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!!

HAT!

The weather has finally cooled here - we dipped into the 60's last night and it feels great! Of course, nowhere near as cool as Montana for our vacation 2 weeks ago, where the temps were in the 30's and 40's. Still, cool weather makes it nicer to knit with wool, and I decided I wanted a new hat. A RED hat. So I dug into my extensive fiber stash and came up with some lovely tonal red targhee wool, dyed by Mountain Colors:

I spun it up into a lovely bouncy 2-ply worsted weight yarn:

And knit myself a hat!

I won't get much use out of it here, alas. But anytime we can get away and go back to the mountains, I'm ready!

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.

Kraken Sweater, Finished!

We traveled to our favorite place on earth this past week. Yes, Montana, land of big sky and mountains. We visited my friend Sandi at the beginning of the week, and she helped me sew the sleeves and neckband onto my sweater, making it complete. Honestly, it was so much easier than I feared. A simple backstitch did the trick. My first handspun handknit sweater is complete! It's warm and fits so nicely - I love it! We took it up to Glacier National Park and showed it some snow at Logan Pass, on the Going To The Sun road.

 

Now I'm eager to start my next sweater spin! 

Kraken...Vest?

The body of the sweater is done! I love it, and it fits nicely. I finished the fronts and connected them with the back via a 3-needle bind-off, and knit and connected the "neck extensions" (really the back of the collar).

Now I need to knit sleeves!

Kraken Sweater - Growing!

The yarn:

And now, big progress:

There is nothing that I don't love about this sweater. The colors are gorgeous, the feel of the polwarth handspun is delicious, the knitting is easy. If I didn't also spin and weave, I'd probably be finished already, but the sweater has had to share time with my other pursuits.

The pattern is the Bailey Cardigan  (Ravelry link) and is very straightforward and easy to understand. It HAS to be - I needed a simple pattern for my first handknit adult sweater! I've knit children's sweaters before, with chunky yarn, but this one has to fit ME, and be useful for daily wear.

Since I'm knitting it in a light fingering-weight polwarth wool yarn, it will be lightweight, yet warm. I can see wearing it in the fierce air-conditioning of our local NOLA restaurants even in summer, and as daily wear in the winter. It will serve as indoor warmth in Montana, as well - and as a layer under a jacket.

I've used a little more than half the yarn spun - I'm thinking I'll need to spin more for the sleeves. I have a few more ounces of the fiber, no problem! Oh, the joy of being able to spin my own yarn - a dream come true!

Here's the post about the beginning of my sweater.

Kraken Sweater - Beginning

After 11 years of dabbling, I'm still a beginner knitter. Oh, I can knit a mean (basic) sock, and I can knit/purl a ribbed scarf with the best of 'em, but to me, advancing past "beginner" will entail knitting real SWEATERS.

Now, I've knit two sweaters, but they were both child-size and the same pattern, in the round with a 3-needle bind-off at the shoulders. No piecing, no seaming. I knit them from Reynold's Lopi, for a charity serving Russian orphans. They were simple, WARM, and bullet-proof.

But an adult sweater has not yet sprung full-born from my needles. I've started one, the Oatmeal Cardigan, in (appropriately) oatmeal bfl, handspun of course, but the staggering neutral yardage bored me to tears, and it languishes in a knitting bag somewhere.

Handspun handpainted - now THAT's the way to go, to keep my interest during both the spinning and the knitting. So I joined the SCF & Friends Sweater SAL/KAL (Rav-link) because I knew the wonderful members of the Southern Cross Fibre forum on Ravelry would encourage me and give the kick in the pants I'll need when the going gets tough.

I chose one of my very favorite Southern Cross Fibre colorways - Kraken - and one of my very favorite fibers - polwarth.

 (picture courtesy of David at SCF)

(Isn't it scrumptious???) I have enough fiber for half the sweater, and David (one of the best dyers on the PLANET) was happy to dye more. It's shipping today (from Australia). I'll wait until I have all the fiber together, so I can split it all up to combine the dyelots, for a nice blend throughout.

