fibrey shop update

I've been spinning, dyeing, and dreaming fibre lately. Tour de Fleece ends tomorrow, so I've been trying to finish spinning my sweater's worth goal. Not yet sure I'll make it.

I just put some new fibre in the shop - Finn, BFL, and a superwash merino / nylon blend that is perfect for socks and fantastic to spin.

Now, back to the wheel...

lightning kerchief

Finally, a FO!

Pattern: Lightning Kerchief by Odessa Reichel
Yarn: my new sock yarn (!) - more deets later

I'm blaming an acute case of startitus, spinning a lot for Tour de Fleece, and being on holidays for the lack of FOs lately here at chez Doodle. I always think I'll have tons of knitting time when I'm not at work, but I think I really have less. Not sure why.

But I'm very happy about finishing this up. Odessa is a designer superstar who I'm so privileged to know personally. This was a fun and easy summer knit. Great for car trip knitting, late night hotel room knitting (is anyone else addicted to Pawn Stars?) and poolside knitting. I probably blocked it huger than necessary, but I was intrigued to see how it would look. I'm going to wear this one a lot.

fun drive in a heat wave

I've been on a car trip with my family, so my TDF spinning suffered greatly due to spending every waking moment either in the car, in a pool /waterpark /amusement park, or in a mall. But here's my meagre 2 oz 'accomplishment' from the past few days:

Spindle spinning is slow (for me, at least) but very relaxing. Now that I'm home again, I'm torn between finishing this braid or getting back to the sweater spin on my wheel.

One of my favourite stores is Zandbroz Variety in Fargo. It's on Broadway, which is a great street that I've mentioned before. I found this there:

Had I read the Boucle newsletters they've been sending I would have known they recently moved from Broadway to Main St., but luckily I saw it in time and stopped to get these:

Portland Tweed and Donegal Tweed Homespun (bottom) are yarns I've been wanting to try so I'm happy I found them.

We were also in Minneapolis and while I didn't get to any yarn-related places I was happy to go to the Weisman Art Museum at the U of M campus. Architect: Frank Gehry. Small but very cool collection.They have a lovely Louise Nevelson piece.

 
I got a bit of knitting done in the car, too:

First 3 days of TDF

Tour de Fleece Day 1: spun 2oz of my first braid (next braid shown for reference).  Not too impressive, but I have lots of other stuff going on, so I'm fine with that.

Day 2: another 2oz spun, so need to let them rest a bit before plying them together. Also, watched part of the race. Always exhilarating.

Day 3: another 2oz single spun, plus plied together the first two bobbins and got about 286 yds of 2-ply sportweight. If I'm consistent that means 1430 yds which should work for a sweater for moi.

Though I just received an absolutely awesome swap package from my friend in Sweden and it includes these beauties:

I'm very tempted to take a wee sweater-spin break to try them out on the wheel (yes, I know I just started the sweater and hardly qualify for a break. your point?) cause I've never spun tweedy stuff before.

You're caught up. Vive la TDF!

tour de fleece

The Tour de France starts today, which means so does the Tour de Fleece, whereby one sets whatever spinning challenges for oneself that one desires and the joining of a team for support is optional. This is my first Tour de Fleece, so I'm excited that I have such a fabulous group to spin with - Northbound Knitting.

I'm starting with a sweater's worth of this:

It's Lisa's superwash BFL in 'Purple Rain', 20 oz. I'll do a 2-ply sportweight, so that will take me awhile.

Then I'm out of town for a few days so I'm going to attempt to spindle spin this:

Again, from Lisa, it's Cheviot and called 'Violent Mood Swings'. I have no goals beyond making something vaguely resembling yarn, since my spindling skills are so poor.

Then I'll find something else to do if I still have time. Which I doubt will be an issue.

I should probably watch some of the cycling, too.

caribbean sleet

Fibre: Rambouillet in 'Caribbean' from Northbound Knitting
Pattern: Sleet by Lisa Mutch


I spun this gorgeous rambouillet a few months ago for a spin along in the Northbound Knitting group. Then we decided to have a swap so I knit it into Lisa's fabulous cowl pattern for Ingrid in Sweden. The wool is so squooshy and the pattern made it more so. I hope it keeps her warm. There's still 4oz I haven't spun, so I could make a matching one for myself...


Things are super busy around here. But fun. :) 

stranded wips

It's been really hot lately and hard to get motivated to knit. This time of year I usually think about sewing things instead and I have something planned that I'll talk about later. I have, however, made 50% progress on the pair of socks I'm knitting. This fabulous pattern is Autumn Frost Socks by Susi Ferguson and yarn is St-Denis Boreale.

Concurrently and coincidentally  I'm knitting another of Susi's patterns - her Mountain Mist sweater, in Wollmeise. Susi is one of those uber talented people I am always excited to see new projects from.

Being June, it's hectic around here during the last weeks of school, final performances, final lessons, etc. The boy has a rather elaborate (compared to mine, at least) grade six graduation day to prepare for. And the girl's birthday is coming; my sweet animal lover chose to have her party at the humane society.

Hope you're having a great June, too.