Doctor Who!

We're huge Doctor Who fans around here. If you're not familiar with Doctor Who, it's a British science-fiction television program produced by the BBC that celebrated its 50th anniversary of broadcast yesterday, November 23rd, with a blockbuster special that brought back characters and actors from years past, simulcast all over the world. The show depicts the adventures of the Doctor, a Time Lord—a time-traveling humanoid alien. He explores the universe in his TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), a sentient time-travelling space ship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired.

I had some polwarth wool, hand-dyed by Southern Cross Fibre in David's "Deep Blue Sea" semi-solid colorway.

 

 

 I spun it into a 2-ply light fingering yarn, then plied it back on itself into a 2x2 cabled heavy fingering yarn. It's super-squishy and springy. I cast on for a pair of socks to knit while watching the anniversary special yesterday (Tardis blue!!!) but I was so excited and enthralled that I barely knit a stitch. :)

This geeky fangirl had a wonderful time watching the anniversary special, and now I'm SO looking forward to the Christmas special!!

Spectrum Warping

Warp wound on the warping mill:

Sleyed through the reed:

Threading heddles:

Black Rainbow Towel Warp in progress

I'm winding a warp today for a new set of dishtowels, in a "breaks and recesses" pattern (from Strickler). I'm using 10/2 cotton, setting it at 24 ends per inch. Here's my design plan:

And here's the warp in progress on my warping mill:

Fotography Friday

Forgive the spelling - I couldn't resist. :)

I've got such a backlog of weaving and spinning to photograph - I'm trying to play a little catch-up here!

I've got 2 scarves and a table runner to show you - they've all been finished for awhile, but haven't had their beauty shots until now...

Handwoven Purple Illusion - this is a shadow weave scarf, woven with 10/2 in two different shades of purple:

Handwoven Northern Lights Scarf, woven in a faux-faux-ikat style - the warp is "fairy dust" yarn from Enchanted Knoll Farm, with a lovely subtle sparkle, and the weft is tencel:

Handwoven Overshot Runner, in 10/2 cotton and 5/2 cotton:

And for reading this far, your reward is a sneak peak of the warp I'm winding for the NEXT batch of random rainbow towels:

This is 1/5 of the warp - with a 13 yard warp, I can only fit so many threads (110) on the warping mill before it cries "I'm full, I'm full!" So I chain it off, set it aside, and start a new bout. This warp will be 5 chains, since I need 550 threads for these towels.

Rainbow Towels in Progress...

I spent the weekend in the company of wonderful friends, the Weavin' Chicks - learning to weave Advancing Twill. We wove a scarf from bamboo, and learned that "Advancing Twill" means "a zillion picks per repeat"! We managed to get some lovely scarves woven - here's mine, before fringe-twisting and washing (I promise a better picture when it's done):

Happy to be able to report some progress on the Rainbow towel warp. Since I have 12 towels on this warp, I decided to weave 6 pairs of weft colors. The first two towels are PINK:

The second set of two towels is PURPLE:

And the third set is BURGUNDY:

I'll weave more tomorrow - I'm hoping to finish the whole warp tomorrow and Wednesday, so I can bring it to show off at the Saori retreat this weekend. A group of us are meeting at my friend Cheryl's Weavin' Place Saori-Style studio-in-the-woods for a Saori "Kai" ("sharing time") retreat, and as a special treat, my dearest friend Sherie is coming from Amarillo for the weekend! I can't wait to see her again.

I've also made great progress on my husband's sweater yarn - I've got two 4-ounce bobbins spun, and am working on the third (of four). This will be my first 4-ply yarn, and I can't wait to start plying, because the colors are gorgeous (pictures tomorrow, I hope!)

Warped Rainbow

The warp is on the loom, and I love the look of it.

I've started weaving the first towel - pictures tomorrow when I've made some progress.

Never Enough Rainbows!

I enjoyed weaving those rainbow dishtowels a lot! So yesterday I wound another rainbow warp. I'll weave this on my Baby Wolf, in a huck lace, like the last set of towels. Like that last warp, this is a randomized rainbow, designed as I selected threads to wind on the mill. I'm spending today threading the heddles and tying on the warp:

I wound the warp in 5 bouts, because it's a 13 yard warp (for 12 towels) and I couldn't fit more than 110 threads at a time on my warping mill.

Editing to add the draft info: It's from the July/July 2000 issue of Weaver's Craft, #3 - I used the draft from the "Carribean Plaid Huck Towels", but converted it to use 10/2 cotton and a 19.75" weaving width. More details in my Ravelry project page.

It's cool here today - temps in the upper 50's F.  Such a lovely fresh breath of air - it finally feels like Fall!

Handwoven Tencel Twill Scarf

At the end of August, I warped the borrowed Megado loom for some tencel scarves in a fancy twill.

