Here is my finished hat yarn. I spun the second braid of wool a little more evenly but about the same overall size (so basically with fewer big slubs) than the first skein. I wanted to make sure I'd actually have enough yarn to make my hat. It measured in at forty metres.

I started knitting my hat after dinner on Friday. The biggest double pointed needless I had around were 6.00 mm (from the cat bed) so I cast on 5 stitches and worked from the top down. After a few increase rounds I was able to measure my gauge and figured out a target number for the circumference of my hat. I kept trying it on to make sure I was getting something that would actually go on my head. Sorry for the strange colour - we had to conserve power last night (it's so cold the power corp's equiment is failing) so I couldn't turn on a lot of lights.


Once I felt my hat was long enough I measured around my head and decided where the ear flaps (essential for a cold weather hat) ought to go and how wide they should be. I cast off in the front and back and knitted the ear flaps down from the hat. I like to be able to tie my ear flaps down in windy weather so these have braids (and tassels) on the ends of them to tie under my chin.

My gauge was pretty dense (about 5 stitches over two inches) so my hat is not very stretchy but keeps the wind out nicely. I love the colour I ended up with. I had no idea how this would turn out when I was pouring stuff into that casserole dish.

It's really, really cold outside.

Really, really cold.

It was -44 degrees Celsius when we walked to work this morning.

I need a warmer hat.

I bought some wool from Erin on Saturday. One hundred grams of beautiful snowy white South African wool (which falls somewhere between Merino and Blue Faced Leicester on the fine wool scale).

I've been wanting to try oven dyeing so last night I got it all wet and put it in a casserole dish (that will never, ever be used for food) and poured blue and yellow and green dye over it and stuck it in the oven for half an hour.

After cooling off and rinsing and drying over night it looked like this:

It makes me think of spring - sky blues, cloud whites, daffodil yellows, leaf greens and a bit of earthy green-brown. The colours are much more apparent as I am spinning and I enjoy every one of them.

I'm spinning lumpy-bumpy style. Partly because I'm still getting used to the wheel and drafting and partly because I want a nice squashy warm hat. It works out well.

I'm half way done the spinning now. My yarn is hanging up to dry as I type. Thirty-eight metres of squashy hat wool.

Pattern: The Purl Beret from The Purl Bee
Yarn: 1 skein Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock: mediumweight in “Rolling Stone”
Needles: 3.00 mm bamboo circular (16”)
Modifications: None
 
This project was also finished over Easterweekend but wasn’t blocked until a week later. I think it turned out really well. I love the way the colours blend around in the crown of the hat.
 
If I make this again - which seems likely - I think I will add a couple of extra needles to the pattern. The ribbed band would look tidier compared to the stocking stitch if it was done on a smaller needle, maybe 2.00 mm or 2.5 mm, and the body of the hat would fit better around a 24” circular; The 16” circular was a bit of a squeeze.