Conspicuous consumerism
G'day all!
Well what a great morning out I had at the handknitter's fibre fest. Oh boy did I bust my budget! Guess who will be on $50 a week for the next yonk? This should act as added impetus to getting my spinning up on line to sell.... I have started weighing and measuring length and checking wraps per inch for the stuff I have.
So, what did I get? My Lorna's Laces sock yarn in Daffodil (the colour separation was not as good as I expected):
And the lovely Lion and Lamb in Sherbert for my Clap-to be:
Plus the prettiest ball of Trekking sock yarn I e'er did see:
(Those colours are so very good on me - it is suckful being a pale blond cos moody colours make me look rather wan) All these came from Lisa.
Then there were the number of accidents I had at Wendy Dennis' (ok grammar-bots - should that be Dennis', Dennis's or what? I am going with what the style manual at work says Dennis' is OK these days). Wendy had lovely Polwarth tops. Polwarth is a sort of merino type fleece. The Dennises bred them about 140-150 years ago to suit Australian conditions. I had a long discussion with Wendy's husband (whose name escapes me) about mulesing sheep. They do it because they can mules them or pump them full of chemicals that are no good to anyone. The Dennises try to avoid using chemicals as much as possible because they think they do more harm than good. Wendy thought my spinning was rather good for someone who started on a wheel in January. Not that I took it along to have people praise it, I just wanted to show them what had done with stuff of theirs that I had - navajo plying and normal plying makes such a difference to the yarn (I'll do a comparison in a later post when I have direct comparisons, not similar yarns in different colours).
This beautiful roving is in the colours of a galah. Galahs are one of my favourite birds. They are a parrot that mates for life. They, like most of the Australian parrot family, seem to have a great sense of humour. They technically live in the grasslands and inland woodlands areas but we see them in Melbourne all the time feeding on grasses by the roadside. They seem to like hanging off streetlights and screeching in their own galah way at passers by. If I called you a silly galah, it means that I think you are a rather stupid person. (That is unfair on the galah!)
More baby colours. So very me. Maybe so very you too - I doubt I will keep all of the stuff I spin from this outing.
Mysterious blues:
Deeper galah colours - deeper grey instead of bluish grey and magenta instead of pink:
Some polwarth and silk mix - I love the way the silk glistens:
Plus some polwarth tops (which just looks like tops so no pic).
From Andyle:
Some more of the moorit merino and alpaca mix (this means I'll have over 200g of it spun up eventually):
Some merino/soy mix in colourway honeysuckle:
(but the real question is will Lynne be able to spin it in this mildly drab colour - there is 480g all up!)
Some undyed mohair (with added farmyard, or more correctly with unremoved farm yard):
Plus a white merino/alpaca mix - you've seen white tops before I am sure.... I showed Cheryle the stuff I spun from their tops tthat I got in April. Just cos I had to.
Are you sick of pics of my new tops yet? Well I am going to take pity on you and not show you the last lot until later. Hooray!
I talked to a very interesting person called Charly, who is a spinner. She is playing with some really luscious silks and wools. Oh how drool worthy they were but I had run out of $$$ to spend. I found out what markets she does so I can go along later.
Our SnB group is sooo big now that we don't know all the people in it. There were people there who are SnBers but aren't recognisable by sight. I met one SnBer who turns out to be a friend of a friend - hi, Trudi!
This weekend, I've had the opportunity to drive three different cars - my baby, my FiL's big station wagon (estate) and C's car that we have to sell for him. We drive ont he left side of the road, so we have right hand drive cars. That's opposite to America and parts of Europe. C's car is European, which seems to mean that the indicator stalk is on the wrong side. Australian cars have the indicator switch on the right of the steering wheel, away from the gear selecting stuff. This makes a great deal of sense to me, cos it is hard to flick the indicator off (or on) when you are changing gear in a manual car. It seems that the right hand drive version of a lot of European cars have not switched over the wiper switch and the indicators. (OK, so half the drivers in Melbourne seem to have broken indicator switches or just use them as confirmators of a lane change, a fait accompli rather than an indication of intent.) Having the indicator stalk on the wrong side makes it very amusing for unsuspecting or forgetful drivers who put the wipers on to turn left.... FiL's car is a top of the range Commodore, known as a Berlina. I call it the commode. It is a very plush commode that goes quite well. It has amusing gadgets like an instantaneous fuel use display. I've been know to see how much fuel it can chow down - only got to about 60L/100km (!!!) on a couple of takeoffs, then it usually drops down to about 10L/100km once we are on the speedlimit. If it is running on cruise at highway speeds (100kmh or 63 mph) and we go down a hill, it turns off the fuel injection and runs at 0.0L/100km. It has less amusing gadgets like the speed monitor - bee-dip! "Too fast" it bee-dips at me. According to the speedo readout I was 1kmh under the limit set on the speed monitor. Bee-dop! "That is better," it says. Man it is an annoying feature. I set it to 5kmh higer than the speedlimit cos if I sit on the speedlimit according to the speedo I get a string of bee-dip, bee-dop, bee-dip, bee-dop as I drive along.
