London & Wales

Continue from the last blog post. We have left the UK and are now in Greece. Here are the photos from our visit to the UK. We spent 2 weeks in London staying at my sister's apartment in Chelsea. We didn't spent the whole two weeks just in London. We took 5 days of to West Wales. A mini holiday from a big holiday, if you get what I meant! Having visited and lived in London on many occasions we are familiar with the city. We used London's public transports both buses and underground. 

We visited our favourites places, galleries and museums and shops we like as well. A visit to Liberty House in Regent St. is a must! Also went to the Cloth House the shop I found on Instagram and met both Jay and Niki the owners of the shop. 

Dyeing was also part of London's visit. I ran into a Eucalyptus tree, surprise surprise! It was my lucky day that a large branch was on the ground. I gathered some and wrapped with the silk I took with me. You can see the results from photos below: 

I continue with my stitching and started another section in London and have completed it as well. Scroll down to the second part of this blog to read about West Wales: 

Red telephone booths are the icons of London. Today some
of them provide free WIFI for emergency use.

A Chelsea Pensioner Bench, very famous! 

Celtic design on a side walk. Only about 8x8". It's cute!

Faces of London found their way into my journal page

The Liberty House, London

Cloth House with  warm greeting from Jay

Gorgeous fabric collection at Cloth House

A base of stitching piece

Completed the stitching

Eucalyptus tree found in London

Bundled, steamed and results!

In West Wales we booked ourselves into Airbnb. A charming stone farmhouse cottage. Being low season we got the whole cottage for ourselves. We took daily excursions and visited small towns and villages along the west coast of Wales. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Wales.  

Op-shop browsing awarded me with this beautiful
remnant of hand embroidered pieces. 

Stone farmhouse cottage

A typical house in Wales

Mwnt Church on Mwnt Beach

Typical Wales scenery 

A rainbow greeted us that day

A collage of Wales in my journal

A town scene completely hand knitted by member
of National Wool  Museum of West Wales

Hexies quilt using wool fabric

Woollen hand knitted tights at National
Wool Museum of West Wales

The last few days in London I met up with a few friends from Abu Dhabi days. It was lovely to get a chance to meet them again. I went to V&A Museum with Yasmin and saw Indian Fabric Exhibition. We really enjoyed it. Another day I went with Debbie to Harrods for high tea! Thanks ladies, you totally spoiled me, but I loved it!

We are now in Greece and having such a great time here with our cousins.  Will share the photos of Greece with you on my next post.

Until next time
Nat

This and That

I have been busy, but not much to show here. A bit of this and that going into my life these days. I have to say that I'm content with myself and my creativity even though I don't have many finished projects. 

I have been going through the garage looking through boxes we had in storage before we went to Abu Dhabi in mid 1990s. When we came back from Abu Dhabi we brought back even more 'stuff' but our new house was smaller, so much of the 'stuff' was left in boxes. We decided to have a thorough look this time and make some room in the garage for car! We took car loads of 'stuff' to the op-shop and another load to the tip, but what I can't give away are my craft supplies. I saved some wool fleece for spinning, plant fibres for basket weaving and old quilting fabric that I will use one day to make charity quilts. I'm happy to say that I managed to find room for everything. Now I have an empty three door wardrobe in the garage to store all my book making and jounaling supplies in as well. I can't wait to get them out of my sewing room and make room in there for sewing instead of for storing!!!

A little bit of stitching I have been doing is this eco-dyed moon to use as a center for bojagi cloth. I started piecing it from the center out using log-cabin method.  I'm really just randomly added new pieces on in circle motions. I enjoy stitching it a lot in the evenings when I don't have anything else to do haha!

The blanket I started pinning here is finally basted down. It lived on my dinning table for far too long before I got around to finishing it. I can now clear my table and work on some Christmas gifts. 

Natural dyed threads from different batches of dyes. The latest one is the yellow  thread from turmeric. I just love stitching with them. They go well with my dyed fabric. 

