A little bit of carding goes a long way

 I have started my next spinning project. I will be blending wool and alpaca to eventually knit up Birkin by Caitlin   Hunter. If you are interested to see more about my carding and spinning process you can see all about it on my podcast Bishopstone yarns on you tube.

Blending in progress on my drum carder. I have put this bat through the carder about three times. It is slow going but still a lot faster than using my hand carders.

Lunch with a view

I went out for a family lunch to celebrate one of my sons birthday. We had a lovely meal and the weather was just perfect, The view from this cafe  has  amazing views over Hobart, so we were happy that it was a sunny day so we had a perfect view. 

The cafe is on the site of the Mount Nelson Signal Station. The cafe itself is in the original head signalman's house which was built in 1897. The signal station was built in 1811 and was the first signal station built in Tasmania. Flags were used to send signals down the river to Port Arthur, a convict goal, and also to Hobart town. In 1831 a three armed semaphore replaced the use of flags, this system was capable of sending 666 different signal codes. Then in 1838 this was replaced by a 24 metre high six armed semaphore that could send over 900 000 separate signals. 

The signal station also has a memorial to Truganini, this is a memorial dedicated to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people and their descendants. 

Bishopstone Yarns episode 14

 Bishopstone yarns podcast episode 14 is now up on youtube. This episode is a sit and spin chat where I talk about my next spinning and knitting venture.

I want to spin up and then knit the Birkin by Caitlin Hunter. I just have to decide if I will use my morrit fleece or a white fleece as the base for the spinning before I over dye my yarn for the Birkin.  The Morrit fleece refers to a Tasmanian stock line of sheep that were bred on the East coast of Tasmania for their brown fleece. Using a coloured fleece as the base for dyeing will give a richer colour for this project but I am not sure if it will create too dark a colour for the main body of the jumper.

I think I may have to do some experimenting to see how the colours look.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Bishopstone yarns episode. Thankyou for joining me. I would like to thank everyone for joining me on my crafting journey and I always love to hear what everyone else is making. 

Bishopstone yarns episode 13

 The lucky number 13th episode of Bishopstone yarns is now up on you tube.

I have been having so much fun sharing my crafting with you all. I hope you like this episode where I talk about my finished Ancient Gemstones shawl and my Ranunculus sweater. 

I also head down the rabbit hole of cross stitch. This is a craft that I started when I was about 17 and did some Danish designs but have not really done much since then. I had forgotten how much time cross stitch takes up, but having said that I am still enjoying revisiting a bit of slow stitching.

 

Bishopstone yarns, episode 12. Sit and spin

Episode 12 of Bishopstone yarns podcast is now up on youtube. This is a sit and spin episode so I hope you enjoy joining me for a little bit of chat while I do some spinning. I hope to create a space for people to sit and enjoy some making time of their own. Let me know what you are are making as I always love to hear what others are making.