Catching Up

So where was I? 3 months of silence. I really meant to keep you up to date... Best intentions, best laid plans, etc. Anyway, I've been spinning and knitting and weaving and even crocheting, and I haven't taken the time to tell you about any of it, have I?

So far in 2014 I've spun 7.5 POUNDS of fiber. Seriously. Look - I've been keeping track on Ravelry and also on Flickr. That's a lotta yarn. I've also knit a vest, finished knitting a sweater and started knitting another one, and started weaving some soft cotton napkins, random rainbows like the dishtowels I love to weave. Since the napkins were started this week, you get a picture:

When they're done, I plan to list them in my shop in pairs. I'll let you know when they're ready.

I also have TONS of the aforementioned yarn to photograph and list in the shop. Photograph - ah, there's the rub. My least favorite part - but it has to be done, otherwise you can't see the yummies.

What else? Well, we tripled the size of the vegetable garden this year. Mr. Debbie has gone all out - he put down black garden cloth, planted the veg, and mulched everything. My part was planting the seedlings indoors and nurturing the little guys under lights. We have a lovely crop of lettuce that we've already been harvesting for salads, and I'm hopeful for tomatoes, zucchini, spinach, and beans. We have some other things planted that I'm not so sure about, but only time will tell.

Hmmmm... Oh! I got a breadmaker for my birthday in mid-February, and I have been baking all our bread since then. Mr. Debbie is in heaven - he adores bread, and has declared that my bread is tastier than store-bread even the few times it's lasted long enough to get slightly stale toward the end. The smell of the bread baking is delightful.

And I bought a bicycle to ride back and forth to my Jazzercise classes. It's a 3 mile roundtrip, which is a nice addition to the Jazzercise workout. I worked out a route that only requires crossing 3 busy intersections, all at traffic lights. I haven't ridden a bike in years, I'm having so much fun! And of course I'm wearing a helmet, something we never did as kids.

So much to tell you... I'll try to be good and update more often. Promise!

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.

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!

Tour de Fleece 2013

July is always a blur, spent spinning during every available waking moment. Why? It's the Tour de Fleece,  a fun event that happens every year at the same time as the Tour de France cycling race (22 days). Ravelry hosts the Tour. Spinners challenge themselves personally and on teams, deciding whether they'll try for extreme yardage, extreme fibers, extreme amounts, extreme... well, you get the idea. It's all in fun, and prizes are awarded randomly, so it's not a competition (unless you want it to be).

I usually strive for a high number of skeins finished, and try to spin a variety of fibers from my favorite dyers. This year I started with a bin full of assorted handdyed wool from Southern Cross Fibre, Hello Yarn, Enchanted Knoll Farm, and Spunky Eclectic. The white is cotton.

I had several challenges for myself this year - first year acting as a Moderator in the Tour, attempting to spin as many different skeins as I could in the time I had, spinning skinny cotton on the charkha for a long-term handwoven handspun cotton curtain project, being sidelined by cataract surgery near the end.

But one thing never changes about the Tour for me - it’s FUN! I don’t worry about what others are doing, it’s all about ME ME ME. :) I challenge myself to reach higher and farther, and enjoy every bit.

I finished 12 skeins for the Tour, totaling 39 oz, nearly 2.5 pounds. Here’s their unwashed group yearbook picture.

The center skein is cotton, spun on my charkha: 0.4 oz (11g), 240 yards, 2-ply, 23/2 cotton weight, 9600 ypp (80 wpi).

Total Tour yardage this year: 4,113 yards. Yay!

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!

Spectrum Seedlings

They're sprouting up in the garden, so they must be seedlings, right?

This is a kit from Lunatic Fringe, in their Tubular Spectrum series. It's 10/2 cotton in 20 different shades. I'm weaving a scarf for my dear friend Cass, who loves rainbows. It'll be plainweave/tabby, in a color gamp pattern - the colors will go across the scarf following the spectrum, and as I weave I'll change colors the same way. It will be a very cool scarf, and I can't wait to see the results. I'm winding the warp today.

