Happy Halloween!

 

We had some of my coworkers and their kids over this weekend to carve pumpkins...
 
 
 
 

This is my pumpkin!
 
This pumpkin was Randall's, but he didn't want to carve it, so I used an extra ghost pattern and carved it...
 

I did meet all of my Socktoberfest goals... although not as neatly as I would have liked...
 


My bobbin got full, so I tried to unload some yarn...
 Something went horribly wrong, and it got unbearably tangled! This, might I emphasize, is AFTER 2 hours of detangling effort.

(I'm really not good with the whole tangled yarn thing.) I might note that I was interrupted by trick-or-treaters quite a few times.

I really don't know what to do. Randall thinks I should cut out the tangle and THROW IT AWAY! I can't do that. I spent so much time making that yarn!! How could this happen?!?!

Oh, yeah, Happy Halloween!

Socks Done!

 

I finished my RPMs!
 
Pattern: RPM from knitty.com, modified to CO 45 sts for my large guage with medium weight STR.

Yarn: Socks That Rock in Moss Agate, medium weight

Needles: US 2
 

Woohoo!
 

You might notice major pooling in the gusset, green on this side...
 

...and orange on this side!

They were fun and fast to knit!
 
I also polished off some baby socks for my coworker, whose son was born on Friday!




To recap my Socktoberfest Goals:
1) Dad's socks: Done!
2) Mom's socks: Done!
3) My 2nd RPM: Done!
4) Spin enough sock yarn to knit a pair of socks: Plying in progress!
5) Nephew's baby booties: Done!
6) Coworker's baby socks: Done!

 Only one goal left! And I think I'm about halfway done with the plying... (the wheel is safe from Mojo on the couch... at least for a few more days!)
 

We've got yarn, folks!

Mojo is 12 weeks old!

 


Here he is, looking fierce!
 


Trying to get up on the couch!
 

Mid-run with floppy ears!
 

With a stick!

 

With a rubber chicken!
 
At 12 weeks, Mojo weighs 15 pounds, he's 12.5 inches at the shoulder, and 16 inches long.
 He's getting these lighter strips of fur on his shoulder blades...
I still think he's a Rottweiler/German Shepherd/Yellow Lab mix and that he's going to be white, tan, and black when he grows up. I think he'll weigh 70 pounds at 1 year and 90 pounds as an adult...
 
His rump and tail are still getting darker...

Next week I think he'll weigh 18 pounds!

Progress on the wheel and the needles

 
So, I finished one bobbin of red superwash singles for my sock yarn. Now I just have to spin the other bobbin and ply them together, and I'll have yarn!

 However, I haven't been making any progress on the 2nd bobbin, because I started spinning my soy silk!!! I love this stuff SO MUCH! Once I'm finished spinning it up, I'm going to navajo ply it into a 3-ply yarn. I can't wait!

 


In other news, I'm down to the foot of my 2nd RPM sock!







To recap my Socktoberfest goals:
1) Dad's socks: Done!
2) Mom's socks: Done!
3) My 2nd RPM: on the foot!
4) Spin enough sock yarn to knit a pair of socks: One ply done (out of 2)!
5) Nephew's baby booties: Done!
6) Coworker's baby socks: haven't started yet

Also, zipper in sweater: not yet

I'm sure I'll be down to the wire, and I might not meet all my goals, but I just have to spin that soy silk!!!

Dye-fest!

This weekend, Cookie and Kristi came over for a good old-fashioned dye party. We used Wilton's Icing Dyes on a wide variety of fiber...

In this sink we have (top to bottom): Cookie's laceweight 95% merino/5% cashmere yarn, my mystery fiber (which we think is wool with tencel in it), and Kristi's merino.

In this sink we have: Kristi's superwash merino on the left, my soy silk on the top, and my mystery wool on the right.

Here is my mystery wool (started out gray) dyed, wrapped, and ready to microwave.



Here is my mystery fiber (wool with tencel?) that I dyed.




Here is my mystery fiber (wool with tencel?) that Kristi dyed for me. It turns out that 250g of fiber needs to be dyed in 2 batches... who knew? So, since I had 5 batches of fiber to dye, Kristi had 2, and Cookie had one, Kristi helped me out and dyed one of my mystery wool/tencel batches (while Cookie knit her sock).



Here's my soy silk.
(Rainbow!)



This is my 2 packets of mystery wool (started out gray).


Here is my mystery fiber (wool with tencel?) that I dyed, being rinsed in the sink.

Here is my mystery fiber (wool with tencel?) that Kristi dyed, being rinsed in the sink.




Here is my soy silk, very wet still...



Here's Cookie's yarn.





Here's my mystery wool, quite wet still...



Here's Kristi's merino, almost dry!


Here's my wool/tencel mystery fiber that I dyed.



Here's my wool/tencel mystery fiber that Kristi dyed.





Fiber snails!!!


Here's my soy silk, which dried MUCH slower than all the wool.


Cookie's yarn all done.


Kristi's merino all done. Check out her blog for more pictures...



 

Here's one batch of mystery wool (started out gray).
 
I'm going to spin the above batch of mystery wool and the mystery wool to the left, and then ply them together to make sock yarn.
 

This is my mystery wool/tencel batch that I dyed.
 
This is the mystery wool/tencel batch that Kristi dyed for me. I think I'm going to spin these separately into sock yarn.
 

Here at last, we have my soy silk...
 


I LOVE it!
 

It's so shiny and soft, I want to spin it right now!!!