Show and Tell

Such a busy, productive day as we continue to set our year up and move the club along as we always do. So many good things to see today including felted hats and lovely spun colours.

Show and tell

Maxine: Wool beanie in pink and grey

Cathy : Five strand crochet and plaited scarf from wool and feather yarn. Ball of spun merino form Kathy’s Fibres. “Morgana”.

Anthea: Handspun pink and grey striped mittens.

Alexis: Merino and silk handspun knitted scarf dyed with Tasmanian blue gum leaves.

Sheila Mc: Pink felted hat, grey felted hat, grey felted hat with sari silk, grey beanie, two felted berets : one orange and green, one pink and lavender.

Hilary : Handspun grey mittens with a colourful motif.

Anita:  Kathy Bashir’s colours in purples.  

Sarina: Handspun merino to speckle dye.

Margaret: alpaca mittens in fawns , yellow and green.

Jan E : skein of blue spun merino tops. Grey cable beanie in handspun wool with faux fur pom pom.

Fractal knitting

The beauty of the Yarn waffle podcast is you get to see her fractal spinning and how she goes about it. She really does take you through the whole process of fractal spinning to the beautiful nightshift shawl.

You might want to try your hand at knitting some fractal patterns. In the loop has a whole array of mathematically based knitting patterns , including fractals. KnitHacker has a spherical fractal knitted scarf. As we wrote yesterday, fractal fashion is a thing and so you will find fractal knitting patterns and ideas if you search for them. Your own creativity will then direct you.

Weaving fractal designs

Weaving fractal fabrics is common and fractal fashion is a thing. Tribal cultures often incorporate fractal mathematics into their designs. Freepik has some good examples of African seamless designs. You can find a reasonable explanation of the use of fractals in tribal design on deemallon. The more you look, the more you learn. Fractal designs are very much about absorbing mathematical principles visually. They naturally make you take notice. To make a fractal weaving you can use these images and ideas to create your pattern. The fractal rainbow sweater lets you see how someone interpreted the concept of fractal patterns into their project.

Fractal crochet

Fractals are repeated and never ending patterns. As they repeat themselves there is visual movement and another way of looking at the pattern. Nature has them everywhere. A tree is a lot of smaller trees of all different sizes but it creates the overall visual impact of the tree. Tribal art and quilting often use fractals. A shape is repeated and then it creates a bigger image from all its same shaped parts. The concept of fractal crochet is explained really well on Fractal Crochet and there are lots of examples to look at to get you thinking. You can find a free fractal throw pattern on Hooked Hazel.

Fractal spinning

We are still looking at fractal spinning and, later, we shall look at fractal designs for other ways of producing fibre fractals. The top video by Fiber Sprite is another way of dividing plaits of dyed fleece to create a fractal spin. In the video below, Jillian Eve explains carefully how to divide coloured plaits so you can create a gradient fractal spin. As she says , it is always good to learn something so you can make another project!

Fractal spinning

Our challenge this year is fractals. We spin, weave, needlefelt, felt, crochet , knit. We need to think about how we would use fractals in our textile work. This video is a chance to just look and learn and the one below explains the mathematical concept of fractals. We have to make something with our fractal fibre. You could do something as straight forward as gradient fractals and videos will come about that. Playing with colour is good therapy.

Show and tell

Lovely sunny day at the beach front today . We helped each other fill knowledge gaps today and get better at what we were doing. We also raised $350 for a local organisation and that was something to be very proud of. The show and tell table was laden and the exchange table was busy and had some good things for people. All in all a very productive day. Our new challenge for this year is fractal spinning and fractal colours.

Show and tell

Maxine: Skein of spun  wool and alpaca fleece in natural colours. Vest in Abbey Road wool in pinks and greys. Long sleeved jumper in Cleckheaton pink and white.

Cathy : Handspun short sleeved vests in blues and purple merino. Woven and crochet bag in greens and bowns. Handspun wool and silk.

Anthea: Handspun jumper in pink, blue and grey knitted cuff to cuff.

Jan H: Two adorable hand spun amigurumi  dragons  in grey and purple and green and orange.

Anita: merino and silk beanie in fawn colours.

Dagmar : Alpaca and wool beanie in fawn

Angela : Ladybird bag knitted in pink and maroon.

Sarina: Handspun beanie in  microwave red dyed Polwarth .

Lynn: fleece dyed with Tasmanian blue gum leaves, fleece dyed with food colouring, purple loomed baby booties, loomed bee, acrylic scarf which she had dyed a good cream colour.

Hilary: two handspun beanies in pinks, white and green in merino and silk.

Jan E : skein of purple and turquoise blue spun merino tops.

Marina : Handspun woven and knitted hat and matching knitted mobius  cowl in pewter and green colours.

Waverley Woollen Mills

Christine shared a link to an article in the abc news about our Waverley Woollen Mills in Tasmania. It is celebrating its 150th anniversary and is the longest operating textile mill in Australia. Our local Onkaparinga Woollen Mills in Lobethal was a household name at one stage for blankets. It is now a museum. Given there is a big resurgence in textile arts and crafts then mills might need to be reconsidered because we have a long history with sheep and a love of goats and alpacas.

Always good when a member shares a good link they have found because then we can all enjoy the discovery.

Annual General Meeting

It was a very dynamic and constructive day at the club. We welcome Marina as our new president and congratulate all those who have positions to help run our club. We thank those leaving their positions for their hard work and contributions to helping our club move forward successfully. It was also our challenge day and it was lovely to see what members had done with their 100gms of fawn Polwarth. It was also interesting to see the special colours which came from dyeing that fleece. Congratulations to Margaret for winning first prize with her mittens and sheep beanie, Cathy for winning second prize with her Queen Bee and Marina for winning third prize with her woven bag. We thank Alexis for organising the challenge and our outgoing, reliable president,, Karin, for setting the challenge.

