2020, what a start...

Wow, how is it 2020 already, another year has flown by far too quickly!

This summer has been a hard one around Australia with one of the worst fire seasons on record, my thoughts are with those impacted by the fires, personally I have family that live in Cobargo, one of the towns impacted heavily by the fires, while there have been some possessions lost, they’re safe and able to rebuild. Hopefully this can be the catalyst for a broader community conversation about what needs to be done to mitigate and plan properly for what climate change holds for our futures, one that sadly has broadly politicised so far rather than productive.

Practical things that need to be done now is to donate towards the communities impacted so that they can get through the initial impacts and rebuild for the future. There have been some massive and popular efforts that have been widely publicized but I would like to give a shout out to the local efforts, in particular to the Cobargo Bushfire Relief Centre where they have been raising funds for the local community as well as for the purchasing of hay and stock feed for local farmers. They have the advantage of local knowledge of what they need now and how to distribute it the best. If you can, donations to these organisations are gratefully received.

I’m hoping to get into the workshop again and get more productive as the weather cools down and it’s a bit more hospitable in the shed. Here’s to a better 2020, stay safe.

Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and is looking forward to very happy and prosperous New Year!!!

This year has disappeared so fast but it has been a good year for the workshop, with the Soul Craft Festival and other things, it’s been fantastic meeting so many crafty people and it’s lovely to see the bowls and other bits and pieces I make end up with other makers and crafters.

Recently I put up a couple of videos about the Nøstepinnes, one showing how I make them and another with Jo showing how she uses them to wind balls from a skein of yarn.

With school holidays and a bit of family time coming up, things here will be on a bit of a hiatus until February but I hope you all have a great holiday period and I look forward to hitting the workshop and things in 2019!!

October update

First up I apologise for not getting any updates to the website for a while, no excuses, I just haven’t had a chance to sit down at the computer to get it done.

The Soul Craft festival was really amazing, it was so cool to get to meet so many passionate crafters and get to see their reactions to my work in the flesh, it’s something that you just don’t get to see when you present your wares over the interwebs.

Over the last few months I’ve done a few upgrades in my workshop space to make it more workable, this took a bit more time than I’d hoped but over the past couple of weeks I have been getting back into things like finishing off a few projects around the house and for some of the family

The news for the moment is that I’ve finally turned up some nøstepinnes for the website, these were very popular at the Soul Craft Festival. I was really pleased to see my nostepinnes popping up on instagram afterwards. I have shot a short video on how my lovely better half winds a ball from a skein using a nøstepinne, I’ll get that edited and posted on to the website/YouTube soon.

Some of the feedback that I received from the lovely crafters at Soul Craft was also that they would like to see some smaller sized yarn bowls as well. My main bowls are sized to fit a big Bendigo Wool Mills ball (200g) but I have turned a couple of small bowls previously. As a result I have recently picked up a large piece of American Black Walnut that I am turning a series of smaller 150 mm x 75 mm (6” x 3”) bowls from. These will suit smaller balls like some of the beautiful hand dyed yarns that I saw from the wool producers. I should also be able to make up some matching Walnut nøstepinnes to go with the bowls. I have three bowls nearly done so far and will be beavering away on those over the coming weeks.