All Wrapped Up

It's getting pretty wintry here in Australia.
I lay in bed last night listening to rain pelting onto the roof.
I think this time of the year is wonderful.
I love it because it's such a blessed relief after the intense heat of summer
...and I love it because it means I get to take out my woollens!
I unpacked my scarves recently,
they're so colourful and soft,
and I've been wearing this wrap, which I rescued from a Salvation Army Opportunity Shop:

It's difficult to see the pattern from the picture,
(black is so hard to photograph)
but it's a bit like this lacy stole
(and I should warn you that,
although this is a link to a free pattern,
it's on the Lion Brand site and you have to be registered with them to see it.)
My wrap cost $4.00 AUD
which thrills the bargain hunter in me
but also makes me a little sad.
It is beautifully knitted and its drape is fabulous ~ I think it's a shame that no~one else seemed to recognise its worth.
But it's definitely loved now ~
I wore it to work three times last week.

I've also been wearing this stole,
bought from the Lesmurdie Arts and Crafts Association a few weeks ago:

Isn't it gorgeous?
... and it's surprisingly warm.
Unfortunately,
I didn't catch the name of the craftswoman who sold it to me but I did speak at some length with her. She told me that she spun the wool out of pre~dyed New Zealand topping before knitting it up.
I love the way she's placed the colours.
It's such a simple yet striking design,
and so inspiring!
I'd love to make something similar.
Luckily, although I'm very rusty, I already know how to spin.
Here's some wool, amongst other fibres, that I spun and dyed years ago:

And,
thanks to my darling cousin
(who's mother, incidentally, made this lovely filet crochet),
I have a spinning wheel:

Hmmm, I think a trip to Bilby Yarns for spinning supplies is in order!

Have a fabulous week everybody.

A Belated Thank You

Many thanks go to indigo blue designs who presented me with this award, a while ago now, for my "enviable crochet skills, lovely photography and enjoyable posts." I'm sorry I've taken so long to acknowledge it here but very flattered to receive it.

I'd like to return the compliment to indigo blue designs and re~award her for excellence. Her embroidery is beautiful (she recently posted pictures of some really pretty appliqued book covers that are for sale in her etsy store), her stories about her little girl are lovely and her industriousness is admirable. I really enjoy reading about her online business ventures.

...and then I'd like to pass the award on to some new blogs, that I don't think I've talked about here before. I'm nominating:

little black knitting crow for her fabulous drawings and prints, and her quirky soft toys. She's a very talented artist and her art blog, which is linked to little black knitting crow, is really worth looking at too;
Cheery Tomato Productions for her quietly beautiful photographs. I love the way she captures the wonder of the world around her;
2paw who writes, charmingly, about her life in Tasmania. Her gentle sense of humour makes me smile. She's a fantastic knitter too;
wooldancer who spins, dyes and sells the most delicious wool;
Greenishlady who creates lyrical, heart~felt, honest and inspiring posts;
and
Franklin at The Panopticon. Franklin is a delight. He writes and draws in a wonderfully whimsical, mischievous way...and his photography is gorgeous.

I hope you enjoy looking through these blogs as much as I do.

I'm going to finish off here with some more photographs of the new, scarlet ivy~geranium that's hanging at my backdoor. I adore its beautiful, bright flowers:




Have a wonderful week, everybody.

And The Winner Of The Give~Away Is...

...balkan style bloggers.
Congratulations! Can you please email your address to me at inkberryblue AT gmail DOT com and I'll start putting together your package of goodies. Thanks to everybody who participated ~ I really enjoyed receiving your feedback.

On the subject of blogging and give~aways, the talented Peta at createcraft is running a competition where she's giving away a knitted scarf (her work is fabulous) and asking readers to post about the inspiration behind their blog's name and then leave a comment on her site.
Here is my story, of sorts...

I don't have any really well defined reasons for calling this blog inkberryblue
but ink berry has nice associations for me.
I've played with the words before ~
I once, unexpectedly, won a copywriting competition with them

in my very first year at Uni,

which was a bright and affirming moment

in a year that was full of self doubt.
I remember that,

as a reward,
my usually grumpy and critical head lecturer

presented me with a beaming smile
and a small tube of bright pink gouache,

that he'd wrapped up with a matching ribbon.
(I treasured the moment.)

And I like to think that inkberryblue has a sort of poetry to it.
I like the cadence of the words
~ the play of berry and blue ~ ink and art and creative juiciness...

So there you have it. If you decide to join in too please tell Peta I sent you!

I hope everyone, who celebrated yesterday, had a happy Mothers' Day. I planned on giving my mother the pouch that I started making for her birthday in (ahem) October, and blogged about here, but the buttons I crocheted looked ridiculously big and I didn't get time to buy anymore.
Here's a detail of the work that's still in progress:

Instead, I gave Mum a little affirmation stone and one of the geraniums that I propagated late last year,
which is much like this one:



She loved it.

Mum, Dad, my youngest sister and I also went out to lunch, and visited the Art Gallery of Western Australia where we saw the Year 12 Perspectives Exhibition, a display of the best work that's been produced by students in their final year of school. It runs every year, I always enjoy the exhibition and this year's works are particularly good. If you're in Perth I think it's well worth a look. Work's very busy right now but, if I get time, I'd like to go back to the exhibition before it closes on May 25th.

I hope you all have a wonderful, juicily creative week.

Ouch!

My computer was hit by a really nasty virus last week which culminated in me having to (nervously) wipe and then reinstall all the software on my computer. Thankfully everything's running smoothly again, I now have a much better security system and I've managed to take a few quick, sun~dappled shots of some of the things I'm working on:

Here's a dishcloth, which has become so enormous I'm going to make it into an eye pillow instead:

my crochet shopping bag:

and a shrug that I'm crocheting because it's going to take me forever to work out how to knit the cavern cardie I've got on the needles and I really want something cosy to wear now that it's Autumn here in The Land Of Oz:

The shrug's called Cotton Candy and the pattern's from the October 2006 issue of Annie's Favorite Crochet. I'm finding it really simple to make and it's going to fit, always a good thing. This is what it should look like at the back when I've finished.

Thanks to all the people who've said nice things in my last post. I really appreciate your feedback, and your sweetness...and to those people who've been visiting for a while but have only just commented ~ it's nice to "meet" you. I've enjoyed discovering your blogs too.