This was a week of good news and bad news. First good news, I've made a lot of progress on quite a few projects over the last few days. My hubby took a vacation to get some projects done around the house. In addition, he gets to spend a heck of a lot of time w/ my daughter as well, so it leaves me to do things I normally don't get much time to do!

Then, there is the saga of my husband's slippers. I promised him I'd make him a pair before Christmas, and of course, he got bumped down on the priority list (poor guy!) So I finally sat down and started working on them. I had a theory that I'd make a pair for my daughter first... knowing full well she'd never wear them. I thought of them as a trial run. Thank God I did this! I was the dutiful fiber addict, and first looked in my stash to see if there was something I could use. I needed something neutral and VERY soft... my hubby has very sensitive tootsies :-D. I found a beautiful merino (Maggi Knits Merino Aran), but apparently didn't look at the label closely enough... Superwash wools ALWAYS say so in big letters on the label. I didn't see anything obvious on the label, so I proceeded to make the slippers... Well, apparently my assumption was wrong. Unfortunately, I didn't discover this until I went to check on their status in the hot wash and saw that they weren't shrinking... oops! I went back and did see that they had the cute little machine wash logo... couldn't they make that thing a little more intuitive, and, well, BIG? Oh well, back to the drawing board.

So on to my second try... IBK's Lindon Merino. I know, a bit high end for felting, but I had some spare trim yarn left over from a pair of shorts... just enough for a pair of 2 year old slippers. Besides, my husband puts up with a lot... the least I can do is make him the perfect slippers! As you can see, they did actually felt this time :-D

The sad part of all of this? Despite this, they still aren't soft enough! So, on to the be all and end all of soft and feltable... 100 Pure Wool. If this doesn't work, nothing will! We'll see... but for the moment, I'm sick of slippers, so I'm taking a break from them and will try again in a week.



Next up, was a Nantasket Basket. I'm apparently on a felting roll! I let my daughter pick the colors herself... I'm just glad they don't clash!

The good news is this turned out well on the first try. Yay!


Next up, the pants. The good news is that I finally finished them. They are a beautiful Targhee from Mosaic Moon in Seadragon. The only problem is that Cassie won't wear them either! In fairness, this is the first time I've used Targhee. Usually I use BFL. Apparently, she's as picky as her Daddy!

I haven't washed or lanolized them yet, so there may still be hope. Lanolizing usually softens the wool. So maybe she'll tolerate them then... but I'm not optimistic!

Then of course there is this... my biggest high point of the week so far. A yarn sale! AND it was kismet that I was there...

I don't like going to yarn shops with my daughter because she LOVES to explore and pull out all the yarn (she makes mommy proud! :-D) So, since my husband is home, I had an opportunity to try going to a new shop I've wanted to visit for a while. When I get there, I find out they are having a HUGE winter sale... I'll admit, I went a little berzerk! There's Claudia's Handpainted sport weight merino, Lorna's Laces Shepherds Sock (2 colorways!), Mountain Colors Bearfoot, and a new patterning yarn I've never heard of -- Universal Yarn's Ditto. I'm so excited!

And finally, a new project... the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl using the handspun finnI finished before Christmas (see previous post). It's hard to see in this picture, but so far, it's turning out REALLY well. It's so cool to be doing this with handspun, too. So far, most of the items I've made with my handspun have been either scarves or small quick items. This is the first big project! As a result of this excitement, I'm a bit obsessed with this project, and everything else has been forgotten for the moment. Ah well, I'll get back to them eventually...