A Finished Soaker and Some Spinning

I finished the soaker I started a couple days ago. It is funny how the knit things take more hours to make than sewn things, but the knit things get done faster because I can bring them with me and work on them little by little. The soaker is just a little on the long side, which is perfect. That way I can fold down the ribbing now and have it fit for a long time. My method of measuring is to stick a fitted diaper inside the soaker as I am knitting and eyeball how long the soaker is compared to the diaper. Not very exact, but it seems to work for me. To recap, I used Nearly Nazareth yarn in Spring which is a little heavier than I have used for soakers in the past, but it makes a nice heavy soaker when knit on size six needles. Here is a picture of the soaker.

From A Soaker and ...

I also did a little spinning yesterday. I have been wanting to pull the wheel out, but always felt like there just wasn't time and lots of other things to do. So, yesterday when Andrew noticed the wheel and the wool hanging from it, he asked me to make some yarn. The kid is enthralled with wool, anything he deems "woolie" is very special. This includes polyfil. He recognizes the basic appearance, without realizing that other things can look woolie and not be wool. I spun up some domestic wool I got when I had my intro to spinning class at Shepherd's Harvest using kind of a supported long draw. I have just been using this wool to play with and spin different ways. I did manage to ply the bobbin I spun and it is very soft and light, approximately a bulky gauge. I also plyed a bobbin I spun this summer of the same wool. I am glad I had been reading blogs about spinning, because I would have really underplyed it otherwise. Because the singles had been on the bobbin for so long, they didn't have much spring any more. So, when I plyed it seemed over twisted. As soon as it hit it's bath it settled down and came out very balanced. Yea!

From A Soaker and ...

It seems like this week has just flown by. It is probably due to having some activity everyday. Andrew is really enjoying his swimming and tumbling lessons though. He seems to like knowing that it if is Tuesday, that means he has tumbling. He was much better at listening to his teachers at both lessons this week - although I did have to leave the gym during tumbling for a little bit because he was paying more attention to me sitting on the side than to his teacher. I think the activities are good for him since he likes them and it gives him a focused way to use some of his energy rather than just being crazy in the house. Although, today he had so many things he wanted to play with his toys that he kept himself busy all afternoon. Tim had his first week of classes so he was gone two night this week but I didn't have choir. Next week is the first week both things are going on. Bedtime gets a little tricky, but it has been going better than last semester since Nicholas is a little more predictable.

Now for some knitting time. I just have to decide what I want to work on. I am thinking about a baby sweater pattern I found a year or two ago. It had a three month and a twelve month size so I wasn't sure about making it, until I put some nine month sized clothes on Nicholas today and found they fit very well. He is just growing faster than I can keep up with.