Catching by Breath

I'm barely on top of it all these days.  Work, family, home improvement, knitting, spinning and oh don't forget to walk the dog... whew!

Last weekend I drove my mom in the rain to Toronto to get her pottery supplies at Tuckers.  We had fun in spite of the weather but I caught a cold and that's why there was no blog post. 

I'm still spinning and something just clicked this week.  I'm getting a fingering weight now on my 50g spindle which is awesome, plus I'm past the park and draft.  I'm not trying to make yarn for a project with the Targhee Koigu braid. Instead I'm trying to learn to make good yarn.  Easier said than done, but I'm getting there.

I knit my first handspun into a hat, which has already been adopted by a teenaged girl.  It's my fault because I asked her to try it on and she squealed.  Who can resist a squeal for hand knits? 

Top down on a 6mm needle, I started with 5 stitches and increased 5 stitches every other round until it seemed big enough around.  Then I knit till I ran out of yarn and used a sewn bind off to finish it.  It's a cute little hat, but no good on me what with all the curly hair.

I've also finished another pair of socks.  I'm getting a supply in before the really cold weather hits so that my family has warm feet.  This pair will be going to Luke, who very much appreciates his handknit socks.

I was trying to use every last bit of yarn in the skein so I worked these toe up with an afterthought heel.  I was too aggressive though and ended up short by just three little rows at the end of the heel.  So I subbed in some Trekking and you can barely tell.  At least I think so.  Can you see which sock I had to fudge?