It's a Wrap! and another Old Lady.

This is my other Old Lady in the hallway. She's in better condition and works very smoothly and silently. It has a hand crank on the side, so cute. According to her serial number, she has also been made in Scotland and is from 1945.

Beautifully decorated with golden swirls, very stylish. Again the machine comes away from the wooden base to store things underneath, but it also has a little compartment under the wheel with a lid. I have never sewn with it, so I don't know if it does other stitches than straight stitch. I doubt it. I think it used to have a little motor attached(in a very ugly way) but that has been taken off.

Another shank-plate from a third singer , in extremely bad shape. I don't have that one anymore, it was dumped years and years ago. This was the only bit that was still nice. I have used it as a pendant around my neck a few times in the past. It has a handy hole in it.

I am part of a group of felters that come together so now and then. So far we are an informal group ( I hate committee meetings etc.) that just pay a few dollars for the use of the hall, the coffee and tea, have a great productive day together, share gossip and ideas, and go home again. Lately we have been meeting in a new place, and they want to meet twice a month. 2 Weeks ago I 've managed to be productive and made this lovely wrap.

The wool has been "nuno"-felted onto a forest-green organza fabric. Because the fabric is sheer and has an open weave , the wool fibres have travelled through the organza, shrunk and "grabbed" the fabric. The fabric doesn't shrink along with the wool, so it starts to wrinkle up, giving it a very tactile texture. It feels quite elastic.
It is still featherlight, but warmer with the folds and bubbles and merino wool.

I made it in 1 day, and though I explained it in a few sentences, it was serious hard work.

It took much rolling in blinds with hot soapy water, and rubbing, and bending over and in the end picking up and slapping down again.

For a while I didn't think it was going to "take"; the wool was lifting off the organza and felting to itself. A bit of a panicky moment, since I had already worked on it for a good number of hours. But with patience and gentle coaching it came right.

Yes I was sore the next day, especially my arms. But I was very pleased. This is how a well felted nuno piece should look. In my eyes....

You can see how thin the fabric is. The wool was laid on in one continuous long winding squiggle . The colours change from greens to rusty orange and a little silk is included.

Our eldest, home for mid-term break , is modeling the wrap. Thanks honey!

Check out the daffodils in the background. And the apricot blossoms came out yesterday. The doors could be left open today. Spring is getting very near!!!

My old machine and my new wool.

So I have had a go at making fancy yarns. I made one little skein with blues and silver, and the other with blues, silver and sea-greens. The blue skein has little nubs or cocoons added to it with white silk and silver fibres and is plied with a thin handspun blue merino.

The sea-green one has mint coloured silk nubs added, and was plied with a commercially spun blue-green wool thread.

Making the little nubs was tricky at first, I had to stop and break off the unspun wool, then wind on the silk from a different angle, then put on the blue sliver again, and half a metre or so later do it all over again. But fun!! And I love the results. Each ball of wool is only about 50 grams or so, you could use it for a decorative touch.

Last weekend I had my first Napier Craft Market stall, hopefully the first of many. I offered them for sale, however I sold 2 balls of 100gr plain yarn in maroon and purply-blue.

I have recently read 2 other blogs in which the lovely writers wrote about their sewing machines. So I thought I'd introduce one of mine. This old lady sits in my hallway, and is just for looking at. I don't know the model name, but I do know the serial number. And I have found out that she was made in 1933, and came all the way from Scotland.
All her decorations are quite Egyptian looking, in a stylized art deco way, which was very popular in the thirties. There are even winged scarab beetles in the middle , with a dung ball!

This highly decorative (and slightly rusty) metal plate unscrews to reveal a hole in the shank, so you can get to the inner workings of the machine.

Not a single bit of this machine has been left un-decorated! I'm sorry, but todays machines just look cheap and nasty compared to this. Although somewhat easier to carry....
Yes you can open the box by lifting the machine sideways like a lid. You can store attachments underneath. It moves quite smoothly still, and apparantly today's needles fit on.

Considering my daughter's laptop is now so ancient ( 5 years...!) that they have stopped making power supplies for it( it blew up, so no more power for the machine), there is something to be said for machines that can still be made to work after 80 years of service.

I can attach this machine to my singer treadle table and use footpower to make it go.

Brilliant...

Where I Spin You A Yarn.

