Red Yarn, a Healthy Carbide, and My Mother's Christmas Sweater

This week I made another skein of yarn!  This one is red and I tried to correct the mistakes that I made with the black one.  I definitely overspun the last one so I tried to spin this one a bit less.

But unfortunately, what I ended up with was uber underspun yarn!

Some of it is fine, but some isn't twisty enough.  Hopefully the next skein will balance out the two and be perfect.  I have noticed that spinning this one, which was wool was more physically difficult for me than the first one.  It was easier to draft in that the fibers seemed to stick together more than the alpaca did, so They were helping me out a bit in that way, but I really had to tug on them to draft out as thinly as I wanted to go.  It wasn't a big deal at first, but when I was spinning and watching a movie (so I was spinning for a few hours) my left thumb was a bit sore.  I'm not sure if that is just the way it goes or if it is specific to this yarn.

In other news, the hubbs and I have been keeping a good eye on Carbide to see if he is getting any better, and he isn't limping anymore-which is wonderful news!  We are thinking that he won't need surgery for a while yet, which is great because now we can save up a bit more beforehand.

Also, some of our good friends from Columbus OH let us know that they are coming out to visit us next weekend!  I am super pumped because I definitely miss them and it will be so wonderful to see them!

As for knitting, I only just started the sweater that I am making for my mother.  I decided to go a different way with it because the first sweater that I planned to knit for her was giving me some gauge issues. 

I really like this one and I think that it will look beautiful on my mother.  I especially love the XO cable pattern on the sides of the bust.  That is how my mother signs off on all of her notes to us-and has since we were little kids and she would sometimes include encouraging notes in our lunchboxes.  Well, she actually did "XXXOOO"- so I might have to alter the pattern to reflect that!

And finally, I started a super cool gift for the hubbs.  I am making it for our second anniversary next August.  I am starting now because I think that it will really take THAT LONG to complete it!  Unfortunately, I can't post photos of the ongoing project on here because, as far as I know, he is the only person who READS this blog! haha  If anyone else ever does read this blog and is curious, feel free to check it out on Ravelry (to which the hubbs does not have access!).  My userid is "twopeasinapod" and it is in "my projects".  Oh-and by the way- I am designing the entire project myself.  It is my first time, so I am pretty pumped!