Bleh Yarn

Sunday I picked up four skeins of handspun wool yarn from a customer to make four of my Republic hats for her.  She had seen my hats at the Mt. Bruce show but wanted to use her own yarns.  She had two skeins spun by a friend and a couple of others that were purchased from a fiber show of some sort.

I wound each of the four hanks into a center pull ball and grumbled at the roughness as I did so.  I normally use a bulky yarn and size 10 needles to knit those hats but it was quickly apparent that I would have to drop down in needle size.  I began with 8s, which left the gauge too loose.  Next it was size 7s, same problem.  I gave up on that yarn and completely unraveled that hat at about the half way point and set it in the time out corner.  I picked out another of the yarn balls and after trying size 7s, frogged that one too, and switched to size 6s.  I really dislike working with the yarn -- it's way too rough and there's not enough lanolin left in it to compensate.  I'll be glad when these hats are done.  Here are a couple of shots of the yarn and the hat so far......

 

Working with yarns like these make me appreciate the better yarns that I'm used to using.  This hat was worked with Rowan Country wool -- so much softer and easier to knit with ~~

Kind of a man-ly color, a bit more denim-y than the photo shows.

Can't wait to get back to knitting with my regularly scheduled yarns...