It is definitely still winter, and although we don't get snow here in Hawke's Bay, and even though sometimes we can actually sit outside with our lunch, to catch some sunrays for making vitamin d, that southerly wind is so icy cold! There is no landmass between Antarctica and us to warm up the air.

Combined with the bucket loads of rain we are having this winter, at times it is perfectly miserable... I am missing our eldest girl, and I miss my 2 mums terribly at the moment. So for me the best way of getting past that feeling is to make new things, try new techniques.

I have been getting back into spinning lately. Always a good winter past-time.

Here is a little "yarn"(story) with pictures about some rainbow dyed wool, which I had bought in the past at the Christchurch art centre.

They sold it like this all tied into a wonderful knot. It was about 120 gram of merino wool. Now how to keep the colours flowing from one to another without them becoming muddy and how to get the colours to repeat in the yarn.....
Half the length of the sliver (or roving) of wool had quite different colours, so I split the sliver in half . Then I split each sliver lengthways in 4 thinner slivers.

I made sure that I could start each bit of sliver at the same end (at the blue end in the top 4 and at the yellowy-brown end in the bottom 4).

In this way I would spin 1 from the top row, 1 from the bottom row, 1 from the top row ,etc. so that the colours would keep repeating in the continuous yarn.
Here an action photo (excuse the blurriness ) of my hands and feet at work. I bought myself a lovely hook (to pull the yarn through the hole) many years ago. It is made of the tip of a deer antler and it fits very comfortably in my hand with it's natural curve. From the same wool supply shop in Christchurch.
Here you can see the bobbin filling up with the coloured "single" yarn. Just imagine you can hear soft whirring and purring sounds.

This is my first spinning-wheel, I bought her secondhand when I first learned to spin about 13 years ago.

Ma-L came with me to check that nothing was missing on the machine and the wheel wasn't warped. She then taught me (and 2 girlfriends as well) how to spin, with a great deal of laughter and giggling. This wheel is an Ashford "Traditional"and (after checking their website) was probably made between 1965 and 1967. (So was I!)

I named her Gertrude and she needs lots of love and oil. She can be a little stubborn sometimes, and I need to growl her, when she won't take up the yarn properly.

I have 4 spinning-wheels, all from the Ashford company.
So back to my yarn; here is some of it , now plied together with a commercial thin wool yarn. When you ply the single with another yarn, the yarn has to go back through the wheel for a second time at the same time as another thread. They wrap around each other making a stronger yarn. This time the wheel goes in the opposite direction then when you spun the single yarn.

In spinning terms a 2-ply yarn simply means 2 threads together. You can actually ply lots of yarns together getting different effects.

I used a commercial wool this time to make the 120 grams go further. By combining the colours with white wool the overall colour is lighter and more pastel.

After having plied 2 normal bobbins full unto a "jumbo"bobbin, I leave it to sit overnight. This helps to settle the wool into it's new shape.

The next day I wind it off the bobbin, which is slotted on a "Lazy Kate"(don't you just love all the technical terms...?) onto a "Niddy-Noddy" (hahaha!) to form a hank of wool.

I tie the yarn loosely together in about 4 places and now comes the test when I take the hank off the niddy-noddy. Will it hang still and loose, or will it twist onto itself, due to overspinning or over-plying.

Not bad, you can see there is a slight twist towards the bottom of the hank . When the wool is in a hank it is easier to wash. This wool was already dyed , so it wasn't dirty, but washing sets the twist.
After washing gently by hand I whip the hank through the air a couple of times to stretch the fibres and then hang to dry over a stick, partly in the shade. Pegs leave squeeze marks in the yarn. After this is dry I wind it into a ball with my ball-winder.

So how many times did the fibres go through my hands during this process...? Spinning, plying, niddy-noddy-ing, washing, and ball-winding. That's why handspun yarn ought to be more expensive than commercial yarn. It is totally labour-intensive.

I wonder if New-Zealand is one of the only countries where you can find all these wooly gadgets in 2nd-hand-shops...

Comforts and Creations.

In the last 3 weeks I have had a holiday from my schooljob, and made some new things.

I also did some things that were new for me; such as watching a whole game of rugby with a crowd of people at a party. Yes the All Blacks won! Although I missed the haka, which I always find thrilling.

I also got up early to watch the last football/soccer game of the World Cup. My brother had invited a whole bunch of Dutchies, 2nd generation Dutchies and hanger-ons to have breakfast at his place. We had much fun with many pancakes, croissants and cups of coffee to help us through the sad ending...