Extreme Plying

In the Southern Cross Fibre group on Ravelry, we're doing an Extreme Plying SAL (spin-a-long). None of this mundane single or 2-ply or 3-ply or n-ply stuff for us... the more extreme the better. I thought I'd kick things off (and wet my feet) with a 9-ply yarn. Thus far, the highest I've plied is a 4-ply (for Mr. Debbie's sweater yarn).

To this end, I split a braid of SCF Red Rock finn into 9 equal pieces:

 Then I spun each piece onto a separate bobbin:

They're pretty equal - some of the bobbins look like they have more on them, but they don't - they weren't empty before I started spinning. I just spun on top of leftovers.

The plan is to thread each singles through a rigid heddle to keep them equally spread, then guide them onto the wheel as I ply. I have no idea what I'll do with the finished yarn, but I think it will be COOL. :)

3 Miles!

...of handspun, that is. I keep track of the yards I spin - that's plied yards... I can't possibly keep track of the singles yardage before plying, so I just keep track of finished yarn. I use a little widget called Knitmeter - it keeps track of your spinning, crochet, or knitting. You can see it in my sidebar, and get one for yourself if you like. I'm a bit amazed that I've hit 3 miles already in 2013! I think completing Mr. Debbie's sweater yarn helped with that...

Speaking of which, here's the finished 4-ply (4 separate plies, fingering weight) sweater yarn. All polwarth, 4 different colorways from Southern Cross Fibre, spun separately and plied together. It's 1800 yards, more than enough for a sweater and matching socks:

Here's a skein of Hello Yarn, rambouillet in one of her shop colorways, "Throwing Stones". 300 yards of n-ply sportweight:

Some luscious merino/silk, from Enchanted Knoll Farm's Hooves club, December 2012, "Rusty Cock". I'm calling it "Rooster"... 150 yards of n-ply sportweight:

And finally, more silk for weaving scarves. This is 2 ounces of tussah silk, from Enchanted Knoll Farm, in her "Gold Dust Woman" colorway. I spun it into 400 yards of n-ply laceweight:

Handwoven Mermaids

I finished the Mermaid scarves. I am completely in love with weaving handspun silk. It feels great when it comes off the loom, but then, oh my! A hard pressing with an iron gives the silk a fantastic gleam and such a soft feel. These scarves are like butterfly wings.

I'm super-glad I have a whole bin of handdyed silk, because I'm going to spend this year spinning it up into scarf warp. :) For instance, I just finished spinning this skein of 400 yards laceweight silk, handdyed by Southern Cross Fibre:

It'll be the next warp on the Saori loom... but today, I'm finally starting the black rainbow towels!

Silk Warp

I spun this silk yarn earlier in the week, now it's wound into a warp for two silk scarves:

It's mostly blue with some mysterious green here and there. The handdyed silk fiber was called "Mermaid's Tail" and I think it's a great description. I can't wait to see how the variegation will look in the scarves!

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!

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!

More Custom-Handspun

WOW - the rainbow dishtowels are all sold and gone. I was amazed at how quickly they were snapped up. I'll be weaving another set of them (slightly different, of course, but still rainbows) - they were such fun to weave.

Speaking of rainbows - here are a few more. I just finished a big pile of custom-handspun yarn, and I snapped a pic before boxing them up for their trip to Ohio.

 That's nearly 5,000 yards of yarn. I love all the color!

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.

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!

Tour de Fleece progress

So far so good - I've spun 3 braids of fiber, 4 oz each.

I spun up two different Southern Cross Fibre braids (Irises shetland and Deep Thoughts oatmeal BFL) and plied them together. I really like the result. I got 500 yards of sportweight squishy 2-ply yarn.

And I've spun up a braid of Hello Yarn 'Red Velvet' shetland:

I'll chain-ply it tomorrow.

Having great fun spinning away!

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.

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. :)