Warm blue

Oh August. Cold and miserable, windy and wet. I'm over it. It's amazing how there is quite enough of winter left to go for it to seem interminable, yet not enough time to knit the warm cabled jumper I hoped I would be wearing this winter. I swatched for it last year, but haven't started the knitting yet.

This is mostly what I was knitting while in Thredbo the week before last. Good old Fetching. I have knit this pattern twice before and knew that they could do with being a bit longer in the wrist and over the fingers, for maximum warmth. The wool is Naturally Me, a delightful merino and cashmere blend.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I often knit the same patterns more than once. It's nice to know what you're doing and that it will work!

They weren't for me, but a little surprise for someone who has knit a lot for me as well as sending me much wool too.

Pear brooch

I mentioned before that making pears small enough for 1/12 scale was a challenge. With some practice I was able to gauge just the right amount of wool to roll into the right-sized bead; but to get to that point I first made a few pear-shaped beads that were a bit too big.

These three were all about the same size so I gave them the finishing touches and made them into a brooch to wear to the opening. I sliced part of their backs off so there would be a good flat surface there, and used my new hot glue gun to stick them to the backing (a piece of plastic cut from an ice cream container, covered in black fabric).

At the opening

opening tomorrow....

The Call of the Small exhibition opens tomorrow night at Craft ACT, along with two other exhibitions. Curator Anna-Maria Sviatko had the brilliant idea of using the unusual Crucible showcase to create a craft exhibition in miniature. (if you're curious there is a picture of the crucible space - basically two large window spaces - here.)

Many of the artists and artisans invited to participate had not worked in 1/12 scale before. It was a challenge for me, and I'm happy with what I came up with, though of course I also wish I could have done more, and better, and smaller and finer, and...well, you never can be completely satisfied with your work. It will be fantastic to see the whole thing come together, having seen a few hints over here.

one perfect moment

I really try not to take it for granted. I'm lucky to be able to afford the money and time to come here, and stay right in Thredbo village (no driving to and from the skifields each day) the right clothing to be comfortable, the lessons I've taken to be able to ski better. More than anything though I love to just stop sometimes, forget about whether my legs are doing a good job or not on that particular run, and just be, on a mountain, surrounded by white, and trees, and rocks.

Last day tomorrow, and I will be happy to go home.

Anyone for a swim?

Bright blue skies today

It was bright and sunny today - in itself not a surprise - but also so much warmer than yesterday. We had to reduce the layers we were wearing!

The snow was melting and dripping off roofs everywhere, but there is still a lot of snow in the village and it looks really pretty. Spoken like someone for whom snow is a holiday luxury, not a daily grind nuisance, I know.

It's amazing how much the temperature, and the snow conditions, can change. There are supposed to be more snow showers through the week, and we're hoping for colder days to keep the snow around longer.

So glad to be wrong.

After bitching all week about how there was not much snow, that it had been raining, and too warm for snowmaking - that we had wasted our money booking this trip.....

It snowed yesterday (making the last part of our drive up here just a little bit hair-raising). And all day today. It has stopped now but the temperature is low and we now have snow! snow! snow! Might even snow again later in the week.

I bet that they still close their eyes and I bet they sing along

I recently finished Tora FrØseth's Sweetheart. I surprised myself a bit by liking this pattern: I wouldn't usually go for something so obviously cute with all the little hearts. But it is a really clever pattern with the hearts containing the increases for the yoke shaping, and I think the green colour tones down the saccharine factor to just the right amount of sweetness for my sweet little niece.

The buttons are three mismatched ones courtesy of mum's button collection (mine is just a fledging collection compared to the the motherlode).

I only made one tiny modification, adding a single heart on the hem. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to do it in the round so I knit the hem back and forth and that means there is a seam which is not really invisible. No, it's not in this photo. Oh well. I think it was worth it.

My sister popped it on to Miss B as soon as I gave it to her. It fits nicely even over her hip spica cast - but that comes off in less than a week anyway.

paper truth in strings, hearts and broken things

I am happy tonight because I managed to affix stalks to all my pears. Sometimes it's the little things. Ha! By the way that is my mobile phone in the background of that photo, just for an idea of scale. The pears are around 9-10mm high.

The method I was using for the stalks was such a nuisance - felting a strand of brown wool for the stalks, cutting a small piece once it was dry, and trying a combination of sewing and needlefelting (which I am seriously not good at - I may need to do a course) to stuff it into place at the top of the pear and make it stay there. And then sometimes the stalk itself would fall apart - I think because they are really too small to for the fibres to hold together.

I had already found that I could stabilise the little stalks with watered-down glue. Tonight, I realised that there was little point felting the stalk first, and I might as well apply it to the pear as unfelted wool, and then felt/glue it to a proper level of stiffness. This meant I could thread the wool right though the pear and sew it in securely much more easily. And I finished in one session what I thought would take much longer. And with less swearing.