The muppet , his loot and some swap goodies.....

We have been blessed with a new arrival, my nephew Ashar! He was born on the 15th and he's a biggun at 10 pound 9 ounces. We just had the pleasure of a visit from the happy trio, and of course he was presented with his loot. A baby jester hat, designed by Woolly Wormhead
And of course his elephant, which I finally finished stuffing the night before the visit.
I have been having a great time sending and receiving swaps lately. The first was a magic yarn ball swap, where the sender hides loads of little presents in the ball of yarn and you knit them out. My lovely swap partner sandalwood sent me the most gorgeous lace weight yarn and was totally understanding that I would not be able to wait until I knitted 1180 metres of yarn before seeing what she'd hidden for me. So here it is, lot's of lovely swap goodies. Now I just have to get some other projects off my needles before I start knitting lace.
I sent my other swap buddy Lazzulii some of the merino silk I dyed. As I'm not sure whether she's got to her other gifts yet I won't tell you what I hid in it!
I did another swap that was a favourite colour swap. I got the loveliest beanie, some yummy yarn (more Noro!), buttons and a great poem that theknitaholic wrote for me. I was very spoilt.
I sent to sthrnx, who loves tattoos and black is her favourite colour.
The fingerless gloves are wool/mohair and seemed a bit scratchy so I lined them for her. Apparently they fit well and she seems very happy with her gifts. Now I'm in the process of finishing off a yellow swap, so I best get it done and in the post!

Almost all done, and some yarn porn......

I have been "flat out like a lizard drinking" as we say here in Oz. DS has had a little house warming with a couple of his mates and has officially become our new neighbour. I have finally got my craft room into some kind of order. Bags of stuff went to the op-shops, lots of fabric scraps and crappy fleece were composted and what was left was binned. And here we have it, my new craft room.

Yep, that is a Strongbow (Alcoholic Cider) on my desk, I think I earned it!

Froofy fringed light shade for a feminine touch, the white cupboard is mostly yarn!

Gotta love those fibre tools..... and loads of crates for bits and pieces....

Spinning wheels, sewing machines and my Oma's rugs.

Lots of stuff hidden behind those curtains, DH built some massive shelves for me......The curtains aren't the best but they will do until I find something else. I actually had time to finish off a swap present today so I even did some crafting! I am busting to get some spinning done soon, and as the weather cools I might even do some rug hooking. Craft on!

And now for the yarn porn. Here's the silk merino I dyed a while ago- gotta love the effect re-skeining has on hand-dyed yarn.

My new craft room

No crafting this past week for me. DH and I have been way too busy painting bedrooms. We live in a 1940's cottage, and the paint was in dreadful condition. The previous owner had slapped on a coat of paint prior to selling the place, and boy did we pay for his laziness. No undercoat, cheap paint and teenagers posters stuck on with blue-tac made for a major job. The old paint flaked off in sheets so we had to scrape the walls and plaster the flaky sections before undercoating and repainting. But after 5 solid days of work the job is finally done.

The rooms have been needing doing forever, but the prompt for such a flurry of activity was a change-around of living arrangements. DS is turning 17 next month and needs his own space. So I decided he could have my craft shed, a decision he is most excited about. His mates are lining up to come and stay at "his place", and the barbecue is going to be set up on his front step. He even has plans for a front verandah!

I found I wasn't going out there much, it felt very self-indulgent to me. So DS17 will move in there and DS14 will move into his room. This leaves me with the big bedroom for my craft room. It has loads of shelves and is bright and sunny. I will be able to craft while I do the laundry and won't feel like I am deserting the family in the evenings because I'll still be in the house. I'll also be able to gather up all my craft supplies from the lounge room and our bedroom so the house should be a bit tidier too. One can only hope lol..... I'm off to scrub the paint spatters from my body and collapse into bed. Big day tomorrow, I'm moving in to my new craft room, yay!!!!

A little poser!

Just a quickie post today. I have done some more dyeing, this time on the silk/merino blend.I tried to get a graduated depth of colour through the skein and it seems to have worked fairly well. I'll post more pics when it's dry. Knitting wise I've been working on the Clapotis, I usually get a dozen or so rows done a night, which isn't bad when there's 107 stitches per row. I took a break from it last night to work on this little cutie from the book "The Natural Knitter" by Barbara Albright. She is a Little Sit-ster, and was great fun to make. The pattern didn't include clothes so I made her a little dress. Her legs and arms are pose able due to the pipe-cleaners inside.
Yup, she's a poser alright!