A step forward

The weather is turning warm now, even in our cooler pocket of Australia. The Cherry Plums have finished blooming and the apples and pears are out now. We haven't had to have the fire on for well over a week and I have moved my quilt off the bed.
I will miss the winter and it's cold days, cozy fires and warm woolens. Our garden has come to life and the grass actually needs mowing again and the lilac flowers are starting to open. We had tulips come up this year in the front garden beds. We've been here for two years now and there was no sign of them before. We also had flowers on our mystery fruit tree next to the front door.


(cherry plum blossom)




(mystery fruit tree)


(tulip)



Last weekend was the long weekend in NSW for Labour Day and Hill End Gathering Group ran a market in the Town Hall. It was a pretty good weekend though the weather turned cold. A bit fortuitous for us because we had made a bunch of knitted hats to sell and we sold all of the adult ones on the first day. All but one pair of the fingerless mitts went as well.
It was great to see so many new people and we had a great time talking to them and the regular stall holders too.

I took the spinning wheel and spun yarn for Ruth's cable jumper for most of the two days we were there. It was too dark to do any needle felting or embroidery in there and spinning in public is always an experience.
So many people have never seen someone spinning on a wheel before. We had one bloke in his 80s come up and tell us it was something he'd never seen in person. Kids seem to be fascinated by it. I talked to many wide eyed children and let them feel the raw wool straight from the sheep.
It is a mesmerizing and relaxing process. I find my foot still tapping away to the rhythm long after I've put the wheel away. It pleases me greatly to turn fluff in to string and then watch Ruth make it in to clothing.

As well as the hats and gloves we had knitted toys and I had quite a few hoops of hand embroidery that didn't sell at the market. It's a tricky one. It's not a craft market and a fair few of the stalls are second hand bric-a-brac and a lot of people are only going to spend a few dollars. Hand made stuff just costs a lot more.

Anyway the embroidery is now going up in our Etsy shop. The left over hats will also go up there as soon as we can sort out a way to photograph hats for children and babies without having a model handy.
All embroidery can be found at http://www.etsy.com/shop/wallflowerarts
Here are a couple of examples


Ginger haired boy


Winter Tree


Owl

For now we're trying to get out and get walking again a bit more. Hopefully work up to getting the dogs out for more walks, health permitting of course. It's not really playing along right now.
Here's the Etsy address again http://www.etsy.com/shop/wallflowerarts