Well, I finally found a use for the merino/carbonized bamboo yarn I spun a while back. My husband requested a warm winter cap and when I asked him to look at my handspun and see what he might like it made out of, that’s what he selected.

In some ways he has very simple tastes–for example, he probably wouldn’t have liked anything with a lot of cabling–but in other ways he is quite picky. The first hat I knit (shown above on me) he wasn’t crazy about because it was knit at a fairly loose gauge and he didn’t think it would be warm enough. So I decided I would keep the first one for myself thinking it would be a perfect running cap.

Here is attempt #2, which he likes a lot.

This hat was knit on much smaller needles (#3 and #2 instead of #6), and has a single rib over the ears. Actually, it’s two layers worth of ribbing; what I did was knit most of the hat in stockinette, rib a couple of inches to go over the ears, do a row of purl to create a fold line, and rib another couple of inches. Before sewing the bottom of the second part of the ribbing to the inside of the hat, I cut a strip of wool felt from an old coat and inserted the strip between the ribbing layers. Voila, an extra-warm hat.

Both of these hats were knit from the top-down, using this pattern by Charisa Martin Cairn. It’s a very adaptable pattern; instructions are given for several hat variations and you can use any weight of yarn for it.

I know, I know…practically every knitter has made a pair of Fetchings, including me–it’s my second pair. There is a good reason for that though: it’s a great pattern!


I made this pair with the yarn shown here. It’s a three-ply merino that I spun from some roving from Zarzuela Fibers‘ Etsy shop. I originally purchased the roving with the socks in mind, but because the yarn turned out a bit heavier than I wanted, I decided to make another pair of Fetchings instead.

By the way, in case you haven’t heard, the new Spring Knitty.com issue went live yesterday. I’ve already put the Decimal Cardigan in my queue!

Here’s my latest finished object–it’s a beret I knitted with a Coopworth and alpaca yarn I spun (a two ply yarn, one ply of each). The pattern is the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret by Natalie Larson (Ravelry link).

I was looking for something a little fun and different, and this fit the bill. The cables kept my attention while knitting, and the final product is a bit more stylish than a lot of knitted hats.

Overall, I’d say this was a success!

Remember the socks I was talking about in my last post? Well, as you can see, the pair is complete.

These are kind of on the thick side; much thicker socks than I typically make. But on the positive side, I do like how the yarn turned out, other than the weight – the colors are great, and the yarn is squishy and springy.

I think my spinning goal for the year is to work towards spinning the perfect fingering weight yarn. Right now, I’m waiting to get this – ar superwash merino top – from Zarzuela’s Fibers – that’s going to be my next attempt.

Here’s what I’ve been knitting the past couple of evenings:

It’s the first sock of a pair I’m knitting for my husband from some yarn that I spun on my wheel, from a ‘Sheep to Shoe’ kit I got from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I’m going with a very basic pattern here – just a 1 x 1 rib, with a short row heel. It’s going really quickly because the yarn is quite a bit thicker than I would normally use for socks. I’d say it’s on the heavy side of DK, whereas I’d typically use fingering weight. They’re going to be too heavy to wear in shoes, so I told him that they be his ‘around the house’ socks. No matter – he seems to like them so far anyway.

I have another finished object to show you today:

It’s a neckwarmer (really for me, but well-modeled by my dog Amigo) made using the Morningside Neckwarmer. I used my own handspun for this one: a two-ply yarn made from one ply of alpaca fiber and one ply of bison fiber. It’s very soft and incredibly warm – in short, everything you’d want in a neckwarmer.

This was quick to knit, and as a bonus, I’d say it’s an excellent pattern to use handspun yarn in. Both because it requires a small amount of yarn and because it looks okay if the yarn thickness varies a bit. Although it’s been almost too warm here to wear it in the past few days, I’m sure I’ll get a lot of wear out of it once our temperatures turn more seasonable.

Here’s my latest finished piece of knitting – it’s a scarf knit with the hemp I spun a few weeks ago. My plan all along when I was spinning this fiber was to make a scarf from it using one of the patterns in Lisa Lloyd’s new book, A Fine Fleece.

Unfortunately, I didn’t end up with quite enough yardage to make the scarf as written. The pattern called for repeating the lace pattern three times over the width, and I quickly realized that if I did three repeats across, the scarf would be too short to wrap around even the thinnest neck. So, instead, I opted to go with one repeat instead of three, and using a bigger needle to get a wider repeat. The result? A long (probably over 7 feet), skinny-ish scarf.

Here’s a close-up view that shows the lace repeat much better. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the results. I just wish that I had finished it when the weather was still cool enough to wear it!