Sunday, January 8, 2012

Scarves, Yarn and Hats Oh My!

It's been about 3 days since I've last posted and believe it or not I've gotten quite a bit done in that time!

I think I'm surprising myself at how much I'm getting done this year as far as my fiber goals are concerned.  In fact I'm so motivated by how much I'm getting accomplished that I'm actually refocusing on my weight loss goals.  I am getting married in December of this year so I would like to be able to really drop some pounds before then.

First up.  Mom's birthday scarf is done!

Pattern:  Beginners Reversible Scarf
Yarn:  Handspun Romney (I think)
Comments:  I LOOOOOVE this pattern.  I have made the complicated lace, and the intricate colorwork, but for some reason lately I'm all about the basic patterns.  Maybe because they're quick and mindless and let me unwind after a hard day.  This is the first handspun I ever spun on my wheel so I had some different thicknesses in my yarn.  I did have to hold some of the strands together to get the right thickness when I realized my skeins were all a different weight.  It worked!  Scarf is done and next weekend I will mail it out to my mother.

I still had quite a bit of yarn left so I took the leftovers and cast on for my first hat of 2012!  I found TONS of hat patterns on Ravelry that I want to make this year, and I decided to join the 12 Hats in 2012 group to help me with some of my New Year's Goals.  Now that my mom's birthday gift is done I decided to get moving on my hats!  They make great gifts, and they're quick knits.  I plan on making several hats and tossing them in bags until birthdays and holidays come up later on.

Little O decided that my new Arrow hat makes a great bed, and wouldn't get up so that I could take a proper picture.  Never fear!  As it progresses I will get more photos. :)

Oh, and to give my hands a break from knitting I decided to get some roving out last night and spin a little.  Now this yarn has a bit of a back story.  I have never liked "art yarns" because I had no idea what to do with them.  Some I saw as functional, but they just were never something I had much of a desire to spin or knit.  Well... I was given this in a Secret Pal swap a few years ago.

She told me it was an art yarn batt... I could tell!  I tossed it immediately into my stash and was too afraid of it to actually turn it into something.  Well with my coming back to knitting and spinning I am on a mission now to use up that stuff I have, especially the stuff that has been lingering in my stash for so long.

The resulting yarn is actually kinda nice.  It's a funky green yarn with a lot of pinks and oranges throughout and a bunch of bright green ribbon yarn, and some other novelty yarns throughout.

The first skein has a lot more ribbons in it.  I planned it this way hoping I could have one skein of "ribbony" yarn, and then a skein of matching plain old worsted that I would be able to use for a cuff of a hat, or possibly decreases and seaming.  It worked out fairly well since the majority of my "fluff" is in the first skein.  This one was 55 yards and weighed in at 63 grams.

The second skein has very little ribbon and it's all at the beginning of the skein.  So I can easily start from the plain side of the yarn, and when this runs out I can start filling in with yarn from the other skein.  This skein clocks in at 60 yards with only 51 grams.

A total of 115 yards, I should definitely be able to get a basic hat from it.  Definitely won't need a fancy pattern since this hat will be all about the yarn.

With the finished objects and the new handspun this updates my yarn stats for the year:

Yarn Out:  314g (755y)
Yarn In:  0g (0y)
Yards Spun:  265y

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