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This is the Ballarat Soup Bus. I haven't seen it in action, but I went up to see the bus today, and the new one they're just starting to do up (which you can see there on the right)

They put a request on Facebook this week for cans and sugar and milk, etc. because they'd run right out. I think they got a good response! This is their donation morning (Saturday 9-10:30 at the corner of Eureka and Fussell Sts) and there were cars all over and their little storeroom was a chaos of new donations. I'd taken some cans and milk and sugar with me, too, but mainly I wanted to finally donate my little stash of hats.

Here are some quick shots of them all as I packed them into ziplock bags.

So! Much! Fun! I've finished another NEWT hat and I'm working on number 7 and 8. My holidays are almost up, but I've gotten a good head start. And my NY resolution of 50 hats for the Soup Bus is going well. 16 of these are from this year, so 34 to go :)

Hats.

Hats. I'm a bit ahead in hats for this NEWT project, but a bit behind in spinning. Five of the six I need for "50%" are done. Still have quite a bit of spinning to do, though, and some plying.

These all look big on Jasmine. I think I like them big and slouchy. I'm packing up some hats from the hat box, now, since I told the Soup Bus people I'd have a bag of hats for them in April. Now that Jasmine has helped me get pics I can add them to the box.

I've only spun the singles of two lots of "Closer to Home" so far, and now I'm spinning the Mars one. It's not my favorite colorway, actually, so my spinning mojo is a bit low. However, in between the last two, I re-plied my BFL sock yarn from the last NEWT. I wasn't very happy with the twist, and so I took David's advice and overplied it, forgetting "balance".

When I held up the skein it twisted on itself a few times (which means it's unbalanced: ie. The twist of the singles should equal the opposite twist of the plying). But as soon as I washed it, it hung straight! So I finally have a 2ply I'm quite happy with. I still think it's a bit thin for my CSM, but I'll give it a try (next month) and see. Looks much better than the old twist, anyway.

Old twist

New twist

Begin again

Here's my list from the last post, with completed things. I love the last week of a month, with its HPKCHC deadlines and All the Finished Things!

* spinning for Quidditch (a third done)

"Triumph" on SCF Merino. Spun 5/6 of it to N-ply and 1/6 of it to 3ply, just to see how it looked.

* socks for Quidditch (needs cuffs, heels and toes x2)

* socks for a class (needs cuffs, heels and toes x2, too)

This Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock made quite nice dense fabric (with my CSM) for a change. The irregular pooling annoys me, though :)

* a class I haven't even started yet.

Decided on weaving. The class prompt had to do with "being prepared" and used Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy as an example ("Always bring a towel"). I used 42 different sock yarn scraps (as 42 is an important number in HHGG) and wove a "towel" of my own.

Twisted all the ends.

Got Jasmine to be my model again :) She does it well.

* another class I haven't started yet.

And one more spin. This is a 3ply (after liking the Triumph one) of "Primordial" in SCF MCN (Merino/ Cashmere/ Nylon). This was a freebee from SCF (random monthly prize). I also have another one, which I'll probably N-ply to see how they look. I love the MCN, and the colors!

 Now it's April, and I've started NEWT number 9. This time I'm doing a mix of Arithmancy ("make at least ten things the same") and Astronomy ("interpret something astronomical in fibre"). I'm spinning about a kilo of fibre for Earth and Mars (the February SCF club was based on the movie "The Martian" and I have the Mars and Earth colorways for that) and ten hats for the ten biggest moons in the solar system.  I have 2 weeks of holidays coming up (after one last night shift tonight!) and I'm going to get as much done as I can, especially hats!