Special Hat

Another special order hat

It felt great to pick up my knitting needles again this past weekend after a few weeks away from knitting; my time has been so focused on animal care and tending to everyone's health and dietary needs that I neglected my own needs to a degree. The knitting is so therapeutic for me that it is surprising that I did not even reach for the sticks at all in the past month or so.
I received an order for a special hat a few weeks ago and thought that I had one that fit the bill, but I ended up knitting this one up with the remaining yarns that I have left; and, I love the final result. Some babydoll fleece on top and bottom and jacob in the middle, all naturally dyed and hand spun, this hat will be shipped off later on today and will hopefully surprise its recipient when it arrives.
Getting the special orders is great fun for me, and I thoroughly enjoy knitting with purpose and with a person in mind. This one felt a little more personal and definitely more poignant for me since it was the first hat that I knit since saying goodbye to Beate, but the love and sentiment that I put into the hat definitely helped to assuage the pain of that goodbye.
Hopefully, I can get some of the people who are wearing the Salty Ewe hats to model them for me in photographs so that I can share them with you here on the blog. Hint, hint to those to whom that may apply...

Hats

Christmas Hat 2010

I haven't added up the numbers yet (no great surprise there), but all of the hats that I had knitted up were either sold, bartered or given as gifts by me. I actually ended up needing to do a few special orders, which was great fun. Knitting the one pictured here was especially enjoyable...

I had saved my mom one of the few hats with the light blue wool, since I thought that those colors would work for her. And, my dad's has a wide, green stripe - as close to Dartmouth green as I could get. My brother's was being finished on Christmas morning (while he watched). His has some more detailed stripes and a mustardy wide stripe, and I thought it looked great on him. Atlanta has had winter weather lately and thought the hats would be a warm reminder and thoughtful gift. Hand made gifts are always special - and my skills have improved a little since the days of string, glue, glitter and big clay medallions.
My nephews both said they would wear them, too, so I am going to knit up two more for them soon. The yarn supply has been practically depleted and so getting more spun is a priority. On the list of things to do in 2011 - find a spinner. I'm looking forward to more dyeing this summer and having an even wider selection of colors and hats for 2011 holiday season.

Felting

Loki admiring the felted Jacob

I have started to play around with some felting, and while I really like it so far, it does not feel like anything that's too good for my hands. So far, I have made a few little acorns - which are cute - but I don't think I'll be doing too many more unless I can find some needles that have much larger handles. This picture is of a great little felted Jacob that was given to me last year by a student (the shepherd has a day job!) and his grandmother had made it just for me. I not only love the little ram itself but moreso love the fact that he was a gift from a kid who knows I love my sheep and wanted to do something kind for me (the day job has amazing perks like this some days). I sent his grandmother a thank you note with some of my babydoll fleece for her to experiment with, and she was thrilled with both I think. We emailed a bit back and forth, and she encouraged me to look online for videos on how to felt wool. Instead, I have read a few books that were loaned to me by my dear friend Lori - along with her needles and the sponge/foam. There are some amazingly talented artists working with fibers - felting and weaving and knitting and spinning - but, the more I learn about all of these possibilities with wool, the more I think my niche is really with raising the little animals. So, as artsy as this shepherd may want to be, I'm happy with taking care of the flock and knitting some hats. Oh, and dyeing the wool...I do really like that piece, too.  And so on that note...taking orders for the holidays, so let me know if you'd like to give some Salty Ewe Knit Lids as gifts this year. They are $25. each and will ship for free (old LLBean style).