Sunday, January 20, 2008

Handknit and handspun

Hey guess what everyone! It worked! I knit something with yarn that I spun! 

Remember this bit of overspun, blue tweediness?


Blue lagoon.JPG

Well, with it I made a hat!!

Tweed beret

Pattern: Tweed Beret from Interweave Knits Winter 2006
Yarn: My Own Handspun!!
Needles: Size 7 in DPNs and various circulars
Time: About a week

The overspun tweediness of the yarn ended up working out really well for the pattern. I also had the perfect amount of yarn: just a tiny, smaller-than-a-ping-pong ball's worth at the end. I was surprised; I'd thought I'd have too little yarn, but no, it was all fine! It was a big tough on my hands: very little stretch to the yarn and therefore not the nicest to knit with. I also could have made the hat a bit floppier.  It's pretty thick yarn, and was nice and toasty when Coffeeboy took this picture yesterday during a snowfall.  Overall, though, I really like how it came out and am terribly excited that my yarn actually "worked"! 

I have another FO that I've been forgetting to post: Coffeeboy's socks. I finished these while we were in Colorado, a few days before New Year's - the last FO of 2007.

Retro rib socks

Pattern
: Retro Rib socks from Interweave's book Favorite Socks
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Pioneer, 2 skeins
Needles: size 1, magic-looped
Time: Nov. 2007-Dec. 2007

I really enjoyed this pattern; the socks were easy to knit and the ribbing controlled some of the pooling of the yarn. Coffeeboy seems to like them too! I "gave" him the yarn as a graduation present, with the promise that they'd become socks, and I finally have kept that promise!

I've been spinning a lot lately, as you might have seen in that last post. For the past almost 2 weeks I've been spinning 8 oz. of red, "warm wine" yarn. It's amazing how much longer it takes when I'm really trying to do things right and spin more even, consistent singles!  Last night I plied it onto 2 bobbins; today I need to take that off the bobbins and finish plying the yarn, probably a bobbin and a half. Then I will have a spinning FO to show you, too!

6 comments:

schrodinger said...

Ooooh! It looks great, congratulations!! Now you've got me inspired to maybe try knitting with some of my handspun....

Teri S. said...

Congratulations! The hat looks great and the color looks so good on you. I still haven't knit anything with my handspun, such that it is. I need to get my spinning mojo back.

Anonymous said...

Your hat looks great- the style really complments the handspun- and yeah we got a bit of snow here- just enough to cover everything and make it all slippery!

sgeddes said...

The hat looks great! I love the ue of the handspun. How many yards did the hat use?

Sheepish Annie said...

Nice work on that hat! I love knitting with my handspun...which begs the question: why don't I do it more often!

Jessica said...

Yay! There is nothing quite like knitting with your own yarn. Very cute on you too! :) The socks look great too. :)