Hurricane Honey Cowl

I realised this morning that I hadn't shown you the second item I've knitted from Hurricane the alpaca's fleece.  I had a look on Ravelry for ideas and decided on the Honey Cowl.

I'd spun the yarn a sort-of woollen style, from hand-carded rolags, so it was a bit airy and fluffy (my first attempt at spinning woollen style, which is why I say sort-of because I haven't completely got to grips with the technique yet).  The yarn was, I reckon, sport-weight and the pattern's written for DK, but with alpaca being a warm fibre, I wasn't overly worried and decided to try for a fairly drapey fabric.  The pattern is simple knitting, once you've got the hang of how the fabric looks after the first half-dozen rounds or so.  I didn't strand the yarn too loosely when I did the 'p1, sl1 with yarn in front' rows, which gave it a bit more of an open look.  Here it is:

It's now sitting in a bowl of warm water and then I'll block it a bit.  I did think about steam-blocking it, but then changed my mind as I thought the yarn could probably do with another wash.

It's horribly dreary here, so it's difficult to take any photos indoors and too drizzly to take photos outdoors, so I hope the next photo will show the stitch pattern a bit better:

I'm not going to block it too vigorously - just open it out a bit.

After casting this off and finishing the Regia stripy socks for my Mum, I cast on another pair of socks:

I spun this yarn from a merino/bamboo mix I bought at World of Wool and, to be honest, I was a bit 'meh' about the result.  It isn't the prettiest yarn and I think I could have done better (note to self:  think about the colours when spinning dyed roving), but it's fine for socks.  I'm using my Chia-Goo circular needle for these and for some reason, I'd got it in my head that it's a 2.5mm needle.  It was only when I was nearing the heel that I happened to spot on the needle that they're actually 2.25mms.  They look bigger than the usual 2.25mm Addi Lace circular I use, but that might be because it's stainless steel whereas the Addi is brass.  They're knitting up into a nice fabric though, but because the yarn's a bit thicker than regular sock yarn, it makes for more hand-aching knitting.

I was going to show something I was about to start, but as I've still got this horrible cold (I felt dreadful yesterday), I've put that off until my head's less fuzzy.  No point in mucking something up and wasting time, which I fear will happen and this is something that I want to go right!

In other news, we have a new boiler, so the house is nice and warm and hot water is available whenever I want it.  Bliss!