Progress!

Hubby, the kids and I went camping for the 4th of July weekend. We rented a motorhome and embarked on an 11-hour journey to Utah from Southern California. Surprisingly, the kids were very well-behaved. And 11 hours translates to LOTS of knitting time.
Knitting: Between the drive up, the drive back, and down time at the campsite, I knit 2 hats, finished a sweater for my 2 year old, and finished knitting a lovely scarf. Ah, the scarf. The scarf is made from a blend of white corriedale and chestnut alpaca which I blended on my hand cards in a roughly 70/30 ratio. I spun the lightly carded fiber and Navaho plied it into a lovely soft heathery yarn. I used a pattern called "Seafoam" from the Vogue Book of Knitting which worked well with the randomness of the yarn's color. This fiber was actually given to me along with a bunch of other fiber by a member of the Spin-List named Joy. When I first started spinning and posted to the list to ask for help, she answered my question, and then asked for my address so she could send me a bit of fiber to get started. Not long after, I received a box full of lovely dyed wool roving, the corriedale and alpaca, and llama fiber. Once I put the fringe on this scarf, I'm going to pack this pretty thing up and ship it off to surprise her. I hope she likes it. I'll try to post a picture once I get the hang of this blogging thing.
Spinning: I had brought my Lendrum on the trip, but didn't take it out since it was so dirty and windy where we were staying. Besides, I was having to tend to the boys every 15 minutes, and it was much easier to put down knitting rather than to interrupt spinning. But I had carded up 4 nice big batts of black Shetland wool, so I have those ready for me when I get a little time to work on them. I'm planning on carding up some nice moorit Shetland to spin on my Symphony. I just got a new drive band to replace the one which had frayed, and I believe I'll put it on in the double drive mode. I've been using the wheel with Scotch tension, and I find that I don't much enjoy the constant adjusting of the brake band I must perform as the bobbin fills. We'll see how it goes.

Late as Usual

I started this poor blog in April, and have just now gotten around to posting. My sis-in-law reminded me when she directed me to her own blog. Well, I'm sure you all have been waiting with bated breath...
Spinning: I'm wanting to knit a Fair Isle cardigan using hand-spun Shetland wool. I've accumulated MANY natural colors and plan to dye a few I don't have. SO, I bought a skein of Jumper-weight Shetland yarn to use as a guide, and started spinning. This stuff is waaay fine, and I'm actually pretty proud of my singles as I think they're pretty close to what I'm trying to get. I've finished a bobbin-ful, but it's languishing on my Kromski Symphony until I get a chance to ply it (hopefully today). I'll let you know how the plyed (plied?) yarn comes out.
BUT, I just got a new Single Treadle Lendrum upright wheel a few days ago and have barely gotten a chance to spin a tiny bit of Romney on it. It's definitely different from my Symphony, so I need to better acquainted. I'll try to get to that too.
Knitting: On the needles currently (besides some terminally Unfinished Objects [UFO's] hidden away in the closet) is a ski hat for my OB/GYN doctor who took care of me through my pregnancy with my now-3-month-old and who sent me a porcelain bootie engraved with his name, DOB, and weight. Sooo cute! So anyway, he skis, so what better gift than a hand-knit hat, right? I'm thinking of attempting to chart the Caduceus medical symbol and make a band of it around the hat, but we'll see. I may just sail on through and keep it all grey. I guess it depends on how ambitious I get and how much time I have to spare.
Other: My kids are growing like weeds, and right now take up almost all of my time away from work. My 3-month-old can now roll onto his back, so I'm just waiting for him to get up and crawl away at anytime.
I also have a Hula performance tomorrow night, so I'll probably need to get some practice in sometime. Nah, it can wait till tomorrow...