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!!

Leaf Peeps!

I finished this fun and happy skein of yarn yesterday - the colorway is called "Leaf Peeps" and it's hand-dyed polwarth wool top from Enchanted Knoll Farm's 'Happy Hooves' club. 250 yards of 2-ply sportweight. It's soft and bouncy and looks like candy!

I also finished hemming the Ocean Towels - They're soft and thirsty and great for not only drying dishes but can be used as placemats or breadcloths. Dimensions are 24" x 16", nice and big. They make great gifts, too.

Both the yarn and the towels are available in my shop, shown in the sidebar.

Retreat Spinning

I was away this weekend at the annual SWIC (Spinners and Weavers of Imperial Calcasieu) Retreat. I love this retreat - we meet for 3 days of spinning and weaving and TALKING and sharing and eating and SHOPPING. It's like a spinner-slumber-party!

I bought some gorgeous red Gulf Coast Native wool from Margrett, and a bunch of stuff from Peggy at Skyloom Weavers: polwarth, panda, natural CVM, shredded blue jeans, and sari silk.

Here's what I spun while I was there:

Pigeonroof Studios, 'Water Lily', chunky thick/thin 2-ply, 120 yards

Pigeonroof Studios, 'Fruit Juice', chunky thick/thin 2-ply, 120 yards

Skyloom Weavers, 'Crayons', worsted wt n-ply, 160 yards

Art at Eagles' Find, 'Forest', worsted wt 2-ply, 190 yards

I also spun 3 full spindles of cotton on the charkha, then plied it into a skein of laceweight (8/2 for the weavers) 2-ply, 300 yards. I'm going to show you that later this weekend - I haven't boiled it yet. It's going in the handspun cotton stash that I'm building up for weaving handspun curtains - a long-term project, but SO satisfying!

Slowly But Surely

The sweater grows:

I've knit 12" of the body so far. The fabric is so light yet warm - my husband has requested a handspun sweater of his own! WOW - he's Mr. Barefeet-And-Shorts-In-The-Wintertime - I'm excited to be able to knit wool for him. His only experience with wool sweaters has been with big bulky uncomfortably HOT sweaters - he was surprised that wool can be made light and airy. I love spinning fingering weight 3-ply, so that's no burden. I'll dig through the extensive stash and see what I can find - his only requirement was "darker tones". Can do!

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.

Next Sweater

I've been spinning some more sweater yarn. Pleased with the success of the Kraken sweater, I chose some coordinating fibers from my stash of Southern Cross Fibre and Hello Yarn clubs, and spun up a 3-ply fingering weight yarn. I've got 1950 yards of soft lovely sweater potential, in a beautiful fall color blend. All the fiber is polwarth/silk - the two outer bobbins are Hello Yarn "Kitsune", and the middle bobbin is Southern Cross Fibre "Harvest":

I can't wait to get this yarn washed and dried so I can cast on!