You know what I hate? Working to a far-too-tight deadline.

I spent more or less all weekend finishing a piece of writing, then had to pull an almost-all-nighter on Sunday night and work all day Monday to get it finished. Now, of course, I'm ill. Sore throat, the beginnings of a cold, slight headache... Fun, fun, fun.

What is also not so fun is knitting a hat out of lovely and soft Artesano Alpaca only to find upon finishing it that it looks like I am wearing a condom on my head. Seriously, it looks so ridiculous. Even D, who usually always has the wisdom to praise my knitted FOs had to admit that it isn't great:


See what I mean? And I really liked the pattern as well - it's the Button Hat pattern from Naive Knitting. I still think it's a really cute pattern - heck, I even really like the way the hat has turned out. It's the hat on my funny-shaped head that isn't a success. Such a pretty pattern... but it evidently isn't for me.

Anyway, that is one FO to be frogged in the near future...

Apart from working on my condom hat, I also finished a few spinning projects. First of all, I finally got round to carding and spinning some of the lovely Jacob fleece and Mohair that Carolyn at Kids and Knits sent me a while back. I didn't want to post about it before because I wanted so send it to her as a little thank you and wanted it would be a surprise, but she has now received the parcel, so I am free to show a picture:


My first handspun that was also prepared right from the fleece. The small skein is about 80% Mohair, 15% Jacob and 5% Silk (or thereabouts). I think it's probably around sock-weight. The bigger skein is 100% Jacob and its about aran weight. The yarn could be a little more even, but I was still experimenting with the carder and with the different texture of hand-prepared batts. Also, it isn't entirely easy to card Mohair on a drum carder. I am getting better at it, but the first try was a bit crazy. ;-)

And, because someone asked me to post a picture of the carder, here it is in all its glory:


D did such a fantastic job in building it. We initially had some problems with the direction that the card cloth needs to face, but the spinning group on LiveJournal came to the rescue, and it's all working now. The drums are probably not as 100% even as they would be with a bought carder, but overall it's working a treat.

I have also finally finished spinning and plying all the yarn that want to use for
Norah Gaughan's side-way ribs cardigan from the Fall/Winter issue of Knitscene:

10 skeins of white merino and brown Blue Faced Leicester, equalling approximately 650 m of yarn. Here is a close-up so you can see the colour variegation:


It's a 2-ply, but I used both white and brown in one of the singles to make sure that the brown wouldn't be too overpowering in the finished yarn. The result is a sort of mottled effect that I am quite happy with. Mmmm, pretty, squishy yarn. :-)

And last but not least, call me insane, but I have signed up for the 200Sox KAL that Purling Ps is hosting. 2006, the year of the sock(s):