Scrollwork

 

I mentioned in my last post that I was knitting with some special wool.  It was Equity Sport from Sincere Sheep.  It is made from Rambouillet sheep, who happen to have kinky fleece as they age. 

 

Here’s a Rambouillet ram:   (photo credit:  Oklahoma State Animal Sciences)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This makes for a great texture in the yarn.

 

I was knitting the Scrollwork hat from Brooklyn Tweed, but rather than use tweed yarn, I wanted to try it out with my Rambouillet wool. 

I knit the hat using size 3 circular needles for the brim, and size 6 circular needles for the body.  This yarn is sport weight, so I knew the hat would be a little smaller than the pattern promised to produce, but hats often turn out too large for me, so I was willing to take the risk.

The pattern is lovely, and the root-like cables coalesce on the back of the hat:

Unfortunately, the yarn did prove to be not the best fit for the pattern.  It wasn’t robust enough and the hat, even with all of those cables, is a little on the thin and limp side.  I will also go down an additional needles size on the band if I make this pattern again.  It doesn’t have the springy stretch intended for a ribbed band.

Luckily, after blocking, the hat grew a little, and will be wearable (at least for me….I have a small head).

In other news, I realized after my last post that I had actually purchased YET another hank of yarn at Stitches Midwest.  I forgot to show it to you, so here it is:

This was actually my first purchase at the market!  It was only $12 because it is only really half a skein.  I loved the colorway so much that I searched the full skeins in hopes of finding one with no luck.  This was the only skein in the whole place in this colorway.  I was about to walk away when I realized I could still make socks from it.  I have done this before:  weight the skein and split it into two equal halves (by weight since I don’t have a yardage counter, but I do have a gram scale), and then knit a sock from each half, using a coordinating color from my stash for the heels and toes to compensate for scanty yardage. 

Done!  I purchased the yarn, and if you read my last post, you know what happened next…

~Happy knitting!