Knitting is his therapy

Thirty one year old Dan Soar from Britain is in the Guiness book of records now for knitting the most blankets in twenty four hours. Like a lot of men knitters and crocheters he is breaking boundaries and stereotypes . Dan is known on social media as the Tattooed knitter. Thank Christine for sending us the link to the article in New Daily , enjoy the video and congratulations to Dan!

Show and tell

Lovely, sunny autumn day at the beach front. Plenty of colour inside the club rooms. We also spend time helping each other to think in different ways about colour and how to spin better. So many ways of helping each other and it just comes about through conversation. Next week is our AGM so that is something to look forward to. We shall be seeing our challenge projects!

Show and tell

Cathy: Ball of green spun wool dyed with teabags and blue food colouring.

Marina: Fully lined  back pack in fawn, orange and brown grannie squares.  Crocheted bucket bag in black and white cone cotton.  

Anita: Two handspun,  dyed merino fleece beanies, one with a pompom. The pink was microwave dyed, and the rest was solar dyed.

Angela: Superb, Fair Isle, long scarf in sock wool in pink, green, blue and white.

Anthea : Skein of handspun merino dyed with Tasmanian blue gum leaves.

Peter: His new free form weaving. Work in progress.

Sanquhar Designs

Sanquhar is in Scotland between Dumfries and Ayr. The traditional Fair Isle patterns are very striking. We have featured it before on our blog when Marjorie shared a pair of Sanquhar gloves she had come by. May MacCormick has dedicated her time to ensure the skills of Sanquhar knitting continue and she is featured in the video. Marina shared with us a link to a BBC article about May MacCormick giving some background into how she is saving the heritage of these patterns.

Upcycling plastic for social benefit

You can find @Wood_Mood on Instagram and Facebook as well as YouTube. He has some very creative ideas. This clip shows how he upcycles plastic bottles into beanies for the homeless with his rotary knitting machine. They are light and waterproof beanies and cost effective. A simple way to make a good difference in our world. Some people are just so clever and thoughtful. Chistine shared this link with us.

Show and tell

It was a happy, productive day today. We are moving towards winter in a confident way and so we shall keep being creative and having fun. Christine’s wooden wool winder was good to see as were all the beautiful colours around the room. John’s patience in laying out the yarn to warp up his loom was a study in being methodical and patient.

Show and tell

Cheryl: Blanket shawl in blues, maroons and mustard. Very warm.

Marina:Big woven bag in green and fawn for her table top loom; spun wool from the fibres Alexis shared on the exchange table in greens and dark blues, woven pink runner in her homespun wool.  

Anita: Knitted ear warmer in the same colours as last week’s beanie – blue, mustard and maroon.

Lynn: Male and female bead angels

Karin: Cable beanie in handspun merino dyed with onion skins.

Marjorie: Classic dark blue beret, one of Alexis’ colours.

Dagmar: Two skeins of spun alpaca

Show and tell

We had a lovely visit from Kathy of Kathy’s Fibres who brought us some lovely fibres to choose from and gave us some really good ideas and tips on speckle dyeing. It was lovely to see all the spinning underway and some lovely other projects being created. Our cheer kept the rain away until we got home. Not a lot to say. Just a really satisfying day full of good ideas.

Show and tell

Cathy: Colourful crochet  blanket in acrylic yarn and cotton. Middle section is linen stitch.

Alexis:Blue and white cosy knitted blanket in commercial wool.  

Anita: Dovendale merino and silk beanie in basket weave stitch and a roll edge beanie in blue and mustard in acrylic yarn.

Angela: Beautiful crochet jacket in sage and gray in Hedgehog fibres.

Peach Fuzz

The Pantone colour of the year 2024 is 13-1023 Peach Fuzz and you can read all about it on the Pantone site. We are showing this 13 minute clip of a graphic designer discussing the colour so you get a professional opinion of the colour to help promote your own thinking about Peach Fuzz. It is a colour of kindness and represents closeness, compassion and connection. How would you use it? how would you dye the colour? What would you combine it with? Any time you look at a colour it will bring about thoughts and ideas as to how you can create and design your own projects and spaces. Are you peachy keen about Peach Fuzz?

Sheep are clever

Image: Pixabay Uschi_Du

Christine sent us a link to a marvellously informative article about sheep which ought to give you some food for thought. Sheep really are clever! You can read the article on our abc news website.

Setting the twist and yardage

We thank Jan E for this link to April Klich’s blog post where she explains very carefully how setting the twist on your plied handspun yarn can considerably affect the yardage. That has implications for you if you supply skeins with a yardage or you buy skeins with a yardage. You can find the post here on withwool.

Show and tell

Autumn is starting to bring us cooler weather now and the seafront was a grey colour today but we were not a bit grey. The range of beanies on the table was colourful and stylish. No beanie is the same and we see hundreds of them. We were also making sure everyone was comfortable with what they were doing and had ideas to be going on with. The homespun yarns being produced are well thought out in their colours and the projects we see are things which inspire us. Some beautiful Fair Isle work happening at the moment but also some really good use of colour combinations to produce our projects. Those using electric spinning wheels are sharing good ideas to get the best out of them. What is good to see is that members are prepared to use their skills and knowledge to make changes to patterns so they have something truly creative and original.

Show and tell.

