FO- Republic Hat

My A-Z stashdown continues! Now with even more Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky!

Anyway.

I had what I thought was a full skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky in a pretty light gray. This yarn was re-claimed from my most fantastically ugly fair isle skirt:



Then I skeined up the yarn and gave most of it away. Half of it was Renyold's Lopi Icelandic yarn, which matches the brown sheep perfectly when it comes to gauge.

I cast on for the Republic hat. Just as I was decreasing for crown, my yarn ran out.



I had to make some emergency calls, but a friend who I gave some of the skirt scraps to still had some on hand. I finished the hat in Lopi, which matched color-wise perfectly. The only thing is that the lopi has a lot of dark black wiry guard hairs that bloomed up, while the Lamb's Pride has more of a silver mohair halo. I trimmed up the guard hairs with a pair of sharp scissors and I can't even tell where one begins and the other ends.



I got the giant button at M&J trimming.





This got wrapped up and shipped up to Northern Maine for my Grandma's birthday. She's a pretty classy lady, and her mother used to own a hat store in Rochester, NY. She still loves hats.

The Specs:
The Republic Hat, which is a knock-off of a Banana Republic design. It's also a free pattern on this blog. I used about 100 yards of bulky weight yarn on a size 10.5 needles.

FO- Snappy Hat

I grew up in Maine, and I still have quite a few friends and family who still live there and spend the winters there. I do my very best to outfit them with overly warm accessories to make the long winter months a little more comfortable.



This is the Snappy Hat, a free pattern from Picnic Knits. I had a skein of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky to use up as part of my A-Z stashdown which paired with this pattern perfectly.



The yarn contains 15% mohair, which is warmer than wool. Cables gather the fabric and create more bulk, making a warmer hat. Plus, I made the bottom band twice as long as the pattern called for in order for the wearer to fold the brim over, keeping the ears super toasty. This might be the Perfect Storm of Warm Hats.



It's a unisex pattern, but the brown yarn makes this more XY.

Naturally, this is part of my self-imposed A-Z stashdown.

The Specs:
The Snappy Hat by Corrina Ferguson (picnicknits). I used almost a full skein of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky (125 yards) in Sable. I used US size 10 needles. The only mod I made was to make the bottom ribbing twice as long as the pattern called for (I knit for 20 rows). I was able to finish this in just a few nights of casual knitting.

FO: Architect's Hat

Last Sunday morning, a bit of a chill was in the air. I sat down with a cup of coffee, a pile of scraps of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky, and The Knitter's Book of Yarn. In a couple hours I had this:



It's the Architect's Hat. It's a top-down hat: it has a short-row cap, then stitches are picked up around the edge and the rest of the hat is knitted. It has a fun slip-stitch pattern and really took no time at all. It was quite useful when it came to using up odd lengths of yarn. I think this Lamb's Pride Bulky has been in my stash for at least 7 years now, and I was going to throw it in the garbage if I couldn't come up with a project soon.



B is for Brown Sheep...this is part of my A-Z Stashdown Challenge.



It looks a little lumpy, but I took these pics pre-blocking. A bath really evened out the slip-stitch sections.

I will totally call upon this pattern again. It would be great in quieter or natural fleece colors, or even solid colors.

The Specs:
I used US 10 needles. I'm guessing my yardage is about 130 for the whole hat, but since I was just grabbing random scraps, I have no real idea. Lamb's Pride Bulky is a bulky weight single that is a 85/15 blend of wool and mohair.

Fiber Updates

I have a lot to talk about...Rhinebeck was awesome, as always. I did list some new fibers on my Etsy store and I wanted to get those out of the way first:


4 oz of super soft merino/bamboo handpainted in the "Pink Pander" colorway.


2 oz of handpainted fine kid mohair in "Squashed Pumpkin".


4 oz of BFL in "Royal Tea".


Some really lovely Superfine Merino (17 micron!) in "Lime Margarita".

I will have some more fiber updates later this week as I need to weigh my work. I have some tussah silk that I'm very happy with and some rather funky faux cashmere.

October!

It's October! For fiber enthusiast on the east coast, the Pavlovian response to the tenth month is to start thinking even more earnestly about Rhinebeck.

Hmmm, what have we here....a wee mohair goat! Why hello there!



..and this doe-eyed ewe, a blue face Leicester:



And of course, the foliage upstate makes it all the more worth the trip:



But most people go for the good shopping and cash-purging:



and good times with friends:



and the satisfaction that you've helped out a local farmer or an indie dyer.

I consider the purchases made at Rhinebeck to be my entertainment for the winter. Squirreling away fiber for when you need it most- that's what I do best.

What's on your shopping list this year?

The Dyepot finally gets some love

Sunday morning I awoke to the pitterpat of a torrential downpour gently lulling me out of my slumber. Cool, rainy weather means only one thing: time to stew up some dyes.

I pulled out my long-neglected dyepot and the acid dyes and begun to mix colors. Whatever my mood is tends to be reflected in the final product...and for whatever reason my mood was purple that day. I feel bruised, perhaps? Naw, more like hungry for plums and eggplants and grapes. Oh, and squash as well.

Here are my victims:



I went stash-diving and pulled out some boring white wool I had tucked away. 4 oz of BFL, 2 oz of a nice Falkland and 2 oz of kid mohair.

Mohair sucks up dye brilliantly. It has high luster and it absolutely begs to be something flashy.



I had a squash on the the countertop and a huge sugar pumkin from the food share that made do this. Now if I can only figure out what the pumpkin wants to be. Please, don't say pie. We don't need pie.

Another victim of the dyepot was a bag of white Icicle.



I had an 8oz bag that came along with my carder. It's a little sparkly but not too glitzy. It's made up out of nylon, but I was cautious with it- i was afraid that I might melt it into something toxic, or worse, uncardable, so I really kept the heat down. I applied dye and really had to press it to convince it to soak up the dye. Even after soaking it in the dye jar, i was still seeing a lot of white in the center. Nylon does not wick like wool does, and it is far from absorbent. Since this was going to be thrown on the carder eventually, I didn't take too much time worrying about it.

Here are the end results:



OH my MOHAIR. That is bright! And I'm very happy with the falkland and the bfl.

And here is the Icicle:


The purple I used on the Icicle was the same that I used on the BFL! Crazy, right? It's completely different on the nylon.

I still have a bunch of silk and some faux cashmere (don't ask. or go ahead and ask. I'll tell you about it later) and some more white wool that needs its turn in the dyepot, and also some lovely cashmere and angora and cashmere silk blends that need an extra special day in the dyepot when I'm feeling especially brave.

It's almost enough for me to wish for another rainy weekend.