FO Friday: Sheep Head Hat

I’m so pleased with my Sheep Head Hat! 🙂

IMG_4380

I used CEY’s soft and lovely Vail, which is an alpaca/bamboo blend, available is eight naturally-dyed shades of grey and brown.  When I bought the yarn for this project, only six shades were out — the other two were added with this fall’s line of new colors.

IMG_3138

Project: Sheep Head Hat

Pattern: sheep heid

Designer: Kate Davies

Available: £2.75 GBP on Ravelry

Yarn: Classic Elite Yarn’s Moutaintop Vail, six hues

The original pattern called for nine natural sheep colors, so I had to modify my hat to use the six shades I had to work with.  I lost a bit of the dynamics of the original hat, but I still love my version.  The alpaca-bamboo fingering weight yarn is amazingly soft and lightweight.  The standing sheep in the hat body are adorable, but I love the graphic rams-head decreases on the top. UPDATE: my hat was featured in the CEY blog!

IMG_4306

Advertisement

Cast-On Monday: Sheep Head Hat, Yoga Socks, and two design projects

What with all the ornament-making in December, I didn’t cast on for much else.  Two things I can’t really talk about yet — both are design projects, and both use heavily-modified stitch patterns from Reversible Knitting, but other than that I can’t really tell you much right now.

The projects I can tell you about are fun though!  One is a hat for me, using the super-soft Vail I’ve been eyeing since it first landed in the Hub Mills Store.  It seemed just perfect for the Sheep Heid Hat (by Kate Davies).  Never mind that Vail comes in only six hues, and the hat calls for nine.  Or that the fiber is totally different.  We shall see how this turns out … there will be much adjusting of the color chart to make it all work, but with a little luck and perseverance, I hope to have a Sheep Head Hat of my very own. Isn’t Vail pretty??
IMG_3138

I also started a pair of socks for my Mother-in-Law.  She asked my husband if it was too late to use the “knit4Uxme” gift card I gave her for Christmas 2010, and he assured her I would be delighted to knit for her! Of course, he was right.  I had been a little worried that it was too weird of a gift, but now I can just be happy to give her the socks she wants.  I showed her some of my sock yarn stash, and she chose a purple self-striping bamboo/wool/nylon blend.  I settled on making Monkey Socks (by Cookie A.), but I’m calling them Yoga Socks because that is the setting they will be worn in.  My MIL told me how the other ladies in her yoga class all have fun, colorful socks to keep warm … I’m hoping that hers will really set them talking!  I actually finished these late last night, grafting the toes at an impromptu craft party at a friend’s house. I’ll show off the FO photos on Friday, but for now here’s the pretty-pretty yarn.

IMG_3114