Getting back into my own little baby car was soooo nice. He is truly a bare bones, no frills little thing, he isn't as quick as FiL's monster, but gee he feels much quicker and much more fun. He is small and light. Much more feedback through the steering wheel than the (overly) power-assisted cars I've been driving. Chassis tells me a lot more through the seat of my pants on the hard, thin little seat (Nathan perfers my car's seats cos they do not envelope his rather large bott). The gear box is a joy - you always know where you are and once you pop out of reverse, the car doesn't try to put you into third rather than first, unlike C's car. If I could have any two features out of C's car, I would choose central locking and nothing else. Certainly not the horn, which turns out to be two thumbprint shapes on the steering wheel. If I could have two features out of FiL's car, they would be cruise control and the fuel use monitor. I love that fuel use monitor....
Enough of my random ravings about my baby car. I have had him for 7 years and am only starting to appreciate his good points now.
anon!
Well what a great morning out I had at the handknitter's fibre fest. Oh boy did I bust my budget! Guess who will be on $50 a week for the next yonk? This should act as added impetus to getting my spinning up on line to sell.... I have started weighing and measuring length and checking wraps per inch for the stuff I have.
So, what did I get? My Lorna's Laces sock yarn in Daffodil (the colour separation was not as good as I expected):
And the lovely Lion and Lamb in Sherbert for my Clap-to be:
Plus the prettiest ball of Trekking sock yarn I e'er did see:
(Those colours are so very good on me - it is suckful being a pale blond cos moody colours make me look rather wan) All these came from Lisa.
Then there were the number of accidents I had at Wendy Dennis' (ok grammar-bots - should that be Dennis', Dennis's or what? I am going with what the style manual at work says Dennis' is OK these days). Wendy had lovely Polwarth tops. Polwarth is a sort of merino type fleece. The Dennises bred them about 140-150 years ago to suit Australian conditions. I had a long discussion with Wendy's husband (whose name escapes me) about mulesing sheep. They do it because they can mules them or pump them full of chemicals that are no good to anyone. The Dennises try to avoid using chemicals as much as possible because they think they do more harm than good. Wendy thought my spinning was rather good for someone who started on a wheel in January. Not that I took it along to have people praise it, I just wanted to show them what had done with stuff of theirs that I had - navajo plying and normal plying makes such a difference to the yarn (I'll do a comparison in a later post when I have direct comparisons, not similar yarns in different colours).
This beautiful roving is in the colours of a galah. Galahs are one of my favourite birds. They are a parrot that mates for life. They, like most of the Australian parrot family, seem to have a great sense of humour. They technically live in the grasslands and inland woodlands areas but we see them in Melbourne all the time feeding on grasses by the roadside. They seem to like hanging off streetlights and screeching in their own galah way at passers by. If I called you a silly galah, it means that I think you are a rather stupid person. (That is unfair on the galah!)
More baby colours. So very me. Maybe so very you too - I doubt I will keep all of the stuff I spin from this outing.
Mysterious blues:
Deeper galah colours - deeper grey instead of bluish grey and magenta instead of pink:
Some polwarth and silk mix - I love the way the silk glistens:
Plus some polwarth tops (which just looks like tops so no pic).
From Andyle:
Some more of the moorit merino and alpaca mix (this means I'll have over 200g of it spun up eventually):
Some merino/soy mix in colourway honeysuckle:
(but the real question is will Lynne be able to spin it in this mildly drab colour - there is 480g all up!)
Some undyed mohair (with added farmyard, or more correctly with unremoved farm yard):
Plus a white merino/alpaca mix - you've seen white tops before I am sure.... I showed Cheryle the stuff I spun from their tops tthat I got in April. Just cos I had to.
