Happy Easter

I found this little darling at The Friendship Tree in High St Northcote. That's about life size in the pic. My friend Anna has a real live bunny who looks a lot like this little one--only bigger and less cooperative about having her photo taken:) So this little cutie will have to do as my Easter greeting.

. . . spinning and knitting progress report to come.

Lotus Blossom Marle Yarn

I've been working on the Lotus blossum colour blend. I decided to add a touch of yellow-orange to one of the singles and a touch of green to the other and then ply them together. Here are the tops stipped down and arranged, ready to spin for the first one. The colours for the other one are on the left:

I've nearly finished spinning the second bobbin. I'm hoping to ply it up this morning.

The challenge with combining colours opposite on the colour wheel is that if they blend together too much I end up with a disappointing muddy colour. That's why I decided to separate the yellow and green touches into different singles. I won't really see the effect until I've put them together, so I'm off for another coffee and back to work.

Hot in the Pot

Here's my first dye pot of wool tops inspired by the Harmony Day roses:

I used five different colours of dye, ranging from wild raspberry to wattle. Some I mixed together before adding to the pot and others I added straight in. Of course I tweaked and adjusted the colour as it developed! Then I did another 100 g from the pale dye colour left when this lot had finished--with a bit of added seasoning to spice it up.

Now I have two lovely lots of dyed tops drying on my rack. I decided to wait to post a pic until I do the next stage of preparing them. I'm going to divide the two lots and re-mix them in different proportions. I keep checking to see if they're dry enough to play with yet, but I think I'd better wait until this evening.

Meanwhile I topped up my supply of magenta and pink solid colour tops, so I can get on with the Lotus colour blend as soon as I've tidied up a bit in my work-room. I got home last night and just dropped everything on the table. The wool I need is somewhere there under bags with kid mohair yarn for my next class; scripts from the chemist; extra computer class homework exercises; receipts from the bank and eye drops and flea treatment for my dogs. I'm guessing that my bag of drop spindling is on the same pile. I did manage to put the fruit and bread in the fridge before giving up for the day.

So Glad You Asked!

Where does that colour combination sit on the colour wheel? I'm so glad you asked, because I was asking myself the same question. Since posting Meg's photo, I'd got as far as picking through my boxes of wool tops and pulling out the colours I could find. I don't have quite the right pink-magenta colour, so I'll have to go shopping:), but here's what I've come up with so far--complete with colour wheel for orientation: The pink-green is pretty much a classic complementary colour scheme. What surprised and delighted me was the touch of the unexpected, because the whole colour combination leans towards the yellow side: so the citrus green and apricot are the wow factor. That's one of the things I love about taking my colour shemes from nature rather than from the "book". I wouldn't have done it, and according to the colour wheel it's not balanced, but I love it.

Meg's Lotus Photo

It was great to see my friend Meg for coffee yesterday afternoon. It was also great to see some of the photos she's taken recently. This one of a lotus flower really grabbed me. It grabbed me so much that I asked her if I could use it here: Of course, the form of the flower is beautiful. I love the way she's framed it in the photo. What really caught my eye and left me wanting more,though, is the colour combinations in the flower itself. It's more obvious in this detail :

The strong pink, almost magenta, is the obvious colour, but at the base of the petals it blends to a citrus green. and the inner aspect of the petal on the far right is an apricot colour. That's a combination I didn't expect and I'm planning to play with it some time soon. Meanwhile I have 100g of blue-green multi-marle which I'm half way through plying off and I'm still thinking of the Harmnony day rose petals for another colour blend, though I might try that in the dye pot. That would leave me more time to play with the lotus blossom colours.

Blue-bird of Happiness

It's been a rough week, and I've been struggling to keep up. So, as well as treating myself to a coffee and cake with my friend Meg this afternoon--she's promised me one of her photos to post here--I decided to buy myself this little brooch. I've adopted it as my little blue-bird of happiness--it can brighten up my black winter coat and of course, brighten up my day. The comments about avoiding heat are because it's hand made with some fantastic plastic process.

By the way, I have been spinning too--and Meg's photo is a great colour inspiration for more colour mixing.

Wood Oven Bread

It wasn't textile, but it was most definitely a work of art! I experienced a cherry pastry at the Swiss Crust Wood Fired Bakery, Maple St, Mapleton Queensland last week. Here are some pics:

. . . I just wish I could blog the flavour!