I Love My New Hat!

After showing you my latest handspun yarn I suddenly realized what the perfect project for it would be: Urchin.  Putting all other projects aside I cast on right away. My yarn is a bit thinner than what the pattern called for so I cast on 30sts for the largest size. I had a lot of fun knitting it: watching the colours change and how interestingly the hat is shaped.

I finished seaming it 10 minutes we were supposed to leave for dinner and I put it on. My kids did not like it at all. They were trying to tell me this in a nice way, which made me laugh. So I decided to freak my kids out a bit and wear the hat in public. Gasp! ( My husband supported me saying that he liked it.)

The heat is a pleasure to wear. It is warm, cozy and does not scratch. When I spun the yarn I thought it was a bit scratchy, but it is not. And the hat makes me feel good. I just love to have a pretty hat that I completely made from scratch, undeyd fibre that is.

I showed it to my friend the other day and she said:”It looks great and you can push all your dreadlocks in there!” Which is so good advice since I have just as many dreadlocks as a vegan has leather shoes! ( Do I have to tell you, that it looked fantastic on her? She has this cute pixie style hair cut…)

Handspun Coopworth

This is a Coopworth roving that I have dyed and spun recently. As a beginner I start each project with the question what I want to learn or improve on. This time I wanted to make a single ply yarn with a low twist and make it fairly even using the long draw method.

So far I have most often worked with top, where all the fibres have been combed and are parallel. In the roving the fibres go in all directions and you can see in the finished yarn, that it has a bit of a halo. As far as my plans went I did quite well with the low twist. When I took the yarn out after setting the twist it was nearly balanced, but as you can see it is not even, not by a long shot. ( I know it is so obvious now, but when the yarn is on the bobbin under tension it looks much more even.  )

I liked the long draw, but I could not figure out what to do when too much fibre was pulled out. ( The long draw is recommended for working with rolags, maybe that is the reason.) A friend suggested spinning from the fold and I’ll try that next time.

Looking at the yarn I have to say I like it a lot. It is about 140 yards and I don’t know yet what I am going to do with it. I am already on the next project…

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a good start in the New Year. For the first time all the kids were up until midnight. They got so used to staying up late, that they are still struggling to get up early in the morning now that school has started again. ( So am I, actually.)

I used the winter break, to organize my studio, read and play Settlers of Catan with my family. I also ate way too much, but it was all so good!

This year I only made one handmade gift and it was for my friend. I used a merino/silk top that I dyed and spun to a bulky 2ply yarn at 2.5 sts/inch. I cast on 22sts and knit in moss-stitch for 58cm ( about 23 inches) added four button holes (over 2 sts) and cast off.

The neckwarmer was 60 cm long and 21 cm (23inch x 8inch) wide when I ran out of yarn. I used 110g (4oz).