Now that's more like it

I finished a baby blanket a couple of days ago, and washed it last night. I was more or less ambivalent towards it before I washed it, but afterward? My goodness. it's nice. It's just a basic knit/purl pattern, but in such a way that one is in a pattern against the other so that they make the shapes of bears. Washing it really made the bears pop out more like they should, I think. Confused by what I mean? Here, let me show you!

Well, first, this is what I started out with:

That would be two skeins of lots of yarn. A pound each - 1020 yards. I made one into a center-pull ball (quite a beautiful one, which I have yet to be able to replicate well) because I couldn't find the end of yarn that normally pulls from the center of store-bought skeins like that. I ended up pulling out a huge chunk of yarn from the center, and just couldn't find it, and it was messy, so I just took the one on the outside and turned it into a ball. It took like two hours, though, so since I pretty easily found the inner end of the yarn on the other skein, I didn't bother balling that one. It is quite a space-saver, though!

Anyway. Here's the finished result, pre-washing:

Not too bad, I suppose. But it looks a lot more polished post-washing:

(The hat is also going to my friend who's getting this blanket. It's one of my older baby hats that I just happened to come across a couple of weeks ago. Since she's having a boy, I figured, hey, might as well give it to someone! But, like all baby items I make, I don't know if it's the right size or anything. Oh well.)

Last week, I also made my first real alpaca item, which I've worn...a lot since then. I love it.

Anyway. It's pretty basic, but it's so warm, and so so so soft. And I kind of love that it has a hint of the smell of animal. Maybe I'm just making that up, but oh well. I like it. (Of course, this coming from the girl who has been known to "crave" the smell of manure at least a few times while I've been in DC. I like farms.)

Last night, I also cast on a new project - probably my most challenging to date. It's sort of a lacy shawl. I'm using this yarn that's part bamboo blend! Pretty excited about that. (Also, ignoring the fact that I literally have at least five projects on needles right now. But, you know, different situations call for different projects! I'll be finishing at least one of them today, too, so that's good. Of course, I'll probably just turn around and start another one, but whatever. :-P )

Well. Now it's off to send a couple items to their new owners!