Catching up

I'm still working on sooper sekrit holiday projects, but I have finished a few things here and there. First up, a project I actually finished back in April that somehow never made it onto the blog!



This is a shawl (scarf, really) made from silk that I spun and dyed.The pattern is Arietta, and is an absolute joy to knit. It's really complicated true lace, patterned on both the right and wrong side, but the pattern was such that I always knew where I was. It's knit sideways with both top and bottom edging knit on at the same time as the body. And cleverly, it's designed to allow you to use up all of your yarn - you stop increasing when you've used a little less than half, and then decrease until it's done.

And a beauty shot:



Next up - my very first proper finished sweater! I am thrilled to pieces with this. It fits perfectly, and is the warmest thing I own. Hugely useful for the library I work at, since we've got on-going heating problems.



I'm afraid this sweater has fallen victim to one of the problems that plagues me in winter. I work during the day, which means I only have access to natural light at the weekend. I also only have access to my spouse for photography during the weekend. Unfortunately, this being London, it's grey and miserable more often than not, plus as it's the holiday season we're often not home.



Suffice to say that I have worn this sweater as often as I've been able to since finishing it. My mother tells me it's flattering, and my husband tells me that it makes my rack look fabulous. Can't complain, really.

Pattern is Owls, by Kate Davies. Ms Davies is fabulous and brilliant and I want to knit basically everything she's ever designed. The yarn is Rowan's Felted Tweed DK, which I used held trebled. I bought nineteen balls of the wretched stuff at a John Lewis clearance sale a few years back, and it's been taunting me ever since. No more! Twelve balls have gone into this sweater, and the remaining seven are being knit into a garter stitch scarf even as we speak.

Judith

A few years ago I had the very great privilege of taking a day-long class with Judith MacKenzie. Judith is a teacher of textile arts; she is an acknowledged master of knitting, spinning, and weaving, but is one of those people who knows so much more that you can't really call her anything but Teacher.

The class I took from her was ostensibly about spinning yarn for socks. And it was, mostly. But it was also a little bit about knitting socks, and a bit about selecting breeds of wool for different purposes, and a wee bit about spinning warp yarns for weaving, and a lot about how to teach. I suspect that last one was mostly me watching, but Judith can teach anyone anything.

Judith has been teaching textile arts longer than I've been alive. She's travelled the world and met literally thousands of artists. She's collected so much information, so many memories - and with them, all the millions of bits and pieces that 'making' people tend to assemble in their lives.

Last Monday her studio burned to the ground.

EVERYTHING to do with her art and her work was in that studio. Her looms. Her spinning wheels. Her textile samples. Her library. Her yarn. Her fiber. Her life and livelihood.

Much of what was lost is utterly irreplaceable. But she still needs to work, to teach, and to do that, the textile community is about to do what it does best. The Yarn Harlot says it perfectly:

"...this community takes care of its own, and Judith MacKenzie? She's definitely ours."

There is a website, still under construction, called Rebuild Judith's Studio. One of the few finished parts is the Donate button. They are also taking donations of equipment and materials to restock the new studio once it has been built.

As a general rule I don't blog about things that involve fundraising. For Judith I make this exception. Directly or indirectly she has touched the lives of almost every textile artist I know, and she is hurting right now.

That time of year

Much of the reason that I'm not posting much right now is because I'm working on a Christmas present. It's for someone who reads the blog, and it's pretty much all I'm working on. I mean, there's a pair of Monkey socks living in my handbag, but that's it.

I'll do a state of the WIPs at some point soon - it'd probably spur me to work on the gift faster so that I can get back to everything else!

So remember back when I used to blog?

Yeah, me too. It was awesome.

Let's see, stuff that's happened since the Olympics finished. I made a scarf:



One skein of Noro Kureyon Sock, granny ripple crochet pattern from my ripple stitch dictionary.

Baby L isn't a baby anymore. She's 4-and-a-quarter, thank you very much, and started Reception last month. And at the end of August her mother presented her with a new baby brother! Here's the sweater I knitted for him:



Colinette Jitterbug in Lobster, pattern is the "Seamless Yoked Baby Cardigan". It's not really lopsided, I just took the picture from a funny angle. Despite having made the newborn size, it was far too big for the wee 'un when he arrived, so it should fit just as the weather gets cold.

Baby L and Baby B are rather cumbersome handles, I think, so from here on in I'll go with Fred and Ned. Formerly-Baby-L has this rather annoying habit of deliberately calling people by the wrong name. When she does that to me, I call her Fred. Makes her crazy, but she stops being a brat. And Ned's not Baby B's name, it's just what I thought he looked like when he came out. Every child needs a nickname that has nothing to do with their real name, don't you think? My parents still call me Mabel on occasion...

