Thursday, April 16, 2015

Skyline.

 We usually get interesting skies in the evening, but this was early morning. We did get some rain from it.
 One has to be quick as it didn't last long.


 We have been working hard on our kiwifruit crop. The latest thing I have been doing is using a toothbrush and squirty bottle of CP Clean ( an allowable cleanup product usually sprayed on just before picking )  to scrub off small spots of sooty mould or water stain on great big fruit....rather than pick them and drop them too the ground. It is so time consuming but feels better than the waste.
 I will take some before and after photos today to show what it does.
 The last 2 days have been exceptionally cold for this time of the year so I have ended up with almost numb hands after several hours working at this. ( other southern parts of the country have been having early snow ).
 At the weekend my patchwork friend D came for a visit with her husband who thinks this  is the only way to travel. He has owned and worked with bikes all his life. She is very brave in my opinion, but has been doing this most of her married life. ( not for me! )


 Knitting. 
 Lately I have been knitting most evenings.  I can knit and watch TV much easier than I can sew and watch TV. I knitted a small garment in Bamboo ( never used it before ) and did not like the feel of it while knitting or the end result. ( I won't be using it again )
 Much more to my liking was this soft fine warm thread. Zealana AIR , lace weight. it is 40% cashmere wool; 40% brushtail possum fur and 20% mulberry silk.
 I have now finished these wee booties and like them very much. What I wanted to mention about this really was I always knit both together. If it is sleeves or feet or any part or of a garment that needs to be exactly the same as a second part. Apparently not everyone does this???
That way the 2 part always turns out identical. No need to count rows or take notes .
 For a country that still has lots of sheep, Wool is now expensive and quite a lot is imported from Australia. ( most of our woollen mills have closed down ) I am going out of my way to source NZ fibres.
 Some I have found on line will be purchased that way . Really though I still like to see the colour and feel the thread in person.
If any of you have recently used any good fine wool based thread, that you loved working with I would be interested to hear please. 

9 comments:

Jennifer said...

Your yarn looks and sounds luscious! Most woollen mills have closed here too, although we are lucky enough to have one not far away.

Sew Quilt Designs said...

Those sky's look great but boy has it been nippy...you'll need some fingerless mits!
There's a wool made in New Zealand called Outlaw yarn. It's a sport weight. 45% Polwarth, 45% Alpaca and 10% Possum. Lovely and soft.There's a lady in Auckland that sells it from home. knitnstitch.co.nz Hope this helps:)

Thimbleanna said...

Beautiful rainbow photos Ali -- a great catch! Your kiwi cleaning job sounds very tedious and it will be interesting to hear more. I knit twos at the same time too, but like you said, I think we're in the minority. It I don't do them together, they don't seem to match!

Pam said...

I was listening to the radio the other day and an English sheep farmer was saying that it costs him £1 to get each sheep sheared, and he only gets 30 pence for the fleece. I can't quite work out how this makes wool expensive. Someone's making money somewhere!

Bubble said...

Gorgeous pictures Ali. Love that yarn. Lots of love x

Ali Honey said...

Thanks Sew Quilt Designs. I've looked at the Outlaw yarn website. They have some lovely colours and useful info.
I wonder what you knitted with their yarn?

Raewyn said...

I'm with you trying to find NZ yarns for knitting/crocheting with... I don't understand why so much has to be imported! I recently came across the following blog which I enjoy, as she talks about different NZ yarns etc and has links to different suppliers. https://kiwiyarns.wordpress.com/author/kiwiyarns/

Ali Honey said...

Thanks Raewyn, that blog has a wealth of info on it. I am working my way through her side bar looking yp all the links she has.

Sew Quilt Designs said...

Hi again, I'm just knitting some fingerless gloves with the wool. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Love the poppy :)