A handspun beret

Considering the way my last attempt at handspun worked out - you know, that whole 'dramatically thick to dramatically threadlike yarn not lending itself to shaping' thing - I was extra thrilled with the hat I made in just a few hours the other day (if you don't count the week it took me to produce the yarn last summer):

I've been trying for a long time to break down the beret concept into something I can actually design, and either all the failures seeped into my subconscious and shortlisted what would win, or I just got totally lucky this time. Anyway this is what I've been trying to get at and I got it on the fly, barely bothering to write down the recipe as I went.

Bonus: this was only my second block of yarn from last summer's Tour de Fleece, and I had already progressed to the point of being able to knit such a thing. Double bonus: it's Blue Faced Leicester fiber which has an insane amount of grab and halo such that I had no fun spinning it at all, and it turns out to be crazy warm and super soft and lofty and just everything you want for a winter hat in Toronto but never really get.

So that makes up for having to frog and reknit the Big Cowl I showed yesterday, don't you think?

This hat isn't done; I'm giving it some little embellishments I haven't decided on quite yet. And then

it's going away.

Heartbroken = me.

However, a funny thing happened yesterday when I collapsed on the sofa with the little Totoro, thinking about whether or not I had the energy to embroider on his eyes (Decidedly Not.) I haven't stuffed him yet either, you see, which means he is at the moment a perfect finger puppet, and after about ten minutes of holding him while staring with glazed eyes at the television which may or may not even have been on, it suddenly struck me that my fingers were warm.

I know, what a lightbulb moment for a knitter. Wool, it's warm! Who knew!

Also, it's not like I didn't buy the undyed Polworth to use in a hat in the first place. It's just that I had been planning to use it as a background from which to feature stronger colours. But I hardly used any of the first plied round on the Totoro, and I spun it to about the same weight as the pinky green stuff.

So now I'm kinda thinking - beret number two?