Hats From Drop Spindles

Each winter I spin a few ounces of wool to test my drop spindles.  I'm extremely fortunate that my niece (Leah Spencer) donated a big bag of wonderful alpaca fluff.  Alpaca must be the best all around fiber there is for hand spinning AND,  I now have three colors of alpaca, representing a pen of legendary alpacas in the (almost) North Pole,,,, well, isn't Canada up there near the North Pole somewhere??

Here are two drop spindles (above) with white alpaca yarn.  I spin two spindles as a pair and then ply them into a "two ply yarn".  You can see the white roving that will be spun.  Spinderella, a great bunch of carders in Utah, turned my alpaca fiber into wonderful roving. 

Not all of the yarn I spun last winter is from Alpaca, I also blended, plied, and hybridized yarns to pass on to Pat Moran (Pat's Happy Hats).  You can see here that I keep records of the fiber, weight, length, and blends so Pat will know what she is working with.  This is the "Guellarmo" yarn, from the pen, a legendary Alpaca.   Shelby, can you add more to this story??

Let's start off with Kristin's Guillarmo hat.  See Pat's tag there showing that she certifies the knitting.  I may wear this hat while watching "The View" or listening to Ennhya??

More Guellarmo (below)  with a "Miss Cool" dark band at the bottom.  This hat looks like a classic "Watch hat"and the picture doesn't do it  justice, it's very soft and snuggles down to any size head (within reason).  

This hat is more like a beanie, made with churro and Icelandic wools.  It appears that Matt Dahlgreen is picking up this hat in a few days.  Matt is an old fan of Pat's Hats, I think he owns two of them. 

While I try not to get attached to hats, it was impossible not to feel like just putting this hat on and stalking out in a snow storm.  This yarn was created from a dyed batch of wool given to me by Pattie Kaplan.  Everyone who has seen this beanie loves the colors but they aren't available anymore (I emailed the supplier, she has gone back into customizing cars or something).   

This hat (below) has all kinds of wools, fibers, colors, and etc.  I think it has been spoken for but in any case, it's a beaut.  

Susan Lattomos won this next hat by supplying the most natural fiber to my spinning bag.  Rumor has it  is knitted from yarn spun from some highly exotic Mountain critters.  The hat looks great on Susan but you'll have to wait till I get the picture.  This is truly a unique, one of a kind hat and I've instructed Susan to only wear it to dignified occasions, hikes, Cascadian meetings, receiving awards, and all other appropriate places where the clientale appreciates fine woolery, or in the garden. 

And now for three hats that I want to talk about.  The first one is a huybrid yarn ply of a black wool top donated by Patti Kaplan and plied with Socotta sock yarn.  The socotta is from Plymouth Yarns and is a verigated color, typical of that brand.  I like Socotta because it adds strength and color and uniformity.  This hat is a work hat.  I think Pat Moran knitted it.  

This hat is spun cashmire yarn, plied with a red/yellow Sockotta sock yarn.  Wendy Warren knitted this unique horse shoe pattern.  Wendy, give up mixed media and just knit hats, you're a hat goddess!

And finally, but certainly not the least is a hat knitted by Patti Whitney.  Yes, I know a few people who aren't named Patti, but not many. Patti is a good friend who lives in Santa Fe.  This hat is from Moreno and llama yarn, if I remember correctly.  It is a hat made for the far north, just looking at it makes me start to warm up.  I am holding this hat for a skier who needed as a survival hat and a hat that looks great.  Patti, Care to do another???

Well, that's all the hats for now. I generally reach May 1 with a new pile of yarn, looking for knitters who want to try out hand spun (drop spindle spun) yarns of unique origin.  I want to give particular notice of the above knitters and their art, Pat, Pat, Pat, Pat, Daren, Leah, Wendy, Sally, Les, Guillarmo, etc. .  

Let's see,,, we're going to change course on the next posting.  We are going to Jumpoff Lookout and look at some fire lookout information.  As you know, Jo Miles and I are the stewards of Jumpoff Lookout and we are trying to stabilize it and find a program to put it back to work.  Then, after I get the lookout post completed I'll start working on a "drop spindle" post,,, See you then.