Spinning & Fish

I've done a few short stints at the wheel since getting it on Wednesday and after Bobbie's tutorial on how to use it. Today I backed pretty much all of that off the bobbin and started over. I'd noticed that it was pretty loose on the bobbin and you could see that in the yarn. I then spent about an hour with the Schoppel Wolle pencil roving I picked up at Knit/Purl. Since it is pencil roving it's almost pre-drafted. I still did a little bit more. There's some thick and thin going on but I think when plied it might end up being a fingering weight.

Here's what I have right now:


Brandon and I picked up the pond fish on Friday after work. Four came home with us that night and it was a bit of work just to get them. I think the longest orange one is about six inches long. Mary also sent us home with some 'lettuce' and 'hibiscus' plants. I put them in quotes because those are what my memory came up with and I'm not sure if that's the 'real' name for them. Saturday she gave a call to Brandon, but he's down in Lincoln City helping with the roof, so Norbert and I ran over to pick up two more fish and a palm and iris that she thinned out of her pond. I really should have taken the camera to get a shot of her pond - very pretty. These are the shots I have of the first four fish in the pond:



The fish are pretty skittish still. The two new fish - one red, smaller than the others and a white with yellow headed one that she thinks is female so that we too can have babies next year. The dogs are curious about the what's in the pond, right now anytime anything comes near it they dart for hiding under the plants.

Nessa is stressed by Cedi. Cedi has a nasty habit of resource guarding the kitchen and since she's taller than Nessa, she just finds it easier to hide out in the bedroom. I did take her out and got her a doggie cone at Dairy Queen last night that she did enjoy and shared with Norbert. I'm sure she would be counting the minutes until both dogs are gone if she could do that. ;^) Norbert is much more relaxed about them and hanging out on the back of the couch.

In case you were wondering, I've taken the Beach Glass Basket Rib Handtowel out of my projects. When you dread knitting something, you shouldn't. So it will get frogged once again and become a Seafoam Hand Towel I have in my queue. Damn boucle.

I also discovered I can't count. I have five nephews, I had four fish. So I whipped up another one yesterday while watching TV:

I've also started work on Kaisha's Pasha Penguin. The feet are knitted as well as the wings. Cast-on for the body, it's two pieces. I foresee this as a quick knit, it's going to be all the seaming up that will take some time, of course.

I'm going to check with Knit/Purl to find out if they have more of the pencil roving so that I can either ply it with the same colorway, or a complementing one. Question is, drive or MAX? May have William practice the drive down before his drive test on Tuesday. I'll have to get in touch with Kim to see if I can get the third bobbin for her so that I can ply.