Spinning and How Much Drama can Just One Day Hold?

I have finished my wool and tussah silk hand spun, I am very happy with it and it's going to be a Winter scarf. I really love wearing scarves in Autumn and Winter and the fact that they are hand knitted makes me feel so happy to wear them.

It has been rather an interesting day so far, hence the title of this blog post. It actually started last night when we had no hot water to bath with. That was still fine and then this morning the geyser started to leak. It was later confirmed that it had burst in 3 places and would have to be replaced. Thank goodness we are still under warranty with the geyser company! They are going to install another one with no cost to us tomorrow. We do have another small solar geyser, so as long as we stagger the bath times we should all have hot water. Caiden has gastric flu, but seems to be feeling a little better now.

Later in the day I was taking the girls to their art lesson and our car overheated, I made it to a service station and when we tried to start the car again, the battery was flat??? The owner of the service station was so helpful and managed to charge the battery enough for me to make it back home and now we are off to buy a new battery.

Phew, it has been a day all right, but I am so grateful for all the wonderful and helpful people that have appeared throughout the day. At one point, I remember smiling to myself and thinking, maby it's time to slow down, forget the panic and see all the goodness that surrounds me...

Thank you so much to everyone who responded to my blog post yesterday about simplifying our life, I have really enjoyed reading all your messages and I am still busy responding to each one:) You have all given me plenty to think about.

How has your day been so far?

Creative Friday

Welcome to Creative Friday,

Thank you so much to everyone who visits this space!

Please feel free to post your links to anything you have created and would like to share, it can be a recipe, sewing tutorial, knitting tutorial, felting, crochet, crafts, art, spinning, weaving, working with fibre, photography, poetry...etc...


I also love to hear from you, so if you have a moment, please leave a comment:) Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful talent with us! Just add the name of your blog to the widget and then add your blog link with the http:// at the beginning of your link address:) I have added a Creative Friday button on the sidebar of my blog, please feel free to add it to your blog for Creative Friday and link it to http://www.naturalsuburbia.blogspot.com/ so others can find this space and share their creativity too:)

1. I have started a Creative Friday Flickr Group where you can post your beautiful photos that you link to each Creative Friday.
2. If you would be so kind as to link back to Natural Suburbia in your blog post that would be lovely:)

Have a wonderful weekend dear friends,
Linda

WIP Wednesday

I chose a new roving to spin up today from my stash, this is a Merino and Tussah Silk roving from the lovely Juno Fibre Arts. Her colours are so intense and rich and the added silk makes the spinning oh, so luxurious!
This will probably also be a cowl. Our autumn has been extremely mild so far, quite strange actually because usually by this time of year it's freezing here. I am still walking around in my jeans and T-shirts, only adding a thin extra layer later in the evenings. So, I'm not complaining:)

The hippo pattern for my book is well underway and should be finished by tomorrow, it's all so close now, very exciting!
(PS The stitch markers are from Jenna and Erin's little Etsy shop called Magpies Aerie.)

Caiden and Kye discovered some beautiful visitors in our garden...

Hope your week is filled with fibre and fun!
Linda

Pretoria Botanical Gardens

Today we went on a quick road trip to the Pretoria Botanical Gardens. This is a Waterfall we passed on the way up the 'koppie', I used Instagram to take the shot. It took us about 45 minutes to drive there. My Tea Leaves cardigan came along and I knitted a few rows in the car. I am busy with the front and sides section, so it's just plain stocking stitch of close on 300 stitches per row. This can become a little monotonous with so many stitches, so every little row counts, right, whether sitting in the car or under the oak tree knitting...

 
I have also started a new cowl project, I saw it over on Ginny's blog, the Circumnavigate Cowl, I loved it and spun up some Camel silk yarn for the project, (so soft!!) ok, I am going way off topic here, I'm supposed to be posting about our day trip, but you know how it goes when one mentions knitting, spinning and yarn all at once, the brain begins to focus on all things fibre related....
I will be writing more on this tomorrow though! :)

Now back to the gardens, (ahem...)

