Rainbow Stocking Hat

I do like a silly hat and this is a very silly hat.

I’m sure I’ve said before that I’m enjoying working with colour in the cold, dim months. I had a bag of leftover 4ply merino yarn in gorgeous colours that I wanted to do something with. So I got them out and they kind of arranged themselves into a rainbow. A slightly unfortunately arranged rainbow.

I had also been thinking of making another stocking hat after having given mine away a few years ago. These two things could become one! I looked again at the colours and refined them down to a smaller selection, happily of very similar yarns. The grey is slinky superwash with 20% nylon. The rest are pure merino. All are lovely and soft to the touch. The green and red are the (nearly) yellow and orange previously overdyed for other projects.

When I started in, I wasn’t sure I would carry on. 4ply makes for many stitches. After I did the first few coloured bands I was hooked though.

I made up the pattern as I went along. I think I’d start with 6 fewer stitches and smaller needles but I managed to drag it in to fit quickly and neatly enough.

I do enjoy the way that bottom up knitted hats feel like they accelerate as you go. This has a 6 stitch reduction every eleven rows, or twelve rows nearer the end. So that acceleration was pretty slow, but still the later stages get kind of exciting.

And then it was done!

The reverse stocking stitch bands give it a bunch of structure and bounce. It almost sits up by itself.

I put a bead in the tip to keep it round. Said bead is really a reproduction medieval woolen button. I had spare and I thought it would stay put better than a shiny bead.

There is a lot of knitting and a lot of sproing in this hat. The two pictures below show it partially stretched out and then sprung back.

and of course there must be a pic of it modelled. I was concerned that it might be TOO silly but no, I love it.

Sensible Spinning?

I have this aim to keep my spinning stash under better control than my fabric stash. However, I’ve hooked into this lovely thing called the “Aussie Bale Project”. It’s small scale production. All the fleece is from Australian small farmers, with an emphasis on coloured sheep, and the processing is done locally. Every so often, there is a release. I already had a kilo of wool tops from two different bales, plus a bunch of other fluff. Another bale is due out this week, but do I want any of it? Good question. I decided it would be sensible to spin a little of the two I already have to help me make that decision.

One is fawn coloured, a mix of corriedale and merino. It’s a fairly easy spin and makes a nice enough yarn but not quite wearable against the skin, at least for me. I’m a bit meh about the colour but it would overdye well. The new bale is supposed to be similar but greyer, which I would prefer I think, but I already have this. Hmmm.

The other I was very excited about. It’s a blend of corriedale and suri alpaca. It has turned out coarser than I hoped for though. Very easy to spin but a little bit scratchy. It does have something of that lovely limpid drape from the suri that I was looking for. I should knit a sample and see how it behaves. I wonder if it will soften with wear? I have a desire for a jumper made from variagated indigo dyed yarn. I hope that this is the fluff to make it from. I have small quantities of some softer things in stash, I wonder if including a little would have good effect? or would that be a waste?

Straight off the wheel:

and washed. I’ve started labeling skeins, realising that I’m going to get confused if I don’t. There is quite a collection of spun yarn now. Eep.

I was a bit confused that I was getting so much spin into the singles and tried to treadle slower, which I find difficult. I thought I’d dropped back to a slower ratio. Eventually I realised I’d shifted the drive band on the drive wheel, but not on the flyer. Argh, silly me. These ended up almost balanced though.