You spin me right 'round baby!

This winter a dear internet friend of mine convinced me that my life wouldn't be complete until I lent how to spin my own wool for my knitting projects. She had started the year before and I had been drooling over her spinning and dyed roving. Being one that loves to be able to do things from scratch and seeing it as a way to save money in the long run (gorgeous yarn can get expensive!)

I arranged with a lady from church to show me the basics (she has been spinning pretty much as long as I have been alive!) and she got me going with a spindle but I wasn't feeling the joy it just wasn't fast enough. So I hit up ebay and found myself a second hand Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel circa 1975. I started playing with it and as I couldn't wait til my next lesson I started watching Utube videos showing me how to work my new baby. By the time I had my next lesson I had filled two bobbins. Gail was impressed and after showing me how to ply declared she didn't really need to show me any more, I had it down and just needed to practice.

That was back in May and I'm pretty proud of the way I have come in my 2.5 months of spinning.

This was my first bobbin

My first plyed yarn. It was spun from roving that I dyed myself in an old crock pot.

Trying my hand at dyeing and spinning raw fleece. I love the candy stripe affect of this yarn!

My second attempt spinning my own handdyed roving. I think plyed it with a grey merino fleece that I washed and carded.


This yarn is from a sheep called Joe. He is a Finn x Corri x EL x BL and is a twin! His wool is lovely and such a pleasure to spin. I have knitted this lot up but you'll have to wait til my next post to see what I turned it into!

I'm excited as my uncle who is a sheep farmer has promised me a whole fleece when they shear in September. I think that will keep me busy for a long, long time!

Rainbow Longies

I made these for the girls back in May but thought they were way too cute not to share! Same but different rainbow longies (or knitted baby pants for those of you not into Modern Cloth Nappy lingo). I dyed the wool myself and was very happy with the way the girly rainbow colourway turned out.

Lillian has pink cuffs and Charlotte purple.

If only they would stay on a blanket like that now! They are both on the move, crawling everywhere and pulling themselves up on things. Where did my little babies go?!

Getting there...slowly

We have own the house a little over two weeks now and are yet to set a date to actually move in! I am hoping this coming weekend but Jared thinks it may be longer. The twins birthday is in two weeks (8th August) and I can just tell that that will be the date we end up moving! Things are coming along but slowly. Jared is spending every waking moment he isn't at work at the house working, working, working!

The kids rooms are pretty much finished now, yay! I'm still waiting on the wall decal for the girls room but we will wait for the cots to go in before we put it up anyway. Jared is starting on painting our room tonight.

The bathroom has the wall tiles up and they will be grouted tomorrow night, then it's on to painting and putting in the vanity. The toilet has been tiled and painted and is ready to go back in.

I'll have to get a few more progress photos but it is looking so much better all ready! I'm so proud of my husband, he is working so hard to make us a beautiful home.

Our new home - a renovators delight (or nightmare!)

I always knew the first year of the twins life would be super busy but I think we added to it ten fold when we decided to look for and buy our first home while juggling two infants and a toddler. To make things even more full on we found one with heaps of work that needs to be done and have decided to tackle it ourselves. Yes we are crazy!

So we saw the house back in Feb and after a bit of drama the contracts were finally signed in March. Settlement was meant to be in June but then got pushed back to July. We got the keys 10 days ago and I have barely seen my husband since. There is so much work to be done before we can move in with the kids.

There was no main bathroom in the house. The previous owners had started renovating but only got as far as pulling everything out and putting up some dodgy plaster. So new bathroom here we come! We have decided to go with a corner bath with a shower over the top instead of a separate bath and shower box. We thought this would save money (which it has) but it has cost more time and the pipes, tapes and things needed to be moved around. At the moment the bath is in and there are tiles on the floor. Wall tiles will go up tomorrow night and then it will be time to grout. It's getting there...slowly. The en suit needs to be fully renovated as well. It has been guttered but for the moment we are just going to shut the door!


The kid's bedrooms have been painted and are almost ready to go. Ollie will have a room by himself but the girls will still have to share. We may build another room on eventually but we can't even think about that right now!! Ollie's room is a light blue and the girls is extremely light light pink. I have found the most adorable decal for the girls room from Tweet Heart Wall Art on Etsy. I can't wait for it to arrive and put it up. I may try to find a funky car decal for Ollie's room to jazz it up a bit. Our bedroom needs to be painted, it will probably happen later this week.

The lounge at the new house is HUGE! It's probably what sold us on the house. With three children two and under lots of time is spent playing in the lounge where everyone can be seen! There was plaster repair work that needed to be done in there and now it is ready to paint if we can decide on a colour. Since it is a big room we want to go with something bold and fun. Hopefully the perfect colour will hit us in the face soon.

The kitchen features blue cupboards with handles on an angle and peach bench tops. It really is delightful lol We are going to paint the cupboard doors and straighten up the handles and then relaminate the bench tops after all the other rooms are sorted.

So lots of work to keep us VERY busy but it will be so worth it when it is done and we're sitting back realxing with the kiddies.

I have been crafting but VERY slack at blogging about it. I'll work on a few updates although some may just be in picture form!!