Dyed in the Wool Handmade

The house is starting to get really cold and I can’t be without socks and a sweater. We haven’t turned the heat on yet and I absolutely refuse to, at least until tomorrow. Hopefully not until next week. But man, my feet are cold!

Today is Halloween and Alex has decided he’s too old for trick-or-treating, which suits me just fine and I rewarded him by placing him in charge of the door all evening. My mom and sister are coming over for dinner, and then my dad decided to join us as well because he realized that staying home meant he’d be the one answering theirdoor. My dad doesn’t come over a lot because he’s not much of a talker and he can’t flip channels on the tv like he does at home (our cable works differently) so he usually spends the whole time sitting in the carport, smoking.

My mom is bringing some candy to hand out, which is good since we don’t have any. Nor do we have a pumpkin. It seems that we pretty much suck, doesn’t it?

Jeremy has decided that he wants this particular pair of socks, and since I rarely (never) knit for him, I gave in. Next to the Pippi-dyed handspun is my skein of alpaca/merino 80/20. I love love this fibre and I’ve got 200g more to spin up. I don’t know what to knit with it! I didn’t bother to work out the specs, but it’s about worsted weight and I’m thinking about a lacy scarf. But for whom? Maybe a Christmas gift for my mom. There are more photos below.

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Next year I’m going for sure. I’m starting to save my pennies because could it get any better? Fleece and sheep and wool and yarn and booze, all together as they should be.

I started knitting the shawl with the Manos I bought in New Jersey. I decided to use the pattern for the Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl, but I’ve altered it so that it’s mostly knit with the random purl ridge here and there. I’m making my colour changes sort of at random; the only guideline I’m following is that I want the shawl to be more brown at the top and more varigated at the bottom.

I spent the weekend dyeing and spinning. I finished the Pippi Knee Socks fibre and it looks fantastic.

Edited to add: Pippi Knee Socks’ site is down. Where did she go?

My mom and sister are coming over later today to plant a few things in my front garden. I didn’t really take care of my garden this year and I know this really bugs my mom. So they’re bringing a bunch of plants that I have no idea what they are and planting them because they’ll bloom very early in the spring.

For dinner I’m making my first lasagne. It’s strange, but I really have never made one before. I have made tortellini stuffed with portobello mushrooms from scratch, pasta and all, but I’ve never made a simple pan of lasagne. I’m not going all out, either. I’m using sauce from a jar. But a really, REALLY good jar. Ground turkey, light ricotta, spinach, tomato sauce, garlic, noodles, mozzarella. I should get started on that pretty soon.

I just got a huge shipment of fibre in yesterday, and I spent the last two days dyeing Shetland and South African Fine. I also got Falkland and Corriedale in, which I’ll be dyeing on the weekend. They’re really nice! And I guess I can do a few hanks of yarn, as well.

Last week I spun up some 80/20 alpaca/merino, 3.5 oz, and I did it entirely long draw from lightly prepared sliver, so the resulting yarn is semi-woollen; very soft, squishy, lofty.

I’m also in the middle of spinning some Spring Chocobird from Pippi Knee Socks. For to make socks. Pictures on Monday. I need to charge my camera battery and find some decent daylight.