Manitoba made

My Sheeples bulky handspun, Manitoba grown yarn has arrived.

Yum!

Hat Update!

Well folks, I have to say I like knitting hats. They're quick and satisfying. :)
I finished both hats this month and the verdict on warmth is two thumbs up! Yes I've succeeded in making a hat that beats the cold of Winterpeg.

First up:

Chris' hat

Featuring Lopi wool and polar fleece lining (instructions for lining a hat on this excellent blog). He tells me it's very warm and the best hat he's ever owned. I think I've finally knit something my hubby actually likes! He even got a compliment from one of his co-workers :)

Next:

My hat

Featuring Homestead by Plymouth Yarn, which is organic wool, yum! And for the fair isle bit I used Cascade 220 and sheeples yarn held together. The best part of this hat is the lining. It is a merino boucle. Amazing. I'm not much of a fan of boucle yarn generally but this yarn feels like a wooly lamb when it's knitted up.

I did some reading up on warm hats (ie I asked the Ravelers) and it seems the best way to keep warm in windy cold weather is to have a tightly knit outerlayer and a warm underlayer. Many people said I should use alpaca or quiviut or cashmere because they are superwarm, light fibers. The reason they are so warm is that they trap air in the fiber (caribou fur is warm for the same reason). When I saw and touched the boucle yarn I thought it would be perfect because it traps a lot of air, even though merino's not the warmest of the warm fibers. I was right.

We had some -30 something windchill weather this week and I tested my hat. Toasty warm. Awesome!

Next up... mittens... (but not for me... more later!)