When is B*rbie Cool?

My daughter recieved a belated birthday gift today. It was from my sister-in-law who, aside from being late, is often way off base in her choice of gifts. As we opened the box and I saw that very special shade of trademarked pink, I thought for sure I'd be sending this back pretty quickly. Neither of my girls has been into B*rbie in years. They have them but they don't play with them at all.

Imagine my surprise when Stinkerbelle (who's not into pink or anything girly at all) started to open the box. She was all excited! I took a closer look and saw that it was a Hard Rock Barbie and she's got black nail polish, cool sneakers, a nifty guitar and SKULLS!!! She's got a skull tattoo, skulls on the wristbands, skulls on her shirt, her guitar, her necklace - everywhere! My Stinkette is all about the skulls.

Yesterday I said that I was working on my first project from my handspun. Here it is. This hat is made of the first roving that I dyed and spun on my wheel. I think it was corriedale and it was a total experiment. I had a big bunch and I dyed half purple and left half alone. Then I spun them together and hoped that it would produce a tweedy effect but when it was done I really wasn't sure about the yarn. It was a little questionable. It wasn't bad but it was very thick and thin and the color didn't blend as much as I thought it might.

This past weekend I really felt like knitting a little handspun. It was partly due to all the questions about what I'm gonna do with it and partly curiosity. What to make? I thought about it a lot before settling on a hat for Dulaan. It seemed like only good things could happen if I started this new endeavour by giving back a little bit so I reached for the purple and white and hoped for the best. I thought that the roughness of the yarn just felt right for Dulaan.

The result is a hat that is really soft and fluffy. I started at the top and worked my way down. I did 1x1 ribbing all around so it's really stretchy and I ended with a rolled stockinette edge in another, more purpley, version of the same yarn for contrast. I really like it and I'm surprised to find that the yarn looks exactly as I hoped it would when I knit it up. I still have a bunch so maybe I'll make another and gift it so someone local so that I can see it from time to time.


Here is another picture of something making me happy today. I won a contest over at Aija's and look what she sent me. STR in a really amazing colorway called Henpecked and some of her lovely stitch markers. I posed all the loot by my snapdragons. I planted these months ago during a fabulous warm weekend before it got really cold around here again and snowed. I thought for sure that these were gone but they came back. I love that!