That evening we ate orange food, not just to cheer up, but because it is winter comfort food. Stamppot with carrots, parsnips, potatoes and onions mashed together, and a big rookworst to divide up. Luckily I can get a very authentic sausage in the local supermarket here.

These are my new vintage papers packs. I have far too many ancient books than is good for me, and so I will share all those wonderful old illustrations and texts with others. So the first one has gone up for sale in my elmtree shop.

Here are some of the illustrated pages. People can use them for collages and other art.

I am even putting in an old sewing pattern pack, music sheets, old atlas pages, foreign language and encyclopaedia pages, shorthand, medical and maths books, chess instructions etc. ranging from early 1900's to the 1980's. At least 40 different papers go into the packs.

And while we're on the theme; another lot of dutch bunting went up for sale again too.

And now life is back into gear, no more holiday-mode, everyone back to work and learning.

Holidays are never long enough, so weird...

Winter but warm and dry!

Dare I show our girls busy at work with chores? I think so, it is so nice to see them earnestly doing their household jobs. Our youngest is enjoying cooking so now and then, and our eldest needs extra money, being a poor broke student. And yes you can see my mess in the background; piles of ancient books destined for ripping apart for use in art, and the piles of vintage fabrics. This is not a showhome....

This is a real home, one that got a new roof!

We think this house was built in 1937 and that was the original roof. Most houses here have corrugated iron . With a bit of builders' paper underneath it. We insulated it when we moved in 13 years ago, and the amount of birds' nests that were taken out this time obviously helped a lot for the warmth....!

Lots of wooden planking needed replacing as well. The roofers managed to do it in the 2 days that it did not rain. We are having a very wet winter.
It was a pretty noisy 2 days, and lots of dust came down in the living room where we have the original wooden slatted ceiling. But we were far too excited to let that bother us!
Here you can see why some of the wood needed replacing!! Rotten and worm holes.

And we are an old-fashioned family that still has family meals around the table most nights. No we can't see the t.v. from there very easily. Often friends join us, usually much hilarity is had when we have a table full of teenagers. Basically at a dutch table everyone dishes up themselves, that's why there are pans at the table, in case you are wondering.

Yup, it is that time of the evening: tummies full and a roaring fire. Fox in his box, Dana pretending she hadn't noticed she is actually touching De-ja-vu, and and he is trying to hog as much space as he can.

All is well with the world!

Looking back at my felting course.

Oh,boy. I've been pretty busy lately and I haven't even told you anything about my week away. The classes were held at the studios of Raewyn Penrose, a well known felting artist in New Zealand. The little place of Te Aroha was a surprise for me; very quaint and as if time had stood still for a few decades .

Above is the domain, right in front of the studio. It has some old colonial buildings and thermal pools. A natural geyser was spouting up above the smaller building in the background, so now and then. Guess who forgot her swimsuit?

Do click on the picture, it will show far more detail.

These are the upstairs studios, where we spend 5 creative days. Raewyn is a very lucky woman to have so many rooms available. It's at the top of a supermarket.

But how does she get any work done..? All the windows look out on this ever changing bush scene ; sometimes sunny, sometimes wet and wild, then all misty and spooky.

I took a lot of photos, the zoom is great on my camera. I saw woodpigeons and tuis swooping and diving amongst the trees. We also heard moreporks calling in between the rain storms at night.
Some of the students on one of the last days, called away from their work to listen to our teacher. Some of the more noteable ladies there (for me) were ; 2nd left Jill Gun, an amazing needle felting artist who constructs huge fantasy creatures. 1st by the window is Raewyn Penrose, who had organized this week, and her husband in the doorway, who made us wonderful food ;everyday a new exotic soup with homebaked bread. And scones, and cakes. And woodsmoked mussels. Gourmet pizzas... Yum!

Next to Raewyn my friend Heather (who will be celebrating her 70th birthday this year) and friend Rita, we 3 shared a camping flat for the week. Cheap and cheerful.
And of course the star of the week; our tutor Anita Larkin on the far right. She turned out to be a very patient and skillful teacher. It was amazing how she was able to switch between each persons' project, which were all complicated projects, involving much 3-d and inside-out and back to front thinking. Very impressive.

This was a colour exercize, drawing objects on the table with wool sliver, then cutting it up and re-arranging, to get abstract shapes.

