On the home front....

It light of the purchases I made last week, my stash has to start earning its keep. Here's what's been doing...

• Soakers
  
  
  I've dusted off the patterns and started working some up. Here is my first attempt at "shorties":
  
  
  Front View
  
  
  Side View
  
  The proportions look a bit off to me - it's supposed to be a size "small", which is pretty arbitrary to begin with. I made some changes to the pattern and after a lot of math and gnashing of teeth (and transcribing patterns to my knitting journal in pen and then realizing that everything was off) here's the reworked pattern in size medium. I'm just getting ready to kitchner the crotch and then do the legs:
  
  
  
  I am still torn about the waist - the size small has 1.5 inches of ribbing while the size medium only has 1 inch. I'll get some oppinions and then go from there.



• Loot from Maryland Sheep and Wool
  
  
  We bought a bag of fleece, but that hasn't been touched except to divvy it up between Knitty Mama and me.
  
  

  Cautionary Note
  Even though The Joy of Handspinning recommends that you scour your fleece in your washing machine - be very careful. I just spent $60 for someone to come and fish a small ball of fiber from the water pump in my washing machine. Needless to say, I will be scouring using a basin from now on.

  
  
  This is the beautiful fiber that I got:
  
  
  
  It's hand-dyed alpaca/silk/merino. If you are new to spinning - DO NOT TRY THIS FIBER - you will be spoiled forever. Anything else feels like straw, it's that beautiful to the touch.
  
  Here's a small skein (46 yards) that I spun and plied from this roving:
  
  
  
  Here are the spindles:
  
  
  Bottom Whorl Spindle
  
  
  Top Whorl Spindle
  
  I definitely prefer the bottom wholr spindle, but I used the top whorl for plying and it worked very nice.

There is more but the boy is making demands so I must dash!


"CHEESE!"