Two hats of handspun are better than one commercially done

The trouble with being a handspinner is that you tend to like to spin, in and of itself. It may not mean that you're spinning to create a yarn that will be made into something -- you just like spinning that particular fiber. So, every once in a while I rummage through my handspun and decide that I should make something of it -- hence these two hats! Actually they were intended for my daughter and her boyfriend who will be visiting at the end of this week, but who knows if they will like them? Or if the hats will fit?

The first is borrowed from a Rowan pattern for a man's hat, which I found on Ravelry. I cast on 126 stitches (on 16" #3 circular needles), did a Knit 2 Purl 2 ribbing for six rows, then commenced knitting stripes in stockinette stitch, two rows at a time. When the hat is large enough, I began decreasing, first every 18 stitches, then 17, and so forth. Simple! When it was all finished, I felted the daylights out of it, hoping that it would decrease in size. For some reason, this wool didn't felt that much, but it does have a nice halo and a better density.

The second hat looks like it was designed by the Ministry of Silly Hats, which is pretty much my style. I began once again with 126 stitches on #3 circular needles (16" length). The patterns I created on a graph, based on multiples of 9, until I got to the top and knitted in tone-on-tone red stripes, decreasing every 9 stitches, then 8, etc. No brim: I simply began with 6 rows of stockinette in a navy color, then one row of purl stitch, then I began my pattern. When I finished the hat, I hemmed the navy color under so that the brim would lie nice and flat and there would be a bit more "heft" for a hat band of sorts.

The yarn for both hats was woolen spun, a light worsted weight, maybe sport weight (I'm guessing about 900 yards per pound).

Some  detail shots:

Mother Nature was doing some of her own color work today as well.