So, my life drawing class was cancelled, and I bought a little sketch pad.

I found this apron at The Op Shop, it's for me because I like it, only I think it's so cute I can't bear to use it. Ideas for the cherry tablecloth feature on the next page in the sketch pad. I have forbidden myself from entering any op-shops for at least a month, because it is clear that I have become an Underpants Gnome.

Well, a buying shitloads of stuff at the op shop gnome anyway.

Went to the Op-Shop Looking for Ramekins

Came home with all of this. ( The thongs, pink teddy bear and blocks are just our normal mess.) No ramekins. Actually the ramekins were my excuse to go to the op-shop, but I also had in mind dress-up shoes and some summer clothes for the girl monkeys. Middle Monkey chose those hideous blue and yellow beach shoes for dress-ups. I went with the intention of not buying anymore toys, but failed. Boy monkey requested a t-shirt with a jungle animal picture, and even though he doesn't need clothes he gets all indignant if the girls get something and he doesn't, anyway there were no such t-shirts, so I got him a jungle animal instead. Oops. I also went a bit nuts buying stuff to alter and/or for the fabric, thinking about clothes to make for my "make kids clothes from recycled materials" business idea. Anyway I ended up spending $126.00. I justify this by saying to myself, if I'd gone to K-mart, and only bought the kids clothes it would have cost the same, and anyway I was in a bad mood with Husband because he is going hiking for 10 days in February just after we move house, and he just bought a $600.00 kayak without asking. (made possible by a tax return, nevermind the stuffing spilling forth from our couches, or the new fridge seals we really need.)

Part of my haul was 6 magazines, they were the last thing to be checked out, and I erroneously counted them as five for the checkout chick, trying to be helpful. Another lady came over to re-count them, "There are six magazines here", pursed lips, hoity toity tone. Oh yeah, 'cause I counted them myself to rip them off $1.00. I just relieved them of a garbage bag's worth of stock for Fark's sake. They should have given me a bulk discount.

So here are all the lovely things I got for the business idea:

Some merino,



















Some cotton,


















Some silk,

















and some more cotton.










The thing is, when I surveyed my purchases, I realised they are all perfectly good, gorgeous clothes. A Kookai silk top, a Cue silk/cotton cardi, some other brand merino top and I'm planning to butcher these? Then I started thinking, ebay.

Then I thought, hang on, silk is no good for kids clothes, you can't throw it in the washing machine. Some of the wool might be machine washable. Bugger. Ebay?

And what about that skirt in the last picture, cute huh? Too short for me to wear, but I thought it could be turned into two skirts, or dresses for little people. Is there any legal reason why you can't do this, if you plan to sell it under your own label? I wonder.

What to do, what to do, someone please tell me what to do.

Tickled Pink

Finally my camera has batteries! Does anyone know the difference between a hank and a skein?
Here we have some more hanks from the spinning course, the one on the left is a combination of tussah silk, silk caps, cotton and camel. The brown bit is the camel, camel is very, very soft and lovely to spin. I had such small amounts, I just plied them all together and now I have no idea what to do with it. The one on the right is alpaca plied with merino tops, also a tiny amount.
This is a picture of my home made niddy noddy and lazy Kate. The wool is from a merino cross corriedale, it hasn't been washed in this photo. I have washed it and it comes up a beautiful creamy white, the transformation is amazing and very satisfying.
This is the wool tops I told you I had waiting to be dyed with food colours. The best thing about using food colours is that the monkeys can help. The finished garment is going to be for Middle Monkey, and she had lots of fun pouring the colours on. The tops are non-feltable superfine merino, and I now understand the meaning of 'buttery soft' when describing fibre. As I bought it from a shop that mainly supplies felters, this was a bargain. It is sold as stuffing. I had envisaged a bit more bleeding of the pink and yellow, and was hoping for more of a soft apricotty result. Oh well I thought I'll see how it spins up, and overdye if I don't like it.Here is the spun single:Here it is plied. I call this colourway 'tickled pink', because that's how I feel about it! I just love how it turned out, no overdying necessary. I sat and stared at it for a good 10 minutes. It is incredibly soft.


I have also had some luck at The Op Shop lately. (Any and all charity/secondhand goods shops are The Op Shop to me.) The burgundy jumper is 100% cashmere and brand new with tags (ebay or keep?) The blue jumper is 100% merino and looks new, the orangey red jumper is a bit worn but is also 100% cashmere. What else? Oh yes, four complete sets of knitting needles in different sizes and a bee costume!And here are the finished (almost) overalls.