FO: Selbu Modern

While I'm at it, here's another hat I finished and it's my go-to winter hat this year.

It's the Selbu Modern by Kate Gagnon Osborn. I've been meaning to make it for years now.

While the pattern is written well, colorwork is always a little time-consuming as I can't read charts when I'm anywhere but home, so it takes me a little while to complete something.

The yarn is The Fiber Company Canopy Fingering in the colors "Orchid" and "Fern". I wanted something subtle and washed out to go with my muted winter palate this year. I love this pattern- it reminds me of an eastern architectural motif- and I could see stealing it for a colorwork yoke sweater.

While I could have gone up a needle size on the main part of the hat to make it slouchier as written, I like it as it is. It's very warm- the yarn floats in back makes it particularly wind-proof. Coming back to Paris after spending some balmy days in New York and it's exactly what I need to keep my ears covered. It's been barely breaking freezing in the mid-afternoon, and the dark has really set in. I'm getting used to it, but it's really wrecking havoc on my sleep cycle as I'm waking up in the morning to a few more hours of night, and that's just weird. So I'm embracing it- dressing warm and waiting for the return of the sun.

FO: Handspun Spiral Hat

Ages ago, I got a really pretty braid of roving from Freckle Faced Fibers (sadly, she has nothing listed in her etsy store right now).



It's 50% Alpaca, 30% Merino and 20% silk in her "Filly" colorway. Really pretty stuff.

I finally got around to spinning it.



I made a nice, bulky weight 2-ply (part of my ongoing effort to spin a bit thicker). I got about 140 yards from a 4-oz braid. I found a simple hat pattern and knitted away and made a cute slouchy hat. Except that after I washed and blocked it, it grew to huge sack-like proportions. Not so cute.

So, I did something slightly horrifying and threw it in the wash. It felted up nicely, and I let it dry over a mixing bowl to shape it into a cloche (which is still kind of big- amazing).





It's a bit hard to see the spiral pattern now, but it doesn't look like I've got a hat that belongs on one of those Macy's Thanksgiving floats either.

I had to go back with scissors once I had felted it and trim all the alpaca guard hairs. Those apparently don't felt at all, and it gave the hat a bristly look. I didn't notice the guard hairs at all when I was spinning and knitting the fiber.

The specs:

The pattern is "Spiral Hat" from the book "100 Designer One-Skein Wonders" (I'm not quite sure about calling this hat a wonder). I used size 8 needles and about 100 yards of yarn. It's a very easy pattern and only took me a few hours to make.