Anita: knitted beanie in orange and black.
Dagmar: Two beanies: one cable in greens and reds, one in pastel shades and white with pompom.
Karin: Fair Isle beanie in six shades of blue.
Sheila O: a lovely 1920′ ‘s style cloche hat in pale blue with a white flower.
Alexis: white sock wool skein sprinkle dyed green and red; a lovely long white scarf knitted lengthways.
Jan E: beanie in red with multi colour stripes and an unusual band with icord decorations.
Maxine: a warm sleeveless jumper in natural colour alpaca and wool.
Lynn: loom knitted headband and beanie in acrylic multi colours.
Marina: a very unusual beanie with a woven top in blues and reds and a mullti coloured pink woven beanie in feather yarn with long tassels. Knitted purple straight needle socks.
Marjorie: brought along a large roll of woven material in cotton which was aqua and white honeycomb design.
Sonya: brought in 4 bags of alpaca and wool fleece to give away.

Show and tell

Was a great day at the club today. The exchange table worked well, our show and tell table had plenty on it to talk about and we were all happy to be spinning and creating. Marina brought along a spinning wheel she had got going. It had been made from a standard lamp and turned into an electric wheel. Someone had been inspired and very creative. Alexis brought along some lovely colours for us to choose from so that cheered us up and Jeanette had shared a big bag of alpaca fleece so that got us all talking about how we prepare, spin and dye alpaca fleece. Colour blending was featured very strongly today.

Show and tell

Sarina : has made a beautiful quilt and has brought it along to be raffled. Tickets are $5 and there are only 100. The money raised is going to the Hallet Cove Scout group.
Marina : was using a very unusual electric wheel today made from a standard lamp. Very attractive.
Sheila O : Three beanies : one multi stripe, one colourful spiral and one Fair Isle pattern.
Alexis: two Fair Isle beanies: one red and one turquoise.
John : a lovely warm woven scarf in pastel shades.
Cathy : a ball spun wool of tan plied with a multi colour strand. Bright beanie in multicolours and bright pompom.
Karin: a skein of green mix of wool and alpaca.
Jan E: two skeins of Kathy’s fibre plaits: one blue mix and one green mix.
Maxine: a long multi coloured jacket made from spinning her leftover tops.
Peter: a small frame loom of multi coloured stripes

Show and tell

It is always nice to hear that when members go out into the wild and meet other yarn people they know our group from our social media accounts. It helps friendly conversations . Today was warm and pleasant and inside the club there were lovely colours, some great weaving, a visitor learning how to spin and some really good spinning ,weaving and crocheting in progress. There were felting projects too and they are always good to see as they progress. We have a public holiday next Monday and so will not be meeting and we reconvene on the 18th.

Show and tell

Karin: a skein of speckled dyed Finn wool of many colours, with a label attached describing her process for preparing and spinning the fleece for her project. Karin shared labels so we can label our challenge project in a similar fashion.
Cathy: a small cowl in wool deep red/pink, two small gnomes one green, one pink and a ball of spun wool in orange tones.
Anita : One child’s beanie in various reds with a grey strip and an adult’s size beanie in a cable design in dark blue.
Dagmar: a wool/silk scarf in autumn tones.
Alexis : a large skein of hand-dyed multi coloured wool.
John: a lovely woven scarf in autumn tones in acrylic and wool.
Janette: a large knitted wool square blanket in multi pastel shades and white.

Show and tell

Our AGM is set for 29th April and that is when we bring along our entries for the annual challenge. That is always interesting to see what others have created for our challenge. We then have another one to look forward to! Today was a lot of fibre fun because people are bringing in all the different fibres they have dyed which were done either at our workshop or separately. The colours have been so inspiring to look at and it is always interesting to see how others use colour. We had a lot of good conversations about how we can mix and match colours, improve or enhance colours and how we can spin or use the colours. The dyeing workshop keeps our eyes on colour and how it works.

Show and tell

Lynn: a multi coloured plait dyed on the dyeing day.
Alexis: a large skein and ball of wool/silk dyed with silver dollar (Tasmanian Blue Gum ) gum leaves.
Janette: two bags of solar dyed fleece pastel shades of green and pinks/blues.
Anita :three balls of spun wool blues/pinks, aqua plait dyed on dyeing day and a lovely green knitted triangular, lace scarf. Plait of blue/pink dyed wool
Dagmar: blue plait dyed on dyeing day.
Cathy :a ribbed beanie in brown tones and a pair of mitts knitted in acrylic autumn colours.
Jan E : two skeins of spun wool in pink and navy blue.
Hilary : three beanies of various sizes, two skeins of dyed wool one skein of dyed alpaca.

Show and tell

Show and tell

Sarina: two green balls of yarn made from Alexis’ dyed tops and Bendigo cone wool . Blue and purple dyed fleece which is camel hair, merino and silk
Sheila Mc :several brightly dyed fleeces each 2 colours dyed in a wok in a wok , spun skeins of natural dark fleece

Christine : Stunning monochrome crochet cat blanket
Jan H: purple crochet jacket with buttons made from avocado stones
Cathy: solar dyed beanie pink and blue, 1 ball mohair, 1 ball wool, bunny fluff ,alpaca. Scarf in Bendigo Woollen Mills “Aurora”.
Kay :pink alpaca skein, green ball, white alpaca skein, green/blue solar dyed skein, woven poncho green/red.
Lynn: Cowl, fingerless mitts, beanie cream sparkle commercial wool, woven fabric runner in fawn.
Maxine: crotchet bag from daughter’s chevron crochet bright in colours.
Marina: a long woven piece of fabric in different patterns cotton/wool.
John: two scarf pieces in rainbow colours one with a white warp, one with a black warp.
Sue: dyed white cotton lace piece with blue. Her tip is to use soybean milk to help colour absorption.
Marjorie: cold water dyed carded alpaca in blue.
Fay: Two Fair Isle beanies – blue/red/grey beanie, green/red/blue/purple beanie.
Sheila O: hand spun Fair Isle hat grey/red & blue.

Making Mun-dirra

Christine sent us a link to the abc news article on the amazing efforts of thirteen artists from the Maningrida Arts Centre who wove a hundred metre fish fence from screw pine (pandanus spiralis) for the National Gallery of Victoria Triennial. You can read the article here.

