More Hats

More hats. This is the hat I made for Emily early in the month. The yarn is Lisa Souza’s ‘Fat Bunny’, which is a heavyweight angora/merino blend with a little nylon to hold it together.

Doesn’t it have a lovely halo? This is the softest thing. One hank of Fat Bunny would make a simple hat to fit anyone who didn’t have a large-size head – I used size 9 needles and knitted right down to the last 5 yards of the skein or so, and I could wear this hat without too much difficulty.

This is my current hat in progress, which may be my last one for awhile as I’ve run out of yarn that’s asking to be hats (but I haven’t run out of cool hat patterns).

This is the Greenery Hat by Lilith Parker, which I found while browsing the hat patterns on Ravelry. I am using some handspindled yarn that I’d been saving for the right hat pattern to come along. The brim is green Wensleydale that I got at the Hatchtown Spindles booth at Maryland Sheep and Wool a couple of years ago, and the white is some Cotswold cross something or other that I got from Karen when she sold me a pair of viking combs a couple of years ago. It is a bit slow going because the yarn is sort of worsted weight and I’m using size 6 needles, but it is working up to be a heavy, soft hat that will be very warm.

I’m still puttering away on Tangled Yoke – I have joined up at the beginning of the yoke and started the cable pattern.

I have to start thinking about buttons – it calls for 9 half-inch buttons. I can’t run to a local fabric store anymore and buy nine imitation wood buttons, as the local craft stores have closed. Any thoughts on the perfect button for this??

I finished up the purple Wensleydale. OK I am not that fond of Wensleydale. It is pretty yarn but not something I’m likely to run out and want to spin again.

That larger skein is FIVE OUNCES. I don’t know how I did that. I have NEVER squeezed five ounces onto one of my Symphony bobbins before, and by the time I got done the wheel was pretty much in shock at the weight it was trying to turn. The whole batch is 6.5 ounces and about 220 yards so it is DENSE yarn. The thing about it that I like is the luster – look at that shine. Clearly this would knit on big needles. I have no idea what I will do with it. Maybe I will try to sell it.
Speaking of selling handspun: For folks that are on Ravelry, you can see the results of the first handspun yarn I ever sold. It is here. This is some wool/mohair I spun a couple of years ago and it popped to the surface during my last destash – it was about 11 ounces and 800 yards. Someone on Ravelry bought it out of my trade/swap stash and knitted this cute sweater with it – she put a contrasting ribbing on it to eke the thing out of her available yarn. It’s such a thrill to see what someone invented with the inspiration of my yarn.

After getting that big fat yarn off the Symphony I played with my new fast whorl.

This teeny thing arrived unfinished and I slapped some stain on it so it wouldn’t look so much like something I made in my garage. It lets my wheel spin at 25:1. I grabbed up a few grams of some combed samples and spun a skinny single which I will ply later in the week. If this turns out well, I may tackle the bombyx silk I bought at Rhinebeck…