StephaniePearlMcPhee

A minor miscalculation.

I'm not going to lie, this wasn't funny when I first discovered it and the period of shock and mourning was real.  After a while I remembered that no matter how badly it's going knitting is ve...

A Few Field Notes

Here we go, a few answers to questions from the last video, and a look at following a difficult pattern holistically.  Finding the rhythm and rules of a pattern can make it a lot easier, and I...

Setting up for a Sweater

Ah, the night before a sweater, what a lovely thing.  In this video about swatches and the alternating cast on and why I chose it, and have a look at my fabric and gauge. (It was bang on, firs...

New Year, Same Me

Hello Knitters, and Happy New Year!

I'm starting the new year with a few new projects, and wanted to update you on those and talk a little bit about the last phase of the silkworms, and what ...

Just let it roll over you.

As predicted, it's Christmas Eve, and I have indeed surrendered.  In the 24 hours since I filmed this, a few more members of the extended family have fallen ill, and it turns out that our glor...

Romance is in the air

This morning when I woke up, our lady had panicked in the night and laid a few dozen eggs. She put them on a nearby cocoon - a hint to the occupant, perhaps? Who knows what she was thinking, theyâ€...

Patience is a virtue

Our Lady, she waits. She’s still alone, nobody else emerged this morning and she’s perched atop a cocoon, desperately scenting and hoping, not moving much to conserve her energy for when a mate...

The kid was right

Well hello friends!

I've been sitting over here feeling bad that things got kinda wild with the worms - while I was away at Rhinebeck the remaining worms decided to spin, and the ones I was a...

Now that I have Cocoons

I suspect that some of you saw this coming, but we're at next steps with the cocoons. I also suspect that some of you have big feelings about what those next steps are. Let's talk about it, shall w...

In Action

Yesterday I saw these two little worms hard at work, and set up my camera to film.  I left the camera running for just over four hours - and here's the little time lapse that resulted. You can...

Little Worlds

The same three worms as yesterday. You can barely see the one on the bottom right now, their cocoon has...

Little Spinners

Out of the 45 mature worms, 10 have decided it is time to spin - some more will decide later today, I'm sure. So far they have all chosen loo roll instead of egg cartons which may mean I'm about to...

It's happening!

This morning when I got up, things were different. It's go time! 

Some of the  worms are beginning to make little silk structures, the hammocks that will support their cocoons! &nbs...

On the cusp of great things.

Any minute now, those worms are going to spin.  In the meantime, here's how we're living.  (The eating part is speed up by 3x.)  See you soon, hopefully before I run out of worm chow...

Worm Chow

I have another video coming your way, with more talking and information, but since it was Thanksgiving here yesterday, I thought you might enjoy this video of a worm eating their lunch. Each worm e...

Your Intrepid Reporter

Here's Elliot, back again with an update on how the worms are doing.  (It's not quite as polished as last time, but he's a one-take sort of performer. ) I wasn't sure what was going to happen ...

Victory is mine.

Finally, last night at about 10:30, right when I was ready to give up entirely, a worm moulted, and I was right there to film it.  The video could be better quality, but the lighting wasn't gr...

I cross the line.

It's way into the evening, and things are a little weird over here. I thought you'd want to know. 

Fondly,

Steph 

Moving Day

Today we have a little video that's just me moving the worms from one container to the next -hopefully a little more interesting than it sounds. In this little film, several of the worms are still ...

Reporter for Worm News

One of the really great things about having the worms around is that it's like a built in science unit for Elliot. He's having a lot of fun tracking how fast they are growing, measuring them and ke...

Still with the worms

Here's another picture of the worms, though even I have to admit that their scene is a little one note. Eat, rest, moult, eat, rest, moult - the only thing that is remarkable at this stage is the r...

Worm Migration (Video)

Here's the promised film of the worms making their mighty way a few centimetres - I sped up the video more than a little, about 1200%, so what was more than a half hour is just a few minutes.  ...

Wormigration

There's a video coming your way as soon as Joe can edit the sound (the sound is me talking, not anything to do with the worms) but I thought you might like a picture of what our wee crawlers looked...

Worm Central

I am enchanted by the worms, and spend an inordinate amount of time looking at them. These ones are a few days old now - though hard to tell exactly how many, since some hatched day one, day two an...

Hatchlings!

Look at that! 

Tiny little hatchlings, discovered by Amanda this morning when she went to ch...

Egg Watch - Day 7

I took this picture yesterday with my macro lens, but according to our resident egg-sitter, they are un...

Egg Watch - Day 6

Well - these look lighter for sure, don't they? 

I think I can even see the pigme...

Egg Watch Day 5

Technically - though I only posted that video yesterday, today is the 5th day that the eggs have been in their takeaway home at warm room temperature, and that means that they could hatch anytime, ...

It’s a weird start, I see that.

Well my Poppets, the other day when I decided to start a series on silk, I did not expect it to go this way, I tell you that.  Someday I‘ll be a grownup who can be trusted with a credit card...

A repair to commercial cashmere

My friend Barrett is a big guy, and he’s not wealthy either, so when the cashmere sweater he found on sale got a hole in it, he was anxious to see if it was fixable. I filmed the attempt -I hope ...