Grey is Not Boring

Grey is Not Boring!

The love affair I have with grey continues. This delightful hat is made from handspun alpaca that I got from here. Its pretty rough handspun and still contains lots of little bits of straw that I had to pick out while knitting. The spinning is also uneven so some parts of the hat are thicker and some parts thinner. Also the colour is not consistent, if you look closely you can see the top of the hat is slightly darker than the edges. This is all part of the charm of handspun for me. This wool was spun by a human not a machine. A human with hands and alpacas and bits of straw everywhere and probably she stopped for lunch and the family dog slept on it as well. Its real and that's what I like about it. Wabi-Sabi sort of beautiful.

One of my professors recently said that the most rebellious thing you can do now in terms of design and art and theory is to simply make something because its beautiful. I like this because its something I've been feeling for some time. Why must art be ugly to be poignant and thoughtful and interesting? Why can't it be beautiful?

This wool is beautiful. I think the spinner intended it to be so despite the straw and unevenness. This I hope comes through in the hat. I just wanted a texture that would show off the wool as it is. The cables of the hat kind of fade away into the background and the wool and greyness of it come forward.

The pattern is called 'Gretel' by ysolda in the latest Stitch n' Bitch book. Even though I haven't done much cabling before the pattern was really easy to follow and went without a hitch (except for not being able to do the tubular cast on successfully even with 5 attempts!)

The Underside of the Hat.