This photo was taken at quite a distance and I was really nervous that this little Dassie (Hyrax) would dart away into the bush, so the camera was shaking ever so slightly, hence the 'not too great shot' ! But there he is anyway, he is called a Dassie and I read on the information plate that his closest relative is the elephant! His skull bones look very similar to that of the elephant and he has thick pads on his feet. His feet also have a suction cup shape to enable him to climb up steep surfaces and the last fact I learned was that they do not actually drink water but obtain water in the grasses that they eat.

All the Aloes are starting their winter flowering, you can see the orange flowers at the top of the Aloe plant, too beautiful...

I love these tall thorn trees in any shape and form, they just say 'Africa' to me!!

I thought this tree's bark was so interesting and looked like velvet...

Hope you are having a lovely weekend and happy 1st of May...

Wool, Wonderful Wool and Wool Giveaway

The dyeing process is finally finished, I really enjoyed it, the wool has come out a gentle, light reddish brown colour with flecks of grey (that aren't showing up in the photos at all) but I can see them and I am so happy they are there. It has a whole Autumn feel to it... I think I'm going to cast on my Tea Leaves Cardi tonight, I can't wait!! I have never knitted from such a huge pile of wool before, I dyed an extra 3 skeins for just in case.

I have started a new pattern, this one is for a Rhino...

The super wash wool is finished being spun, I was going to knit a hat, but Kye has asked for 'white mittens' instead, (he loves the book called The Mitten) so I am going to offer this skein as a giveaway.
If you would like to win a skein of super wash hand spun rainbow Merino wool, please just leave a comment below:)
I will announce a winner on Saturday in this post.

Congratulations to:

vicarno's mamaApr 5, 2012 09:32 AM

I am a wool addict, so it would be great to win this!!! Love the colour of your self-dyed yarn, it has a 'tenderness' in it, a bit of slow beginning of autumn...

Please could you send me your postals address and I will send off your rainbow wool, you can reach me on lindadawkins@mweb.co.za

Hope your day is filled with some kind of wonderful.
Linda

Some 'Me' Time

Merino, silk and flax hand spun...

Alpaca

It is so wonderful to have Richard home from London, how strange it felt here without him...
We have been busy with our homeschooling, we start each morning at about 8:30 am and continue working for a few hours, I do have curriculums for our three oldest children, but there is still so much work to get through each day, now that they are older and Jenna will have to start writing exams from next year in preparation for her final matric exam certificate, in a few years time. I love our learning time and I am learning so much but but I have to admit I feel little tired at times and I know that this happens when I don't take some time for myself here and there. I start to feel a little flat, know what I mean? So while Jen, Erin and Caiden went off to Kumon this afternoon, I went sorting through my roving cupboard and found a beautiful, soft alpaca roving to spin... Kye was busy happily playing nearby with his toys and I had a whole hour and a half just for me.

So I divided up the roving, this is the best part, the planning of the colours, where to make the breaks so that the colourway flows evenly. I laid all the pieces over a chair and started my spinning meditation, what bliss and the sound of the wheel gently spinning. I love spinning alpaca, it is so incredibly soft and I was able to spin with a long draw because of the lovely length of the fibres, just wonderful.

I managed to finish spinning before I went to fetch everyone and I felt refreshed and happy that I had taken a few moments for me. I used to feel almost guilty about taking time but now I realise how important it is as a mother to just 'be' sometimes...

Our Weekend...

This has been one of the busiest weekends for us, ever... Last night was the opening show of our city's production of Mary Poppins, oh my, it was excellent!!! I loved it!!! The cast were amazing! Jenna and Erin have been rehearsing for over four months, three times a week and I am one very proud mama:) They will be performing for the rest of the weekend, two shows today, one tomorrow and again the following weekend and the next too. They love it so and have met many wonderful new friends and have learned so much. It really is a lovely experience for them and I am sure they will take part for many years to come... Thank you so much to Protea Stage Productions, you are all so amazing!

