Carving!

My Mum loves horses.
I mean she lives and breathes horses!
Here she is on her handsome Andaulsian, Denoso...

So for her birthday I decided to carve her a horse brooch, from a piece of wood from a plum tree in my garden - I think it turned out quite nicely! 

The mane was very fiddly to carve, and the whole brooch took many hours, but it was definitely worth all the effort  - she adores it :-) 

Gradient Yarn

Here are the promised pics of the gradient dyed yarn in my Grandfather's Rose Garden colourway.

The yarn is 10ply Bendigo Woollen Mills "Luxury", machine wash merino.

Gradient yarns are fiddly to dye! I wind off ten 10g mini skeins, tying each in two places, and not cutting the yarn - so when the finished yarn is wound into a ball it will be one continuous thread which changes colour slowly as you knit or crochet.

I'm very particular about the colours - I set up 10 dye cups on my bench and get the colours just right on paper, then after the yarns are dyed I sometimes overdye one or two mini-skiens to get the graduation just right.

Gradient yarn like this would be beautiful used in a shawl or wrap, a cowl, a beanie, or in my personal favourite a baby vest or dress which is knitted in one piece - like the ever popular Milo.

I'll tell you a secret - I'm actually working on a couple of knitting patterns to suit gradient yarns like these :-)

Fox!

I can't help myself - I know in Australia foxes are a big problem for our native animals and farmers, but there's just something so, I don't know, whimsical about foxes - their sweeping tails, their quirky faces, their bright eyes, their vibrant characters...

So I couldn't help it, I just had to design a chirpy fox stencil!

I have been thinking lately, there are so many nice sewing patterns for girls, and so few appealing patterns for boys... I found this a great pattern on Etsy that was just screaming out for a stencil on the front, and so the two ideas merged...

 This little jacket is still unfinished - awaiting buttons, sewing the teal sleeve edging, and a good ironing!

I have created this top for a trade with a friend on Ravelry, but while I was at it I printed a few more so I can  keep sewing fox tops, maybe even a couple for the AppleSpice shop grand opening!