Japanese cloth

I was given this small sample of circular Japanese cloth by my friend who is a karate master. He had been at a big karate convention in Japan and bought each of us in our tai chi group a small piece of this cloth. I feel it has special meaning in the patterning, does anyone know anything about it? Maybe the significance is just in the colour, I love orange and so chose this piece.

Unseasonal knitting

Its high summer here, going to be 38C on Christmas Day and here I am posting a knitted scarf. In my defence it was knitted at the end of winter just before the weather turned warmer, then I tucked it away and forgot about it. Knitted in tencel and bamboo, it is a lovely soft and silky scarf. I have been told that bamboo yarn tends to split whilst knitting, but that if you use bamboo needles it knits up easily. By pure chance I used bamboo needles and had no problems. I knit my scarves sideways, I cast on 150 stitches for double knit yarns and go for it, adding multi yarns from my stash, this way the stripes do not look left-over stripey.

Possum Pouch

Yes I did, I really did knit a possum pouch from some donated wool. Poor baby possum will need sunglasses! They put many flannelette liners in the pouch with the possum in the middle, as the possum grows they remove some of the liners until at last it is big enough to manage outside the pouch. This one is going to a Wildlife centre somewhere in the eastern states.

Christmas is a'coming

Far too fast for my liking. I have to brave the shops this weekend for those few last minute things I need for our Christmas lunch. It is forecast to be 38C, so I will be buying salad stuff and fruit, plus some fruit juice and mineral water to mix up to make cool drinks.

Today I have a full blown Christmas lunch at the retirement village where I live. Am, turkey and all the trimmings.

To end on a fibre related note, my sister sent me some Opal sock wool from the UK, and I have started knitting a pair of woolly socks! The wool is knitting up in nice bright stripes so is interesting to work with. Won't have much time for knitting this morning, though, as I am going to help set the tables for lunch.

Gum leaves

Here I have stitched gum leaves to stained watercolour paper with hand dyed silk thread. The pink of the leaves did not show up too well, so I put some paper gold mesh behind the leaves and stitched that down also. I have a cool white shadow box to frame this picture in, the frame tones down the background paper and enhances the whole picture.

Christmas cards

This afternoon I got busy and made some Christmas cards from stained paper and glue. The paper is watercolour paper, I did intend some stitching, but wimped out at the last minute!

I've also embroidered the next round of the Japanese Round robin, must get those blocks photographed so I can show you how they went.

Tatted Christmas Ornaments

2007 Tatted Ornaments
Originally uploaded by Maureen1

Here are some Angels and Wreaths I made for Christmas tree ornaments. Some are beaded. I love that they are so delicate and how the light colour stands out when on the Christmas tree. All are stiffened with diluted Aquadhere (carpenters white glue).

Silk scarf and lining

Silk scarf and lining
Originally uploaded by Maureen1

I finished joining the two halves of the scarves together, one is already in the mail for a Christmas present. This is the resist dyed grey scarf with pink and grey lining, which was resist painted with Setacolour. Not a technique I will use again.