but I’m knitting instead. I am into my second year of stash busting: no new yarn or fiber just for the heck of it or because it’s pretty or because…..I can purchase yarn or equipment or an accessory ONLY and I mean ONLY if I need to finish a project that I am making from the stash.
You hand weavers out there might point out to me that using my loom will eat up the fiber more quickly, and that would be true. And I have lots of piles of projects waiting to be warped and woven…tea towels, scarves, table runners. But I need some easy-to-bring-with-me projects too, and quick to finish.
So enter hats and gloves. These also use up the single skeins of beautiful wool yarns I bought when I knew little about either hand weaving or knitting. I’d like to say they are easier than socks, and to a degree they are. But of course, I love texture, color and lacy patterns. And I will actually have a few of these done in time for winter!
Just off the needles: Perri’s beanie, a pattern a found on Ravelry.com and actually purchased. There are so many great free patterns out there, but when you have a cousin whose name is Perri, how could you not make this hat for her????
not the clearest image, but I'm new at this taking a pic in the bathroom mirror thing
On the needles now: Exeter, also downloaded from Ravelry.com is another quick hat pattern, rib knit for most of it, with a nice finish on the crown that kind of looks like arches, the arches at Exeter is what the author notes. The yarn, from the stash, is called Fringed Sagewort, and is one of a collection of yarns from Beaverslide Dry Goods, one ball of several different colors. Yeah, yeah, what was I thinking???? Uhm, that the colors would all go together and could be made into something bigger, like a sweater. Right. Now I know how much yarn it takes to knit a sweater. And how much time.
So, hat, gloves, mittens, socks for my friends and families. And anything larger needs to be woven. Well….I may have enough variegated green for a sweater, if I can adjust the needles to get the right gauge, and then make notes on the pattern after I make a swatch. Ok, if I’m going to work that hard, I’m gonna weave!
