Awesome Alpaca (and some clouds)

Yesterday I wound the alpaca yarn into a ball, found my short 3.75mm KnitPro tips and a 60cm (I think) cable and cast on for the Awesome hat.

The yarn I spun is, I'd estimate, a sport-weight yarn, but as alpaca's warmer than sheep wool, I didn't want a fabric that would be too dense, so I'm knitting it to the pattern instructions.

I took a photo this morning:

It does feel nice and soft though and I'm hoping that despite the fact that the hat's ribbed all the way from brim to crown (and the brim is long so it can be pulled down over the ears) it will be a fairly quick knit.  As long as I don't get distracted.  I've done another 4 rounds on it this morning while I was running my virus-scanning on my laptop as I was getting some annoying advertising links popping up on every webpage I went to.

The weather here today is very dreary and the temperature has dropped a bit (we've been very lucky weather-wise this winter; certainly better than other parts of the UK and especially the US).  When I took Jess out for her walk at 8.30 this morning, the sky was very grey and there were ominous-looking clouds overhead, so I snapped some photos:

The sun was trying to peek through the clouds, but wasn't having much success.

Even though we haven't experienced particularly wintry weather (it's been between 8C and 11C according to my car over the last week), it's been cold enough to wear a hat and scarf.  My hat of choice at the moment is my Quincy which I made a few years ago.

(not a particularly good photo - it's one I quickly snapped for my Ravelry page)

It's a Jared Flood design for a pattern book(let) he produced in collaboration with Classic Elite yarns.  I wanted the book enough to order it from a yarn shop in Florida!  Pattern link.

The scarf I've been choosing to wear is special in that I didn't make it.  Last year, I got an e.mail from Jennifer at Thistlebear (if you don't read her blog, you should; it's charming) telling me that my name had been chosen to be the recipient of a scarf she'd crocheted.  Very exciting; unexpected gifts are always good.

The scarf is just the right length for wearing under a coat.  Long enough to wrap around my neck and tuck into the collar, but not so long that it dangles too much.

The colour's a shade or two darker in real life and because I've had to keep the lounge lights on this morning (see comment above about dreary weather) I don't think the sheen of the yarn shows very well, but it's a lovely scarf that gives me pleasure to wear.  Thanks Jennifer :)