My friend Susan Harvey of "Thrums" shared the draft (which she used for some gorgeous bookmarks) in this blogpost. I really liked the pattern, but discovered that the 153 picks per repeat couldn't be programmed into the mechanical dobby on the loom - it has only 130 dobby bars. Hmmm. So I turned the draft (swapped the treadling with the threading) and tweaked it a bit, and then I only needed 119 bars.

I got it all warped up, and then... I got busy with other things (commission spinning, the rainbow towels, etc.) and the warp languished on the loom.

My friend Jenny (who allowed me to babysit her loom while she was in England for 6 months) has returned home, and would like her loom back, thank you. :) So I got busy weaving, and now the scarves are well in progress. I really like the way they're turning out.

The warp is a variegated tencel in blue/purple/green, and the weft is black. The little yellow flower pin is marking my progress - I measure, then record the progress and move the pin.

The Kitsune/Harvest sweater is progressing nicely as well - I'm halfway through the decrease section of the body:

 Of course, it won't be cold enough to wear it until late November, so I have plenty of time to knit!

Handspun Kitsune/Harvest Sweater in progress

I cast on for my new sweater (Bailey cardigan - Ravelry link) last night. I have a self-imposed deadline for this one - I want to be able to wear it by the time cold weather arrives. Here in the Deep South, that's the end of November. :)

I'm sure it'll be finished before then - this yarn is such a delight to knit. I'm loving the fabric... the silk content added to the polwarth wool gives it a wonderful drape, and a subtle shine.

Rainbow Towels In Progress

I got the Rainbow Towel warp on the loom, and started weaving yesterday. This huck lace pattern is an easy-to-remember repeat (12 picks) and goes quickly. I've done the first with a medium blue weft and the second in burgundy:

Next I think I'll use the silvery-grey color (called 'birch')...

Charkha-spun

I switched gears on my Tour de Fleece bike and decided to spin cotton on the charkha. I've wanted to gain more charkha proficiency, so my friend David (of Southern Cross Fibre) and I challenged ourselves to spin enough cotton 2-ply weft for a set of 4 handwoven napkins. We'll need 650-700 yards of 2-ply yarn, ~4800ypp, and we'll use commercial cottolin (that David has dyed in yummy colors for us) as the warp.

Here's my progress so far - 500 yards of 2-ply:

I love charkha-spinning. I'm going to spin another 200 yards of cotton, and then I'll explore spinning some animal fibers like cashmere and yak, along with some recycled denim fibers. FUN!

Rainbow Towel Warp

I wound a new warp for dishtowels today - I wanted color, color, color! This warp used 11 colors of 10/2 mercerized cotton, wound in color sections with lots of random blending. 532 ends plus 2 floating selvages. I'm using a draft from Weaver's Craft magazine, a huck lace. It'll give a lot of texture to go with the color.  The warp is 8.5 yards long, enough for 9 towels. I wound the warp in two bouts - it wouldn't all fit on my warping mill at the same time.

Tomorrow I'll sley the reed and start threading the heddles. I'm eager to get this warp on the loom!

Saori RED - Workshop Piece

I'm at a Saori workshop, assisting my friend Cheryl, who is a certified Saori instructor. Eight wonderful ladies have driven here from Florida to learn how to weave Saori-style. They are all traditional weavers who are eager to add Saori weaving to their 'toolboxes'.

Here's my warp on the loom:

And the weaving in progress:

I think it's going to be a shawl when it grows up. :)

Handwoven SAORI Meadow Scarf in progress

I had an idea for some cloth rattling around in my brain, and went into the studio with SAORI in mind. I wanted to play with color and texture, freeing myself from rules of "you can't combine this with that!" and "too many colors!"

So I grabbed all the yarns in the 'green' family that I could find, without regard for their weaving/knitting category.

And I wound them on the warping mill. I enjoyed the selection of yarns as much as I used to enjoy playing with crayons and paper as a child. A little here, a little there, a bigger section over here...

SAORI is about self-expression and freedom of choice.  Creating this warp was so much fun!

I sleyed it in the order in which I warped it, but I chose how to place the yarns in the holes and slots. You'll notice I have the reed/heddle (they're combined in a rigid heddle loom like my Schacht Flip) clamped to a table - I find this arrangement, sleying by pulling the threads down through the heddle, easier on my back.

You'll also notice that I've got multiple yarns in holes and slots (in some places, 6 strands in a slot!) and I've skipped a few holes. I did make sure to place all the fuzzy novelty yarns in slots so they'd be in the same shed, reducing any potential sticky weaving issues. Here I've taken it to the loom and am ready to tie on the warp to the front and back rods.

 

And here it is in progress. I chose an olive green to bring all the shades together in harmony. The wild novelty yarns are tamed and calmed by the weft, but still express themselves in texture and thickness.

I'll finish weaving it today, and show you the finished scarf when it's had a bath. I'm so pleased with this project!