jQuery Fading Rollovers Options

[Mikeplyts]

Okay, so, I'm designing some stuff and I came to an interesting problem. I can't seem to get the navigation links to have the smooth fading effect that I'd want them to have. Mind you, I'm using a sprite for the navigation. So, yeah.

The only thing I can pretty much do is make it fade in and out from a low opacity. Like this:

CODE

$(function() {
    $('#navigation a').fadeTo('fast', 0.6);
    $('#navigation a').hover(function() {
        $(this).stop().fadeTo('slow', 1);
    }, function() {
        $(this).stop().fadeTo('slow', 0.6);
    });
});

But, I just want it to fade on it's hover state. I've tried a few plugins already, but none of them really seem to work. More so, it'd be nice to not use a plugin for what I assume is a simple effect. Help?