wooly things

Kathy and I made our 7th visit to the Kentucky Wool Festival, which also happened to be its 40th anniversary! We sipped hot cider, snacked on warm donuts, listened to bluegrass music, and of course stocked up on yarn!

I finished knitting a sweater just in time to wear it to the event. It was perfect sweater weather this year! I made a Carved Pullover with Berroco Vintage DK yarn in the appropriately named colorway "Pumpkin." I made a bunch of modifications to the pattern. I just kinda winged the raglan using another similar pattern, and I used another knitter's chart to create a symmetrical mouth. I love how it turned out, and I did get several chances to wear it in October!

I have 3 more Wool Fest-related projects to share also! I loved this Kaiya Mei hat pattern from the moment I saw it. It looks like confetti! It took me a while to track down the perfect yarn with very short, random color changes. I finally found the perfect one from Deep Dyed Yarns at Wool fest in 2021 and made the hat in fall of 2022. I added a fleece band, since wool on the forehead can be a little itchy.

Unfortunately, this hat just desperately wished for freedom. It escaped and was recovered many, many times last year until one time, it just never showed back up in the lost-and-found bin at school. I only hope that it has found a new, loving home somewhere.

And so, Mae needed a new hat. An excuse to buy more yarn at Wool Fest this year! I love the stripes in this colorway called "Home Sweet Home" from Hinkston Handmade (formerly Rock and String). The hat pattern is the Top-Down Ear Flap Hat from Purl Soho. Instead of i-cord strings/tassels, I googled how to make a 6-stranded braid. It took me like, 50 tries, but I finally got it right! I added a fleece band to this one also, and it fits Mae well!

Lastly, this yarn is another Hinkston Handmade colorway called "Constellation." I think the random white speckles are just SO COOL. Kathy gifted me this a couple years ago. I finished the socks almost 2 years ago, but finally got around to photographing them! The pattern is Vanilla Socks, and I love how the heel fits.

Okay we're about half-way caught up on knit projects from the last 2 years. I still have a sweater and a handful of gifts to write about! Details for the Carved Pullover, confetti hat, striped ear-flap hat, and constellation socks on my Ravelry page.