The Unplanned Hat

At one time I had a whole bunch of different wool samples in my stash.  I didn't know what to do with them all,  so one day I just decided to spin them up.  I was going to be smart and spin chunky yarn so that I could get projects done really quickly.  Well, I can get things knitted up quickly, but it's kinda silly to start a project when you don't even know what it's going to be when you finish it!!! I'm still trying to find ways to use all that chunky yarn!  

I just read a book called The Intentional Spinner by Judith MacKenzie McCuin.  It is the best spinning book that I've read in terms of how to plan your project out from start to finish- so that it turns out like you intended.  I got the book at the library, but I think I might have to buy it!  I 'd like to start being a little more "intentional" about by fiber arts projects!  So anyways, here's how this project went:

This is the chunky yarn I spun.  I decided that it was a nice natural color for a guys hat and so I picked up some needles and started knitting.  All was going well until I ran out of yarn and it was still like 3 inches too short!  I didn't have any other similar yarn that I could add a stripe with, so I decided to cinch in the bottom and make it for my daughter.  

Here it is.  I added a little flower out of angora rabbit yarn.   Cute?  Maybe, but it was really too chunky and heavy and she didn't like to wear it for more than a few minutes.  

A few days later I decided to give crochet a try.  Crochet is a lot looser than knitting and so there was enough of the yarn to make a full adult sized hat.  And I did find some thick white yarn  for a stripe of extra interest. I didn't use a pattern to make this, just made a crochet chain long enough to fit my head and worked on up from there, decreasing randomly until it closed shut.   

So there's the finished piece.  I gave it away for a benefit auction- hopefully whoever got it thinks it was worth it  :D