peach m e l b a, anyone?

The latest Dove's Roost Yarn is off the spindle. Dyed with Virginia Creeper, this is 50g/106 yd of 11 wpi handspun longwool - with a little pokeberry dyed Border Leicester thrown in. Softy lofty luscious. It's up for sale in the ol' Etsy store, Dove's Roost, but I feel a hankering to make a pair of mitts...Hm...

Interestingly, this roving has darkened over the year. No fadin' here! Peachy peach peach.

Yummy, neh?

les bon temps keep roulezing along

Lawdy. (long whistle). Time is hard to come by. Drove some 2000 miles this last week. Pulling a cargo trailer full of my husband's big machines. Didn't get a lot of knitting in, though the smitty sox are purt near complet.

Here, though...


tropical s u n r i s e

Isn't that pretty? It's a skein of spindlespun. Got rained out today, so I spun a couple skeins of longwool. I don't know the breed. The orange (dyed with coreopsis) was in a bag of rovings that I'd dyed this summer. The yellow and red flecks are border leicester locks (goldenrod and pokeberry respectively.) Yummy stuff. 90 yd in 1 1/4oz.

And look...


nake d

Here's a wonderful lofty natural yarn. Airy and soft. 115 yd in 1 1/2 oz. Spindle spun. I might spin up a lot of this.

No, I have had time, but Ravelry is sucking it up. Those of you who have been there beta testing know that it will eat your brain. What a great concept! Designers, Yarnies, Knitters and Crocheters all uploading their projects, their stashes, their designs, and their yarns. Cross referencing galore. I am a Yarnie...a yarn designer. Nice to have a place I can declare my yarns for sale without being offensive. Like on so many online knitters lists. The Ravelry Groups are lovely, too. It's great to have visibility into the folks you've "known" on the fiber lists...and literally see what they are doing.

The whole thing has reinspired me to put my etsy store to better use. So, Dove's Roost is being stocked as we speak.

All spare time is devoted to food. Daring Bakers has taken me in. I am floured and sugared and in the company of many fabulous bakers from all over the world. We wait patiently for the first of the month, when a recipe is posted, a challenging - use all your skill and every bit of your artistry - baking assignment. The DBers make the same recipe the same way and post their work on the same day. It's all secret as can be, so you can't just check out the blog. Oh nosiree. If you want in, you have to do some homework.

So, between waiting for the buds to open on the Brandywines and the Rosa Biancas, and measuring Jimmy Nardello's Sweets on a daily basis, between cooking amazing pastries and sauces and spinning lofty yarns, I'm reading The Book Thief and designing a knitting project for this book. What are you up to?

20 grams of handspun shetland

gansey sock in progress

This is how far 20g of handspun singles goes. After getting this far, I spun another spindlefull of shetland...yep, another 20 grams. That should take me well into the second sock. Once the leg is knit, the foot flies...only two skinny cables and some seed stitch to think about. I can tell that these are going to be favorite cold weather gig socks.