Sand stitch

Sand stitch is an easy knitting stitch to learn and is reversible. Since it displays as a raised stitch it provides visual interest . It’s versatile. The video by Studio Knit walks you through it .

We were not able to meet yesterday, due to unforseen circumstances. It was a pretty hot day in Adelaide yesterday so we were working comfortably from home. We are looking forward to seeing each other next week.

Show and tell

About a dozen members took part in our dyeing workshop today and had a wonderful time colouring the fleece and skeins they had brought along. We were using cold dyes and we look forward to seeing how these colours come back to the club as spun yarns or in projects. Colour therapy is always a good way to start our year. As always, there were conversations as to how to get good colour combinations or the best out of the dyes. It was a cheerful meeting full of good ideas and ways to use our homespun yarns. Our exchange table did very well today and it is often a good place to share patterns, produce and gadgets which will inspire others to do good things!

Show and tell

Marina has woven a beautiful jacket in brown tones made from her homespun yarn.
Cathy knitted a very attractive longtail beanie using up her homespun oddments.
Anthea knitted a pair of straight needle socks from Kathy’s Fibres sock yarn.
Hilary knitted several cute and appealing children’s beanies in her homespun wool for the Alices Springs Festival

Show and tell

Beautiful, sunny day at the beach front today and we were all cheerful and full of good ideas and projects. It was lovely to welcome another new member who was spinning confidently very quickly thanks to Dagmar’s tutelage. Hilary and Marjorie were making sure all the dyes were in order for next week’s dyeing day and we thank them for doing that for us. It has been how we traditionally start our new year and the colours which come out of it are always interesting. Along the track we get to see what these colours become in terms of projects. One of the focuses of today was how we put colours together or find colours to match in when we don’t have enough of one colour. Lynn had also worked out you can use a flower loom as a mini knitting loom. Why not?

Show and tell

Maxine :a beautiful knitted BabyYoda doll in dark green homespun with white scarf and cuffs.

Jan E :a lovely cable beanie in fawn and a spun skein of Alexis’ blue wool.

Marjorie: two skeins :one green wool/silk First Edition, one Alexis dyed Bloodwood wool tops.

Marina :ball of spun white bamboo.

Cathy: a ball of handdyed dyed mixed green wool.

Lynn :a beanie in grey sparkle yarn, and a lovely pair baby shoes made on her loom with small flowers made on her flower loom.

Corina: beautifully knitted blue jumper in her handspun wool.

Show and tell

Lovely day at the beach front today and plenty to see and do in the clubrooms. Very worthwhile productive day. We spin in Christies Beach which has just featured globally in the start to one of the stages in the Tour Downunder. That was a nice thought.

Show and tell

Jan E: Two soft , warm beanies in pink and red hues made from her own homespun wool.

Lynn: Skein of spun tops from Margaret in blue, purple and pink, loom knitted red scarf in commercial wool, beanie and headband made from homespun yarn, sparkly grey loom knitted beanie , scarf and headband

Alexis::An array of wonderfully dyed tops.

Maxine: Amazing hooked rug made with upcycled track pants fabric strips. White roll neck jumper knitted in commercial yarn

Angela: Vibrant corner to corner crochet blanket in bold coloured shapes and white surrounded by black.

Sarina: Two skeins of  spun brown alpaca and a ball of spun merino from Kathy’s Fibres.

Show and tell

Warm ,sunny day in Adelaide and it was a warm , sunny day inside the club rooms. It was nice to see each other again. Who likes numbers? We have numbers to start the new year!

We have 1114 followers on Instagram , which makes us happy and 312 subscribers to this blog. Our blog has had 51,148 hits since we started it and last year we got 200 more hits than the year before. Most of our visitors come from USA closely followed by Australia, then UK, Canada and Germany complete our top 5 countries for visitors. It is nice to know so many people come to our blog. 6783 were brought here last year through search engines and that is a huge breakthrough. Our Facebook page and the WordPress reader also bring us constant traffic. Those are good numbers to start the year and our show and tell table was full of woolly goodness as well today. We thank those who contributed to a very successful exchange table today.

Show and Tell

Cathy: a pair of red patterned mittens, one ball of spun wool mixed colours from Susie Horne.
Jan E: three beanies: white, aqua/white and mixed striped pinks and an aqua felted flower.
Dagmar :four beanies made in commercial wool grey, brown, fawn and green, a pair of grey mittens, two balls spun wool and a selection of pompoms.
Lynn : a lovely white scarf made on the knitting loom, headband and mittens in pink and grey.
Anita :two balls spun wool blue/grey, two balls orange/brown, scarf in grey Morning Surf/ Seafoam pattern.
Angela: a large crochet temperature blanket in seasons of the year pattern in multi colours.
John: a lovely woven scarf in turquoise.
Alexis :spun silk knitted scarf in multi shades of aqua/black/white /red.
Sheila O : a Harry Potter scarf with large spider pattern in grey tones.

Show and tell

It was our last meeting for the year and we went out in style. We met during the best part of the day. It is summer in Adelaide but from 4am we had had thunderstorms and very high winds. They held off as we met and it all started up again afterwards. The atmosphere in the club rooms was festive and positive and we truly have a lot to be proud of this year. We have shared some inspiring projects. Our workshops have been a great success where we learned new skills we value. There were some interesting and enjoyable days out and each week there has been so much to share and think about. We also did some valuable community and charity work so as we shared lunch together it was nice to know we had done so well this year.

