I have had a few dye jobs sent my way lately. Dyeing things for other people, especially dyeing expensive baby carriers for other people gives me such an adrenaline rush, after all colour is so difficult to describe, and to photograph, and usually the people that I dye for live a way away, so most communication is by email. Don't get me wrong though, I love it! I love the textiles, the patterns, the textures and most of all the colours. I love the process as well, splashing around with colour is one of my favourite things to do.

Mulberry Leo

This carrier started out as a Natural Leo Storchenweige wrap carrier.

His owner lives in Adelaide but was coming for a family holiday in Canberra, so she brought Leo with her so I could dye it while she was here. And lucky it worked out that way...

The leo was supposed to be a nice purply colour, but not to vivid, so we decided on a colour like dusky violet from Kraftkolour. I ordered the dye, and when the Leo came to Canberra (and it was so great to meet another babywearer that goes on holiday with the car boot half full of carriers!), he went for a swim.


but turned out an icky gun metal grey colour :(


His owner wasn't thrilled with his colour, and neither was I, so back he went into a magenta dyebath, and turned out a much better colour. He is now called Mulberry Leo.


I am not thrilled with Kraftkolour's mix of dusky violet. I think that I will stick to my old reliable dye supplier at dyeman.com, and stick to pure colours and play with mixing them myself.

Scarlet Vicky

Vicky was a yellow Storchenweige wrap that was living in Darwin and wrapping some gorgeous twins, and the twins were born on the same day as my Monkey 4. Vicky is yellow with yellow stripes, and the owner of the wrap really didn't do yellow so well, so she wanted Vicky to go red.

I put her in a strong bath of stock red dye from dyeman.com (see, nice and reliable!),

and she came out looking like Lego brick red, with subtle stripes. Her owner was really happy with her transformation and now calls her Scarlet.

Mulberry Osnaberg

When people see woven wraps, they seem to say "but can't you just make one out of fabric?", but up till now finding a fabric that behaves properly (ie not much horizontal or vertical stretch, but some diagonal stretch) has been a challenge. Recently the good women at TheBabyWearer.com have been going crazy for a fabric called Osnaberg. It is a roughish sort of fabric that is used for quilting and other things, but has the diagonal give that is so comfy when wrapping a baby to an adult.

Being the fabric addict I am, I decided to jump on this bandwagon and see what all the fuss is about. I sourced 3.5 metres at a local fabric store (at four times the price it is retailing in the US, what is with that???), hemmed it, gave it tapers, and gave it a burl.
Pretty comfy for a rucksack back carry tied under the bum, and doable for a reinforced rucksack carry tied at the front in the tails.

I need more practice with gradation dyeing, and wanted to know how the Osnaberg would dye, and had a whole heap of Kraftkolour dusky violet dye to use up, so I did a gradation dye with a blend of dusky violet and red. It turned out pretty nice.




and it kind of matches my bag :)

So many things happening at the moment!

The Love Of My Life has a new job, which is mostly wonderful but partly stressful.

Wonderful because his old job wasn't making him happy, it was making him pretty miserable. His old boss was a stinker who had no idea about managing or keeping staff. Wonderful because now instead of a 90 minute bus ride or 30 minute drive to work each day he now works in our spare room. Wonderful because our house is full of eye candy all day long.

Stressful because his old boss is threatening legal action against us. Stressful because some of his work needs to be done in Sydney and we don't live in Sydney, so he has been away three times in three weeks, once for the whole week. Stressful because I am used to my own space in the house during the day, and I am not in the habit of explaining where I am during the day.

But ultimately wonderful. TLOML is happy, and so we are all happy!



Making making making.

Spinning wool for the local show and to practice dyeing and navajo plying, and hurrying up as best I can with that so that I can get onto the kgs of fibre my sister bought for me when she went to Bendigo Wool Mills. What a fantastic sister :) Here is the fibre I dyed, it is merino roving (or is it sliver, I don't know the diffy), I am spinning it fine to look a bit like watermelon. Watch this space.

Sewing some more slings, for others and for me.

Sewing some clothing for me. I made a skirt, and have the fabric for another skirt, just waiting for me to sew up. I have to get better at altering patterns, then I can make some tops that fit. I want to sew some bags for my friends.

I am also crocheting a little bag for one of my friends. It is so good to sit and hook when Monkey 4 lets me.

I have been married to the Love of My Life for 10 years and three days and we are still madly in lurve. Thanks so much to my sister and her wonderful partner, they looked after Monkeys 1, 2 and 3 while the LOML and I and Monkey 4 went out for a wonderful celebratory dinner.

more details about more stuff going on to follow :)