So I've started a couple new projects.  I am ignoring that darn baby blanket for a while because I found a few mistakes that I made 4 rows ago and I don't feel like ripping it back right now.  Boo.

Anyways, here's the scarf I'm making for my dad:



And I just realized that I took a picture of the "wrong side" of the scarf.  The other side looks pretty cool too   I call it "Dad's Brown and White Rice Scarf."

Yarn: Love Knit (Brown Sepia 1205), Caron Dazzleaire (Off White 2615)
Needles: US 15

Holding the two yarns together, CO 16 sts
Purl one row, substituting a K1 for the last st
Row 1: sl1 wyif, *K1, P1, rep from * until last st
Row 2: sl1 wyif, P rest of row, substituting a K1 for the last st
Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until desired length achieved, ending on Row 2
BO

* sl1 wyif = slip 1 as to knit, with yarn in front

I also started the Scrunchable Scarf:


[Note:  Because of my sleep/work schedule, I have been "forced" to take pictures at night.  I don't like the pictures I took with flash, so you are stuck with these yellowed photos.]

The pattern's real easy and very pretty, and the yarn is very soft, but not too easy to work with.  The loopy parts keep getting pushed back and scrunched up.  I bought it from Ebay without a label, so I don't know which brand it is.  Eh, we'll see how it goes.

AND... now for a pretty exciting bit.  I just spun my own skein of yarn!!!   I bought some undyed alpaca fiber from Ebay (where else??) and used Megan LaCore's Videos (1 2 3) to guide me.

So here's the fiber.  I pre-drafted a little to smooth it out and take out some leafy/veggie matter.  I didn't get all of it out, so my yarn's a bit dirty.  Eh.  I still think it's cool   I intentionally left the fiber a little uneven to make the yarn sort of thick-and-thin (intentionally = I just didn't try very hard to even it out because I knew I wouldn't get it very even in the first place, it being my first time spinning and all).  Also, here's my drop spindle!

 
[EDIT: I have no idea why these photos are so huge... I have tried resizing them four times already... boo...]

And, here's half of it spun up.



Here's all of it wrapped around a chair back and twisted into a mini hank.  (As you can tell, like a proud mama, I took TONS of pictures of my first handspun )



Then,  I heated some water on the stove in two big pots to near boiling.  I squirted a little Dawn dish soap into one and carefully submerged the yarn into it.  I let it soak for a few minutes and then carefully (!) transferred it to the other pot of water only and let that soak for a while (I read that disturbing the yarn too much can felt it).  Then, I took it out, wrapped it in a clean towel, and squeezed it to take out some water.  In order to let it fully dry and to set the twist in the yarn, I hung it up overnight and weighed it down with a can of Progresso soup.  But, I think I put too much twist into the fiber - some parts of the yarn kinked up on itself and when I took off the can of soup, the hank didn't hang straight and twisted a little (i.e., it wasn't balanced... I think this is the right terminology).