Harvest socks and blackwork

The socks are finished! My son dubbed them the Harvest socks, because of their colours. They've washed up incredibly soft and yummy! Interesting colour, interesting texture, soft and warm.. what more could one ask for in a pair of socks? The home stretch of the last sock was an interesting voyage. I had to "tink" back the heel gusset ( tink is knit backwards.. hehehe) and redo it as I'd managed to include a near fatal error in picking up the gusset stitches. Then I had to redo the toe and tink it back twice until I realized that I couldn't watch Joss Wheden's Dollhouse series and count toe decreases at the same time. After putting it down, I redid the toe the next morning and voila - beautiful finished socks. I really like the look and simplicity of making "fraternal" socks. I really had only about 2 metres of yarn left in the skein after the first sock, so didn't want to waste yarn looking for the same starting point on the second one.

I'm finishing up spinning the wildly pink and purple rovings which should be destined for a woven vest. I can at least always spin while watching the telly, although normally I can knit as well.

I've also started a new outfit for my sweetie. I owe him several that have been backlogged over the past couple of years. A new early period outfit, two or three 16th c outfits; - sigh, I lost track exactly sometime last year when most of the materials and started projects got tossed into storage. One step at a time..... starting with a new shirt! With being able to set up the sewing machine and hook it up to the computer, I did some digitizing and stitched out the following blackwork for him to choose from. Right now his first choice and mine aren't the same, so I may have to do up a 4th sample for him. Even though I'm doing the blackwork by machine, it does take time for the designs to stitch out. You need to be attentive to the machine, the thread and once each pattern repeat stitches out, you need to reset the hoop for the next one. Each colour change has to be rethreaded as well... a definate upside to blackwork is the single colour.

SEEDS - the first seed order has arrived. I've always had spectacular service from Richter's and they shipped on Monday and the seeds arrived on Wed. I have most of the new herb garden and the dye garden seeds now. The dye garden will have a few new additions this year. Along with the Golden Marguerite, Weld, Madder, Woad, Yellow Bedstraw and Dyer's Greenweed - presuming the latter survives the winter after transplanting, there will be Elecampane, Black Hollyhocks, Coreopsis Tinctoria, Red Yarrow and Chinese Woad. I'm in the process of trying to procure some more Dyer's Knotweed seed this year as well. The having to start ALL over again and replant everything is going to be alot of work so hopefully there will be a bit of a harvest the first year to make up for that. I'm not exactly sure what Mr. Inspector Kitty find so interesting in the seed packets, but as soon as they are anywhere he can reach them, he's pawing at them, rolling on them and otherwise making his delight being known!