Show and tell

Sheila O: some lovely handspun white fleece from Jenny Gunson’s Finn/Corriedale sheep, spun straight from the fleece without washing first. It was lovely and soft and so white!
Marina : lavender scarf knitted on a knitting loom, head band in fawn with white edges, fawn beanie made from upcycling a jumper.
Jeanette: beautiful blue/white cardigan with moss stitch edges.
Cathy: a pink and green felted bag with leather trims.
Lynn: toy elf on a shelf red/white, pink scarf knitted on a loom, fawn cowl, skein of mixed wools grey/white with a hint of green.
John: 4 small woven squares coasters in red/white.
Sarina: 1 ½ balls of spun wool from multi coloured merino tops.
Kay: a large piece of woven striped fabric in a mixture of spun wool, alpaca and recycled wool.

Hilary: Dark blue and green handdyed, handspun beehive beanie.

Show and tell

What are we good at? Creating new and interesting projects. Keeping each other going with ideas and tips. Using all sorts of colours in interesting ways. Not being yarn snobs. We can spin the most amazing yarns when we want to, but we will use the cheap and cheerful yarns too to good effect. Ensuring everyone can achieve what they want to achieve. There is plenty of skill in this group and we share it. It makes us all grow and enjoy what we are doing. Today was no exception. We looked at the best ways to put a good finish on our projects. We always come home with more ideas than we know what to do with but it doesn’t matter. We thrive on it!

Show and tell

John: Lovely woven scarf in autumn and spring colours started by Alexis’ son and finished by John.

Alexis::Two beautiful colourful Fair Isle beanies on dark background.

Lynn: Three knitted chenille animal puppets, one gorgeous knitted cow and a cute knitted little boy all made on her rotary knitter.

Marina: Three cakes of sparkle yarn made from spun wool and sparkle thread. Two amethyst and one blue/green.

Jeanette: Two colourful cakes of spun merino in Brenda’s colours in pinks , yellow and white.

 Anita: A swirl beanie in blue , white and fawn.

Cathy: A homespun beanie in pinks and a cake of blue/green merino tops from Kathy’s Fibres and Alexis’ plaits.

Marjorie: Spun alpaca in a greenish blue colour. Her Guild challenge jacket made from woven squares with a crocheted edge.

Sheila Mc : Two cakes of green/pink yarn made from Luba’s wool.

Maxine: Big, squishy skein of Corriedale plied with alpaca. Brown and fawn.

Anthea: Cake of spun yellow based wool and an eyecatching cake of spun turquoise bamboo.

Show and tell

Such a busy and productive day at the club today and so many things to see and do. We saw our third temperature blanket for the year. Lynn brought in a knitted one earlier, Angela shared her African flow crochet one and today we saw Irene’s crochet blanket. Visually , they are very impressive. It is good to see all the spun colours too and how different they can be even if members are using the same base colours. It was good to see Christine’s electric yarn measuring gadget too. Very clever.

Show and tell

Irene: Another excellent example of a crochet temperature blanket. Lynn has previously shared a knitted one and Angela previously shared her crochet African flower motif blanket.

Sue::Beautiful nuno felted scarf in white and turquoise.

Dagmar: Beanie in grey and purple commercial wool . Handspun lace scarf in one of Alexis’ plaits and baby camel.

Angela: Her first pair of socks in purple wool.

Marina: Crochet flower beanie mainly in blue and red. Mix of handspun and commercial yarn. Cake of Alexis pastel dyed yarn plied with linen.

 Sarina:Two skeins of brown alpaca plied with fawn wool.

Cathy: Cake of Alexis’ pastel colours plied with blue merino. Pink flower beanie threaded with core spun yarn. Her first woven bag in fawns and pinks made on a little loom.

Alexis: Great felted hat in brown alpaca.

Sheila Mc : Two cakes of green/pink yarn made from Luba’s wool.

Maxine: Big, squishy skein of Corriedale plied with alpaca. Brown and fawn.

Anthea: Cake of spun yellow based wool and an eyecatching cake of spun turquoise bamboo.

Show and tell

Lovely spring day down at the beach front. We had plenty to see and do today. A couple of people have new wheels at home and were excited to share the news. Alexis livened the clubrooms up with more of her lovely, dyed plaits. We were talking a lot about colour combinations and how to get them. It was also really nice to see Sarina’s patchwork Christmas baubles. We support all our skills and a touch of Christmas was cheering. Equipment Day trip to the Adelaide Hills group was judged to be a success. The loveliest thing, though, was Margaret had finished Maria’s jumper for her and it looks and feels so nice.

Show and tell

Margaret has helped Maria with a jumper made from alpaca, two pairs of fingerless mitts green and red.
Angela: a lovely blue, child’s cardigan with sideways pockets.
Alexis : two knitted felted hats blue and grey/blue.
Marina: two beanies – one soft pink/white, one green/turquoise.
Maxine: a big, squishy skein of spun natural coloured wool/alpaca.
Anita: headband in brown/white mix wool.
Cathy: a pair of lovely pink fingerless mitts with a flower design and a large brown/white ribbed beanie in wool/alpaca.
Sarina: a lovely selection of patchwork Christmas fabric balls ready for the Christmas tree.
John has been busy working on a loom on a project for a friend.

Show and tell

It was a lovely day today and even better because we could welcome another new member. Everyone contributes their skills to our group so we are never stuck or blocked and we always have good ideas coming our way. It means we are not frightened to try something new because someone can always help if we lose our way. Some members of the group will be going to Equipment Day in the hills on Thursday and they are looking forward to it.

Show and tell

Anita: two balls of spun Corriedale plied with tops dyed by Alexis. Scarf in green merino/silk lace pattern .
Cathy:one ball spun Finn X dyed yellow with soursobs and capeweed.One beanie in blue/grey/purple stripes.
Dagmar: merino/silk lace scarf in green tones.
Marina: a crochet cap using up all her odd colours very attractive design.