Since this is my first real sweater, I knew I'd need a simple pattern - the Bailey Cardigan (Rav) is great for handspun, and has good clean lines. My friend Sandi has already knit it and I was able to see (and feel!) it in person on our last Montana trip. I'll knit mine in fingering weight yarn rather than in DK, because I want it to be lightweight and useful for indoor wear.

And since I want the sweater to be wonderful and perfect, I knew I'd need to sample and swatch. (Yikes.) I did both. I spun samples of 2-ply, 3-ply, and navajo-ply:

(My camera washed out the colors - they're actually rich and vibrant like David's fiber photo above.)

I really like the 3 ply best, but needed to knit a swatch, not only for gauge, but for the look and feel of the fabric. So I knit my first ever swatch:

(top, n-ply; middle, 2-ply; bottom, 3-ply)

I love the look of the n-ply, but for socks, rather than for a sweater. I prefer the heathered transitions of the 2-ply and the 3-ply. In the end, I chose the 3-ply, because its fabric gave me the look and feel I liked best. It's so soft (yet durable) and pliable, and it drapes nicely.

I cannot wait to get started on this project! I'll keep you posted...

Welcome, 2012!

I loved 2011.

It was my first full year of retirement from my fulltime job, where I'd worked for 24 years. My first full year of freedom and rebuilding of my self-esteem and confidence. We paid off our last bit of consumer debt, leaving only our mortgage - oh, what a great feeling of freedom! I learned a lot about me as a person this year, and about myself as a fiber artist.

Spinning: I did a lot of commission spinning this year, and a good deal of spinning for the shop as well. I got much more comfortable with the Hansen miniSpinner as a spinning wheel, not just a plying wheel (though I still spin most of my yarn on my beloved Schacht Matchless.) I spun 32,010 yards of yarn this year (and I only started keeping track in April.) That's 18 MILES of yarn! Much of it was lace and 3-ply sock weight. My wheel has been very busy this year! The widget that keeps track in my sidebar has started over fresh for 2012 - I'm eager to see if I can beat 2011's total. :)

Weaving: I took several local informal workshops this year - learned to work with cottolin, how to weave overshot, and creative design with Saori. I wove a lot of scarves, some dishtowels, and a few table runners. I'm planning a lot more in 2012 - some traditional, some Saori-style. I am blessed with a lovely stable of looms - a Macomber 10H, a Baby Wolf 8H, two Flip RH looms and a Cricket. The plan for 2012 is to keep them all warped and in use.

Knitting: Hmmm. Well, you know I'm not much of a knitter. I like to knit, but I far prefer weaving and spinning. I mostly knit when I'm a car passenger - it keeps my hands busy and passes the time. I usually keep a pair of handspun socks going for that purpose. That's all I knit this year - a few pairs of socks. I just finished spinning samples for my first real handpainted handspun sweater - I'll show you that later. I'm planning to knit several of those this year, as well as a few pairs of socks for my husband, who's finally agreed to wear them. :)

This will be a year of transition for us. My younger daughter is moving out on her own next month (after being back home with us for 6 years post-Katrina). My husband's company is being bought by a larger one, that will likely allow him to work from home. And this is the year we plan to realize our dream to sell the house and move to Montana.

Lots of changes ahead, all of them good. 2012, I'm happy you're here.

Hello!

Here I am! Thanks to the dear friends who have emailed and asked for an update. Time passes much too quickly!
The summer is 2/3 gone, and that's a GOOD thing here in the South. It's too hot and humid to enjoy the outdoors - in fact, we rush from house to car to store to car to house, trying to limit our exposure to the heat index and get back into A/C as soon as possible. My family spends the summer longing for October. :)

Garden: Catastrophic failure. The plants COOKED inside the containers. When we watered (daily) we could feel the water coming out the bottom of the container was HOT, hotter than comfortable bathwater. The heat was built up and concentrated in the containers, and cooked the roots of our poor plants. Everything died without giving us more than a few measly peppers. We are planning a fall garden bed IN THE GROUND so it can maintain a constant dirt temperature. No pictures... too sad. :(

Knitting: I finished the Socktopus socks. They were a fun knit, with the sparkles and softness of the wool.

