wetbags...tie dye... and general knitting

I finished up the benefit wetbag I auctioned on wahmchicks.com and put it in the mail today. I ended up embroidering got cloth? on one side and got wool? on the other.
It was a good excuse to time how long that takes. Like everything else it takes longer than I thought - about an hour each. But, that's an hour of sitting in front of the tv so it's not totally devoted to the work like machine knitting is.

I've been timing my machine knitting and am quite surprised by that as well. I did it several times to make sure I was getting a fair idea. The body takes an hour, the ribbing takes an hour to an hour and a half. The legholes which I do by hand seem to take the longest for me, sometimes an hour each! I don't know why except I do a tapestry needle bindoff which is slow but so unobstrusive and stretchy that I think it's worth the extra time.

I also spend some time felting my soakers, maybe a 1/2 hour, then after they are done there's lanolizing....photography...etc...

anyway, if other knitter's estimates are accurate my machine knitting is not as fast or no faster than some experienced soaker wahms.
So, since the wahmchicks went well I thought why not auction a couple of soakers instead of putting them on the site and see how they do. I am happy to report that so far they are selling for quite a but more than I charge on the site. They are merino tho and it's been a while (year?) since I did any like this. The medium in particular has some cool circle formations on it.

I bought some fishermans today. I know I swore off it after I go that scratchy batch but I miss it! some of my best soakers are fishermans and the moms that have them tell me they work great. I really like the fabric I get with it and have not been able to duplicate it with any other yarn. So, I'll just buy it one skein at a time, swatch it and determine that it's a soft batch before I do anything serious with it.
Unfortunately my local Michaels no longer carries the fishermans so I have to pay full price for it at hancock. grrr.

The loden green soaker I was making is finished but I'm thinking about doing something other than the got cloth on it. Haven't decided yet. I have this idea about doing a take on camoflage which is kind of silly but I'm afraid if I get started I'll end up doing wayyyy too many leaves and taking an eternity on it lol
I need to start keeping a notebook with me cause I think of things and can't remember them later. I know I had a clever idea for that soaker somewhere.....

I'm busting to make another pair of "perfectly different" shorts which is my take on Pamela's perfection pants. I'm changing the crotch some to more closely match my original pattern but I think I will stick with the garter. Haven't decided. My miniature stockinette version was a bit of a bear to graft.
I'd better finish up the first pair tho. I have the body knit but I need to go back and reknit a leg. I think my gauge it diff or something cause it's a little longer. That's happening to me a lot lately. I'm going to need to make a rule about sitting in one place to do symmetrical things, or perhaps do them at the same time. hmmm...not a bad idea.

tie dye wetbag is unfinished. It's not esp pretty to me but someone else might think it was just the thing. I used some of the "scratchy" fishermans since who cares if their wetbag is soft lol.