And these have a story. I like yarn with stories.
Not long ago, my mother in law got me The Book of Wool. I totally fell in love with this book. It talked about many of the different kinds of sheep that make wool for wool yarn, going into the specific characteristics of each type, what kinds of garments will work well with each, and so on. I read it from cover to cover.
It just so happened that we hit up a yarn store while we were visiting, and there was a basket of random wool yarn for a great price. The label said it was Corriedale wool, handspun from a local farm. I bought a couple of hanks and headed home.
I can't tell you exactly what my book told me about Corriedale, but I thought it was cool I could see what the sheep looked like, and the book said the yarn felted well. So I found a pattern for a simple felted wool hat and started knitting.
Here is my hat. It is way softer (and not very scratchy) than I thought it would be. And that's not a trick of the light--the top is darker than the bottom, because I got 2 unrelated balls of yarn, I don't care, I think it gives it character.
So while I was making the hat, I started thinking about another 2 balls of yarn up in the craft room. I picked them up at an antique and consignment store in the Finger Lakes when we were there last October. Since that was yellow yarn as well, and I just got another book with a mitten pattern, I figured I'd make some mittens to (sorta) match the hat.
These were really fun to make, and only took me a few hours.
Now I have a sunny winter hat and mitten set. I'm pretty stoked.
I think I have enough of the mitten yarn to make socks. I've never made socks. And then I'd have a real winter wool set. Hmmm....
