Wild Spinning, Freeform Hat

Just wrote my second-ever review on Amazon - for this book, Intertwined, by Lexi Boeger of Pluckyfluff. Here it is: (I gave it a 5-star-I-love-it rating)

"When I realized that Amazon was sending me TWO copies of this book because I managed to pre-order it twice, I was a bit perturbed. Then I got the book. It is such a beautifully done book, both in content and in the appearance of book itself (that pink cloth spine pleases me to no end), that I decided I didn't mind being "stuck" with two copies. I wasn't stuck for long, however, because when I showed it to a sister spinner, she wanted it immediately.

An earlier reviewer mentioned that much of the spinning information was covered in the author's first book, and that is somewhat true. But that first book is far more expensive and has much less content than this one.

This book has instructions for spinning wild yarns, projects that use those yarns, is loaded with photographs and has some wonderful text. I especially love the Spinner's Journal chapter, and the section devoted to the freeform crochet work of Ana Voog. I was delighted to see a two page piece written by one of my favorite fiber artist bloggers, Jacey Boggs.
[note: I could have linked over her name, but I love writing the name of her blog: Insubordiknit]

For those who tend to take off on their own, who tweak patterns to suit their own style and work methods, who like freeform work and play with fiber, this book provides ample, well-illustrated instructions and an abundance of inspiration. ---Zann Carter"
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So, inspired, I decided to use this fine singles leftover after plying:

and paired it with some lovely hand-dyed roving from Deb :

and one of my many containers of bits and pieces snipped as I knit:
to get a chunky yarn that is looking like this:
It is slow going, but at the best times, there is a certain frame of mind that I get into, and if I lay out the bits and pre-draft, I can do it with a kind of Tai Chi slowness that is flowing and meditative.
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I'm pleased to have finished a hat that I started months ago. It has actually been sitting here for most of that time in a state so close to finished I cannot believe I didn't do it sooner! Just a wee bit to fill in a space that needed filling in and less than a dozen ends to tuck in....

The hat started with this scrumble (and I'm having a kind of memory of actually writing about this hat before....), created for the Women's Artistic Soul yahoo group exchange:

I liked the colors so much, I made more and more scrumbles, added a few new yarns and then began putting them together. This is the first time I safety-pinned the scrumbles together and worked on a homemade hat form. It was a great way to work and made the process of putting-together so much easier. The bottom band was made separately in one piece.

Here is one view of the hat, along with the yarns I used...some Noro Kureyon, Naturespun sport weight, Twinkletoes sock yarn, Harrisville tweed (Highland??, something discontinued I got on eBay ages ago), Jojoland sock and maybe a Trekking sock (all the sock yarns I use doubled.)
I like to name my hats and scarves and shawls.
So far the name of this is "In the Green, In the Blue, Always Thinking of You."

Colors are showing up a little dark, as I fulled it a bit and just couldn't wait until it dried to take a picture!
Here's another view:
That styrofoam head is a little small - on an actual head, it is much more cap-like and snug to the head, rather than having a brim.

It's a good day to be inside, fulling caps and spinning:
and getting up every 15 minutes to let Clover in or out:
When she's in, she's peering out the back window, thinking she wants to be out romping in the snow and when she's out, she remembers she'd rather be inside where it's warm....

a slave to my dog-being friend,
Zann