counter attack

Just arrived this morning- our new shop counter!
Well when I say 'new' I mean 'old', 'old' as in truly excellent!
I have spent a year searching for one just like this and last weekend I found it!

(Yes- worthy of lots of excited exclamation marks!!!!!!!)

It needs a little work, like fitting some shelves but that's fine.
And Jethro has given it a once over and his stamp of approval.

36 hours in a day

I haven't managed to get into the studio since Friday. Sometimes all the other things one needs to do just get in the way. Normally I like to spend holiday days in the studio, its quiet and peaceful and I tend to get lots of work done. Yesterday though, I stayed home to try to get a few things sorted. The tides of crap keep lapping across the floor and over all the horizontal surfaces. I've been here a year and finally yesterday I got around to hanging some pictures. I think having spent so long painting the walls here I couldn't bring myself to actually banging a nail in! Of course I ran out of hooks half way through but at least some of the pic are up instead of leaning against the wall!

I can't believe how quickly the light has changed and even if we do get more warm weather it is definitely autumn here in Melbourne Town. I love this time of the year but it also makes me melancholy. It's all tied up with accidents and broken bones and long hospital stays and years of recovery. Just to remind me, my body has gone haywire over the last week, with spasming and pain........ hmmmm......... anniversary-shmanniversary.

But now one anniversary is overlaid with another..........stay tuned!

Exciting to see our Divine Miss Bianca, Supreme Leader of The Toy Society in today's Age newspaper! Excellent! All she needs now for world domination is a cool leather swivel chair and a fluffy white cat (toy version of course).

Today's busy-ness was filled with emails and phone calls and packages and running around.

And I still need to prep for tomorrow's classes.

Indeed 36 hours in a day.

still trembling at the knees

After our 5 seconds (if that!) of excitement last night..... life gets back to normal.

Today is all about KNITS.

The new batch of gloves is ready to go into store today. Three lengths and lots of colours (but no black quite yet, still waiting for the mailman to bring the parcels from interstate) including 'danger', 'rhubarb', 'smoke' (that's a dark grey for those needing monochromatics), 'primula' and a host of others. No photo yet and anyway photos never do justice to these fluffy lil paw warmers. This year's batch is especially nice, the yarn spinners did a really nice job and the knitting is most fine.

The chilly weather of the last week- oh how wonderful it has been- has put me in a panic about autumn and winter stock for the shop. There is going to be a bit of a wait on some stock (as usual) but I have managed to get these  boiled wool cardi-jackets ready. The fabric for these has been knitted in the studio and then felted down. The jackets have raw edges and seams and fabric covered press studs. Each one is different depending on the variegations in the yarn.

The first skein of handspun is coming off the knitting needles. Made from silk and wool this is a medium weight scarf, really soft and drapey. I think it wants to have a fringe. Funny how some pieces dictate the way they should be made. It is an interesting thing about making handmade, whilst you guide the creation of a piece you also have to 'listen' to what it wants to become. Sometimes work needs to be tamed and other times if you fight it you end up throwing it across the room in frustration.

yes dear, the earth moved for me too

Well it really happened.

I had to wait and check because I thought I was imagining it.

Jethro jumped and looked shocked. 

I jumped and looked shocked.

We both saw the whole length of the building from the couch to the bedroom move back and forwards.

So far we've had a drought, bushfires and now an earthquake (tremour)........... what next?

Plagues of boils and toads raining from the skies? I hope not- I don't own an umbrella.

of puddles and ugg boots

I couldn't believe it when I ran into a friend this morning and she said in a grizzling voice 'can you believe this weather?' and started to complain about the rain. I said, in shock, that she better not say another word, she stopped and back-tracked saying that she just wished it was a little bit more humid. (This is a person whose mother has been evacuated from Warburton 4 times in the last few weeks . Go figure!)

I love the rain and I love that it has been cool and not humid and hope this continues. 

A good drenching is food for the soul.

I walked through the rain to school today. 

It was so drippy and dreamy I walked down the wrong road.

I got my ugg boots out last night. 

I have potatoes, pumpkin and haloumi roasting in the oven.

Joy, oh joy, it is autumn.

raincoats and wishes

Quite apart from the dire message that went out to all or mobile phones yesterday, I'm loving lying in bed and hearing the rain tick down the gutters.

I'm in the throws of sampling a raincoat for winter. I'm viewing it as a plea for a winter of gentle, constant, soaking rain (no 'all of a months rain in 24 hours' sort of downpours please- and we must specify this when we wish because you know Fate will play that game with us and send floods just to f*ck us over).

tie our love in a double knot

Well the dyeing has been happening today. Stockpots and puddles everywhere, the washing machine going, strangely coloured fingers. Being the first day of autumn it was probably a good day to get as much done as possible. The blotch rate is down, except for the coral dyepot I forgot to put the grill in the bottom of, this batch is going to be messy. I sometimes think that I don't have enough patience for dyeing, unlike the Clever Girl! Nikki's dyeing is always lovely!

The photos on Nikki's blog of her new range are looking simply beautiful. 

Nik sent through a link to the Pluckyfluff site and I got excited and the next thing I knew I had the spinning wheel whirring around.........

It's here I have to admit that when I was a youngster I was a member of the Handweavers and Spinners Guild, in fact their youngest member. I used to do a lot of weaving and we had looms and spinning wheels and all that sort of stuff at home. So it's been quite a few years (gulp) since I did any spinning but it's amazing how craft remains in one's fingers

A couple of skeins later.............

....... and I just need the time to do more.

 

I forgot how meditative spinning is. I had been in the need of some 'craft for the soul' and the making of such an elemental thing as yarn is really quite joyous. Nikki recently posted about 'slow fashion', a sister movement to 'slow food' and espoused by makers and designers like Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin. In this financial climate, as we watch businesses like Pacific Brands move off-shore and go for profits over all else, we should stop to think of the 'soul' in the clothing we put on our backs. 

p.s. the post title is because I was listening to Dolly Parton whilst working this morning and it's one of those song lines that just stick in your head. You know how it is!