......this is one of those bizarrely wonderful old sayings that I like. And quite applicable at present, so read on....
Firstly, I have got myself a JOB. Yes, one of those things that normal people have, where you have to be somewhere else from 8.30 to 5 from Monday to Friday, and in exchange, you get money. A job interferes with my ability to do what I like when I like (and I DO like to do things that way) but needs must etc. I decided that a regular income is needed, so a job it is. I decided this last Sunday (ahem! I know I haven't posted since then), found a couple of suitable jobs online and applied for them on Sunday night. I had a job offer on Monday afternoon. Speedy, even by my standards. I spent most of Friday overlapping the current person to learn what to do, and I start for real tomorrow (Monday). The job involves looking after investment details for clients of a financial planner on complicated software programmes, processing the buying and selling of shares and investments, and anything else related to client portfolios.
Consequently (and secondly), my creative time will become more limited. Of course, I'll still be running my dye business AND my financial services business in my spare time.
Thirdly, I wanted to post photos of the mohair jersey I just knitted, and the 2 others I'm working on but @#$%^!! Picasa ate my photos, so here's some completely irrelevant shots of the black and white quilt I made for Sophie's former boyfriend about 4 years ago.
This is the top, featuring appliqued cows, as he liked cows. Some are running, some standing still and some jumping. I drew all these. The reverse (below) was freehand curves. This was a fully reversible quilt-as-you-go queen sized quilt.
By the end, I was thoroughly sick of black and white and vowed I'd never make a quilt with them again.
than this one. I stitched them differently as well as painting them with different colours. That's dye paint, of course. They will be stretched over canvas for the exhibition.
This is the ORIGINAL Octarine I painted and stitched, but the very heavy stitching made it pucker. I like this one best but can't exhibit it.
and here's the Michael Jackson touch (may he rest in peace) - it's a Machingers glove that I bought from Patsy Thompson and boy, does it make machine quilting easier.
Being out at work all day 
And this is "Out of Africa", made with a mix of South African animal prints given to me by my daughter Sophie after her trip there, and earthy hand dyed fabrics.
The reverses are lovely - "Bizarre Stars" is heavily quilted, except for the stars themselves....
...while"Out of Africa" is quite minimally quilted. This was actually my first attempt at free motion quilting.
Yes indeedy, the Evil Twin has been bending the plastic at Amazon again. Here's the latest crop of books that have arrived.
Ugh, ghastly photo. This is op-shop (=thrift shop) wool, dark blue with a reddish thread in it. It's hard to see the pattern, but it has a slanting cable running up the front. I have to think while I'm knitting this, so it's not getting much attention at present.
I love this purple one (actually it's a cardigan) with the cabled rib, but now I'm working on the sleeves and have to use double-pointed which I hate! They are ok for socks, but I find them so clumsy and awkward on a big garment. Now that I'm having to go into the city to work, I'm tired in the evenings so have been knitting simple scarves that don't require any concentration.
This is the top, featuring appliqued cows, as he liked cows. Some are running, some standing still and some jumping. I drew all these. The reverse (below) was freehand curves. This was a fully reversible quilt-as-you-go queen sized quilt.
By the end, I was thoroughly sick of black and white and vowed I'd never make a quilt with them again.
Where I live, the Nor'wester is a hot, dry wind that sweeps across the flat Canterbury Plains, sometimes for days on end. It comes from the Tasman Sea, dries as it flows over the Southern Alps, then heats up as it descends to the plains. This pinwheel pattern makes me think of wind, and the colours remind me of the Canterbury landscape, so this is what I've called this quilt. The borders are on, but the quilting will have to wait for a while.
I am busy making stuff, but not really enough to post. I'm in the proces of making this....
..or maybe this....as a class sample.
This, on the other hand, is called "Octarine" and is a painted dye piece that I'm stitching and will enter in a local art exhibition next month.
