Scarves for Family in The UK and Jam.

Sue has not been locked away by me honestly, nor has she been hiding.
She has been coping with the loss of her 91 year old mum and caring for our grandsons when they are here.
Much gardening has been done since coming home from Toowoomba.

Sue has also been suffering a lower back and hip problem...........did I mention she broke her wrist back in winter? Six weeks recovery, she had gone out walking Max, tripped and struggled to her feet to make her way home Max in tow. All healed now of course.

Jam's, Jelly and Marmalade's. Photos to come.

Sue was given a bag of Lemons, Oranges and Cumquats, along with picking up some Apples.

She made, a batch of,

Whiskey Marmalade, Orange Marmalade. Cumquat Mamalade.
She spotted a recipe for Lemon and Apple Butter on River Cottage series on TV and gave that a try.......goes great on Crumpets its thick and doesn't melt into them.
 From our own Locquat tree, Locquat., Apple and Ginger Jelly this is almost the appearance of Honey.

Just this week she has made a batch of Strawberry, Apple and Rhubarb jam.



Scarves for my/our UK female family.


 When Ray mentioned that his cousin Keith was coming out here for a holiday it was decided that we could send some gifts back with them but as usually happens, things didn't work out quite as planned. However, the scarves were always going to go overseas one way or another.

It began with a plan to spin up some wool and possibly some alpaca for the warp and then some more wool, silk and alpaca for the weft for use in weaving the scarves. I chose several bundles of wool and some alpaca which I dyed using an old microwave and acid dyes plus a packet of Kool-Aid brought back from the U.S. by a friend.

Since Ray was in contact with Lisa and she has a pair of Huskies, one of the scarves would have dog hair in it. So the spinning began. After producing seven skeins, it was time to start thinking about the weaving set-up.

I had some left over blue alpaca from a vest I made for Ray so that was also included.

Originally I had planned to use one warp and just change the colour and fibre content of the weft but found it would be easier to make individual warps and simple tie on the next weft since I was using a small two shaft table loom to do the weaving.

Below is the basis of each tie up for each scarf.

Below are the scarves after being woven drying in a light breeze.

The photos above left to right are in order to the weaving photos for each scarf below.

 

 The only scarf not shown here is the Red one Aunty Marjorie received which was made some time ago. It also has dog hair blended.

Cousin Lisa and her mum, Aunty Marjorie.

Left Aunty Pauline and right daughter/cousin Helen.





Below Uncle Ossie with his Coolibah clock and Aunt Adrienne with her scarf. 

Left.

My cousin Keith's wife Avis whom we gave her scarf to on our first meal together in Toowoomba.

Awaiting other photos will add them when I get them.

 While we were away in Toowoomba catching up with my cousin Keith and his wife Avis, Sue like normal was busy knitting up two pair of baby socks for Keith and Avis's grand daughter Jamie-Leigh who gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on 13th October.

During a conversation Avis said she had made a multi coloured jacket for the baby so Sue made the socks to match.