Koolhaus

I finished the Koolhaus hat! Remember this, my first decent handspun, made from natural grey Coopworth?I wanted to make something special with it, and a Jared Flood hat seemed right. My original idea was to make the Habitat hat with it, but my grey yarn was too bulky and the pattern had a large repeat that was difficult to adjust to a different yarn (so I went out and bought new yarn to make my Habitat, instead). Koolhaus, with its 8-stitch and 8-row repeat (pattern available here), was much more forgiving, and I was able to adjust the pattern to get a hat that worked with my yarn and still fit a normal person. I ended up using a size US 8 needle and knitting 11 pattern repeats per round (not 13 as he calls for). I knit this on 2 circulars rather than 1, because (like Kristina) I find it difficult to hold the short needles on the ends of the 16" circular Knit Picks needles. Plus, if you knit a hat on 2 circs, you don't have to switch to dpns (yuck) when the circumference narrows at the top. I knit 4 of the 8-row repeats before beginning the crown shaping. I love how well the crown shaping preserves the integrity of the stitch pattern. Very clever design. This isn't the best photo ever, but my hat models are away and I wanted to get this post up.

I wanted to start spinning some new yarn this weekend, too, and Boy 2 helped me select a roving from my stash. The kid has good taste - he picked Lorna's Laces Shepherd Top in colorway "Gold Hill." Here it is in the funky new basket I got to hold roving on my hearth next to the wheel (made in Ghana), as well as the first singles on the bobbin. This is going to be 3-ply (I divided the roving into 3 equal-ish parts before beginning to spin) and I think it will be very pretty when plied together. We shall see!