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.

Jewel YMMV Footies

Ow! I have absolutely no idea why I pushed myself so hard to get these done so quickly. Both wrists are feeling pain and my right forearm is not happy with me.
I introduce my Jewel YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) Footies:


The bad thing about pushing is that I have another project that I need to complete by Thursday afternoon, a red fish dish cloth for Brandon's co-worker.

Can't remember her name but she and her husband also have a pond and the goldfish have been prolific that she is thinning out her stock of fish and some plants and also helping our pond out. So Brandon thought it would be nice if I could do something knit for her. I remembered the blue fish that I had already made up for the nephews. I thought one of those and another in a different color. I have I think enough red left to do that. If it's not red it may be a cream color with little flecks of color. We'll have to see.

The really cool thing about having the footies done is that I now have another two pairs of socks from the same two skeins of sock yarn. I was able to get two pairs out of the Knit Picks Felici Hummingbird too. Okay this pair required help to complete, but I think having the black toes looks cool. ;^)

I'm going to rest up the next few hours before going to The Knitting Bee for their knit night. I'm meeting Kim there so she can show me her spinning wheel. She's offered to let me borrow it. If it works for me, I may be able to arrange a purchase plan with her.

I'm going to take the Schoppel Wolle pencil roving with me to try out the wheel with:


No, I haven't forgotten about Pasha. I'll have to see how things feel later in the week, but I hope to start it this weekend. It's not needed until the 26th. Kaisha and Norbert both turn 7 that day. No, we didn't get him for that reason. I did get Nessa on my birthday though. ;^)

I can also work on Bailey's birthday present, her's is October 19th. I already have it all planned out. I do have her kitty for her, but I'm leaning towards saving it for Christmas.

William and Brandon are going to help Uncle Dave down at the beach house this weekend replacing the roof there. So I'll be flying solo Saturday and most of Sunday. I'm going to try to get down to TKGA and try to just 'look' at what the vendors have. The classes looked cool, but couldn't really do any this year. Hopefully they will be back here next year. I really am trying to save my $$ for OFFF in just a couple of weeks.

In other weekend news, I will have company. Greta is off to Canada again for a flyball tournament and her other dog sitter fell through. So her aussie, Nickel will be coming to stay the weekend with Norbert and Nessa. They like him and he's a mellow mature guy. She was going to also leave Cedi with me but may need her as a back up for Mellie. Mellie apparently gave her a pretty good scare this last weekend health wise and may need to put Cedi in for her.