Felted Hat, Sockosis, Roving Riches

Found my way to this felted hat pattern from Ulla's blog. She writes it in Swedish, but captions her many pictures in English - well worth checking out to see her great fiber work. She spins and dyes as well and she is quite prolific.

I made mine with a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Potluck worsted and 2 skeins of LaGran Mohair. The CTH was a nice purple, pretty much obscured by the green mohair, but it peeps through here and there.





This picture doesn't show how very huge the unfelted hat was, but trust me, it was BIG!

I have always done my felting at the kitchen sink, by hand, for a lot of reasons, but I decided to do this in the washing machine.






I ran this through twice, on the longest cycle and I let it go through the spin cycle both times. I did not check on it, except when the first run-through was complete.

It came out an almost-perfect size, just a teeny bit on the small side.

One thing: the pattern says turn the hat inside out before felting. I didn't do that, but it did try it after felting and it gives a different-looking brim, more like Ulla's hat looks than this one. I like the look of the other brim, but the hat seems too small when turned, so I've left it this way.

Recently, I've traded my scarf obsession for a sockosis, discovering a few things about my preferences in sock knitting along the way. Now, this is subject to change in the future, but I've decided that:

• I don't like self-striping, fair-isleing sock yarn
• I don't like knitting socks with fine yarn and needles under #3
• I love Cat Bordhi but don't share her bias for socks on 2 circs over dpns
• I shall knit socks in worsted weight on #4 dpns
• I like a basic sock pattern and striped socks
  
• I can conquer Second Sock Syndrome by knitting several pairs at once
• I have way too many sock books for someone who has decided to knit only basic, striped worsted weight socks on #4 dpns
  

This was my socks-in-progress picture from several days ago.

From left, clockwise:

• an all-but-woven-ends finished pair in Cascade Quatro and a light purple Cleckheaton from deep stash (bought from closing yarn shop about 7 years ago).

• A one-row striped sock in 2 colors of Cascade 220, a dark pink and an orange

• 2-row striped socks in Silk Garden and Lamb's Pride in a fantastic heathery brown called Sable
  

Current status of my sock knitting is that I finished the Quatro/Cleckheaton and the Silk Garden/Lamb's Pride pair, have worn and washed them both already and they are currently drying on a rack in front of one of the heating vents. I am working on the second sock of the orange and pink-striped pair. I have also completed one sock of an unpictured pair - a solid sock in a Lamb's Pride gorgeous new color called Wild Violet, with cuffs, heels and toes in KnitPick's Wool of the Andes in Carrot.

Below you can see my latest hand-dyed roving acquisitions. These are from Deb who is dudleyspinner on eBay. She has a blog , an Etsy shop and as I was checking these links, I found more of her delicious rovings at her website www.dudleyspinner.com! Whoo-hoo, now I've got to go back and see what else I can't live without....

The roving on the top below is a colorway she called Goldenrod, but to me it looks like all the colors you might see in a juicy ripe peach, it's glorious. The roving on the bottom is shades of deep purple, and purples will get me almost every time. I've already spun half the peach roving, very lightly and thick and thin, for some of the felted bowls and pots I love to do but haven't done in a long time, being distracted by scarves and crises and socks.

So....I'm off for the day on appointments and errands. Hope all have a lovely day and get to create at least one thing.
peace,
'zann