You can find the pattern on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mGc8ks9nJc

Maxine: two tubular socks: one pair black and one pair green and a pair of fingerless mitts in soft green.
Sarina: has been busy carding dark brown alpaca and has spun several skeins.
Marjorie: a pair of socks knitted on straight needles with an invisible seam on the side.
Jan E :2 skeins of wool: one Nundle dark blue, one Bennet and Gregor silver merino.

Jan H: Cute amigurumi chicken in green and fawn

Show and tell

Beautiful sunny day at the beach front today and plenty of sunshine inside the club rooms. Our talk is still about colour: how people get their colours, what colours to ply with each other, the beauty of natural colours and plant dyes. We also help each other with our ideas for projects so that they look their best. Angela’s temperature change crochet blanket had a good visual impact, as did Lynn’s knitted one she brought along a few weeks ago. Colour therapy works. We were also lucky Alexis brought along bags of her dyed colours for us to share. So many great ideas so we have plenty to be enthusiastic about until next week. Everybody knows something and everybody is good at something. When you pool those ideas then you find you have a strong knowledge base to work from.

Our blog is also going well this year and already has had a lot more visitors than last year. USA, Australia and UK provide the biggest number of visitors but we are happy to see we appeal to lots of countries in the world. We thank you all for coming to see us.

Show and tell

Maxine : lovely rust red tubular socks.
Marina: a cowl made up from pinloom knitted squares, bee hive beanie in lavender/purple.
Cathy: a very intricate Fair Isle beanie in red tones, 3 balls spun wool/alpaca dyed with avocado pits, sour sobs and red geraniums.
Anthea: a lovely white skein of spun Finn wool.
Jan E: skein of spun Nundle dyed fuchsia colour wool.
Fay: a spun ball of natural dyed wool, creamy colour and green.
Lynn: a knitted bottle cover yellow/white.
Angela: a crochet blanket designed to depict the temperatures/seasons worked across diagonally in Danish cotton. Work in progress.
Hilary :a beanie knitted in Finn wool dyed yellow/dk blue mystery process.

Show and tell

Such a good day at the club and we brought the sunshine out with our positive approach. So many new things to look at and some good ideas, like new colourways and avocado buttons.

Show and tell

Jan E: Two charity beanies knitted in acrylic . One in a soft red and the other in blue and grey. One skein of merino in a grey dyed by Alexis.

Anita:Avocado buttons she had made from Jan H’s instructions.

Marina: Multi coloured, handspun, beehive beanie which collapses flat on the top.

Jan H: Two amamani puzzle balls. One in primary colours on one in pink, lavender and grey. A very neat, woven basket.

Alexis: A plait she dyed in a new colourway.

Jeanette:Handspun , rainbow beehive hat with a little lamb button on top.

Cathy: Cake of Kathy’s fibres merino and seacell in green, purple and grey colourway.

Lynn: Loomed beanie, loomed cowl and loomed headband all n soft pastel colours

Show and tell

Beautiful day inside and out today. So many good projects to see and the show and tell table had some lovely items which created interesting conversations, particularly John’s piece of weaving. One of our handy topics of conversation was how we keep our drum carders clean and well maintained. It was also heartening to see members trying new ideas and colour mixes. Always something to talk about and we love talking. Our exchange table had some useful items too so all in all, a very good day.

Show and tell

Kay: a woven blanket in wool , alpaca and cotton green/orange and white.
Lynn: a large crochet shawl in green and grey.
Marjorie: a pair of socks to show how to knit them on round needles.
John: a piece of woven material suitable as a warm shawl in plaid brown/orange.
Sue: lots of felted wool and silk multi coloured bracelets.
Marina: received 2nd prize at the Yankalilla Showfor her a stick woven bag in orange and green and a pink beanie with crochet coloured flowers and a pompom, a ball of teal spun wool,
Cathy: a fair Isle beanie with a faux fur pompom and a ball spun wool and alpaca.
Anita: a cable design beanie in grey fleck.
Jeanette:e a large multi coloured jumper from handspun wool and alpaca.
Sarina: a hand knitted white shawl in commercial wool.

Show and tell

It was a really pleasant day at the club today with the main focus on colour and how we combine and blend colours. Many members are using colour very creatively and in ways they haven’t before. It is a case of seeing what works and trying new things. Half the members were at the club today keeping the seats warm for those who went on the sheep farm trip.

Show and tell

Cathy: homespun beanie in grey , red and blue featuring an Icelandic pattern, homespun beanie in blue and green with graph patterns, ball of wool made from one strand of Brenda’s colours and one strand of dyed blue wool batt.

Alexis : skein of orange and peach wool plied with alpaca.

Marina: two skeins of fawn alpaca prepared by Lynn plied with multicoloured silk.

Karin : Pink and cream coloured socks in sock wool and a Fair Isle patterns and some green and blue ocean coloured socks in Bendigo sock wool

Jan H : A lovely handwoven basket and an amamani puzzle ball in primary colours.

Show and tell

Spring is back and it was a beautiful, sunny day at the beach front and some beautiful sunny people inside the club rooms. There were some great projects to admire and there was plenty of chat and discussions. It was nice for everyone to be together again after the public holiday but it was obvious where the extra time had gone. Was good to see and hear some members had won prizes at the Yankalilla Show. Well done!

Show and tell

Anthea: a cosy hand spun crocheted jacket in multi colours.
Marina: a grey shopping bag crocheted in granny squares from various skeins of yarn from the trading table.
Margaret: a pair of socks in green with red toes and a snowflake design.
Angela: (our new member) knitted a beautiful cardigan in navy blue.
Marjorie: carded some white alpaca.
Anita: boomerang design knitted scarf in solar dyed pink, two balls black spun wool and green spun ball silk/soya mix.
Dagmar : wool/silk scarf knitted in lacy pattern, 1 ball spun alpaca plied with tops dyed by Alexis

Alrisha : knitted , felted bag in primary colours which had won a first prize at the Yankalilla Show. Well done!

