Do you ever wonder what to do with little odds and ends of homespun yarn?
In the fall of 2016, Doug and I spent a few days in Wales (blogged about here) and included a stop at The Lost Sheep Company in Colwyn Bay. There, in addition to chatting with its charismatic owner, Chrissy, and wading through waist high bundles of fleeces:
We purchased four tiny skeins of homespun yarn from Welsh bred sheep. In the below photo, the yarn on the left was un-labelled, followed left-to-right by Jacob, Welsh Mule, and Black Welsh Mountain.
I had differing yardage of each yarn, and they were of different yarn weights. I wondered for a long time what to do with them, and one night shortly after the New Year, I just picked up the first skein and started to knit. I didn’t do any gauge swatches or fuss with measurements. I didn’t do any math. I cast on 180 stitches with a size US 11 needle and started to knit in 2×2 ribbing. When I got to the end of one skein, I added another, and kept knitting until my yarn ran out.
As Doug was the one who picked out the yarn, I made the cowl for him. I think it suits him well.
It is amazingly plush and cozy, and has a fantastic hand. With the exception of the small nups of colour in the un-labelled batch, it is all un-dyed. I hadn’t knit with handspun in some time, and really loved having it on my needles.
Emma was still here when I finished, and she had just finished knitting her own cowl (blogged here), so I tried to get a photo of the two of them. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get Doug and Emma to cooperate and not be silly?
Photo attempt #7:
Photo attempt #13:
Photo attempt #312:
Photo attempt #2,397:
This is, of course a slight exaggeration, but they delight in being silly, especially when I am trying to get a photo for the blog.
If you are trying to find a use for small bits of homespun yarn, I recommend this fun and easy solution.
Yes, a lovely result from those wonderful natural skeins !
The photos are enormous fun: how nice having a family that laughs a lot. 🙂
Thank you!
Great idea, thanks for this. Hmmm, maybe my odd bits of old Paton’s Ballybrae…
I’m glad it’s got you thinking; always happy to enable a fellow knitter.
Both cowls came out beautiful!
Thanks, Jossie. I was happy that Emma enjoyed knitting something, too. Happy New Year!
Great idea!
Love the photos of Doug and Emma, who knew modelling could be so much fun?
It is usually that way. If I had a penny for every photo that doesn’t make it on to the blog…..
Yep me too and we won’t even talk about the hundreds of shots we have to go through for the magazine Olann and. x
These photos bring such a smile to my face! It’s tough to have the kids so far away, isn’t it?
Hi Susan; it sure is tough. I hope that you, and your Diana, who is very far away, had a great holiday despite the distance.
Lucky Doug to be the recipient of such a great cowl. It is ages since I worked with any homespun – thanks for the reminder of just how satisfying it is!
Great idea! And the photo shoot looks fun, too!
I’m amazed that my repeated views of the kidsilk haze shawl haven’t skewed the statistics 🙂 I finally cast it on in the New Year!
A definite home run! It’s lovely and he wears it well. Great pictures 😀
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