Still dry before the felting process...
This is the finished result. The people at home were not really impressed, but I liked the process and the results too. I also made jewellery, and a little tree and a very large hollow sculpture, which I will show another time.

It was a marvelous week, very inspiring indeed.

Presents and Pearly webs.

I hope you had a nice mother's day, mum's out there? I did; with pancakes and lots of visiting. Although most of the day I felt a sadness inside, because I can't ring or visit my Mums anymore and I really missed them on this day. It felt kind of lonely.

Here is a little forget-me-not mum and baby I made recently. She goes with my feeling.

These bat boys look like they are about to burst into song!

Luckily I did not get music from the 3 tenors or other music mums are supposed to like. No offense to any of you if you do like it, but why should mums be hanging out for a classical music c.d. or the collected works of Celine .

Nope , instead I got 2 new magazines; the last and final issue of World-sweet-world (Sad news that! But they keep on with their blog. ) and the latest Peppermint. I had never seen the last Australian magazine, it is not easily available in little Hastings and I must say I like it. Thanks Wellington daughter!!

What's this : ripe strawberries? In May!... But it is well and true-ly Autumn, we have had a couple of morning frosts. The fire is on at night....

Yup! And more green ones and new flowers even.

Crazy!!
My father-in-law was staying with us for a few days after mother's day, to help us celebrate our daughter's 16th birthday. Also to be with us while the birthday of Mum passed by. It was a lovely relaxed stay. One morning it was very misty and the spider webs outside sparkled. So him, husband and I all took our camera's and had a photo shoot. I think this one of mine came out quite well. I love my macro ability on "my" camera.

Strings of pearls, so gorgeous.

Here some more jewellery I have made quite a while ago. Textile bracelets.

I used vintage embroidered doilies and handkerchiefs and damask serviettes. I added glass beads and an old glass button is used as a fastener. All those old embroideries are so pretty and beautifully done, they deserve to be on display; not stuck in a drawer and unused. This way you can wear them and show them off.

They will go up for sale in my little shop soon, but first I will be going away for a week . I am going to be felting at a course near Hamilton. The tutor is Anita Larkin, an artist from Australia, she will be teaching 3-d felt, and that is an opportunity not to be missed for me. 2 Of my felting friends are coming too. I am so looking forward to it!!

My foot is feeling much better and I can walk slowly on it now , without a moonboot. I do a lot of physiotherapy and exercizes. But at night it still swells up and feels sore and stiff. Slowly does it.

Tiny tasks.

A little family of "Bushbabies". 2 Toddlers and their big sister, or is it their mummy?

I have very nice angora mohair at the moment, with a tight little curl at the end, just right for my Bushbabies' hair.

These will be going up for sale in my wee shop .

This is my lovage herb (levisticum officinale) , also known in Europe as maggi plant. I got it as a root from my old neighbour years ago.

I planted it in a pot and put it on the half circle of bricks out on the porch. It started growing, stuff happened and I forgot to plant it in the garden. After a year it broke it's plastic pot and bored it's roots in between the bricks. That's where it lives now, every autumn it dies down and gets bigger again in the spring.

Yes, we could uproot it, but it seems happy and it isn't in our way.

I like to use it in soups. But we eat more soup in the winter, when all the lovage leaves have gone.

So I have found a way of drying it in the microwave. This goes very fast, it has no time to wilt, and it retains more flavour and colour.

I give the lovage a quick rinse and pat it dry. Then I put a good handful between 4 layers of kitchen paper and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Check to feel if it is dry enough to crumble. If not turn the package over and microwave for another 30sec. or so, until it is crunchy.

Crunchy but not burned...!

Then crumble roughly into a glass jar, seal and store in a dark place.

Roll on winter soup-and-bread nights!

My whole house smelled of lovage when I did this, and it brought my memory straight back to my Oma's (grandmother's) kitchen. She always used it in her soups and had it growing in her garden. I spend many holidays there, when I was a schoolchild.We were allowed to do just about anything there: feed the chooks, pick red currants, build a tent in the garden with old blankets and the washing rack, go for walks in the forest and play with the kids in the neighbourhood. And read all the old comic books,which were in a cupboard upstairs, and she'd take me on the back of her bicycle to do some groceries or to a church fair to buy old junk.

Here is a photo of them and me, from 20 years ago. That was the last time I saw them.

How did we manage to have such large gatherings of people in that little room for dinner.....!