Doing the baking thing

I’m rediscovering my inner baker. Mother would be proud (hey Ma).

These Vanilla Buttercream Cupcakes were whipped up (and fast consumed) last week:

After a hard day in the garden trimming a Triffid-like ivy hedge, I gathered juuuust enough strength to whip up some afghans and pikelets. Can anyone say mmmm?

Afghans, stage 1 – from the Edmonds Cookbook. Waiting for them to cool…

Afghans, stage 2. No nuts in the house so cachous had to do. Now to the eating…

Pikelets – also from the good old Edmonds Cookbook. Haven’t made these in years!

That’s enough for one day. Now to sample the bake with a cup of tea. Sundays are gooooood…

Spinning Update

What’s been on and off my wheel in recent months? Quite a lot actually, starting with the most recent:

Currently spinning Dingo (NZ Polwarth top from Southern Cross Fibre):

Had a dyeing day with the CF Red Hill group and came home with this (lime/black merino top, over-dyed brown alpaca):

Finished Night in a Forest (Icelandic top) – man, this stuff is coarse! I’ve spun it as rough singles and will most likely use for a felted bag:

Thorny Devil (Australian merino top) has been spun and Navajo-plied. It’s hard to get it even, but I console myself with the knowledge that 1) I’m hypercritical of my own work and 2) no-one will notice when it’s all knitted up into something:

Southern Cross Fibre Club purchases:

October: Angelfish, Australian Merino top

September: Sprout, Polwarth/Tussah Silk (80/20 mix)

That’s it for now. And I still have multiple fleeces to get through, and SCF fibre arrives every month. Am loving it!

Mad Hailstorm!

Yesterday evening I had just gotten home from an excellent colour mixing workshop when the skies opened and crashed ice and torrential rain all over the ground. Repeatedly and at length. The cat thought the world was ending, but I had her trapped inside as she trembled and yowled at all the racket. It was really loud – had to shout over it. The end result was loads of hail dumped everywhere – even in drifts, dare I say it, further up the street, which still hadn’t melted by this morning. Go Dorkland! We’ll have snow here yet. Here’s what my yard looked like after the dumping:

Vintage Textile Fair

Sometimes I enjoy shopping. Today was one of those times. Even though I did my back in yesterday, I flatly refused to miss out on today’s Vintage Textile Fair held at Alexandra Park. After scoring free parking, GrannyG and I moseyed around the Fair oohing and aahing over oh-so-many gorgeous (but often rather pricey) things. Eventually I settled on a pretty scarf, a darning mushroom, and a vintage linen embroidered tablecloth (bargain at $20!!).

If/when this Fair returns, I am definitely going again. There are some good bargains to be had, loads of gorgeous and interesting stuff, but also a fair amount of (to me) over-priced op shop finds being flogged at several hundred percent markup.

Still, I’m very happy with what I picked up, and the prices were very fair. We stopped off for coffee at the Auckland Farmers’ Market on the way back to the car; I grabbed some fresh bread on the way out, and we were randomly yelled at by some odd person in a craptastic Toyota as we enthusiatically admired the cute-as-can-be Minis being displayed out front. Apparently we are “Mini enthusiasts”. We are now so informed…

Icelandic Top

From Southern Cross Fibre. This is a ‘primitive’ long wool and is quite coarse. I’m spinning uneven singles because it’s going to be used in a felting project and will be bee-yoo-tiful!

Polwarth ‘Snowgum’

OMG, I love Polwarth! This lovely fingering weight was spun up from NZ Polwarth, supplied by my luffly friend David of Southern Cross Fibre. Seriously, if you can nab any of his stuff, do so. David’s a brilliantly talented indie dyer and everything he makes sells within minutes of listing so you have to be FAST! Let’s just say the shop updates leave you shaking… but thrilled if you got some goodies!

