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What comes next?

A few short months ago I was ready to give away all hope and fancies of working for myself. After 4 years of trying to pursue a handmade business I was ready to accept that despite my efforts it just wasn’t happening and so I might as well go back to making just for my family and for gifts.

I’ve started knitting in a pretty big way and have really appreciated knitting every day to make really beautiful clothing for my family. I’ve had the time to sit back and enjoy my crafts and trying new things without the pressure of finishing an order or attempting to make something that would be popular enough to sell.

I’ve also been thinking a lot. About how much I dislike making items that I don’t personally like, but that somebody wants and will pay money for. About how I like to be free to make what I love. And now for the real problem – that I often seem to like things that other people don’t like or aren’t interested in.

All this leads me to ponder on my former philosophy of art and craft – that the two blend together almost seamlessly. But am I wrong? Because lately, I feel a direct leaning towards art as opposed to craft. My business card says “Textile Artist”, but have I ever really taken myself seriously as an artist or am I just “the lady who makes stuff”?

Why am I writing all this? Because I don’t know what to do next. My years as a Mum has seen me gain and study so many artistic and crafty skills that when I actually list these skills it seems amazing even to me. Yet I have no direction. I don’t know what to do next. My approach so far has been to create what I like and hope it would sell. Sometimes it works – usually it doesn’t.

My ultimate dream is to be a self supporting handmade artist. So, what comes next?

By the way, thanks for listening, it helps to share 🙂

Some things are worth the money

by Kelly 1 Comment

I’ve always wanted a real cubby house for the children.

Thanks to Divine Providence we now have this fantastic cubby from Aaron’s Outdoors (I highly recommend them for their customer service and quality of product).

A ladder, a slide and pink gingham curtains, what else could a little girl (or 3) want?

You see they have their priorities in order – tea set at the ready 🙂

Thanks be to God for once again providing for our family in unexpected ways.

And on the craft front, I’m working on this African Red Butterfly by Trish Burr, which is an absolutely gorgeous design. Unfortunately my needle painting technique has not had any use for some time and is not quite up to scratch. Hopefully by the end of the project I will be much improved.

Hand dyed yarn

by Kelly Leave a Comment

My first attempt at hand dyeing yarn went well in some respects and not so well in others.

I used Luxury 8 ply from Bendigo Woollen Mills and Landscape Dyes in fuschia and raspberry.

I skeined the wool and dyed bands of colour, wrapped it up then steamed it. If you’re interested in the process I’m more than happy to share a tute next time I’m dyeing.

I was interested to note how different dyeing wool is to dyeing fabric. The fabric is thirsty for the dye, whereas the wool resists it. Quite different.

Notes for next time:

Water down the dye more, it was too concentrated.

Try soaking the wool in water for longer before dyeing.

Try a longer steaming time – the dye was not exhausted and I had trouble at the wash out stage.

Cover the kitchen counter properly or you will drip dye on it that does not come off!

Tyeing the hank with figure eight ties worked really well, I didn’t get any tangles.

Steamed wool in the kitchen is not an appetising scent and it does tend to fill the house!

I’ve already cast on a cardigan with this yarn and it’s looking great so far. I was concerned the strong colours would be a bit much but it has grown on me.

Little butterflies cardi

by Kelly 4 Comments

Another knit finished and no inclination to slow down 🙂 This beautiful little cardi is Little Butterflies from Tikki (couldn’t you have guessed, I’m a little obsessed with this lady’s patterns!)

This photo has the best colour representation. The yarn is Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8 ply in the colour Aquarium.

She chose rainbow striped buttons and I made her a little brooch to go with it.

It would be amiss of me to not thank my girl for modelling on a day where she has a horrible cold and is feeling rotten, good on you Gem!

And just in case you’re wondering, I do have another cardi cast on already with some yarn I hand dyed (I’ll show you that another day). And yes. It’s another Tikki pattern 🙂

Away and back

by Kelly Leave a Comment

We’ve been away.

I wish we were still there.

Kefir, berry and yoghurt smoothie

by Kelly 1 Comment

My children are addicted to these smoothies and it’s all my fault!

I must admit that I’m delighted they love them so much and it’s a great way to disguise the taste of kefir, which none of them like.

I don’t have an exact recipe, it’s mostly dictated by what I have at the time.

But here is an overview of ingredients for a full batch for 5-6 people:

2 bananas

1/2 cup yoghurt (I usually use my natural homemade but any yoghurt is fine)

As much kefir as I have available, usually 1/2 – 1 cup

1 tablespoon honey

handful of berries or other fruit that I have

Fill up the rest with milk

Process the fruit, honey and yoghurt first. Then tip everything else in and process till smooth.

You can add all sorts of other ingredients. For a breakfast smoothie, add 1 – 2 vita brits. LSA mix. Crushed ice. A little fruit juice. With yoghurt. Without yoghurt. With kefir. Without kefir. Get the picture? So easy and adaptable.

