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!!

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.

EKF Summer of Socks: 1st Up - Socktopus

The Summer of Socks SAL/KAL/CAL (spin/knit/crochet-along) in the Enchanted Knoll Farm Ravelry group has begun! It lasts from June 1 to September 1. I love spinning EKF fiber, and socks are what I'm most successful at knitting (and actually finishing) so this is right up my alley. Either handspun or commercial yarns are fine, and Josette is featuring sock yarns in her Etsy shop all this month, with free shipping.

I cast on my first pair this morning. I've discovered sportweight socks - they knit up quick, on large needles, and give me a satisfying finished pair in a short period of time. This pair is for Jessica - she appreciates my handspun handknit socks, so she's worthy. :) It's from my handspun, an EKF batt in the "Blue Ring Octopus" colorway, 300 yds of 2-ply sportweight. Size 6 needles, 40 stitches, magic loop, David's Toe-Up Sock Cookbook. We'll call it "Socktopus":


My goal is 3 pair - one per month. I have spinning and weaving to do this summer, so I don't want to be overly ambitious.

Also, today is my dear nephew Michael's birthday. He's 19 - how fast time flies!

...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.