Hats and more...

My friend Erin and I decided to go crazy and model some of the handmade hats I have stashed in my dresser. The point is that I love all of them, but don't get to wear them all on a regular basis. So now they get to have their own 5 minutes of fame!

My take on a Russian hat ––this one is knitted with Icelandic wool,
fittingly for Erin, and lined with purple silk. Yum! 

A slouchy little Scandinavian thing. 

My mum knitted this one up in about half a day flat at Christmas.
It's one of the warmest hats in my collection, and
I love the swirls she invented along the sides. 

No, this one isn't handmade. It's my pink (um, raspberry?) beret from Paris.
One of my favourite hats, hands down. 

First hand-spun yarns from two years ago, all dyed with plants, too! 

Beret-like cabled thing knitted with Malabrigo yarn from Uruguay. 

I've been busy making pots for the last two weeks, throwing things on the wheel mostly, but also hand-building some. The first glaze firing came out of the kiln today, and there are some lovely little bowls and cups and BUTTONS! I handmade some buttons to go on my sweater, and was thrilled with the result ––should have made more while I was at it. 

Handmade clay buttons with a dab of blue or green glaze
in a hand-thrown nutmeg-coloured bowl. 

An experimental yarn bowl. Pop in the yarn while you're plying or knitting
 (with lace-weight for example)and keep it from dancing all over the floor.
This one is glazed in rutile (titanium dioxide) glaze with a touch of green.

Now that I'm officially a blogger, friends keep telling me about other neat blogs to check out. Wow. The blogosphere is huge, and seems to cover just about every topic you could imagine. A few highlights for you here, to explore between times. Of course, for starters, by dear friend Sarah, whose talent is out of this world. Check out her art and thoughts on "nature, culture, and the places where they run into each other" here. Then there's this nutty man named Gary, who I've never met, who's a potter in New York. My pottery teacher told me about him and his blogging adventures. Read the stories about couples, they're sweet, and check out his bowls and teapots while you're there.  My friend Erin, who is a secret Icelander transplanted to Georgia (though she's heading back to Iceland soon), writes and photographs here.

As for the sweater update, I spun almost a whole bobbin of yarn yesterday afternoon. It's such a satisfying feeling to watch the bobbin fill up with ridges of white yarn. Spinnerooooo!

Here's the first bobbin of yarn! Almost full... 

And here's what's left to wash, pick, card, potentially dye, spin, and knit up.
It's really not SUCH a big bag, is it? 

Thanks for reading! I hope the sun is shining where you are, too!