As my children grow older I’m finding it more challenging to satisfy their appetites and smoothies are a great way to either boost a lighter meal or as an inbetween meal snack.

Would you like to know more about milk kefir? Google will give you a lot of results to sift through, but I’m happy to share my knowledge and experience thus far if anyone is interested – just let me know 🙂

Log cabin cot quilt

by Kelly 4 Comments

I can show you this now it has been gifted to my newest nephew whom I had the privilege of meeting today.

I started out using a log cabin pattern from Lincraft, but as I often find it difficult to follow instructions I ended up going my own way, as usual.

Many thanks to Hilary for helping me to pick out a design and colours, and to Robyn for suggesting some applique which really helped to fill in the white space.

He is beautiful! Babies are such a precious blessing, I do so love them 🙂

Wholemeal, rye and linseed bread

by Kelly Leave a Comment

I’m back into baking (at least on the cooler days anyway!) and that means more experiments for me. I still dream of having my own grain mill and grinding my own grain. I’m having another go at a sourdough starter too, hopefully with more success this time around.

Imagine baking with your own sourdough starter + freshly ground flour, now wouldn’t that feel authentic!

So, here is what I came up with yesterday – Wholemeal, rye and linseed loaf.

200g wholemeal flour
100g rye flour (I used organic)
700g good quality unbleached plain flour
1 teaspoon dry yeast
2 tablespoons linseeds (whole)
2.5 tablespoons sunflower oil
2.5 teaspoons salt
around 700 ml warm water – you may need less or more.

Mix flours, seeds and yeast in a mixmaster bowl. Attach dough mixers and arrange bowl ready for the machine to mix it. Start the machine mixing on low. Start to slowly pour in the water, taking several breaks to observe the wetness of the dough. Don’t add in all the water yet. Add the oil, allow to mix in, then add the salt.
* I do the water by feel. What you want with this dough, given that it has rye and wholemeal components which have the potential to be dry, is a nice moist dough. Keep adding the water until you’re happy the dough is moist enough. It should look sticky. I make this dough much wetter than my usual white loaf.
Keep it mixing for about 10 minutes.

Turn out onto an oiled surface and knead the dough – stretching it out and pulling it in. This part is not absolutely necessary but I always do it to get a feel for the dough. It shouldn’t feel too stiff and definitely shouldn’t feel dry. It should be sticky and firm but stretchy to handle.

Place in an oiled bowl and cover with oiled cling wrap. Now, this is important: this dough requires a long rising time as we only used a little yeast. The long rising time also allows the flavours to develop beautifully. I won’t give you a perfect time frame, it depends on the weather, but at least a few hours rising time to double in size.

When doubled in size turn out onto the oiled surface again and press and shape into loaves. You can make just freeform loaves on a tray or place them in loaf tins as I did. Cover with the same oiled wrap and set aside to rise again, until the dough is high in the tin or doubled again on the tray. Lets say about an hour 🙂 While the second rise is happening, preheat the oven to 240 degrees (C).

Slash the loaves with a sharp knife.

Place in the very hot oven for 12 minutes.
After 12 minutes, turn the oven down to 190 deg. (C) and continue to cook for another 20 minutes.

Turn out onto baking racks and cool.

This year….

by Kelly 1 Comment

Image source

This time last year I had stars in my eyes and cotton wool in my head – at least that is how it seems in retrospect.

My resolutions were guided by the ways of the world – what I was going to achieve, what I would do for myself and how I was going to do all this.

Thankfully, during the year God started to tug on my sleeve. He cleared the rubbish away so I could see more clearly. He reminded me, in so many ways, that my life is not actually about me.

I’ve been meditating upon The Wedding at Cana and in particular Mary’s words:

…”His Mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you”

John 2

So this is my focus for the year – to listen carefully and obey.

Wishing you all a very blessed year.

Can I officially call myself a knitter now?

by Kelly 2 Comments

A belated Merry Christmas! With all the festivities I didn’t get a chance to do my usual Christmas post.

I’ve been knitting. A lot. And loving it!

This is my first knitting success story. Most arty/crafty stuff comes pretty naturally to me, but not knitting – I’ve had to really work at it. But finally it’s paying off 🙂

The pattern is “Annie” by Tikki. The yarn is “luxury” in the colour lavender from Bendigo Woollen Mills.

I learned so much knitting this cardigan and the end result far surpasses what I thought I was capable of. Thanks be to God, my help and inspiration!

Isn’t the daisy stitch just beautiful. This is what I love about Tikki patterns – they are quite simple in design but have these little “highlights” to make it special. Most of her patterns are knit on circular needles, which I also love.

This cardi used just over 1x 200g ball of yarn and the buttons were from my stash, which makes the total cost about $15 AUD, what a bargain! OK, lots and lots of hours but so little money.

I’ve already ordered yarn for my next cardigan, this time for my eldest daughter and I must admit I’m feeling quite impatient for it to arrive so I can get started, I’m so loving knitting right now!