A trip and a question for you all
G'day all!
I have pictures!
Pics for you of recent spinning. The saga of the pink top will have to wait until a later day. It is long and pathetic.
So here's some Brianna that I got from AK2.
Lush purples and greens and blues and stuff.
But if it is turned over:
Whoa! Where did all that yellow come from!
Here's the spun yarn, navajo plied as always:
Soft springy merino - not as springy as the polwarth though. So many pretty colours!
Here's some polwarth in moody blues all spun up:
This was a devil to spin cos it is full of teensy little neps about 3mm (1/8") long. So many little neps that I gave up on trying to remove them and just spun it up a bit lumpy. This will make a great homespun looking hat or scarf and should felt as well. The yarn is soft and springy.
After spinning the pink and blue yarn a couple of weeks ago, I had a fair whack of the pinky/mauvey colour left. I spun it as a fairly thick single and then plied it up with a fine lurex thread. This lot is about a 10 ply or aran weight or heavy worsted I think in US terms. It is pretty and soft and I have no idea how it will hold up to being washed or knitted or anything. Pretty and soft and 150m long will just have to do....
And a closeup:
Now for the moment you have been dreading. Yes,
One of the great loves of Nathan's life is mulch from the Knox transfer station. Oh yeah, another is me. We've gotten many a trailer load of mulch from the greenwaste part and it is fabulous for improving the soil both at his parents' place (clay soil) and here (impoverished sandy loam over clay).
I've been following the Etherknitter's lead and hacking my garden. Not that it is my garden cos it belongs to the landlord, but the landlord likes us playing in the garden. I've severely cut back all the non-rose plants along the front fence (hopefully I won't try to run over any more pedestrians as I back out cos boy do they glare at you when they were the ones lurking behind the bushes). The roses, Lorraine Lee, don't get pruned now cos she is a winter flowering type in our climate. Nathan butchered (much more than decimated) the tibouchina back to some two foot high stumps Peter Cundall says it should regrow ok cos they did that to one in Hobart on Gardening Australia a month or so ago).
Well, we had a little problem.
Here is our greenwaste bin with most, but not all, of the greenwaste and prunings around it. I think you can see the problem.
Now we could've borrowed the mulcher from the PiLs but we hateses the mulcher, don'tses we cos it is noisy and vibrates and spitses bits out at us and hurtses us even if we wear gloves and eye/ear protection.
So instead we did this:
And this:
The big piles of greenwaste get turned into this:
(IMO that is a well composed shot even if the subject matter is a little dry for some of you. In the background you can see the Policy Academy chapel up on top of a big syncline, or is it the antisyncline? Whatever. It's a hill that dips down into the Dandenong Creek valley.)
The mulch then gets picked up by a big front loader, not the digger and lands in the PiL's trailer:
and comes home to become lovely lovely soil enhancing agents. Plus it stops the weeds growing and boy does Weedhaven need a bit of weeding! $15 for the trailer load of greenwaste and $5 for enough mulch to cover half the front yard! Yay us!
Here's a little pic of Father Christmas and Nathan. Nathan looks like he's had a few but Father Christmas, who prefers to be known as Wally from the tip has a little sparkle in his eye :-)
Wally is what we call a character. He has a bit of a wild and varied history but working at the tip, oops, waste transfer station suits him cos he likes keeping things nice and tidy and he makes great mulch.
Lynne's whinge for the day.
Nutmeg says don't do it, Lynne! Don't whinge! I feel all embarrassed and have to be a lady cat for a moment!
How do you get comments on your blog?