Are you sick of pics of my new tops yet? Well I am going to take pity on you and not show you the last lot until later. Hooray!
I talked to a very interesting person called Charly, who is a spinner. She is playing with some really luscious silks and wools. Oh how drool worthy they were but I had run out of $$$ to spend. I found out what markets she does so I can go along later.
Our SnB group is sooo big now that we don't know all the people in it. There were people there who are SnBers but aren't recognisable by sight. I met one SnBer who turns out to be a friend of a friend - hi, Trudi!
This weekend, I've had the opportunity to drive three different cars - my baby, my FiL's big station wagon (estate) and C's car that we have to sell for him. We drive ont he left side of the road, so we have right hand drive cars. That's opposite to America and parts of Europe. C's car is European, which seems to mean that the indicator stalk is on the wrong side. Australian cars have the indicator switch on the right of the steering wheel, away from the gear selecting stuff. This makes a great deal of sense to me, cos it is hard to flick the indicator off (or on) when you are changing gear in a manual car. It seems that the right hand drive version of a lot of European cars have not switched over the wiper switch and the indicators. (OK, so half the drivers in Melbourne seem to have broken indicator switches or just use them as confirmators of a lane change, a fait accompli rather than an indication of intent.) Having the indicator stalk on the wrong side makes it very amusing for unsuspecting or forgetful drivers who put the wipers on to turn left.... FiL's car is a top of the range Commodore, known as a Berlina. I call it the commode. It is a very plush commode that goes quite well. It has amusing gadgets like an instantaneous fuel use display. I've been know to see how much fuel it can chow down - only got to about 60L/100km (!!!) on a couple of takeoffs, then it usually drops down to about 10L/100km once we are on the speedlimit. If it is running on cruise at highway speeds (100kmh or 63 mph) and we go down a hill, it turns off the fuel injection and runs at 0.0L/100km. It has less amusing gadgets like the speed monitor - bee-dip! "Too fast" it bee-dips at me. According to the speedo readout I was 1kmh under the limit set on the speed monitor. Bee-dop! "That is better," it says. Man it is an annoying feature. I set it to 5kmh higer than the speedlimit cos if I sit on the speedlimit according to the speedo I get a string of bee-dip, bee-dop, bee-dip, bee-dop as I drive along.
Getting back into my own little baby car was soooo nice. He is truly a bare bones, no frills little thing, he isn't as quick as FiL's monster, but gee he feels much quicker and much more fun. He is small and light. Much more feedback through the steering wheel than the (overly) power-assisted cars I've been driving. Chassis tells me a lot more through the seat of my pants on the hard, thin little seat (Nathan perfers my car's seats cos they do not envelope his rather large bott). The gear box is a joy - you always know where you are and once you pop out of reverse, the car doesn't try to put you into third rather than first, unlike C's car. If I could have any two features out of C's car, I would choose central locking and nothing else. Certainly not the horn, which turns out to be two thumbprint shapes on the steering wheel. If I could have two features out of FiL's car, they would be cruise control and the fuel use monitor. I love that fuel use monitor....
Enough of my random ravings about my baby car. I have had him for 7 years and am only starting to appreciate his good points now.
anon!
You'll find that all European cars have the indicator stalk on the left of the wheel ... they just move the whole steering assembly over to the right hand side but don't change the wiper/indicator configuraton. I guess it would make the cars even more obscenely expensive if they did! Our VW (Beetle) has this, the BMW before it was the same (better for me cos I don't have to get used to it again). The Mitsubishi has it the "proper" way round though. Confusing for OH who drives both cars and occasionally ends up wiping a dry screen instead of indicating (don't tell him I told you!)
ReplyDeleteWow- massive stash enhancement! Looks like you've got lots to play with. I didn't end up getting to Coburg- I had already spent all my pocket money on other essential wardrobe upgrades...
ReplyDeleteoooooooooooh puuurrteeeeeeeee wool!!!
ReplyDeleteMan I so want to learn how to spin!
Katt
So many beautiful colours ... I tried to pick a favourite but I love them all. (sock ball, pale galah, baby colours, moody blues, yummm) Anticipating some beautiful works to see in future blogs.
ReplyDeleteGood Yarning :-D
Ooooh very gorgeous. I love, LOVE, polwarth and only wish I lived closer to the good source of it. It is pretty damn expensive in the states. I saw (well bought some that I haven't blogged yet) it going for $20US/pound.
ReplyDelete