The hat is done

I finished the hat I started for my dad made completely from homespun. It is made from the Rambouillet singles and the Alpaca singles plied together. Gave it a nice tweedy look I think.

But, I am going to give it to my mom instead.

Ken found the perfect gift for my dad. A hydraulic log splitter. Ken went over there the other day to help out and ended up splitting a lot of wood. He was sore afterwards and we realized that this is a really heavy job for an older gentleman like my dad to be trying to do. The log splitter is really cool because he just pumps it to build up to 10 tons of pressure (reminds me of cross country skiing pole motion but without the skiing.) But we found nothing suitable for my mom and quite frankly, the hat will look better on a woman, I think.

I'm overall, very pleased with the hat. It's soft -- almost silky to the touch. It does have some lumpy bumpies but I've pushed most of them to the outside. At the very end, I used an alpaca single paired with a Rambouillet single rather than ply them together because I ran out of time and wasn't going to get the last bit plied and washed and dried and knit.

This is a picture of the Rambouillet on the bobbin. I'm going to finish this bobbin then do another just like it and ply them together. No idea what I will do with it, but I will find a good use for it soon, I'm sure. Perhaps I will make a hat for Dad, after all.

And this is a picture of the teapot cozy for my mother-in-law. Fortunately, Ken found a good gift for her, too. He's a smart man and does not put all his eggs in his wife's basket. In any case, you may be able to see that there are no needles in this thing. Somehow, someway, I managed to make the beginnings of the little armpits and then CROSSED THE GAP about three rows into the next section! So cozy is sitting in the frog pond right now until I can find the patience when I'm calm and sober and have good light and can go back and pick up all these stitches.

I did get Ken's hat done but wrapped it before I got a picture. I will try to remember to get a photo (perhaps of him wearing it).

And besides all this work, I've been playing a bit (experimenting if you will) on the wheel. The alpaca was nigh unto impossible for me on the wheel at this point. Too slick for the level of pull I was getting. I'll figure it out eventually, but decided to try out some of the shetland. So far, this is what I have. I'm going to pull this off and set the twist and see if I'm still happy with it and will report back.

I'm also going to play with some of this stuff. This is the last bit of two pounds of multicolored Corriedale I had from my spinning class at Hoot last summer.

I'm hoping I will get fairly comfortable with the wheel fairly soon and then I can tackle some of the other several pounds of roving sitting in bags upstairs. I have some really nice merino/mohair brown and white roving from Sheep's Shed Studio that I want to spin into worsted weight and make into vest for me. And I've got over half of the Rambouillet fleece still to wash and the other half to card. And there's other stuff up there.

After the holiday's, when I can get back into my new "studio" (Matt's old room where John is staying now), I will move in with my wheel, a radio/CD player and just have a grand old time. I think most of my knitting will be accomplished in front of the TV downstairs. Perhaps a small TV for the studio will be on my wish list next year.