Thanks to the people who have commented in the last couple of day but I am feeling a wee bit unloved. I haven't yet worked out the secret to blogging success and getting comments. I've tried direct questions, I've asked for advice, I wasn't able to blog for a few days... but nope my blog just ain't worth commenting on unless you know me in the non-blogging world (with a few lovely exceptions :-). People talk about the wonderful community they have found through blogging but apart from a handful of Aussies, mostly in the most wonderful Tassie that I adore almost as much as my home state, I haven't managed to get much community going. Maybe it is just me. Maybe I just have to be more persistent and visit other blogs I like more and hope someone likes mine in return.... Maybe I am not effusive enough, but I hate gushing over things, even when I think they are totally gushworthy cos so many people fake it. Maybe I should link to other blogs more, particularly smaller ones cos let's face it we all love leaving the Yarnharlot comments and Crazy Aunt Purl and other big time knit bloggers. They get so many comments that they get driven to distraction trying to reply to them. Maybe I should not allow anonymous comments on my blog so that I can reply to you individually - at the moment I can't cos comments generally appear with no email addies. I have to find you all again, my favourite bloggers, cos I lost 95% of my favourite blogging bookmarks on the weekend. And some of you have withdrawn and gone all private on me and aren't blogging any more :-(
Of course I could always blog more about knitting, but who wants to see a sock with another six rows added to it each day? Or a jacket back that looks like no progress has been made (it seems to have fallen into a black hole cos I knit and knit and knit and don't get anywhere or so it seems). A sock at major turning points (pun intended) is good. A jacket that has obvious progress made is good. It is easy to take pics in spring, summer and autumn but now I leave before sunrise and get home after sunset and pics under flash are umm well dodgy.
Maybe I should blog less often and with more content. After all, who wants to see a trip to the greenwaste station??!! Even if it does involve father christmas! LOL Then again, it's my blog and I'll blog whatever whack things I want. Others blog their trip to gay Paree, I'll blog about the places I go and the people I see!
There. Whinge done.
On Friday I have the day off. I might get some pics of some knitting for you - I am knitting a sock and the Vogue jacket. If I am really lucky I'll get to go to the scarf festival on Friday or Saturday and maybe get some pics. Ooh, ooh, I should get some homespun yarn all knitted up ready to show off cos you never know who might notice! Dang, why didn't I think of that earlier in the week cos I only have one night to get stuff done!
Enjoy!
I have pictures!
Pics for you of recent spinning. The saga of the pink top will have to wait until a later day. It is long and pathetic.
So here's some Brianna that I got from AK2.
Lush purples and greens and blues and stuff.
But if it is turned over:
Whoa! Where did all that yellow come from!
Here's the spun yarn, navajo plied as always:
Soft springy merino - not as springy as the polwarth though. So many pretty colours!
Here's some polwarth in moody blues all spun up:
This was a devil to spin cos it is full of teensy little neps about 3mm (1/8") long. So many little neps that I gave up on trying to remove them and just spun it up a bit lumpy. This will make a great homespun looking hat or scarf and should felt as well. The yarn is soft and springy.
After spinning the pink and blue yarn a couple of weeks ago, I had a fair whack of the pinky/mauvey colour left. I spun it as a fairly thick single and then plied it up with a fine lurex thread. This lot is about a 10 ply or aran weight or heavy worsted I think in US terms. It is pretty and soft and I have no idea how it will hold up to being washed or knitted or anything. Pretty and soft and 150m long will just have to do....
And a closeup:
Now for the moment you have been dreading. Yes,
Lynne and Nathan go to the Transfer Station!
One of the great loves of Nathan's life is mulch from the Knox transfer station. Oh yeah, another is me. We've gotten many a trailer load of mulch from the greenwaste part and it is fabulous for improving the soil both at his parents' place (clay soil) and here (impoverished sandy loam over clay).
I've been following the Etherknitter's lead and hacking my garden. Not that it is my garden cos it belongs to the landlord, but the landlord likes us playing in the garden. I've severely cut back all the non-rose plants along the front fence (hopefully I won't try to run over any more pedestrians as I back out cos boy do they glare at you when they were the ones lurking behind the bushes). The roses, Lorraine Lee, don't get pruned now cos she is a winter flowering type in our climate. Nathan butchered (much more than decimated) the tibouchina back to some two foot high stumps Peter Cundall says it should regrow ok cos they did that to one in Hobart on Gardening Australia a month or so ago).
Well, we had a little problem.
