yellow hat
19 April 2008 by colouritgreen
It’s been three weeks. Three weeks ago we were sitting in front of the fire on a cold wintry day, himself spinning, me knitting, when the lambing began, and with that spring popped into place. Today it popped out again, and back into winter. April often seems like that: the fight between winter and spring. Actually to be fair, England often seems like that….
Rain, cold rain and lots of it. I went out and played folkie music with friends. Himself stayed at home to watch the ewes-that-have-no-intention-of-lambing. Three weeks.. probably wont now either. Boo.
Anyway, as predicted, the light and sunshine arrived, and my knitting abandoned. As winter made a return visit today, I picked it up again. Took me a while to remember where I was. But did make this silly beanie hat from our first attempts at spinning. Its really soft and warm, and not itchy as wool can often be. Alas, I don’t remember what sheep the wool came from, as it came from that course we did last summer with Val from Woolly Shepherd - where we learned how to wash, and dye the wool. We carded and spun through trial and error. I would now say to anyone wanted to learn how to spin - just have a go. It’s amazing how fast it is improving.
That now completes one of my knitting WIPs, so have to add another small one, and I choose ‘knit and finish other plum glove’ - I made the first glove.. oh about three years ago now - inspired by some fluffy yarn sent to me by my Kiwi friend.. and then suffered ’second glove syndrome’. Would be good to get them finished.
So this lurid hat will be worn by me, as I don’t mind daft or lurid in the clothing line. Himself will wear it for sure as it is warm - lovely and warm, and that is how he rates clothing. His sense of style could be described as ‘dressed in the dark’ - though to be fair, as he starts work early.. he usually does, actually dress in the dark…
I love nubbly yarn actually - interesting and bags of character. But saying that it’s a bit like anything we become proficient at - we strive for perfection (the same goes for plastering)!
I was taught spinning and weaving from a remarkable oh-so-ancient lady many, many years back along; I can always remember her saying - keep the character of the wool and don’t ever, ever become a WI baby shawl spinner - or weaver - as you can gather she was frowned upon by her peers. But she was a true wise woman and taught me much.
As for those sheep I reckon they had some sort of pact that Sharona would do the first bit for them, and they’d share the end product. Someone didn’t keep to their side of the bargain though.
don’t worry Paula, I dont think we will ever completely lose that ‘novelty’ yarn look!
do you still spin? We really like it. Daft but it was only when our girls were shawn last year I realised we had wool.. that was not the main objective with keeping sheep initially.. and now we love it…