Do you spontaneously start a new project out of the blue? It happens to me all the time. I was happily working in the garage when I found the plant fibres I stored there. Before I even knew what I was doing the basket frame almost started itself from the handle I must have made years ago! 

Out of all the crafts I'm doing I think basket weaving is one of the things I love most. This type of basket is called melon or egg basket. You start with two circles in any sizes. You tie the handle to the body using a technique called 'god eye'. You add spokes and you are ready to start weaving.

In this basket I used mixed plant fibres of Red hot poker and Watsonia leaves. Red hot poker is called the golden threads by basket weavers. Watsonia is more fragile, but it keeps its colour even after it is completely dried. The basket measures 15" long x 8" wide and 9" tall. It's only a small basket, but it took quite a lot of fibres because I like to weave it tight to make it strong when using it to carry stuff in.

I have been dyeing again after the workshop I did at Jude Craig. I know you are not surprised.  I have more leaves to experiment with so what to do, what to do? As you can see they are quite a few colours and patterns on them. More fabric to use in my bojagi cloth. 

It's easy to make imprints on fabric when you dye, but I prefer a more spontaneous or incidental result. The cloth above was wrapped around a giant spring that is stuffed with eucalyptus leaves. After steaming I left it for days before opening it. I think it's an exhibition piece. Talking about exhibitions, I've booked an exhibition space at the Monash Gallery of Art for 2013. I know it's a long way off, but if I don't do it now we won't get in. So watch this space for more details.

For the first try with Kangaroo paw. I read somewhere that they dye too, but it might be the red kind. We will have to wait and see. If all else fails, the eucalyptus will dye!

The last of the cotton tote bags I brought back from Bangkok. I shibori it in turmeric dyed bath. It's really that yellow. Turmeric gives a true yellow, if you are looking to dye yellow. 

Why have an empty bag if I can add something on it? Pieces of indigo fabric make perfect patches on this bag. I only pinned them on so far. Another project to work on during the Christmas holidays.

The weaving project is still on the loom. Not a lot of moments left in a day to weave, even though I love it. I have already dyed some warp threads for the next project. I can't wait to get started on that. 

I will leave you with the high tea. Remember the tea cosy I knitted here? It was a lovely day last Sunday so time to bring out my new tea cosy. High tea with home made scones and jam, yum! Cup of tea anyone? 

Thanks again everyone for reading my blog. I have not been very active lately. Considering I have been blogging for 4 years now and still going strong, I think I'm doing well. I still enjoying blogging, but I do like to show some finished projects. It's harder and harder to get things finished these days. 

Life is full...!

Until next time

Nat

Knitting, Weaving, Book Binding and Dyeing

I didn't start knitting until recently, but I do love it. The trouble with my knitting is understanding the pattern. I'm lucky to have many friends who can translate the patterns for me. I'm getting better at it now. I suppose practice makes perfect!

This winter my library received a copy of "How Tea Cosies Changed the World" by Loani Prior. The tea cosy on the front cover is so inviting that I had to make one. Luckily the pattern is easy and straight forward so that I didn't have a problem following it. I'm happy to say that I finished it by the end of our winter and can't wait to use it soon.

This tea cosy is called wood fungus and I started knitting from the top down. The bottom part was knitted separately. They are double layers of the bottom part. I suppose it's to keep the tea hot longer. I really love it and I am very very happy with my knitting.

I got so carried away with the knitting that after I finished the tea cosy I started knitting a pair of fingerless gloves. I got the pattern off Ravelry. There are so many versions of the patterns on Ravelry, but this one is simple enough for me to follow. 

After that I thought I would knit a pair for DGD too. I'm using the same pattern as mine, but smaller yarn and needles. I will make these longer, I think they would be cute for her to wear up her arms.