Here is our greenwaste bin with most, but not all, of the greenwaste and prunings around it. I think you can see the problem.
Now we could've borrowed the mulcher from the PiLs but we hateses the mulcher, don'tses we cos it is noisy and vibrates and spitses bits out at us and hurtses us even if we wear gloves and eye/ear protection.
So instead we did this:
And this:
The big piles of greenwaste get turned into this:
(IMO that is a well composed shot even if the subject matter is a little dry for some of you. In the background you can see the Policy Academy chapel up on top of a big syncline, or is it the antisyncline? Whatever. It's a hill that dips down into the Dandenong Creek valley.)
The mulch then gets picked up by a big front loader, not the digger and lands in the PiL's trailer:
and comes home to become lovely lovely soil enhancing agents. Plus it stops the weeds growing and boy does Weedhaven need a bit of weeding! $15 for the trailer load of greenwaste and $5 for enough mulch to cover half the front yard! Yay us!
Here's a little pic of Father Christmas and Nathan. Nathan looks like he's had a few but Father Christmas, who prefers to be known as Wally from the tip has a little sparkle in his eye :-)
Wally is what we call a character. He has a bit of a wild and varied history but working at the tip, oops, waste transfer station suits him cos he likes keeping things nice and tidy and he makes great mulch.
Lynne's whinge for the day.
Nutmeg says don't do it, Lynne! Don't whinge! I feel all embarrassed and have to be a lady cat for a moment!
How do you get comments on your blog?
Thanks to the people who have commented in the last couple of day but I am feeling a wee bit unloved. I haven't yet worked out the secret to blogging success and getting comments. I've tried direct questions, I've asked for advice, I wasn't able to blog for a few days... but nope my blog just ain't worth commenting on unless you know me in the non-blogging world (with a few lovely exceptions :-). People talk about the wonderful community they have found through blogging but apart from a handful of Aussies, mostly in the most wonderful Tassie that I adore almost as much as my home state, I haven't managed to get much community going. Maybe it is just me. Maybe I just have to be more persistent and visit other blogs I like more and hope someone likes mine in return.... Maybe I am not effusive enough, but I hate gushing over things, even when I think they are totally gushworthy cos so many people fake it. Maybe I should link to other blogs more, particularly smaller ones cos let's face it we all love leaving the Yarnharlot comments and Crazy Aunt Purl and other big time knit bloggers. They get so many comments that they get driven to distraction trying to reply to them. Maybe I should not allow anonymous comments on my blog so that I can reply to you individually - at the moment I can't cos comments generally appear with no email addies. I have to find you all again, my favourite bloggers, cos I lost 95% of my favourite blogging bookmarks on the weekend. And some of you have withdrawn and gone all private on me and aren't blogging any more :-(
Of course I could always blog more about knitting, but who wants to see a sock with another six rows added to it each day? Or a jacket back that looks like no progress has been made (it seems to have fallen into a black hole cos I knit and knit and knit and don't get anywhere or so it seems). A sock at major turning points (pun intended) is good. A jacket that has obvious progress made is good. It is easy to take pics in spring, summer and autumn but now I leave before sunrise and get home after sunset and pics under flash are umm well dodgy.
Maybe I should blog less often and with more content. After all, who wants to see a trip to the greenwaste station??!! Even if it does involve father christmas! LOL Then again, it's my blog and I'll blog whatever whack things I want. Others blog their trip to gay Paree, I'll blog about the places I go and the people I see!
There. Whinge done.
On Friday I have the day off. I might get some pics of some knitting for you - I am knitting a sock and the Vogue jacket. If I am really lucky I'll get to go to the scarf festival on Friday or Saturday and maybe get some pics. Ooh, ooh, I should get some homespun yarn all knitted up ready to show off cos you never know who might notice! Dang, why didn't I think of that earlier in the week cos I only have one night to get stuff done!
Enjoy!
