Thesockladyspins

Since my photo link doesn't want to cooperate will just describe pix from the top. Odds and sods, small amounts of various leftovers, 3 are merino - nylon and the bright pink is BFL - nylon. Spinning  so that resulting two ply yarn will be heavier than my usual, almost close to medium bulky weight. Plans so far to make mittens for several local female smalls. Make even add small amounts kid mohair on the inside for extra warmth. Middle pix is the wool-silk blend, took almost as long to ply as it did to spin. Pretty close to fingering weight and plans are for socks for me. After last winters -40° and only one pair of handspun socks to my name knew that I would want more for anything Mother Nature will throw at us this winter. Bottom pix is the blue green merino nylon from last blog post. Had 150 grams of the mix from Mary-anne Smith  (vintage stuff). Not sure right this minute what it will be stash for now. Have been sorting fibre with intentions of spinning lots of this and th...

Woke up this morning to rain, wonderful rain. We so needed it, hopefully it will rain all day. Not able to leave spinning wheel alone broke out another bag (150 g) of wool and nylon from Smith and Ewe, in Sweet Violets colour. I thought I might be able to leave wheel alone until part two of the T d F starts  later in August but that wasn't to be. I finished yesterday morning the mix of merino-silk (70 - 30), have enuff of some of the colours to do something else in the future. I spin a lot of yarn with no firm idea of what I will use it for but this wool-silk mix will be made into winter socks for me and maybe a couple of others. First pix is the fibre laid out ready to spin, started from left side and stayed with the same order thru both bobbins. Not much idea of what plied yarn will look like but however it will be soft and warm. After last winters stretch of almost 40 below zero (and only one pr of handspun socks) knew that before winter dropped again that I would have more. Not...

 Went to Ashcroft on Monday (almost 6 hours from home) picked up corn (perfect), green beans, blueberries, nugget potatoes (all perfect), and tomatoes (not so good). Tomatoes were way over ripe, by the time I got home on Tuesday several were beyond salvaging and the next day a bunch more were mushy and moldy, from 25 pounds I maybe got to eat a quarter of that amount (or less). They were advertised as field tomatoes but were to perfect in shape to have ever been grown outdoors and they certainly didn't taste like real outdoor tomatoes. Messaged the place and they are supposed to be either refunding my money or a gift certificate of some sort. Brought a box for Selma as well and hers were bad also. So 6 hours driving and I didn't once have tomatoes and toast, or tomatoes with cottage cheese, bummer. Mailed away three pair of socks to NY, Oregon and Calif. they now have all arrived, with postal service on the wonky side was happy they all made it. From the top Maggie A., Jean V.,...

Mailed socks away to Calif. (they have arrived) and to Oregon (they have not yet made it there). Kathy L got hers pretty quick and she likes them and they fit. Neighbour just in to  pick up stuff to go to the dump, she is on her way to Tatla and goes almost right by the dump. And in return I gave her two pair of socks for the granddaughter. The pair on the right will for sure be to big until mid to late winter. Yesterday high was 32°C (90F) to bloody hot for me, however this morning I woke up to heavy clouds and a Severe Thunderstorm Watch, temp right now is 56°F, the wonderful cool is back. Since I finished the second sock of the pair above on the left, got out the yarn to do the second sock of the crayon challenge, since I took the pix  cast on for the top ribbing. Never seem to run out of socks to do. After CC is finished will make another pair of socks for Miss M in Pritchard (trade the Mother for canning). When I'm not knitting I spin, when it was so hot I would attend to...

The last bit of spinning for the tdf, merino-nylon mix, while spinning I thought I would use the yarn for socks but have since discovered something better. While looking for something else I found I had quite a bit of various colours of silk mix roving. So in my infinite wisdom decided to spin the 5 colours for decadent socks for me. The pix shows the 5 colours but am not sure if I will spin in the order I've laid them out in. I've made the pix larger thru the magic of the puter. Thinking the two colours on the right need to be switched some place different. Was +5 C  (41°F) here this morning, I had left several wool room windows open all night so was a bit cool in here, but now with sun coming in several windows the cool feels good. Its now +17 (63° F) with a high predicted of 22 (72°F) later today.

My latest socks, thought I had more pastel colours but if I do they are well hidden, the couple of darker colours ended up being OK. Just mailed away socks for Jean, Kathy and a pr to go this week to Maggie. Now back to the socks for Miss E, then will do sock #2 for the crayon challenge. This is the total for this years TdF, 1018 yards, top is from the two braids of BFL, below the merino-silk BFL blend. Single bobbin is another merino nylon mix (finished it last night just after 9 pm). Had hoped to get more done but fighting every day with my right leg (the language when it was screaming was terrible), kept me from more time at the wheel. This is more of my green stash, will have another go at the TdF #2 when the riders are on their bikes. Not yet sure which I'll spin, likely another BFL mix. Len K came on last Tuesday (good neighbours) with the brush cutter and mowed down the weeds in my yard, the dalmatian toad flax in places was well over 3 feet high, glad to see t...

BFL roving in colourway Northern Lights, all spun up and ready later today will be plied. I was surprised how different from the roving to the yarn. Merino Silk on the left and BFL on the right, next pix are the two plied together.  Not my best plying for sure but should make next to skin something. Braid on the left is Merino-Nylon and what is currently on the spinning wheel. Not yet sure if I will ply the two in pix together or try for something closer to the one on the left. Decisions. Here in my usually to dry valley we this year have had more rain in May and June than we usually get in 6 months, consequently the weeds in my yard grew to enormous size. Especially the noxious weed called dalmatian toad flax  pretty yellow flower but its a really nasty weed. And I had lots some well over 3 feet high. Neighbour Len came yesterday with his quad and brush hog and knocked down my whole yard, then used his weed whacker to cut close to house. Will greatly...