Cutting off a Few Heads -- Finished Objects

I finally got a few heads off my Hydra Project cut-off, in terms of finished objects.
First up! The Viking Hat that I had promised for a dear friend.

Then I finished up the tabi socks that had been languishing in my project basket.

It feels good to get things finished. Now, onto the rest of the heads!

Knitting Attacks!

The other day, I went to my local archery range to help volunteer for a tournament event being held along our woodland trail. I was manning a first aid / refreshment stand half way through the course. It was a beautiful day in the woods. I got to meet a lot of archers as well as get some knitting done during the down times. I brought along my Doctor Who cowl as it's easy enough stockinette that's easily put down without issue whenever archers arrived at the half-way point.

When the tournament was winding down, I started hiking back to the beginning. I was walking along the trail for about 100 yards when I realized that my knitting dropped from my bag...or at least the knitting portion. The ball of yarn was still in my bag. The trailing yarn was wrapped along various twigs, plants, and rocks. I grabbed the ball of yarn (still in my bag) and started winding back when a very nice person started coming towards me with my unfinished cowl in his hand and yarn trailing behind him. OY!

Oh, only if he had left it where he found it, but he was being a good Samaritan. Alas, now the yarn was a tangled mess. I picked a random spot and started winding another ball from there. I managed to get most of it under control, then stuffed the whole thing in my bag to figure out how best to untangle it at home.

I was seriously hoping that I wouldn't have to break the yarn, but I knew it was a pipe dream. I just wanted to save as much of the yarn as possible.

When I got home, I started the de-tangling process. Here's about as far as I got before I decided that the tangled mess was too tangled and small enough to just ditch. I was picking out bits of leaves, twigs, and other forest debris from the yarn.

I did break the yarn at one point and re-attached the good ball back. I'm definitely going to need to soak this after I'm done.

Start of Tour de Fleece 2015

Tour de Fleece started on July 4th this year, and my goals for it are modest --- finish up some Spinning WIPS (SWIPS?) that have been languishing on bobbins.

For starters, I had 4oz lovely Alpaca Silk from Abstract Fibers. I had spun up a single ounce on my Ashford Kiwi, but never got back to it.

 

I spun up all four ounces -- one per storage bobbin. I spun the singles as worsted weight at about 24 WPI.

Then made a lovely 4 ply that measures a heavy worsted weight.

Now, I need to dive back into my Fiber Stash and see what next project needs to be spun!