My Spinning Wheel

Alright, so it was a bit mean of me to post my new spinning wheel with no explanation, but it was lots of fun.

It was pretty much an impulse buy, I admit, on one or two occasions I had thought "Wouldn't it be cool to spin my own wool?" but that's about as far as it's gone. I have never tried to spin, either on a drop spindle or a wheel. So anyway, I was walking down my street, which has lots of antique shops and normally I don't go into them because I'm sure I'd just find something cool and buy it, but one of them had this spinning wheel out the front and the price tag only said $35, and it seemed to work. The evil lady in the antique shop didn't even pressure me, she actually told me I could come back later or walk around the store and look around, so I bought it (that's why she's evil, she didn't have horns or walk around stabbing customers or anything).

So I got it home (where it looks a lot bigger) and it's an Ashford Traditional Single drive, and other than a little spring which costs about $2 it's ready to go (although I'm going to buy a maintenance kit with some oil and stuff too, so I really need to spend about $20 on it). So all I need to do is get some wool or roving and learn how to spin. How hard can it be?

Plus, I've decided that if I am a terrible spinner it can become a decorative piece of furniture, which will serve as a talking point, and possibly also somewhere to hang clothes.

And yesterday's impulse buy was...

Toilet art

WARNING: This post may seem a little odd.

Last night I went to a play (Translations by Brian Friel) which was very good, although that's not actually my point. After the play, I had to use the toilets and they were really cool. On all the toilet doors and some of the walls they had pasted vintage magazines and newspaper images and pages from the 50s and 60s. I could have spent ages in there looking at all the pictures...except that it was a public toilet, and that would just be weird.

But if anyone wants to see the toilets, they are at Higher Ground theatre, 274a Rundle St. I'm now ending this odd post. The next one may be odd too though!

Demodex bookmark

This one probably needs a bit of explanation. One of the vets at work is a dermatologist and one of the skin diseases dogs can get is Demodectic mange (you can read more about it here, so what better idea than to make him a Demodex mite bookmark? Ok, there may be better ideas but I thought this one was pretty cool, and I think he'll get it.



It still needs to be blocked, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Fan Bookmark

I've made another crocheted fan bookmark for a gift, it worked up really quickly and is very nice, but it's going away (to a safe spot, which I may or may not forget about) until it's time to meet it's new owner now.



From the lovely crochetroo, the pattern is here

Cherry Jewelry

So I had some round red beads and therefore I had to make some cherries. Although, then I bought the leaf bead (actually I bought three but they looked too big on the earrings).

I like the pendant, but the earrings are a bit long for my head, so my sister might get them, although I still think they're cute!

Ballycumber

After seeing a couple of stuffed Ballycumber mascots at the Adelaide Bookcrossing Convention I was inspired to make my own crocheted version of the little running book.



It's all done in single crochet with plaited arms and legs and pom pom hands and feet. He has no face, but does have a clip attached so I can pin him to my bag or whatever I'd like. Not including his legs he's about 12cm tall and lovely and squishy!

Embroidered bag for my mum

I've finished all the embroidered tote bags for Christmas, and now I'm trying to think of other things to embroider, because it's lots of fun.



This is adapted from a picture by Jennifer Brinley called Jet Set II. I really enjoyed doing the whipped back stitch, I'll be using it more often. It looks a bit creased (even though I ironed it) because I didn't want to iron too close to the metallic thread because I may have heard it melts. I could be completely wrong but I decided not to take the risk.



This quote says, "The beauty is a indiscribable/inspirational? source of joy for that which can discover it" I think, although I don't actually speak or write French so I could have made lots of spelling errors or have it completely wrong. I spent ages useing BabelFish trying to find a good French quote, in French and hopefully I succeeded, otherwise it'll be a good joke at least! Except I found and printed it up in Melbourne and forgot to print the translation, which is why I'm not sure what it says. Oops!

Craft Fair

There was a quilt and craft fair on in Adelaide this weekend so I thought I'd go to it and spend some money. Anyway, after I'd paid for parking and entry and bought three or four things I'd run out of money (I hadn't spent that much, maybe a bit over $40) and when I went to get some more out the ATM wouldn't give me any money. I should have had enough money in my account, so then I started panicking, thinking that someone had hacked into my bank account and I now had no money (it's a logical conclusion isn't it?). But when I got home and checked my balance all my money seemed to be there. Hooray!

So now I've got some lovely crimping pliers, some shiny new embroidery scissors, some bigger jump rings and some mobile phone charm cords (that was an impulse buy, everything else was actually on a list of things to buy if I saw them). I think if I'd been able to get more money out there would have been more impulse buys though.

