Last September I went to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (OFFF) in Canby. I try to go every year because it is so inspiring. All the fiber, the colors, the textures, the animals, I love it. It is a great way to get inspired for the knitting season.
This year, I bought some fleece for Lucas and another one for Siena. Lucas started to spin the one I got him a couple of months ago. I thought he could spin it, and I’d make him a hat.
He liked the colors, and he was excited at the idea. Once he started spinning, he realized it was going to take longer than he thought, but he kept at it. Sometimes he’d get frustrated it wasn’t spinning as smoothly, but we’d work it out, and I’d help him get started back up again. He did great.
I thought if he can spin it, I’d knit it together with another strand of my handspun that I have, that way he wouldn’t have to spin all of it, before I can get it started. I found some brown yarn I hadn’t plied yet. It was very thin (it was from when I was doing lots of practicing!) and I am not using it for anything, so it was perfect to use for this project.
I think it gave it a little more strength in the parts it needed a little more help. It give it a little darker tone too, which Lucas liked, because he wants to wear his hat when he goes to Trackers, when they go learn survival and stealth skills up in Mt. Hood.
Lucas spun as much as we thought we needed. He used the ball winder I have and wound his yarn with my old brown handspun. It would make my knitting in the drive up and at the side of the pool, much easier if they were already together.
It turned out a perfect combination of colors. Lucas was happy, which is the most important part.
He wanted a regular hat. I came up with this.
And it was exactly what he wanted.
I casted on some stitches and started knitting in the round. After few rounds, I realized it was too big. I started over with less stitches. For this combination of handspun yarns, I casted on 88 stitches and knitted in the round with double pointed needles, size 8 (US). Did a rib of 2 knits and 2 purls for about 1.5 inches.
Then I changed to knitting all the way around. He’d try it on, to see how much further to knit. I had to undo it a couple of times, but ended up being about 6 inches of knitting around. Then decreasing to finish it off. After some math we came up with this:
Knit 11 stitches, knit 2 together, all the way around. It repeats 6 times. That makes up for all 88 stitches I started with. On the next round, I knitted 10 stitches, and knitted 2 together, all the way around. Next round, knitted 9 and knitted 2 together. I decreased that way until I had about 8 stitches left (or something like that, I don’t remember now, it was during Siena’s swim meet.) At the end, I cut off the yarn leaving about 5 inches. I then threaded the yarns through a yarn needle and passed it through the stitches on the knitting needles, closing it and weaving the yarns through.
We think it turned out pretty cute, and for what I’ve been told (by this cute kid) it is the coolest hat ever!