At the beginning of the year, I took on a Pay It Forward project that involved letting several people sign up for me to make them something, and then in turn, they would have to pay it forward to someone else. I've been a wee bit slow to get going on these, but I finally buckled down and got started this summer. I decided to spin up some fiber into yarn and make handknit legwarmers for my friend Alex, who's a yoga goddess and so of COURSE needed legwarmers!!!
I started with this fiber, falkland dyed by Funky Carolina, in a color called Run Into the Fire.
I had two braids of this gorgeous stuff, so I made two skeins of sport/dk 2-ply yarn, spinning on my Lendrum DT.
Once the yarn was done, I got really excited because I realized I totally had enough for TWO projects. So I decided to knit the legwarmers and also a birthday hat for my friend Marianne. I love how the handspun yarn looked in the two projects.
PATTERN: Improvised
NEEDLES: US 5 (3.75 mm)
YARN: My handspun, Funky Carolina Falkland
I made up this pattern, so feel free to use it. For an average woman, cast on 40 stitches (gauge about 4.5 stitches per inch). Knit 3" (approx. 18 rows) 2x2 ribbing. For the first knit row, increase 4 stitches, evenly spaced (I just did a k1f&b). Knit in the round. Increase 4 more stitches in row 50. Knit to 80 rows. Do another 3" (18 rows) 2x2 and then cast off using the sewn bindoff method. Easy!
PATTERN: Norie by Gudrun Johnston
NEEDLES: US 5 (3.75 mm)
YARN: My handspun, Funky Carolina Falkland
This is such a great hat! I wasn't sure about it in handspun at first, but my friend Tracy convinced me that with a semi-solid handspun, it wouldn't interfere with the lace panels, and she was right. This is a great pattern for a not-too-crazy handspun yarn. I love the slouch factor and the lace panels. It was a very fast knit, and I think it's really cute on my pal! The only change I made was to leave out the last pattern repeat, but it's still very slouchy.
And that's how one gal makes two gifts from the same yarn. Yay!
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