Monthly Archives: June 2019

June 28, 2019 · 9:34 pm

Bee motel

It is a sign that fills my heart with dread–that bees are in so much danger. Leaving aside the honey bee for a moment, calls now go out for the creation of habitats for native bees–a real indictment of the devastation of native habitats. This has led to “bee motels” turning up all kinds of places. This one is in the park lands.

This one is near our local community garden.

Honestly, the best things I do for bees are growing without chemicals at home, and guerilla planting native plants. But, I decided I could make a bee motel with things that would otherwise be going to recycling or compost, and why not?

The cans come from the kitchen, thought not very often these days. The bamboo grows in our neighbourhood. I had harvested some for banner poles and the side shoots have gone into the cans as well as the excess length. And I’ve tied them together with pre-loved string that has come from the dye pot and before that–from ripped up and upcycled clothing and manchester. Here’s hoping the bees will like it!

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June 24, 2019 · 8:14 pm

Reverse applique

I have a friend who has made several beautiful reverse applique t shirts with lovely images of plants or insects. Then she made a couple with the Extinction Rebellion logo (a circle representing the earth with an hourglass shape in the centre that symbolises time running out and the urgency of action). I loved them! When she said she would offer it as a crafternoon project I decided to try and give it a go–I guess that was an indication she thought it wasn’t too difficult, where previously I assumed I would not be able to do this.

The hard part for me was getting the image right. In the end, it was cereal box stencil to the rescue.

T shirt from the op shop with a little image on it that I thought could vanish in the process.

I tacked another piece of old t shirt under it and then had a go!

And–result! I made two! And gave them away at a working group meeting to people who will use and appreciate them.

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June 20, 2019 · 10:51 am

Very hungry caterpillar shirt #2

Some time ago I made a Very Hungry Caterpillar shirt, while under the delusion that I am twice my usual size. Or something. Anyway, the fit was appalling, so that even I was not prepared to wear it much. So there came a day when I pulled it apart and cut out a different shirt from the pieces, with a bit of creative piecing together in places. And the shirt was reborn as Lotta Jansdotter’s Esme Shirt.

And the back… and now we wait to see if this one gets more wear!

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June 17, 2019 · 8:06 pm

Pincushion + Cushion

I have tried a few pincushions thinking I’d like to go beyond the commercial ones I own. This one has been so long in the making I’ve lost track of its antecedents on the internets–there is no longer anything like it at sewandso.com.uk. I even completed the embroidery on the top ages ago and apparently squibbed (that is, acted on my cowardice) at the sewing it together stage.

Then my sweetheart requested a very specific cushion and it occurred to me that it was about the size and shape of this rather large pincushion–and so a second item came to be. Two layers of a t shirt that was waiting to become part of a quilt batting. I’m happy that part of the image has lived to see another life!

Small round green cushion with design of a dandelion in black

I’ve also had some fun ripping apart business clothing I will no longer need. It came from the op shop and is a bit far gone to go back there and expect to be sold again. Rather than have it enter waste or rag streams, I’ve converted it to component parts and begun transforming it into bags, beginning with drawstring bags…

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June 15, 2019 · 3:01 pm

Planting the Correas

I have had more success with propagating correas (from cuttings) than previously, and so–the correa alba babies go out into the big wide world.

I have planted them in a spot the council has installed a watering system. The parent plant for all these cuttings almost died in the 47C heat of summer.

Here’s hoping they make it!

Muddy jeans, a bucket with empty pots and tools in it.

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June 10, 2019 · 6:11 pm

Eucalyptus dyed frankensocks

Two balls of yarn wound into cakes in two shades of orange.

Another pair of frankensocks begins! It had been so long since I dyed this yarn that I was looking for undyed yarn and realised I had already dyed it. On the bottom, handspun Southdown. I am pretty happy with this spinning. High twist, true three ply, quite even (well, maybe just for me). On the top, a high twist 100% commercial merino sock yarn bought in a Ravelry destash.

An orange sock in progress on the dashboard of a car, with a road and dry South Australian landscape and blue sky out of focus in the background.

I decided on a long leg and calf shaping for the boot-loving, extensive walking awesome woman for whom these socks are destined. They went with us on a trip to our first same sex wedding, in the north of the state. Oh my, what a dry state we are in. Always, but especially this year, the driest one of the betrothed can remember in her more than fifty years in this place.

Here they are finished, with the difference in colour between the yarns clearly visible. And here are some details…

  • Cuffs
  • Toes
  • Heel reinforcing stitch
  • Calf shaping decreases

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June 6, 2019 · 9:41 am

Guerilla sedge planting

I have been propagating Ngarrindjeri weaving rushes (Cyperus gymnocaulos) from the plantings I made in a local culvert, which are now quite established. Here are little starts I’ve planted in pots.

Sedge starts sprouting in little pots--about 24 pots in a styrofoam box.

I’ve decided in consultation with friends to plant them in Brownhill Creek.

A culvert exit with gabion walls, and a lot of weeds growing in leafy, rocky creek bed.

Where it has been rerouted to suit human infrastructure near us, there is suitably wet ground and it has just been getting weedier and weedier since rerouting.

Weeds growing in a creek bed which runs under a bridge, with gabion walls and concreted sides.

So out I went with a bucket in each hand, and some tools.

Then planted them at the edges.

And in they went–about twenty on this occasion–and then it was all litter picking, all the way home.

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June 3, 2019 · 6:19 pm

Blue slippers

These slippers (Felted clogs by Bev Galeskas, may her memory be a blessing) have been waiting around for quite a while. Composed of handspun dyed in all shade of blue, mostly handspun and indigo dyed but some unnatural blues too… I grafted the top to the sole one day while travelling and found I did not have the required third needle. Out came my chopstick! The plastic-avoiding cutlery pouch my fairy-goddess-son made me comes with chopsticks rather than a knife and fork, with backup knitting needles as a further advantage!

Lots of blue knitting with live stitches on steel circulars and a blunt ended steel chopstick. Three needle bind off in progress.

Here they are prior to felting with my size 10 feet for comparison.

Very large knit slippers prior to felting, with much smaller shoes beside them.

And here they are after felting and prior to delivery to friends who run a permaculture farm where slippers I’ve knit are apparently in constant use!

Blue felted slippers on a wooden plank background.

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