Winter Wear

Obviously, this is not my usual pastime, but our doggies were cold.

Machine sewing is not my favorite thing to do, but there's just not enough time to sit and relax and stitch something by hand.

So, here are Dobby and Winky in their new winter wear.

Pencil Roving

I've never used pencil roving before. This was actually the first time I'd even seen it. I bought one, four ounce skein of this hand dyed, merino about a year or so ago at a show.The color is Vineyard Blues. It was easy to separate the two "ply". However, the fiber did NOT want to draft, so I spun it as is...

...and got this beautiful yarn. It feels a little dense, but it's Gorgeous! I have no idea what I'm going to do with it now. I guess it'll just be another skein for the "it's all about the journey/process" box.

Moving on

Now that I've finished designing and knitting my son's sweater, I have time to move on. I've finished the napkins I was weaving on Julia. 

I did three different treadlings on them, though it's not immediately obvious. The brighter colors are so striking, that I see color first, then pattern. The 8/2 cotton turned out VERY soft. I just hope it's absorbent enough to be functional.

This bobbin of singles is the entire  1/2 pound (225gr) of fake cashmere I got for $10 from my LYS. The color in the photo is accurate.

And here is the first of two skeins, done with Navajo ply.

 

My 12 year old nephew always wants to try his hand at spinning when he visits. Usually, I just sit him down at my Majacraft Suzie Professional and have him practice treadling as slowly as he can without the wheel stopping or changing direction. This time, I pulled out some wool for him. And I think he's really getting the hang of it!

I'm glad someone got some spinning in. I have been working on this sweater to the exclusion of all else. And it's DONE!!! But it's a shame I didn't make enough notes to have a pattern for it. By the way, the yarn is from the Imperial Yarn Company. It's so soft and squishy! And you can see how clearly the cables stand out! Luckily, I won't have to put it in the mail. My daughter will take it home to Boston with her when she leaves Tuesday. Then she can hand it to her little brother when he goes to visit her later that week. 

Fall planting

I've spent the last two days doing a little fall planting.

These are all decorative grasses.

And they'll be drought tolerant once they've had a chance to get comfy.

And in case you think I've only been playing outside, look again. This is the back of the sweater I've been working on for my youngest. I started designing it on paper. Then, I did the gauge. Then, I redesigned it. Over and over and... I've ripped it out so many times, that I probably could have been done knitting it by now. And as I look at it, I think that maybe the outer pattern should have been the middle. Hmmm.

It's done!

I finally finished the lace shawl I've been knitting! It's so soft! It's made from Scrumptious Lace, a blend of 45% silk and 55% merino. Yum!

Now, I can cuddle in this while I focus on my son's cable knit sweater.

I need to finish the tie up for the place mats I'm going to make with Sophie.

And I've been spending some time weeding amongst the plants in our backyard. Not a year ago, this was all bare. I can't wait to see it in the spring!

I'm still here.

I'm still here. I just haven't finished anything, lately. Along with all of my many projects, my day job raised our hourly cap by an additional seven hours per week. That means less play time for me. So, what have I been doing when I'm not at work or working out or puttering in the garden?

After days of stressing over what I want to weave next, I decided to make a functional sample. No matter how these turn out, I should be able to use them. These are the first two of my sample napkins on Julia. They're so pretty now, I wonder what they'll look and feel like when they're finished. These are four shaft "M and W", 17.5 epi with 10/2 pearl cotton. The pattern is the second threading on p.88 of The Handweaver's Pattern Directory.                                                                                                                               And after making myself crazy over how to get what I wanted, I've started warping Sophie for rep weave place mats. I realized that the reason the design part of weaving is so hard, is that I never learned more than the basics. I learned how to warp a loom and weave and read a pattern. I never learned anything more than that. Maybe one day I'll have a chance to take a class or three.                                                                                                                       I'm still spinning the fake cashmere. It feels so yummy and keeps me sane. Spinning is soothing for me.                               And in the meantime, I'm half way done with the knitted border on my blue lace shawl. I've started designing a cable knit sweater for my younger son. And I'm in the planning stages for a knit angel coat for my daughter. Why an "angel coat"? Well, she sent me an e-mail with a link to a coat she would like for Chanukah along with the comment: "and if you don't make it for me I'll have to buy it and when people buy sweaters that their mommy could make them, an angel dies".