Show and tell

It was a great day today with lovely sunny weather and a visit from Kathy’s fibres. The show and tell table had some really good projects to admire and learn from. We were sharing our skills and knowledge, as we have been. It keeps everyone going and happily productive.

Show and Tell

Anthea: Beautiful cable jumper knitted in natural colour white fleece which she had spun. Thick and warm.

Marina: Two cakes of purple/lavender yarn. One strand is an Alexis’ colour. The other is a mixed cotton fibre

Jan H: One blue and one purple , friendly unicorn in her handspun wool . Primary colours butterfly rattle in handspun  wool. Two handwoven raffia baskets in fawn.

Dagmar: Commercial wool cowl in pinks.

Kay:3 balls of art yarn in Susie Horne’s autumn colours.

Karin: Very cute  long tail beanie in a gorgeous green and autumn colours handspun wool.

Lynn: Handspun grey lace crochet scarf, loomed baby blanket in apricot, coral and white, loomed beanie in green and brown, cake of black alpaca and jewel coloured yarn.

Margaret : two grannie squares she is trying out. Floral pattern on black background.

Sarina: Skein of spun, dark brown alpaca.

Show and tell

Very cheerful, productive day with our group today. We have been doing a lot of skills , pattern and colour sharing in our group recently and it has kept everyone inspired. We all know different things and when you can access combined knowledge like that , then it improves your approach to your own projects.

Show and tell

Cathy: Double wrap cowl in one strand of Bloodwood Landscape dyed wool, mohair and rose fibre and one strand of Brenda’s colourway.

Pattern: 240 stitches 5.5 needles
4 rows knit two purl 3
2 rows purl

Repeat those 6 rows

Anita: Black merino and slate corn silk  together and wound into a ball.

First beanie on round needles in fawns with pompom.

Fay: Handspun, cable beanie in Alexis’ dyed colours and other spun wool.

Cute child’s beanie in cable. Mustard and green.

Dagmar: two beanies in mixed commercial wool colours. Green , gold and pink.

Marina: Tubular socks in brown , fawn and green.

Christine first introduced us to these and you can find details on our blog post.

Karin: Skein of spun white fleece dyed with onion skis. Gold in colour. One skein of tops in Brenda’s colourway in green, pink and orange.

Show and tell

It was a sunny day at the beach front and a sunny day inside the clubrooms. We had plenty to learn and a new member to get to know. There are so many good ideas and colours to be shared. Christine was showing us how to use the commercial stick weaver gadget and that was fun and a real time saver if you like stick weaving. It is always good to learn new skills.

Show and tell

Kay: Two woven baskets based on our earlier workshop. A cream woven blanket with fringe. Handspun and handdyed.

Anita: Corner to corner  crochet blanket in acrylic in gun metal grey, blue and green

Cathy: Handspun, handdyed crochet grannie square jacket mainly in green, brown and honeycomb. Honeycomb is spun acrylic. The rest is wool.

Dagmar:Two balls of green/grey yarn in Alexis green and grey tussar silk.

Handspun knitted beanie with pom pom in fawn.  

Christine was showing us how to use the commercial stick weaver John had found on his outings.

Show and tell

Lovely sunny day at the beach front but the wind was still a bit cold. Nothing cold about our meeting today. Slowly but surely we got everything humming. It was good to know we have come through winter in good spirits. It was lovely to see our new member spinning so well with the help she had been given and it was good to know we constantly keep trouble shooting and help each other so that everyone can achieve what they have in mind. Lovely colours being spun today and so nice to have our cuddly chickens back on the show and tell table. We continue to celebrate the success of the basket weaving workshop as each finished basket is displayed.

Show and tell

Anthea has finished her lovely basket.
Margaret : two crocheted beanies in a rib pattern .One multi coloured and one blue/yellow.
Marina: has knitted a scarf for the guild challenge in the sock yarn colours, a small beanie in the left-over yarn with a couple of scrumbled flowers, plus three balls of spun yarn from Susie Horn’s dyed bags.
Lynn: two large balls of spun yarn : one green alpaca/wool, one pink/grey colour.
Maxine: two lovely, colourful Henrietta chickens.

Show and tell

Beautifull day at the seafront made even more beautiful by a visit from Brenda from the Felting Ewe. She brought so much for us to look at and purchase. We were spoiled for choice. It was great to see Maxine’s penguin jumper because she has worked hard to get that completed. We also were full of ideas and we were helping each other to learn new things, or do things better. It was a very positive day with more impressive , finished baskets from our basket weaving workshop.

Show and tell

Sue’s finished basket.
Jeannette’s finished basket.
Vaishnavi finished her basket last week.
Anthea : one ball spun wool dyed blue/green, one ball spun from 4 strands of cotton dyed very pale blue.
Dagmar: a loose, floppy, slouch beanie red/orange/blue.
Marjorie: A pair of socks knitted from a skein bought at the Noarlunga Exhibition.
Cathy: a homespun cowl with a sheep scene.
Maxine : a beautiful green jumper with a penguin design.
Marina : wearing a jacket made from panels on a rotary knitting loom.
Karin: a superb Fair Isle beanie in orange design and fawn.

Show and tell

Weatherwise we are coming out of winter and it was a lovely view over the ocean today. Everyone was cheerful, busy and happy because we are all engrossed in satisfying projects. As ever, we keep each other going with ideas and remedies and the conversations are always helpful. We had some really good projects to admire again today but it is also interesting to see the projects which are underway and the colours people are using. it was especially nice to welcome another new member.

