January 2012 - a busy holiday time

 In December I signed up for an International Postcard Swap.   Of course I decided to combine fabric and drawing ... here are a few I have made a start on.   I have tea dyed some cotton fabric, then I ironed it onto freezer paper which stabilises the fabric enough to draw on with a Pigma pen.   Next I will do all the quilting stitches on the fabric and batting layer (remember to remove the freezer paper before putting the batting onto the back of the fabric).

 Over the holidays I did a bit of spinning ... here I am spinning a laceweight - fibre is Bond (sheep) which I purchased from The Thylacine here in Tasmania - she does some beautiful dying.

 This same fibre is now becoming a very long scarf/wrap ... still not sure how much longer I want it to be, currently about 2metres.  I just love how soft this is and how the colours blended in, all soft and greeny/greys.

 This is some of the fibre I have spun during January.
Top Left - from Fibrefanatic Designs  yellow/chartreause Merino
Top Right - from Ewe Give Me The Knits  this is Mandie's Licorice Allsorts fibre which I have plied with a black Merino to give it this more licorice look.
Middle Right is the Blackwood (Green) Bond from The Thylacine,
Very Bottom is my very own Merino/Silk/Cat Fur blend - some spun and some still in the Batt stage that I have carded together.  It is very nice too!

 That big lot of lemony/chartreause has become this gorgeous shawl, a nice weight for winter, and it is big so comes down past my elbows when I wear it.

 A close up.

 I made another little neck warmer scarf.   The first one I made of these went to one of my sisters ... I decided I still wanted one, so made another - it crochets up really fast - less than five hours I think.This one still needs to be blocked as the edges are curling up.

 Currently on the wheel,  this beautiful blue Falkland fibre ... I have spun this very fine - probably the finest I have spun a whole lot of top.   I get about 40 - 50 wraps per inch.   Can't you just see this in a very fine lacy wrap - the colour is beautiful.  This is also from The Thyalcine.

On my spinning wheel at the moment - the last 100g of this lovely fibre.

So you can see that I have been doing quite a bit of spinning and crocheting this month.   I am also trying to teach myself how to knit (continental style) - but am giving myself the whole year to do that because I want to knit socks - woolen socks are the best!

I have also been drawing more in my big Journal for 2012 and will post some of that next week perhaps.

Happy Tangling/Quilting for now ... Jane x

I know I have double posted this post on my other blog ... but wanted to share with you all over here too!   I have also done the binding on my brother's quilt and a couple of others that are destined for Quilters Companion in July this year.