Swap Info

Here's some general information about me to help anyone stalking me for a swap.

Last updated 15 May 2008.

I kept putting information in here until I got bored talking about myself, because I thought the more information the better.

About Me
I’m a 25 year old girl currently living in Melbourne, Australia, working as a vet. I love crafting (obviously), books, animals, and pretty things.

What I can do (in descending skill level!)
Crochet, embroidery, basic jewelry, papercraft and I will try other things. I’ve knitted two items (I'm sure there will be more, but I'm not really confident enough to knit anything for a swap at this stage. ). I can hand sew (but don't very often), and now that I've got a sewing machine, I should be able to do some basic sewing...but I'm sure I'll enjoy any swap sewing challenges. I've just bought a small loom and I do have a spinning wheel, but I'm not much of a spinner (partly because I haven't had time to play with it much)

Styles I like
I like animals (particularly turtles, butterflies, whales, sheep, dogs, dragons), pirates, skulls (in moderation), vintage style things, Asian themed stuff, fantasy stuff, scientific stuff, cute stuff (in moderation too). I’m fairly casual and go for more toned down things really, but I like cute little pretty items (I’m not making this much easier am I?). Occasionally I also like the slightly disturbing and creepy, so that's always fun too! I also like swirls and spirals. They're pretty.

Styles I don’t like
Anything too bright or big, chunky jewelry, long earrings (they make my head look too long!), anything too alternative. Skirts that go past my knees (they make me look like I’m playing dress ups!), anything too short or revealing. Anything too fussy and frilly.

Colours I like
Purple, Red, Blue, Green

Colours I don’t like
Fluorescent colours, lots of pink or orange (although a little can be very nice!).

Food/Drinks I like
Chocolate, icecream (although not chocolate icecream!), generally sweet things, coke, lemonade.

Food/Drinks I don’t like
Coffee, Fanta, Peas, Pasta, other stuff. In odd things I'm not all that partial to lunch as a meal. Weird I know.

Books/TV shows and Music I like
Books: Discworld (Terry Pratchett), Harry Potter, Raymond E Fiest, Jacqueline Carey (loved the Kushiel's Dart series), Ben Elton. I like fantasy and sci-fi, but at the moment I'm trying to branch out a bit (and I'm enjoying it). For more information on books I like, go here
TV Shows: Angel, Dark Angel, House, Black Adder, Thank God You're Here (Australian show), The Simpsons, Futurama, Firefly
Music: Robbie Williams, Missy Higgins, Jack Johnson, Michael Buble, The Waifs...

Things I’d love
1. A crochet projects tote: In an ideal world I would like a slash pocket on the front (for patterns etc) and a zip pocket on the back (for other things like my wallet). Inside I’d like a section for currently unused yarn and pockets for a crochet hook roll, the current hook I’m using, scissors and a little loop or clip that I can attach a coin purse to which would contain stitch markers and needles and stuff.
2. Above coin purse
3. Some nice scrubs: I’ve got one pair of plain green ones at the moment and they’re a bit boring, plus they’ve got a couple of holes in them where I’ve caught them on things (I don’t really look where I’m walking)
4. Some hand knitted socks
5. Resin goodies
6. A microscope slide pendant
7. Original art
8. A swap journal
9. Fingerless gloves


Supplies
1. Shrinky dinks
2. Beads and buttons
3. Lovely yarn (especially some hand spun or dyed)
4. Bits and bobs
5. Badge/button thingies
6. Roving
7. Ephemera
8. Pretty fabrics

Learn-to kits
1. Polymer clay

Other stuff
1. I’m kind of collecting the magazine series ‘Stitch by Stitch’ which was published (in Australia, UK, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, Malta and Hong Kong) in the 1970-80s. I'm missing part 1, and anything from part 66 on really.
2. Old craft books, the dodgier the projects the better!
3. I collect pins (the badge kind) because they’re pretty!
4. This is more an Aussie thing, but any Canteen bandanna's would be cool. I've got a few and I'd like to do something with them, but I think I need a bit more of a range (I've only got three colours at the moment) to do much. At the moment I'm thinking they'd make a cool quilt (which involves me learning to quilt, but nevermind)
5. Recipe cards (10cm x 13cm, 4' x 5')

Vegetable embroidery

I've embroidered the bag for my sister now and I think it's very cute. She's studying to be a dietician so I thought she might enjoy this. I used a colouring book picture from here