Show and tell

Anita : two beanies: one blue/ grey faux fur pompom, the othergreen/blue with wool pompom, three balls spun wool in pink which was micro wave dyed.
Cathy: a cat blanket orange/brown made with feather yarn.
Fay’s: lovely finished woven basket.
Dagmar: a pair of grey fingerless mittens, grey beanie knitted on the diagonal.
Sheila O: a skein of spun grey dyed wool.
Jeanette: a cardigan wool/alpaca brown withblue stripes, a ball of spun multi coloured spun wool.
John: a woven poncho type garment in blue/white.
Peter has finished a very long piece of weaving in dark browns/orange/gold and glitter.

Show and tell

Lovely, fresh , sunny day at the beach front and sunny and warm inside the club. Our last basket weaving workshop took place with Adele from the Adelaide Hills Spinners and Weavers group. She has been an excellent teacher because everyone has been committed to the task and has been successful in accomplishing something they really wanted to do. We have seen some finished baskets. We are hoping to see them all in the next week or two. We had some spectacular colours to look at today and they are always inspirational. Even if you don’t want to use that colour , your brain starts thinking about what changes you would make. It was good to see Nicky back from her trip and to meet her felted bear friend. All in all, such a positive, interesting day with plenty to look forward to. We thank Alexis for bringing along her coloured plaits and white tops so we can keep the colour therapy going. What would you make with those colours?

Show and tell

Nicky came for the day and brought her latest felting, one pair of felted slippers slippers and a felted teddy.
Jan E: two skeins: one Kathy’s Fibres wool/silk, one red from Alexis plaits.
Cathy: two balls of spun wool, one dyed with soursobs/avocado, one microwave dyed aqua.
Dagmar: one handspun beanie in grey wool/alpaca mixed in the band for colour.
Anita :a small child’s beanie in handspun blue which was one of Alexis’ colours.

Show and Tell

A very cheerful, busy session today at a sunny beachfront. Lots to talk about and plan and then all the projects which are underway. Kay was the first member to have her basket woven from the workshop last week and what a marvellous effort that was. Next week the basket weaving workshop will be completed. We thank Hilary for organising our future visits and outings. We always have something to look forward to.

Show and tell

Margaret has made a pair of computer designed socks and a small neck scarf with the left-over yarn. 100gms in total.
Jan H: a lovely warm jumper in dusky pink from her 5 fibre woolbatts.
Fay: two beanies green with multi coloured stripes in aqua and red stripes.
Dagmar: beanie in orange/blue/brown, multi coloured pink cable beanie.
Anita: scarf in merino/possum dark brown mix, red cable design beanie.
Lynn : crochet scarfin lacy design in purple and pink dyed fleece.
Marina brought along a Scandinavian wooden gadget for winding wool.
Kay finished her basket from last week workshop and a striped jumper in handspun multi colours.
Hilary : skein of microwave dyed wool in blues and greens.

Show and tell

Winter is showing signs of leaving us. The ocean looked beautiful today and we were very busy and happy. The basket weaving workshop went really well and we thank Adele from the Adelaide Hills spinning and weaving group for visiting us and sharing her skills. She worked with a few of us today and the concentration levels were high. Everyone was motivated to make their basket and to learn all the skills and tricks. It was fascinating watching the baskets take shape and gain structural strength. There were also some good colours being spun and plenty of ideas being shared, as usual. We were also pleased to have met another one of our charity goals and thank Lynn for the part she is playing in ensuring we complete our mission.

Show and tell

Dagmar: one fawn acrylic beanie in an unusual pattern.
Cathy: a bright pink spun acrylic beanie with a flower motif.
Marina : three beanies, two homespun and one commercial yarn, created on her new rotary knitting loom and new pompom maker will be bringing the fawn one a pompom.

Show and tell

It was quite nice at the beach front today even though it wasn’t particularly warm. Inside was a hive of activity and everyone was helping everyone. John very ably fixed a spinning wheel someone had brought along. We learned more about rotary knitting machines from Lynn. We are set to go with our weaving workshop next week. It was all interesting and gave us plenty to think about because it is so much better when others help you stay inspired.

Show and tell

Lovely pink spun wool from Maxine.

Blue and pink spun wool from Anthea.

Cathy dyed Corriedale at the top of the jar and mohair at the bottom of the jar with avocado pits and skins, sour sobs and a few red geraniums. She added a bit of turmeric to the mohair. She also made a cat with sunburst grannie squares and filled it with the bits from weaving in ends.

Balanced skein of spun fleece from Karin.

Lynn created a reversible loom hat in blue, green and white in self patterning yarn. She made soap bags on a Barbie rotary kniting loom and a lavender and dark red ear warms on her bigger rotary loom.

Dagmar knitted a beanie in homespun yarn in soft greys, fawns and rust.

Show and tell

Lovely sunshine at the beach front today and plenty of inspired conversations. Bit by bit we are seeing the spun yarn from our earlier microwave dyeing workshop and the colours are noticeably striking in one way or another. We are also getting ready for the upcoming weaving workshops . Every week we help each other and we share our ideas. Fay’s totally handmade bag creating a lot of conversations. Great way to use your imagination and upcycle. We also really loved the colour changes in Dagmar’s silk scarf.

Show and tell

Karin : asymmetric scarf in handspun wool in soft yells and peaches and other toned in colours.

Dagmar: Beautiful silk scarf in pale pink/mauve and yellow. It only used 30g of spun silk fibre. White beanie and a pair of fingerless mittens in purple/white.
Anita: beanie in dark red in a popcorn pattern, headband in green/blue.
Sheila O: pair of pink/white Fair Isle fingerless mittens, beanie blue with a yellow graph knitted motif.
Fay: a lovely handmade bag with a mixed scrumbling motifs and felted flowers on the front.
Hilary: two skeins of solar dyed wool in green and blue.