Moving on to a crochet scarf. I have used this pattern many times now and love it. Thanks to Jacky who shared the pattern with me. I have not finished it yet, but I am very close to doing it.

I will get back to weaving before I forget it. I got myself a nice loom "Susan". It's a 4-shaft Swedish loom made from beautiful timber. It used to belong to Susan so I named it after her. 

If you remembere I spun some yarns for this. I'm using the yarn to weave this scarf, but I'm also using a commercial yarn I found second hand for the warp threads. This is just a practice run. After this, I will be making a rag rug (sakiori) using my eco-dyed silk.

Last Saturday I was showing Jacky how to make a book using Coptic binding. Both Jacky and I did an online art journal workshop with Roxanne. I can now use this book for my next art journal. 

We both used discarded dust jackets from my library for the covers. We inserted Japanese handmade papers on some of the signatures as part of the decorations. I'm very happy with my book and can't wait to start using it. 

I can't finish this post without showing my dyeing result using mango seeds. When I was in Bangkok earlier this year I was told that all parts of a mango are good for dyeing. Mangos have started to come on the market now that the weather is getting warmer. I had one for the first time this year and as I was about to throw the mango seed away I remembered that I can use it for dyeing! I wrapped the silk around it and dropped it in the liquid I was boiling with bindweed and a rusty horse shoe. I left it sitting for a few days and when I opened it I had a pleasant surprise! 

Needless to say I have two more bundles waiting to be opened right now. Forgot to say that I put mango peel in the bundles too. Nothing is going to waste from mangos from now on.

Until next time

Nat

Knitting Spinning Weaving

Yes I have been doing a little of knitting, spinning and preparation for weaving in the last few weeks. None of these tasks are finished yet, but if you are like me, the process for me is as enjoyable as finishing the project. 

Since I started weaving a few months ago I was given a home-made four shaft loom by a colleague. He and his father built it over forty years ago. I think it's working, but I need time to clean and study it before I begin to use it. 

I brought out my Asford spinning wheel. It is a compact model called 'Traveler'. I learned how to spin over 10 years ago when I lived in country NSW. 

Winter always makes me want to knit or spin. My knitting peoject is a tea cosy from Loani Prior's new book How Tea Cosies Change the World. I'm not a competent knitter. I have a problem reading the pattern, but Loani's pattern is simple to understand and easy to follow.

I'm knitting the Wood Fungus tea cosy on the cover. I started last weekend, and so far I knitted 2 mushrooms. The body of the cosy is in blue and I'm using the same blue yarn for the underside of the mushrooms.

I completed two mushrooms and I am on to the third one. I'm very thrilled that so far I managed to follow the pattern okay. Thanks Loani...

This spinning wheel lives after it's name, 'Traveler'. It has been a well traveled wheel. It went to Abu Dhabi from Australia and back again. When I was in Abu Dhabi I met Debbie who had the same type of wheel. To think that both of us took our spinning wheels to the desert country, it was strange... 

Here is how much I have spun. Over the years I was given wool roving by friends. I knew that one day I will get around to spinning it. I will be using it for weaving, my first project in the home-made loom...

I would like to introduce you to the loom. Home-made and hand-made by my colleague Peter and his Dad in 1960. It had been sitting in his mum's garage for over 40 years. The loom still has the project he started on it. I will try to work it out and finish it. 

In the mean time I started warping thread on the new warping board I bought at the Sheep and Wool show I went to last month. You do need a lot of equipment for weaving. Remember I mentioned the Saori loom here. I fell in love with it when I saw it at the show. It's very expensive. The question I ask myself is whether I am going to stick with weaving to make it worthwhile getting one. I will just keep working on the home-made loom and see how it goes...

PS: I love photography and I'm very active on Facebook with my photos, but recently I came across some great 365 photo-a-day blogs so I started one myself. I called it 'Daily Life Inspiration'. It's purely a blog for photos with a short caption for each photo. Hope to see you there soon... 

Until next time

Nat