Jen is wearing the white shirt at the back looking down, she is an urchin.

Erin is wearing the blue and white skirt, she is an urchin too.

Just wanted to include here what I posted off to my pincushion swap partner, I really have been enjoying all the swaps so much:) Those are little pottery stitch markers in the grass.

On the spinning wheel, some superwash BFL sparkly yarn, it will be in the shop soon.

I will leave you with this last photo of Sandy and Caiden. Whenever the children swim on their boards in the pool, Sandy feels that she must rescue them and take them to the steps...

Have a wonderful weekend,
xo
Linda

Wednesday

I have been spinning up so many rovings, trying to spin really thin to be able to ply two different yarns into a DK thickness. I have managed to succeed with this camel and tussah silk below. I am going to knit a pair of fingerless gloves with this yarn... oh the softness... can you imagine??? I have also been working on my Shalom Cardigan KAL I should be able to cast on the sleeves by the weekend and then by next Wednesday I will hopefully be finished! I can't wait to wear it. I have decided that my next knitting project is either going to be the Tea Leaves Cardigan on Ravelry or the Hourglass Sweater, not sure which one yet, anyone out there knitted any of these and enjoyed them? Quite a lot of knitting has been happening around here, Erin has knitted herself a rainbow beanie hat in garter stitch. She knitted it flat and then sewed up the seam, I just love how it turned out. This skein she knitted with is one of the first skeins I ever dyed, so I am thrilled she chose it to knit a hat with, (kinda special don't you think...)

I have also been doing quite a lot of book work, thinking up new patterns and ideas for my knitting book and enjoying the process.

What projects have you been working on this week?
xo
Linda

Portrait Thursday...

Just a few photos of my spinning supporters (Erin and Sandy) and my handspun. This roving below is a superwash Merino tencel, I spun up a single handspun, about 442 yards and then I plyed it into a two-ply...

This is not an optical illusion, the water in our bird baths has been freezing overnight...

Amazing Elsa Beskow book Giveaway:

Valarie over at Jump Into a Book is having the most wonderful book giveaway of 19 Elsa Beskow books!!
To enter, pop over to the link above:)

See you tomorrow for Creative Friday:)
xo

Handwork Wednesday and Books

I am really enjoying all the spinning that has been happening over here over the last few days because I am taking part in The Tour de Fleece. Today's is a superwash Merino Tencel roving I bought from Twiggi Knits on Etsy. I just love the colourway, to me it looks like 'mother of pearl'... I am going for a sock weight here with this particular spin and I have just finished the roving now, it is quite a few hundred yards long I'm sure, just need to skein it and then I can count.

We are still experiencing freezing weather, our rain that fell yesterday turned to ice last night.

These are our reading books for the week, I am reading George's Secret Key to the Universe to Caiden, Erin is reading The Borowers, Jenna is reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and I am reading through the South African Sky Guide for Erin's Astronomy block.



We have been doing yoga each morning before our main lesson work and we have really been enjoying this children's yoga book, Fly Like a Butterfly. There are stories with yoga poses throughout the book, lovely.

Tuesday

Our weather is so bleak at the moment..... it's freezing AND today we had rain. This is unheard of during our usually dry Johannesburg winters, it's wonderful for our winter veggies though. Over the weekend, we had a burst water pipe above our bedroom, I woke up to the sound of and explosion and we couldn't figure out where it had come from. Three hours later, water was pouring through our bedroom ceiling like a waterfall... We managed to quickly turn off the water mains and start mopping up the small swimming pool of water in our bedroom. Today the builders came to pull out the soggy ceiling boards and replace them. This cold weather is perfect for fireside spinning. This Alpaca roving is from the UK, I bought it from The Thylacine, she has such wonderful creations... I spun it up on my traditional Ashford double treadle wheel, (my favourite:)...