Wool in the house

Hi. Did I tell you that my brother-in-law, Allen, lives in rural Ohio? And that he has friends who have sheep? And that he knows I'm crazy for wool? Well, he may have unwittingly just provided us with a month-long project to keep two little girls and their Mommy and maybe even their Daddy (who happen to all be on a month-long TV ban) busy through this, the bleakest month of the year.

Last Fall Allen dropped by for a rare visit (did I mention that my kids ADORE him?). He brought two, GIANT bags of freshly shorn wool, all poopy and dusty and smelling sheepy in the most wonderful of ways. And I tucked them away on our back porch because I didn't know quite what I was going to do with them.

For scale: I'm standing on the table looking down at this glorious pile

And now I know. I will order some special soap to wash the poopy, dusty, sheepy from the wool, some brushes to card it, and the girls and I will go to town and try to make some roving.  Maybe I'm in over my head here. The wool you see in  that image above is sitting on my kitchen table, and that is just half of one bag. There is so much more where that came from. And yes, I washed my kitchen table after I put it away.

Overkill? I just think it looks SO COOL.

I envision next Saturday afternoon: the girls and their Daddy and I around the kitchen table, washing the goo and the gunk from the fleece. The girls are giggling and washing away while Chris and I share knowing glances. The mess doesn't bother me. The hours fly by. None of us think about the Fox or the Hound or Tinker Bell or Peter Pan or those crazy folks from Big Love.

We'll see how close it comes to this little fantasy.

In the meantime, take a look at what I've done with the finished products of poopy wool fleece these days. Three new baby sweaters. I know several people with babies on the way and I just couldn't help myself. I can't stop knitting these things, so fast and satisfying. I was a bit impatient for this little photo shoot, though. The sun was shining - as rare as a visit from Uncle Allen, these days. The sweaters aren't blocked properly and the dangling yarns have not been woven in, though they are tucked underneath in an attempt to hide them. Rather productive of me, I might confess. You know what that means...I have a stack of Spanish compositions waiting for me to grade. Gotta keep knitting!

Pattern: Baby Camilla, Yarn: Quince & Co Lark - lichen

My gauge was ever-so-slightly off, and the neck is higher than it should be, But I think it works. Again, it will look better when it's blocked and the underarm seams are sewn.

Pattern: Anna & Heidi Pickles Baby Vest, Yarn - Cascade Alpaca + some hand painted sock yarn whose name now escapes me. I messed up the decreases at the yoke. Darn. Still cute. Will do more.

Pattern: Hannah Fettig's Sock Yarn Sweater, Yarn: ? Stashed sock yarn. No label.

Happy Weekend!