A Few Sheep Shy of a Farm

I finished the first pair of baby socks this afternoon!

See:

Now his little toes are nice and toasty! Only trouble is, he’s going to need more than one pair! I’ve cast on the 2nd pair tonight, using the remains of some yarn from a pair of Papa’s socks.

I’ve also managed to pile the couch full of fiber that I carded on M’s drum carder over the past week or two . . . I’m trying to get the things that need to be spun finer done now while I have the big wheel in the house . . . I’m saving the rest of the blend I did for the KR Yarn Swap that I plan to knit into into a hat and mittens, for spinning on the little wheel (the Asford Joy) which I can keep in the house much easier than the Jensen. I haven’t managed to spend much time spinning, esp. since the baby needs socks, but I’ll get there.

Right now on the wheel, finally, is the fleece that Mom picked out 2 1/2 years ago for a shawl. I dyed it 2 years ago, before I had much practice with dyeing rovings. It came out a bit stuck together and difficult to work with. So recently I decided to throw it on the drum carder to see what would happen . . . Its wonderful! Soft and light and easy to spin! I’m hoping to spin it over the next couple of weeks and perhaps start the shawl around the first of the year . . . and perhaps she’ll even get it for Mother’s day ‘06????

All my recent knitting projects have been temporarily derailed . . . . because. . .

Someone’s little legs are just far too big for his socks! I recently got him new socks and while the feet portion are the right size, his legs are just far too big for the size of the socks! Can you tell from this photo? His little calves are about 7″ around! and his feet are 6″ around and 4″ long! Can you imagine? At only 4 months old!

I’ll try to remember to take a picture tomorrow of the sock that I’ve made so far, I got one done and I’ve cast on the second one but haven’t gotten very far yet. After that, mittens for his chubby little hands, before the weather gets any colder

I’ve also just posted some new photos to his blog, www.mimmot.blogspot.com

I spent part of this afternoon teaching my 3 cousins how to spin! The older two are really getting the hang of it. J in particular seems to really be having fun. He wants to work up to being able to spin on the wheel, but I’ve told him he has to get the hang of spinning on the spindle first. Next time I see them we’ll see if they have enough done to ply. I’d forgotten how much fun it is to teach kids to spin, the excitement of watching them see how the yarn is made, that it holds itself together on just a bit of a twist (and how hard it is to draft if the twist gets into your drafting zone!) So much fun!

I’ve also just taken the suggestion of a few of my KR friends suggestion and posted some things on Ebay. For the moment, I’ve just got the Spindle kits up there, as a “buy it now” item. I’m planning to add some yarn and perhps some dyed fiber once I have some more done. I do have to say that I was amazed at how complex the fees for using Ebay are, very confusing. I probably won’t do a lot there because it is so much pricier than just having them on my own site.

I’ve even done a little spinning lately. I washed up a shetland fleece recently (okay, most of a shetland fleece, I still have about a third of it to go) and I’ve been carding it up on M’s drumcarder which she kindly let me borrow. Its a pretty, slightly tweedy grey and it spun up into a lovely yarn which I hope to use along with perhaps another grey and some white to do a sweater for myself! Someday

Okay, its very, very late so I’m going to sign off for tonight!