Spinning: Oh, goodness - I can't show it all to you, we don't have time or bandwidth for that. Since last I posted, I've participated once again in the Tour de Fleece and spun 18 skeins of yarn in 3 weeks, a total of 5100 yards of plied yarn (much of it thin 3-ply yarns) in 21 days. That was a concentrated spinning effort, but I still spin/ply an average of a,000 yards a week. This morning I plied a 730 yard skein of 2-ply laceweight polwarth/bamboo. Monday I navajo/chain plied a 440 yard commissioned skein of sock yarn. Spinning is one of the great joys of my life. :)

Weaving: I've woven several scarves in rayon boucle and tencel (one is in the Etsy shop right now), an Overshot runner, and a set of placemats in twill and huck lace for an exchange with some dear friends in Canada.

Personal: After nearly 8 months of retirement, I still love it. :) Today is my dear husband's birthday - he is the joy of my life and my best friend. And our move to Montana grows ever closer. Life (and God who gives it) = GOOD.

I love October.

October means the sweltering heat of our 5-month summer is behind us. The humidity drops a bit, the high temperatures dip down into the 80's, and we actually get temps in the upper 60's at night. We celebrate by throwing our doors and windows open to air out the house and relish the DRY. :)

I've been on vacation from work this week, recharging my batteries and reorganizing my space. My "studio" (that means my corner of our large living room) had become cluttered and was stifling my creative breath. With things put away and neatly stored, I have room to move and play and dream. :)

Weaving-wise, I've finished (finally!) the Huck Lace dishtowels - I love them, with their earthy organic cotton colors and thirsty texture. Now to hem and wash (finishing is my weakest link).


I've also been weaving some cool cotton openwork scarves on the rigid heddle looms. It's leno with a 'twist' - the entire scarf is twisted while weaving, creating a lovely fishnet effect. I'm working on a variation this weekend that includes bands of plainweave - I'll post pictures of that one when I'm done.


Spin, spin, spin - you know I always have yarn in progress, since my wheel brings me balance and sanity. Its treadles are my footrest in the evening, and the repetitive motion is so very soothing. I've finished lots of yarns, some for the Etsy shop, some for custom spinning requests (yes, I take them - I can spin fiber you've purchased elsewhere... just drop me a line for details) and some for ME.

(as always, click for big)




Oh, and I attended a cotton-spinning workshop with the guild - had fun sharpening my skills on spinning cotton yarn. I chain-plied my samples into one yarn - fun! I'll have to weave a little something with it as a memento.


And knit: I'm knitting along with the Camping Shawl KAL in the Southern Cross Fibre group on Ravelry. I'm using commercial yarn for this one, a lovely heathered brown in Knitpicks Shadow called "Redwood Forest".


My lace skills are beginner, definitely, but I'm excited to be knitting my first circular shawl. It's nice to have knitting in my lap again, now that the weather is cooling - did I mention that???

Love you, October!

...And we're back again...

Dragonfly mind, that's me. Always flitting here and there, forgetting where I set down my coffee cup - and when I last updated my blog. February? Really?

OK, let's just jump in where we are...

I've been knitting, mostly handspun socks. Finished 2 pair in the past month, both from yarn I spun from David's Southern Cross Fibre Club:

The first is BFL in the 'Spring Forward' colourway - I love the subtle shading in this 3-ply yarn. Knit on size 1.5 (2.5mm) needles, using 280 yds of yarn.

Cuff is a mixed rib:

Round 1: (K3, P1), repeat.
Round 2: (K1, P1), repeat.
Repeat 1 and 2.

Used Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretch Bindoff. Love it.

The second pair is falkland wool in the 'Homeward' colourway. I navajo-plied the yarn to preserve the long color bands, because I loved the idea of wide stripes in this lovely colors. This pair was knit with size 1 (2.25mm) needles. The cuff is a simple k2,p2 rib. Used the same Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretch Bindoff. 250 yds gave me shortie cuffs - love 'em.

