seedy stuffing.

Cotton fabrics are washed, dried and ironed and then we used a seed packet as a template.

I say "we" as the shearer did all the sewing while I cut, turned, pressed, stuffed and tied.

The simple bags were stuffed with about 12g of lavender, leaving a few centimetres of head room. The top was machine sewn with a matching thread and cinched with a complimentary bow purely for sweetness. Not only do these scent drawers and cupboards but they also deter insects and a gentle squeeze every now and then will release more of the volatile oils and last for years.  

Onward To Ulverstone - 2015 Tour Part II

Hitting the streets of Ulverstone in search of yarny goodies with my sister-in-law and we needed look no further than.....

The staff were all hands on deck and ready and willing. So helpful and knowledgeable, we only had to show interest in a yarn and they were able to show us a knitted garment in the same. They had advice about needles, patterns and everything in between. 

Everything our hearts desired...

cotton, alpaca, merino, silk, polymides, sock yarns, slubby yarns, Noro, free patterns....

And that's not all!

Quilting, fabrics, embroidery...

All types of crafting supplies!

They also had a basket of lucky dips for $2 that went straight to the Cancer Council.

This added to the fun of the day and the girls really loved the idea and got some great bargains for their gold coin

Reels of cotton, patchwork squares, needles and more....

Cranberry Crafts were incredibly generous and donated six prizes for our lucky draws on the bus.

Have you had enough yarning yet?

Well here's one more...

Thank you Cranberry Crafts.

You guys were amazing!

xxx

The girls then shopped and made some discoveries in the gift shops and split up to enjoy lunch in one of the many cafes. My posse of three highly recommend Furners Hotel and their fabulous $10 lunch menu.

Time to board the bus and find out where Neil will take us next....

. 

Yarn Lovers Tour- Northern Tasmanian Trip

It's on again!

We had so much fun last year we are going on another knitting/crochet day tour (or quilting as the places we are visiting also cross-over with quilt shops too).

If you are local in and around the Launceston area or from the south and want to be introduced to the delights of the northern yarn lovers come join us.

We leave Launceston on Saturday

13th June 2015

at

9am

from the Brickfields Park, Canning St side

We'll be travelling to Deloraine first where we sill stop at the Alpaca Shop and have a talk with producers and spinners about the benefits of alpaca fibre. 

We will also have morning tea here.

Our lunch stop will be in beautiful Ulverstone where there are many cafe choices or you may decide to pack your own lunch and give yourself more time for shopping.

While in Ulverstone we will be visiting 

Cranberry Crafts

Sew and Wool

Under the Oak

  

for some hand spun and hand dyed yarns and a large range of commercial produced yarn as well.

Along the way we'll be having a charity knit-a-long to make a blanket and lucky door prizes.

We are not for profit. Just a bunch of ladies (most of us don't know each other) getting together with a shared passion and having a day out.

The cost is $30

This covers the hire of the coach and driver for the day and morning tea is provided. Lunch is buy or pack your own. We recommend you bring a bottle of water and a pair of needles or crochet hook suitable for 8ply eg: 4mm. Most of the ladies also bring along their current projects to work on during travel.

Send me an email if you would like to come. The more the merrier (and the plusher the coach!)

Here is our Facebook event page link

pattern and yarn notes

Wild Wool and Silks - Yarn Tour Part IV

You could be forgiven for mistaking this as a knitting blog but it does become a bit of a past time round here in the winter. So we bid Hobart a fond farewell and climbed back on the bus and travelled an hour north of Hobart along the Midlands Hwy to historic Oatlands, home of the (still working) flour mill (recently restored).

Oatlands is very much like Ross and remains mostly untouched by modern paraphernalia, maintaining it's original sandstone and clipped hedges streetscape. As you can see, our beautiful mild winters day morphed into an equally mild and cloudless sky afternoon. The day was picture perfect.

Opening especially for us was the "Lucky Ewe" shop, and again, a shop quite different to the previous shops at Ross and Hobart. 

Though it is probably smaller than my lounge room, it certainly is Aladdin's cave for yarn lovers, especially weavers, spinners, dyers and felters. Above is a selection of yarn dyes.

Colourful roving and hand spun. 

(and beautiful ancient floor boards)

Gorgeous silks among the woollier yarns.

I bought this silk mix for my mother. Rich vibrant golden colours.

and these sea greens for me! 

But what I was most excited to see was the "wild yarns". Hand spun merino with possum and wallaby fur, bound together with a fine silk thread. So soft and warm.

This is knitting up beautifully into a cowl for Craig when he is on the bike.

Pattern here on Ravelry

(The beautiful stitch markers were a thank you gift from one of the ladies on the bus. So beautiful)

And a hank of Jenmark Alpaca, a local alpaca fleece yarn grown just north of Hobart.

So soft and luxurious. I haven't got a project in mind yet but I just had to have it.

And more unique Tasmanian knitting needles from Tasmanian Forest Beads, made from Tas oak with Huon pine, myrtle and eucalypt burl. The larger ones look like horizontal scrub knobs.

Plenty of great gifts for knitters here!

Again we would like to thank Rowena for specially opening and for the goodies she gave us for our gift bags too. Such a unique little shop and if you can't get to Tasmania to visit it then check out her facebook page here or her site here

The tour was deemed great fun and we are planning to do another in autumn next year. This time we will travel the north west way probably late April early May. Vogue Knitting tours, eat your heart out!