I am knitting a hat and a shawl….

Need more details than that? Ok, ok.

The hat is true mindless knitting. It’s the Sockhead Hat pattern and I am used Cabin Cove Mercantile’s Ombre yarn in the colorway ‘Coal’.

The yarn has this cool spiral thing goin’ on and this has been a great project when life stresses me out and I need to calm down.

The shawl I am knitting is a kind of ‘fly-by-the-seat-of-pants’ project. I’m making it up as I go along and keep changing my mind on every row.

The yarn is Tosh Merino Light – pretty drool-worthy stuff – awesome yardage for the price.

This hat didn’t quite come out the way I’d hoped. (Katie’s Beret by Through The Loops)

The brim fits fine but the hat is hugely slouchy and looks more like a mushroom than a hat.

This was a fun knit but I don’t think the yarn is meant for this project. I may rip this out and try something else. I do have a total of 750 yards. I think I have an idea of what might suit this yarn better.

Stay tuned.

There’s been a flurry of finishing here at saffronknits… here’s one!

I finished the elemental hat! It was a fun mindless knitting project.

The yarn went from the stripey-ness to more barberpole at the top. Next time I make yarn like this, I’ll work to keep the stripey-ness throughout the whole yarn.

I think I want to make another one!

I recently pulled out a hat that had been languishing. (It’s Katie’s Beret by Through The Loops.) I’d started it in April and had begun the decreases and somehow my stitch count was off. Discouraged, I put it aside.

I’d even considered ripping it out but when I picked it up recently, I saw how much work I’d put into it and how good it looked and I just couldn’t do it. So, I figured out what the problem was and began working on it again.

The yarn is amazing. It’s the colorway ‘Cobalt Passion’ in sport weight superwash Merino by Spincerely Yours. I even went back and bought a 2nd skein in case I wanted to make something matchy-matchy.

But first? Finish The Hat!

Remember these fingerless mitts…

made out of this handspun??

Well, I had some yarn left over so I had to make a matching hat.

I tried to make up a top down hat…

…but it wasn’t working.

So I camed across the Sockhead Hat. Very basic and simple and really allows the yarn to do most of the work. It’s designed so you fold up the ribbing over your ears to make it warmer, but I didn’t want to mess with the flow of color in the handspun so I only did half the amount of ribbing.

This is fun stuff. I love knitting with handspun (especially my own )!

Twitcher says: “It’s a little big, but I like it!”