Socks and Singles

I've been delayed by a cursed internet outage, but I still have time to squeak in a post. I've finished some socks! Well, they still need washing, but I don't want to wait to show them off.


Pattern: Rosebud Socks from 'Toe-up Socks for Everybody' by Wendy Johnson.
Yarn: Pagewood Farm Yukon in Plum. Superwash Merino, Bamboo, Nylon (70,20,10)
For: Mom.

These were my in the pit knitting for The King and I. Only after getting invested in them did I realize that dark purple was not the easiest color to see in a dark pit. They were knit mostly before we started and at intermission, though I was able to sneak in two rounds during the death scene at the end. (All I can say is "Die already!").

I love how intricate they look! They really weren't hard, though, just some yarn overs, decreases and twisted stitches. But all together, the look is super sleek and fancy. Love love love!

Tiptoeing through the lavender:

Even though Mom loves purple, she's requested different colors for future socks. When quizzed, she wants "gray, navy blue and black. Oh and maybe some dark green." Bah Humbug! Those are about the only colors that James will wear! *Sigh* No bright cheerful socks for me for awhile.

I did manage to stick to my guns and spin yesterday. I started with the fiber least interesting to me. I also decided to speed it up by trying to spin thicker. I managed it, but it's not super even. Hopefully plying it will help smooth out the inconsistencies.


At the moment I'm trying to get in some much needed yard work. I need to get back to it quick or I might lose what little motivation I have. I'll tell you how I'm bribing myself some other time ;).

Lots of Fibery Goodness

It's all about the spinning today. I promise it won't always be that way, but there's a lot to catch up with on the fiber front. Besides, I'm hoping all the yummy fiber will perhaps entice Beth to try spinning... ;).

First, the finished fiber, now yarn. Here's a better picture of the BFL I washed up yesterday.


Next up is some yarn that's been spun for awhile, but I couldn't remember if I'd washed it or not. So, into the bath it went. It was merino wool in the "Under the Sea" colorway from FiberFancy on etsy. There was a lot of white and not a whole lot of color. To maximize the spread of color, I split it into lots of thin strips to try and keep the white sections as short as possible. Plying it really spread out the color, giving a nice overall pastel look rather than clumps of color between long stretches of white. I'm very happy my plan worked!


This is a tiny sample of wonderfully soft merino wool that I'm planning on spinning for my friend Ginger. She expressed interest in jewel tones, but browsing etsy they were few and far between. I stumbled upon this lovely batch of fibers and it had to come all the way from Australia. It goes into a gorgeous deep blue, emerald green and royal purple. I'll be chain plying it to keep the slow color transitions in the final yarn.


James signed me up for the lovely Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club as a xmas present. This is four ounces of Norwegian wool in "Kentucky Derby" from the March club shipment. I was skeptical when looking at the roving, but it spun up into some lovely colors.


Whew, that's a lot of yarn to take in all at once. Lunch Break!
Om nom! I must be feeling better if greasy pizza sounds good.


Last night was our last rehearsal before we head to the theater for the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society's summer shows. This year we're playing Cox and Box and HMS Pinafore. The show should be great and the sets are always marvelous! I'm kinda bummed that I have to miss the whole first weekend, but I'll be off having my own fibery fun.

Enough of a break, back to spinning! This time it's fiber as a blank canvas.

It's become a bit of a tradition for spinners to set themselves a challenge during the Tour de France cycling race. I'm of a mind to set myself a nice hefty one. See, I have all this lovely fiber coming in, but I've been a bit of a slacker when it comes to actually spinning it. I pet it and coo over it, but then it gets tucked away and forgotten until I feel a stab of guilt when the next shipment comes. Time to remedy this situation!


*Gulp* ... that's a lot of fiber. Almost 3.5 pounds in fact. (James signed me up for double portions-- each club shipment is 8 oz.). Perhaps I should work on spinning some bulky yarn so that it goes quicker.

Alright, let's break it down. Oldest first. This is from all the way back in *cringe* January. Shetland wool in the "Pomegranate" colorway. I've got roughly 2 oz. on a spindle somewhere that I'm not counting towards the challenge. Not sure exactly what I want to do with this.


February! Superwash Blue-Faced Leicester (BFL) wool in "Ooh-La-La-Tropi-Cal". I had figured I'd spin this as a single but I forgot that it was superwash. Now I'm not sure, though I'll probably stick to my original plan.


March: "Kentucky Derby" in Norwegian wool. I've already spun half of this (yarn is near the beginning of the post). I'll likely spin it into a similar two ply. I might experiment and try to make it a little thicker to try out a fun project using both.


April's "Storms of Jupiter" in organic merino combed top. I'm tempted to use this to work on my worsted spinning though that will likely slow me down.


May brought "Field of Screams" in Falkland wool. No ideas for this yet.


June's "Rubber Grapes" of a few days ago really pushed me to get working. It's 80% Corriedale wool and 20% Alpaca. So incredibly soft! I want to spin this backwards to all my other yarn (S-spin singles and ply Z-spin) so that I can try twined knitting with it. It should make great mittens or a hat.


Extra credit challenge: Successfully spin some more exotic fibers, specifically flax, alpaca and silk. With so much to do and plenty of things to get in my way (shows and a retreat), I'm going to fudge my start date a little and start today.

The house is presentable enough for quartet rehearsal tonight, so I'm going to pop in some Psych and get cranking!

Taking the Plunge

I've decided to dive back into blogging. We'll see how it goes. The idea started while spending time with my friend Beth (*wave*) this past weekend. She had mentioned that afternoons were long and dull at work and she struggled to find ways to keep herself occupied. Maybe a little blog reading will help? So, here's to you Beth!

Lunch of Champions (or at least lunch of this recovering sickie).


The muffins really hit the spot. It reminds me of making simple dinners for myself at my old apartment. Oh, and Ellensburg! I think that's the first time I realized the Jiffy doesn't just make cornbread mix but muffins too. I don't eat this much anymore because James doesn't eat scrambled eggs and especially not cheese.

Kitchen Horrors!


It isn't nearly as bad as it looks. You have to really worry about dishes stacked neatly taking up this amount of room! I have to say, though, that admitting to such a messy kitchen helped provide motivation to finally deal with it.

Voilà!


And since no one wants to only read about dirty dishes, here's some yummy handspun. (BFL I think from Enchanted Knoll Farm for the interested).



I spun up the singles for this yarn ages ago, back when I had just learned to spin. I knew I wanted to chain-ply it to preserve the long color changes. Then, after spinning some Grape Ape yarn for my mom as singles, I wondered if I should just use it as-is (mostly likely to weave with). I really think this was just a delaying tactic-- I didn't want to ruin the yarn! All's well that ends well. I managed plying with no incidents and now I have a lovely yarn to show for it. I think I'll weave it into a nice color gradating scarf. Just need to finish Mom's shawl first...