Never a Dull Moment

I recently wrote a detailed account about what was going on with my ferret, Pandora, in another post.  In between all that drama I had other things going on, of course.  Nothing is ever simple around here!  Did I mention that I finally caught my kid's cold over the weekend?  (Frequently going out in the storm washing helping things.)  Blur and Anna both came down with a second cold, too, so we were all miserable.  'Tis the season!  This threw Blur's new schedule all out of whack, and he had been making great progress with his sleep / wake cycle. 

I started knitting a stocking cap for my nephew while I was visiting family in June.  He requested a slouchy black beanie with a symbol from his favorite anime, Fairy Tail, on it.  He has a large head and sock yarn with size 3 needles takes a long time to knit a beanie.  So unfortunately I didn't get it finished while I was there.  I did finish knitting it sometime after I got home, however when I found a model with a similarly sized head I found that the hat fit perfectly... not slouchy.  So I was going to have to frog out the decreases and knit about 3 inches more.  Well I finally got around to doing that last week and finished the hat a second time.

Next came the hard part; duplicate stitching.  I had in my mind that the emblem was going to be fairly

SAPGAP Shipped out

I finished my Spin A Pound Get a Pound spinning!  I am really excited about spinning all this yarn so evenly.  It was the first real effort I've made to try to get a spun yarn to a specific thickness.  All my personal yarns to date had been spun as thinly as possible and then I'd figure out where it was afterwards.  This yarn I spun specifically to a 2-ply fingering weight as that is was the wool's owner requested.  I did mini samples at the beginning to test how to do the spin, then adjusted my wheel ratio (how fast the wheel spins) and my drafting method I switched to long draw (one technique of pulling the fiber thin before the twist secures the fibers).

I was so excited about shipping this swap that I designed myself a yarn label with my logo and yarn details. :D 

Sharon, the person who owned the wool, is so excited to get her hands on her share of the yarn.  She shared with me that she plans to make a shawl to wear to church with it.  As she is getting the four skeins on the right I think she'll have plenty to play with!

As for me, my husband has requested his very first knitted item from me; a "luck sack."  This is a huge deal as I've been knitting for four years and he has previously refused to let me make him anything.  Not one thing!  So today I was able to wind one of my skeins into a cake and I can start a swatch and get designing something just for him. :)  The mini skeins are destined to be dyed and become the intarsia (picture) portion of my pattern.

For any spinners and fiber growers out there who wish to check out Spin A Pound Get a Pound, here is a link.  The group is very business like and there are a lot of rules in the group but they are all reasonable.  Every rule is in place to keep the growers and spinners safe from fraud or to keep the moderators from being overwhelmed with repeating themselves.  I am very happy with my first experience in the group.