I love knitting with handspun - the texture and color is incomparable to regular old boring millspun yarn. :)

Of course I've been spinning and spinning and spinning, as usual. I finish on average a skein every 3-4 days. Some of it goes into my own personal knitting/weaving stash, and some goes into the Etsy shop (see sidebar for link). Lately I've been spinning a great fiber base from Enchanted Knoll Farm called "Bliss". It's 65% superwash merino wool 35% silk, and has fabulous drape and shine. Very soft.

This one is navajo-plied to preserve the lovely pastel rainbow progression that Josette dyed into the fiber. 145 yds of 14wpi fingering weight from 2 ounces. The colourway is 'Sunshine' but I've called it "Sidewalk Chalk" because it reminded me of the drawings my girls used to do in the summertime:


I finished this one last night - it's "Queen Mermaid" and has the lovely blues and greens of the ocean depths. 395 yds of 2-ply 24wpi laceweight from 2 ounces.





I've been spinning far more than weaving lately. I still have the huck lace dishtowels on the big loom - I want to get back to them this week! On the Rigid Heddle I completed a handspun handwoven scarf, but it's not fringed or wet-finished, so pictures will have to wait.

All for now...

If I wait for pictures, I'll wait forever.

My daughter frequently nags me about feeding the blog, and I say, "OK - but I need to take some pictures first." The problem is that I don't LIKE to take pictures. I do it out of necessity - someone really wants to see a specific item, or I have a yarn ready to put in the Etsy shop - but I don't enjoy the role of shutterbug.

Lest May get away from me without a post (as April nearly did), I thought I'd just type and see what happens.

My weekends have been full lately with required re-certification workshops for the daycare (where I am head of the infant department - 8 sweet little newborns!) but I did manage to squeeze in a wonderful spinning/weaving retreat in Lake Charles, Louisiana last weekend. It was sponsored by the Spinning/Weaving Guild of Imperial Calcasieu (parish) and was held at the St. Charles Retreat Center in Moss Bluff, about 3.5 hours away from me. I went with Cheryl (my weaving mentor) and 6 other fellow guildmembers. We spent 4 days relaxing, spinning, weaving, laughing, and learning. The retreat center had a conference room for us to use 24 hours a day - we made "nests" with our wheels and spindles and RH looms and fiber piles, then played whenever we wanted and rested back in our rooms when we were tired. You could go spin at 3am if you were so inclined. Heaven!

I finished Jessica's Opal Magic socks, and started 3 more pair with handspun - all Spunky Eclectic. Two are Club (Soul Windows and New Day) and one is Panda Emerald Isle. I firmly resolve to take and post pictures for you when they're finished. :)

I've been spinning and knitting this past month, with no attention spared for the loom. Ezara has inspired me, though, with her descriptions of warping her Baby Wolf. I have sleyed the reed for the Monk's Belt towels on the Macomber - but they need threading, and that's what I plan to do today. There, I typed it, so now it will come true!

March-ing Along

The Opal socks are march-ing along, albeit slowly. I am not a fast knitter, and I would much rather spin than knit, if truth be told. Still, I have made progress in a few minutes here and there. The gusset is almost finished, and soon I'll start decreasing the heel.


I finished some handspun this week - two batches of Spunky Eclectic Club corriedale fiber 'New Day'. I received the lighter one as my Club shipment, and I traded with a friend to get the darker one, too. The lighter version is a 2-ply sportweight, the darker is a 3-ply fingering weight. I just loved spinning this, and it reminded me how much I love a 3-ply - I really enjoy seeing the colors meld.



Also got a new spindle (I know, I know!) from Amy - this one is a Greensleeves Lady Barbara, 28g of delight.

I need more hours in the day!!!
(Not less, thankyouverymuchDaylightSavingTime.)

Her Feet Are Cold - Sock Emergency

My daughter came in Monday night, sat down, and gave me the pouty face. Complete with pouty lip. She has only 2 pair of handknit socks to wear - neither pair was clean. And her feet were cold. What's a mother to do? (Never mind that said daughter is 29 years old, and should have learned by now to knit her own socks...)


