Cute Baby Hat

Most people wouldn't think of making a baby hat out of dog hair.  Sounds awful - right?  Wrong.  Certain dog breeds yield some of the softest, nicest fiber you can find anywhere.  It looks like angora, which is Very Expensive, but is free for a minimal amount of effort.  Combing the clean hair during shedding - or anytime for that matter - and saving the combings is all that's needed.  Best breeds are samoyed, malamute, husky, akita, and probably more that I don't know about.  Poodle hair is really nice, too, but doesn't have the fuzzy halo characteristic of the other breeds.  Also poodle hair clippings can be used as long as they measure at least one and a half inches, while only combings will work for the others.  The poodle hair fiber comes out looking a bit like mohair.  So here is my latest hat made from husky hair.  It's incredibly soft, not to mention hecka cute!

The gray and white are the natural color of the fiber, and the pink is Corriedale wool spun and dyed by me.  The husky hair was more difficult to spin than some I've had in the past, but seems to have been worth the effort.  It's for a newborn, but I made it a bit larger since babies grow very fast.  This hat should fit very nicely by three months and last to about one year or longer.

Spring Skull Cap

Here in Northern California we don't get much in the way of spring weather.  It just goes from very cold to very hot.  We did have a week or two of nice in between warm weather a couple of weeks ago, though, at which time a long time hat fan decided he needed an all hemp skull cap.  This is what I made for him.

 

The off white is the natural color of the hemp, and the rest is dyed.  The subtle dark green stripes really set this hat off and looked great with my friend's redhead complexion.  He put it on right away when I delivered it and was mega pleased!  Hemp is a great light weight fiber for warm weather, so I will hopefully find time to make a few more of these type caps for my website.  Custom orders are also welcome this time of year from now until fall, when I start to get busy again.

Here's another view of Marks skull cap.

Sweater Project

I haven't made a sweater in awhile, so decided it was about time.  A birthday party was being held for an old friend, and I had 'nothing to wear' - that is nothing I wanted to wear.  I hate shopping so decided to make myself a new sweater.  I opted for an old favorite pattern called a bat wing sweater.  It's knitted all in one piece, starting at one cuff, then knitting right through the body and out the other arm.  I improvised (as usual) as I went along, so it was a challenge to remember what I'd done when I started on the second half of the body.  It all worked out though, and was a big hit at the party.  It's mostly wool, with some silk, dyed samoyed hair, and art yarn stripes that add a little bit of sparkly.

 It was pretty cold where I was going - the Ft. Bragg, California coast in March can be icy cold and very windy, especially since we were in a house overlooking the ocean.  The sweater kept me very warm, though.  I tend to spin a little on the bulky side, so most of what I make in wool comes out extra warm and cozy.  It's still cold here in the Mendocino County hills, with non stop cold rain storms featuring occasional snow, hail and sleet.  So I expect I'll get some more wear out of this sweater before I put it away for the summer.