Ow!

The crochet bug bit me! I know, weird, right? After hanging out on a forum at Ravelry for a bit we were talking about crochet and I wanted to do a differed sort of creating for a bit! I made two projects in the past couple of days. One:

(Technically 2, if you count the flower as a separate project since it's a separate pattern)

Specs:

Pattern: Baby Flapper Hat by Melissa Wen [Ravel it!] And Little Double Blossom Crochet Flower[Rav only!] by Jane Dominguez
Yarn: Plymouth Cotton Fantasy Naturale Solid
Hook: 5.5mm
Mods:
-1 fewer round of dec
-crocheted to 5.5” before doing the border
-Did the shell stitch w/ dc instead of tc and only slip stitched/chained 3 instead of 4 to make up for the dc.
-Used a different flower! I used the little double blossom crochet flower.
Thoughts: Cute! Easy! Fun!

I didn't make this for anyone in particular. I bought that cotton for a separate reason (actually it was supposed to be the pink in my log cabin blanket but it's thicker than the Cotton Fleece I'm using so I didn't like the contrast) and it's been staring me in the face for a while (What in the heck else could I do with bright pink cotton than make a child/baby hat? It did actually end up toddler sized since I used a larger crochet hook.

My second project is this little basket! I had some handspun that I had no idea what to do with, since it wasn't very much. I knew it was thick enough to go with the 5.5mm hook and so I whipped this little basket up!


Little Basket!

Specs:
Yarn: Handspun wool/silk noils dk-heavy worsted, less than 2 oz
Hook: Size 5.5mm
Pattern: Little Basket! by Me. Ravel it! Not on Ravelry? Find it here.


This project took about an hour, and I'm pretty pleased with it. I basically used all of the stuff that I learned how to do making the hat. Crocheting is so much quicker than knitting! Although it does use up so much more yarn! I am not a converted crafter, but I do think that some things just lend themselves to crochet. I will not hesitate to pick up the hook again for a satisfying little project or maybe some pretty edging on a knitted projcet. =)

Handspun Swirl

This past Sunday I decided to do some selfish knitting. There are some bigger projects that I really want to start but I'm waiting to finish a couple of other things first. So I decided to have a little self love with some of my very own handspun and yet another Ysolda pattern.

Specs:
Yarn: My own handspun
Needles: Size 10.5
Pattern: Icing Swirl Hat [Ravel it!]by Ysolda Teagues
Mods: I used a larger needle size and I only did 4 rows of the brim because I ran out of yarn!
Thoughts: I absolutely love it!

Handspun Goodness

The last you saw of my first finished skein of handspun was rather unceremonious, so I'm going to give it some more attention now. I bought a Subtle Stripes Kit from Cosymakes for the BF. Ever since Cosy was here back in November, the BF had admired her SOAR hat. He loved the colors in it and wanted one for himself. I told him that she had spun the yarn herself and in order for me to make one for him, I'd have to learn to spin, at the time I couldn't.

So the stars aligned (Okay, well, I learned to spin and Cosy started making kits for her SOAR hat) and I purchased a kit. Basically the kit comes with one 2 oz braid of one type of roving, and four 1/2 oz bundles of different colors (explained better at Cosy's blog on the SOAR hat link). You spin the 2 oz on one bobbin (or cop, if it's a spindle), and the for 1/2 oz bundles onto another bobbin and then ply them together.

Cosy suggest either doing a sequence of 4 or 8 (diving the bundles in half).

Now, my wont was to spin the fiber a heavy worsted weight and evenly, with a hot to cold striping pattern. The BF was having none of this. He wanted his hat to be unique and funky, and I certainly think that was the result. I spun the singles thick and thin, the 2 oz color had a lot of slubs, while the striping portion had only a few.

For the colors I let the BF choose the sequence, ultimately he decided to split the green color in half and from top to bottom have it green-blue-green-red/orange-brown/yellow/white. I had a decent amount of the 2 oz left over after plying so I andean plied it and kept it in case I needed extra yarn to finish the hat.

The BF, just to be difficult, decided that he wanted to wear it with the purl side out. It does look pretty cool with the purl side out, the slubs stick out more.

I didn't use a pattern. I started this had top down so I didn't have to do a gauge swatch, although I did have to restart. I started knitting it on US size 10.5 needles, but the fabric was very dense and I wasn't going to have enough yarn to finish it at that gauge. So I switched to size 11 needles and went on my merry way.

I cast on 4 sts, and kfb the first row and I did spiral increases, *k1, m1* the first round, *k2, m1* the second, etc until it was the right size. I did switch back to 10.5 needles for the ribbing at the bottom of the hat, though.

I also did need the extra bit of yarn I made by plying the base back on itself. You can tell the bottom of the hat is a pretty silvery gray.

All in all I'm very pleased with the whole process, I think it took just over a week! Ahh, just in time for summer. ;-)