Alpaca 'At the first

Yesterday, I finished the alpaca hat I started knitting last week, soaked it and blocked it.

I don't have one of those polystyrene head things, so I improvised with a balloon!  This morning, it's nearly dry, but not quite, so I'm leaving it a bit longer:

I'm rather pleased with it.  I mentioned previously (I think) that I was knitting it so the fabric wasn't too dense and it seems to have worked.  I had a bit of a rest while I was doing the crown shaping yesterday and put the hat on to see how it felt and although light, it's still warm.  I've also blocked it so it's a relaxed fit for me, so hopefully it will fit the male recipient nicely.

The crown came together rather well (if I do say so myself):

So now, it's on to other things.

This morning, I finished spinning this single (more of the alpaca from Hurricane):

In a little while, once I've got some housey jobs out of the way, I shall ply it.  The ribbed hat yarn was a 3-ply (three spun strands) and this lot will be 2-ply.  I shall wind it into a ball on my ball winder, and then ply using the inside and outside strands so that I use up all the yarn.  The finished yarn is destined to be another hat.

Once I've cleaned up my wheel and got rid of the dust that Hurricane the Alpaca had been rolling in, I'll get back to spinning the blend of merino and silk that I started last year.  I think I bought 600g of fibre and so far have spun 100g.  I want to make a sweater from it.

I'm off to fold some laundry, put another load in the machine and have a general tidy up downstairs.  I've got a meeting at DD1's school so my mother-in-law is coming round to look after DD2 as it's very difficult to get her to sit still for any length of time and this is an important parents' meeting regarding the subject choices DD1 will soon be making for her GCSE exams.  A friend and I were saying only the other day that it seems no time at all since I was asking how much uniform she suggested I buy when DD1 first started school at the age of 4yrs 8mths.  She turned 14 at Christmas and is now very much a young lady and not a girl.  As an example of how much she's grown up, she's not coming home between school and the meeting (we live 12 miles from her school and she travels by bus and train each day) but instead is going into the town with at least two of her friends and will buy her evening meal there (probably KFC or Burger King) and meet me back at the school.

Right, off to fold and put away, followed by a bit of ironing.  I'm sure dirty clothes breed whilst they're in the basket :D