Black Alpaca

I bought what I thought was black alpaca but it turned out to be a delicious dark, dark brown. Couldn’t get anymore so I plied it with the same amount of real black, and this is the result. Yum!

It’s destined for a gift – a knitted short scarf. Can’t wait to see what it’s like when it’s washed, floofed and blocked.

‘Floofed’ is a very technical term, I’ll have you know…

Tutorial: Crochet Peonies

Wanting a ‘floofy’ flower brooch, and after studying several patterns, I cobbled this together. People are always commenting on the first one I made (not pictured), which never fails to surprise me. Don’t know why…

1. Ch 5, sl st into first ch to form ring.

2. First Round: Ch 7, sl st into ring (6 times)

3. Second Round: In first ch space (dc, htr, tr, 5 dtr, tr, htr, dc) to create a petal. Repeat in each ch space. 6 petals worked.
.
.

4. Working behind Rnd 1, sl st into centre ring of first petal, ch 9 (6 times). Sl st into centre of first petal again to join round.
.
.
.
.

5. (dc, htr, tr, 7 dtr, tr, htr, dc) to create a petal. Repeat in each ch space. 6 petals worked. Sl st into first dc and fasten off. Weave in ends.
.
.
.
.

Flower centre (front)

Rnd 1: Ch 2, 6 dc in 2nd ch from hook, join with sl st to first dc

Rnd 2: Ch 1, 2 dc in each dc, join (12 dc)

Rnd 3: (Dc tog the next 2 dc) 6 times, join (6 dc). Fasten off leaving 30 cm tail. Ensure both threads are pulled through to the back and centre cast off thread back towards the middle.

Flower centre (back)

Rnd 1: Ch 2, 6 dc in 2nd ch from hook, join with sl st to first dc

Rnd 2: Ch 1, 2 dc in each dc, join (12 dc). Fasten off leaving 30 cm tail. Ensure both threads are pulled through to the back and centre cast off thread back towards the middle.

Assembly

1. Pull threads of Centre Front through centre of flower. Hook each thread through a stitch to anchor on opposite sides of centre.

2. Tie Centre Front threads together. Trim ends as these will be hidden under Centre Back.

3. With Centre Back, hook each thread through a stitch to anchor on opposite sides of centre.
.

4. Tie Centre Back ends together. Sew Back down so it lies flat against the back of the flower. Weave in ends.
.
.
.

Finished!

Download Tutorial (PDF format)

SCF Goodies

Ooh, look what I got! These are my latest purchases from Southern Cross Fibre. Shop updates are monthly and are a mad scramble. Not for the faint-hearted, but absolutely worth it if you’re after top quality hand-painted fibre.

Border Crossing (Australian Merino Top)

Night In A Forest (Icelandic Top)

Dingo (NZ Polwarth Top)

Binary Sunset (NZ Romney Top)

Getting there…

In the past 3 weeks, lots of progress has been made on the bathroom. The plastering was finished (that took a week), then I spent two days slapping on paint to the upper half of the walls (the lower half will be tiled).

I have to say that I seriously hatehatehate painting. There is nothing duller than painting on one coat after the other. Even worse, when you have to use a sealer (gloopy) then mould-resistant paint (even gloopier). It could probably do with a fourth coat, but I’m out of paint and I am so. over. it.

So I just don’t look too closely. And neither should you if you come visiting.

On the upside, the plumbing was finished last Monday so that was very exciting! I could hardly wait to get the tradies outta there so I could clean and polish. Had to wait till the following evening before taking the tub for a test drive though.

The bath is much deeper than the old one. Mmmm…

Yeah, anyway, enough of this blathering. Here’s some pics:

Painting. Done. Finally.

A working shower. And I didn’t drip a drop of paint on it! Am awesome.

Pre-plumbing in of taps and wastes

Post-plumbing in of taps and wastes

The first Radox bath!

I’ll have some fibre-related posts here soon. Promise. Am working on several projects. Really I am!