Back into the swing of things

And what have I been doing with all my time, you ask? Well, here's some of what I've been doing...

Some of you may remember that my big spinning & crocheting project for last year was Sophia's Sweater.

Well, last year right after my birthday and just before my spinner guild's Spin-In, I found out that my boss's wife would be having twin girls this summer. (They were born in July and you can see pictures of them by clicking here.)


So I got the idea that I would make two more sweaters for "our new girls" - (and by the way, I did clear it with the mom and dad before I did all this work on "wool" sweaters - yes, they said they would love to have them)

The Spin-In gave me a wonderful opportunity to look for some fiber to make these sweaters and I found just what I was looking for at the Sunset Fibers booth - they had all this gorgeous Corriedale fiber - I picked one with bright primary colors (above) and one with lavenders, pinks and greens - (little did I know at the time that they were naming one of the girls "Violet" - could this be more perfect for her?)


The rainbow yarn will be for Annie's sweater - I kind of panicked when I was about half way through spinning the rainbow yarn and was afraid that I wouldn't have enough (I really MUST start writing down how much yarn these projects take!) - so I plied part of it with white Shetland - I think it will make a nice contrast band on the bottom of the sweater and on the sleeves and hood - If I have some left over I'll make some boots or something.

If you click on the picture of the yarn for Violet's sweater, you will be able to see that I plied part of it with grey (Shetland of course).

They had the girls at our company party last week. It is astonishing how fast they are growing. I'm planning on making these in the 18 month size so they would be ready for next fall - but I want to get them done soon so they can use them next spring if they want - better sooner than later, huh?

The Corriedale, by the way was wonderful to spin - almost as much fun as spinning Targhee - there was also an article in the last "Spin-In" magazine about spinning specifically for crochet - Right now, I solve that issue by plying a little more tightly than most people - but I'll try it out and let you know what I think.