(mostly) FO's

I've been in a little bit of a knitting rut lately. Don't tell the secret spook endpaper's but it's all their fault. So I decided to stop stressing about the mitts and to devote some time learning to spindle. I stumbled upon this wonderful website while at work which answered a lot of questions I had. After the spindle began to wobble with all the spun alpaca goodness on it I wound up my first ball. Then onto the next. I used the same fiber - more alpaca cream colored. This time, after the first couple inches, I did a much better job of keeping the fiber the same thickness. Though, I still do better with the park and draft method, mostly cuz I cant keep the darned thing from spinning in the opposite direction and undoing all I've done. I also think I'm still spinning thicker than the spindle can handle b/c it wasnt long before it was wobbling again. So I wound up my second single ball.



Here I am winding up the second single. Using a little ceramic cup I made this past summer works perfect to hold the spindle while I wind. Notice the even thickness!!















Here are my first two singles. The one on the left is the very first - you can see all the varying thicknesses. The one on the right is much better except for that first couple inches when I started it - thats on the top right of the ball.
I think I'll have to get a heavier spindle to ply the yarn. I'm considering using a suggestion I saw on the Ravelry boards and plying it w/ colored thread so that it doesnt get super thick. But that's for later, first I'll do some more spindling practice.




Onto (nearly) FO 2!
Finally started some holiday knitting. Here is the beginning of my lace snowflake star ornament. The Emily Oaker cast on took several tries and I'm still not comfortable with it, so I may eventually switch to another method.










It knit up super quick though, so that's good.
This is what it looked like when I went to bed last night after 1 hour of work.













And here we are tonight after only 2 hours work. It's almost all done! It just needs to be starched. Despite the icky beginning - its not even easy to knit off of the EO cast-on, I like the pattern and am hoping to make roughly 40 of them by x-mas to give away as ornaments to my family. Wish me luck! (thankfully (or not!) I'll have quite a bit of boredom time to knit once I get to the parents house on dec 20th).