I'm sorry I have neglected you the last few days! I think I get more comments when I leave them and when I link to other bloggers pages - I know I'm linked on a few and love when they link me and then write about me with a "go see yarngirl....."That is sooooo cool. I've been busy getting ready for vacation and will be gone a few weeks, so I will have to leave a few extra comments for you and catch up when I get back - I love reading about your knitting and your gardening and those fibers you spin.
ReplyDeleteas for someone who reads your blog, but doesn't comment, i have this to say: i am lazy. seriously. that's my only reason for not posting comments. and most of the time the only things i want to say are "that looks great!" or something equally non-interesting. it also doesn't help that i read my blogroll in the morning right before i go to work. which i'm doing right now, and running about five minutes late! so, know that i'm reading, but either lazy or late :)
ReplyDeleteLike Wendy, I'm equally as lazy. And I only really comment when I have the time (like now) and when I have something to say (like now). You're the first person to comment on my blog who's from another country (a country I'm desperate to visit someday!) and it's all very exciting. And you spin some great stuff and right now I'm a fiber addict and I'm just drawn to it! Throw in a little Father Christmas Wally and hey, you've got yourself a great blog!
ReplyDeleteI'm like the others, a somewhat lazy commenter as well. I also try not to leave a "yeah, me too" type comment or something seemingly meaningless to the author. But on the other hand, as a blogger myself, I love comments, even the "me too" ones simply as a way to validate what I've done. While I might not comment, I do read regularly . It seems that we are stage actors working on a movie, not sure of the feedback.
ReplyDeleteI'm always interested in the stuff that goes on in people's lives, it's fun reading about Father Christmas and the trip to the waste transfer station. We don't get to go to our WTF but we do go to Fleetwood tip to recycle stuff! Maybe I should take some photos there, although I am guessing i would get some odd looks!
ReplyDeletePersonally there is no way I could keep up with many blogs at a time, mine is basically just "here's my knitting" and a few other comments, and I don't always get to update it as often as I'd like. I'm sure lots of people read Yarnivorous even if they don't comment all the time! I have no expectation of any visitors on mine as I don't have the time to invest in trogging around other blogs and commenting and linking .. but it wasn't put online for that, it lets a few people I know see some stuff that I've done :-)
hiya! Your spinning is so gorgeous...I love that pink with the thread going through it. I'm always amazed when I look at a roving picture and then see the yarn it "turns" into...nice work. That was an insane amount of pruning you've done - I got a good laugh out of the teeny greenwaste container surrounded by piles of brush. I'm not sure what the secret to blog comments is. I've got maybe 5 regular commenters and then a few who stop in from time to time so I obviously don't know the secret! I kind of like having a small group though - makes them feel more like friends who I can email back and forth with. When work gets hectic, I fall behind in blog visits but I always show up eventually to catch up and read what I've missed. Talk soon!
ReplyDeleteI have you in my Favourites list but I am not a big commenter - but here is one today so you feel happy!!!!
ReplyDeleteCindy,
Harki-Parki-Parker-Posey and
Peri Naughty the Golden Labradors
Hello! Remember me? K introduced me to you at the Handknitters Mini Expo a few weeks back. I tried to leave a comment on your blog the next day, but this little comment thingy seemed to want me to sign in. Since I don't have a Blogger account and had no intention of starting one I just moved on to the next blog. Okay, I'm a drip. I was in a hurry and didn't notice I had more options than that! But I wonder if other readers of your site are making the same mistake.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I loved the mulch/santa story. You have a knack of writing about non-knitterly things in an engaging way, unlike many, many other bloggers. And don't worry if all you can write about knitting is that you've made no progress. It's always good to know other knitters have the same frustrations as us, as well as successes!
IMHO You present a blog worth commenting on! It's just time pressure - I get around the blog ring a couple of times a week only. I thought that your point about petitioning Knitpicks to mail directly to Aust was well worth following up.
ReplyDeleteAnswering comments individually may enhance a feeling of conversation between people, but its like friendships anywhere - the spark that initiates them is just as mysterious and spontaneous. Just blog what makes you happy nad surely, your readership (and commenters) will grow.
Mea culpa!
Nathalie
knittingnatty.typepad.com