Ravellenic Wrap-Up

I'm alive! I've survived the Olympics! What a show. I'm nuts about the Games, and having my home city hosting has been an experience, let me tell you. My workplace is right in the centre of Bloomsbury, which is where the press hub was located, and is right by both Euston and King's Cross. So walking from my office to get my afternoon tea, I'd pass a pair of Ukrainian swimmers, returning from Oxford Street and nattering about their new running shoes. Or walking past Euston on my way home, watch the extraordinary volunteers of Team London directing tourists, interpreting, and making people feel welcome and at ease. There was almost no direct impact on our daily lives. Deliveries were shifted earlier or later, but life went on as usual. It was remarkable.

And kudos to the BBC! I've never before been able to watch every single minute of every single event and medal ceremony. And believe me, I watched. ALL of it. Not while I was at work, obviously, but it was perfectly normal for Spouse and I to have one event running on the television, another on my computer and a third on his!

And while I was watching, I was knitting. My chosen project was the Vintage Tsocks that I started in February last year. Over and over, I've told myself that I'd finish them, and yet somehow they lingered in my WIPs basket. Here's how things stood at the beginning of the Ravellenic Games:



One sock with the heel turned, but before starting the ankle shaping. The second sock ready to turn the heel. Leaves of three colours completed, the first leaf of the last colour cast on but not finished.

The Opening Ceremony started, and I knit. I knit leaves while the athletes processed into the stadium. I worked the heel shaping while Great Britain earned her first medal of the Games in the women's road race. I finished the grapes on the second sock during some of the finest rowing I've ever had the pleasure of watching. I pinned out and blocked leaves as the first female boxers in Olympic history fought for their medals. I learned about the esoteric rules of fencing while I learned to knit an applied i-cord bind-off. I sewed in ends while marvelling at the sheer magic of the rhythmic gymnastics.

And finally, on Saturday, with less than 24 hours to spare, I finished my Tsocks



Pattern - Vintage, by Lisa Grossman aka The Tsarina of Tsocks
Yarn - Holiday Yarns FlockSock Sock Yarn
Needles - 2.25mm paired Addi circulars and 2.25mm steel DPNs
Ends woven in - 96 (no, that's not a typo. I counted them.)
New techniques learned - 7

I'm not an athlete. I'm a knitter. But I tell you this - when I snipped off that last end and put my new socks on my feet? Just for a moment, I knew what it felt like to win gold.

Tour de Fleece wrap-up

So, much like my discovery that spinning happens when you work on it all the time, I've discovered that Tour spinning goes better when you focus on spinning things instead of photographing them.

Consequently, have a look at my most productive Tour yet!

First up, yarn from three batts I won on Ravelry.



250 yards of true 3-ply, just under 100g. The fiber originally came as three batts, so I decided to spin them as they came. I stripped each batt into quarters and spun directly from the resulting strips. I was aiming for something a little chunkier than my usual sock yarn, and this worked up pretty evenly.

Second, the braid of Zombie Apocalypse I dyed with Weaving Friend a while back.



This braid of merino was my personal challenge for the Tour. I wanted to see whether I could spin and ply an entire 100g braid in a single day. Turns out I can, but I won't be able to use my fingers for much for a couple of days afterwards! 150 yards, n-plied.

I did some sampling of the Gottland fleece I've been prepping forever. I hadn't decided whether I wanted to spin it from the lock or from combed top. So I did a few yards of 2-ply from each prep method to see which was better. Bizarrely, they were indistinguishable. I'll spin from the lock, since that's the case. No sense adding an extra level of prep if it's not adding anything to the finished yarn!

I also did a little work on the superwash merino sock yarn I've had on the go forever. Not much, though, because I wanted to work on something I'd actually be able to finish.

Finally, I spent a goodly chunk of time spindling. I had a second lot of fiber from my Ravelry prize, also orange. I've split it into three and am doing something that'll eventually be a fingering or DK-weight yarn, depending on how much it floofs on washing. And I've also been learning how to use my adorable little Turkish spindle. I've got a sample bag of tussah silk roving on that.



Next up - getting ready for the Ravellenic Games!

Can't post, busy spinning

The Tour de Fleece is going on right now. Turns out the best way to get spinning done is to actually spin instead of wasting time taking pictures and blogging. I'll do a post of everything next Sunday after the TdF finishes!