wind it up

the other night, with a lot of assistance from the knittinghelp.com video, i managed to wind my very first center pull ball.



^{soon to be a scarf}


i've been wanting to knit a hat with ear flaps for a while now. i found a relatively easy pattern on knittinghelp.com and i started it two nights ago. the yarn i used is called Wool Pak Yarns. it's 100% new zealand wool. the label actually had no gauge or needle reccomendations. x_X i had asked the woman working at my LYS and she suggested a size between an 8-10.
i was REALLY excited to knit the hat, but, unfortunately i didn't have a short circular and dpns in any of those sizes... so i used the closest one i had: a size 11.
i figured that if i knit very tight then everything should be fine.
the hat turned out HUGE.



^{my sidekick and the hat for scale purposes}


i finished knitting it last night and decided i would shrink the hat in my sink. i spent the next half hour agitating the piece with my hands in the hot hot hot water. my first experience with felting! it dried pretty quickly, and, the size right now is actually quite nice... but... now the hat is felted and... i sort of don't like it anymore. =( the pattern suggests a crochet border... i think that would help the overall look of the hat, but, i don't know how to crochet. oh well, i'll see what i can do with it soon.