Opal Magic, in shades of blue and white. Toe-up, magic loop, 2.75mm needles, on 72 stitches. I'll throw in a 3/1 rib, nothing fancy. Second sock knitted first, to avoid SSS. ;-)

Must knit quickly! After all, it'll be in the upper 70's later in the week, and her feet won't need them. Until the weather changes again, probably next week, and it's freezing once more. Silly weather.

Each One Teach One

I got 24 spindles in the mail today. ^_^

Now, before you think I've gone completely over the edge, they're not for me. Let me 'splain.

On Monday afternoon, a guild-friend called me with an urgent spinner-emergency. Her 20-something granddaughter had come to visit for the week, and was scheduled to return to her Oregon home the next morning. She suddenly had the urge to learn to spindle-spin, and my guild-friend only wheel-spins. So I dashed over to her house with the only simple (read: inexpensive) spindle I own, and "asspinerated" the granddaughter. (She was a natural, and got the hang of it quickly.) I was glad to be able to give her the spindle to take back home with her. After all, we know that practice makes muscle memory.

That left me with no inexpensive "give-away" spindles, but an idea. I found an Etsy dealer who makes simple low-priced spindles, and ordered a boxful. They came in today. I'm going to put each one in a ziploc bag with a poof of fiber, and carry one in my purse at all times. Often, when I'm at a guild meeting or a workshop, someone will come up to me and say, "Debbie likes to spindle-spin - she can show you how!" And I could, and I did, but I could only demonstrate on my Bosworth or Golding or whatever other precious spindle that I had in my purse that day... until now I didn't have anything to give them to take home.

Back to knitting frantically on a pair of handspun mittens for a coworker whose birthday is tomorrow, as is mine. ;-)

Hummingbird Focus

Sometimes I feel like my mind is a hummingbird, flitting its attention from blossom to blossom. It makes following a project from beginning to completion a little difficult... but it does combat boredom! Also, I have had the Flu this week, and have concentrated on healing and comfort. Here is a recap of textile pursuits since last I posted:

Weaving... I warped, wove, and completed another project in January. This one reminds me of fall gourds, with oranges and greens. I used Moda Dea 'Cache' novelty yarn as the weft, and Knitpicks 'Palette' wool as the warp. It feels a bit rough, like upholstery, not soft as I would like for a scarf to be. 54" long, 8" wide. There was virtually no draw-in this time, and the selvedges were much more even. I enjoyed the color changes in the weft yarn as I wove it. I switched to a new 10" cherry shuttle I bought at Roc Day - the shorter shuttle makes a big difference in shot return time. This will become a fall table runner.



Next up: a cotton warp, intended to be my first dishtowel attempt.

Spinning... Cheryl from Guild gave me some samples of Finn from her friend in Pennsylvania, a little more than .5 oz each of undyed and dyed. I spun it up woolen, with no real plan but to sample it, and plied it together as it came. It's quite soft, and I hope to get some more when the shearing is done in the spring.

Also I spun 4 oz of merino from Abbysyarns in 'Bluebell' - very soft 2-ply, ready for socks.


And a double-subscription batch (8 oz) of icelandic wool from Spunky Eclectic's fiber club in 'Snow Squall' - scratchy but warm, it will become stripes in outerwear of some sort, perhaps a vest.
Finally, on the wheel now, 4 oz. of a merino/bamboo blend from Spunky Eclectic in 'Walking on the Sun' - half done.
Knitting... I completed a scarf in January, knitted from handspun wool, using Jackie E-S' pattern 'Morning Surf'. I liked this pattern very much, and will use it again. The scarf is 60"x6". I like the color changes, and the windowpane effect.
In progress: a Forest Canopy shawl, knit using my first handspun from the Schacht wheel, spun back in May 2007. Yay for using up stash! This is spun from Crown Mountain Farms corriedale pencil roving, 2-ply, 12 wpi. It will be soft and warm. And bright!