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!!

Spin, Spin, Spin

I'm always spinning... spinning makes me happy! Here are a few yarns I finished in the past few weeks:

Silk (mulberry/bombyx), in blood red tones - laceweight, 3-ply, 320 yards:

Fun spectrum rainbow colors, superwash merino - n-ply, sportweight, 100 yards:

Multicolor mix, Fruit Salad - 2-ply worsted weight, 220 yards:

Submerge (Southern Cross Fibre Club), shetland sock yarn - 3-ply sockweight, 315 yards:

There's more silk on my wheel right now - spinning silk is like spinning liquid metal. I love it!

Tour de Fleece Roundup

Here's my haul for the Tour. I had lofty plans that were totally derailed by my unexpected love affair with the charkha. :) Still, I did spin quite a bit of yarn, and I'm in love with all of it.

Left to right:

Enchanted Knoll Farm "Pass The Pie, Please" - 6 oz, chain-ply, 310 yards worsted weight
Enchanted Knoll Farm "Treasure Chest" - 4 oz, 2-ply, 220 yards, worsted weight
Southern Cross Fibre "Deep Thoughts" and "Irises" combo, 8 oz, 2-ply, worsted weight
Cotton - 2.5 oz, 2-ply, 800 yards, 10/2 cotton weight (laceweight)
Southern Cross Fibre "Rocky Coast" - 3.9 oz, 2-ply, 150 yards, worsted weight
Hello Yarn "Red Velvet" - 4 oz, chain-ply, 390 yards, sockweight
Hello Yarn "Throwing Stones" on bobbin - 4 oz, yardage unknown


Total: 2370+ yards, 2 pounds.

Tour de Fleece 2012

Here we go again - the spinning world gears up to ride along with the cyclists as they push themselves to the limit in the Tour de France. The Tour de FLEECE (Ravelry link) lasts for the same duration as the cycling race - Saturday June 30th through Sunday July 22nd. We spinners challenge ourselves, and race against no one but the calendar and our creativity. We make outrageous plans and try to complete as much as we can before the clock runs out.

My plans are skewed a bit this year by the fact that the Tour coincides with two weaving workshops - Rep Weave this weekend and a Saori workshop next weekend. Still, I'll have mornings and evenings free (and the weekdays in between) and I plan to make the most of them.

I have a big pile of fiber that I'm spinning on commission, and that will continue (I do my commission spinning in the mornings). I'll show you that giant pile of yarns soon, when it's finished. That doesn't count (in my mind, which is the only place that matters) toward my TdF spinning.

Here's the fiber I plan to spin up during the Tour. I dug deep into the Southern Cross Fibre, Hello Yarn, and Enchanted Knoll Farm bins - the teams I'm spinning for this year. I belong to all three clubs, and have squirreled away their fiber lovingly for years. I pulled out some golden oldies - well-marinated and loved colourways whose time has come to shine.

Southern Cross Fibre “Equinox”, australian merino, Club, October 2009

Southern Cross Fibre “Funhouse”, falkland, Club, December 2009

Southern Cross Fibre COMBO:
“Irises”, shetland, Club, June 2009
“Deep Thought”, oatmeal bfl, Club, November 2009

HelloYarn “Patchwork”, merino, Club, August 2009

HelloYarn “Red Velvet”, shetland, Club, March 2008

HelloYarn COMBO:
 “Throwing Stones”, rambouillet, update fibre, August 2010
“Pallid”, rambouillet, Club, November 2009

Enchanted Knoll Farm “Treasure Chest”, Hooves Batt Club September 2008

Enchanted Knoll Farm “Harvest”, Hooves Batt Club October 2008

Enchanted Knoll Farm “Pass The Pie”, Hooves Batt Club November 2009

 

 

Look for some of the resulting SCF and HY skeins to show up in my Etsy shop in August. Not sure of the yarn construction plans of these, though I know the Enchanted Knoll batts will all become sock yarn for me (which I'll then madly knit into socks during the Ravellenics following the TdF.) Wish me luck!

Beach!

I am not a beach girl myself, being extremely pale and susceptible to lobster-like sunburns, no matter the SPF. But I love to look at beach pictures. Here is a link to Flickr's search and a lovely collection of beach scenes. (I didn't want to swipe someone else's picture and violate their copyright!)

Thinking about upcoming summer, and fun beach opportunities (for others... PALE, remember?) I pulled this lovely handdyed fiber from my stash:

It's domestic wool, from Spunky Eclectic Club July 2010 in her "Retreat" colorway. It spun so nicely and turned out nice and soft. I chain-plied it so it would become a self-striping sock yarn:

 I see the water, sand, rocks...

...everything but the sunburn. Aaaahhhh. :)