handspun cowl

My first handspun project is now complete: a cowl that just happens to fit Mae perfectly, so it should keep her cozy this winter. I used this Ells pattern on Ravelry, which seemed to work well with the “character” of my first spinning attempt, but I modified it to be narrower and shorter, and it can also double as a headband. She had fun modeling it for me, and the chickens had fun photo-bombing her:

Both Jonah and Mae helped me to knit a bit of it, and they enjoyed working with the super-bulky merino yarn and big needles as much as I did. 🙂

too much twist

One of my favorite Beatrix Potter tales growing up was The Tailor of Gloucester, a story about some mice who help a tailor during the night. They finish everything but one button-hole, so they leave a note that says “no more twist.” I’m not even sure what they meant by twist (anyone know? was it thread?), but I found out the hard way that the opposite can definitely happen with a drop spindle. I was feeling much more confident after my first attempt with my handspun yarn… I guess a little too confident… assuming I was only going to get better from here on out, so I started going faster, moving on from the “park and draft” method to actually letting my drop spindle do it’s “drop spinning.” It was exhilarating, so I was being much less careful, and I guess I also wasn’t taking as much time to make sure my drafting thickness was even. Along the way, I started seeing these little kinks at the thinner yarn, but I assumed they would work themselves out in the end… not so. Once they were plied together, they were there to stay. I was very bummed, and had to keep telling myself that I got this roving for free, I’m still learning, etc… but I decided to make it up into a cowl anyway to see how it knits overall. It’s pretty fun to use these size 15 needles for the first time.

I knew I had to redeem myself quickly before I gave up spinning entirely, so I started on a little bit of much thinner yarn, and spent more time making sure there were no kinks, and that the ply was more even. I’m much happier with the results… it looks much better, and it’s a fairly even dk weight… so I’m back to being excited about spinning again.

I also took a break during my spinning attempts to make this little hedgehog (free pattern by Amy Gaines… the same designer as the penguin) for Mae’s friend’s birthday gift. She wanted to give her a pet (of course), but I told her that wasn’t the best gift coming from a friend, but she could give her a stuffed animal pet. I asked her what she thought her friend would like… maybe a dog or a cat? But she said “a hedgehog”, so I got excited because I had this cute hedgehog pattern in my library. It reminds me of my other favorite Beatrix Potter story, The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. It was meant to be a joint effort… Mae made the scarf… mostly. 🙂