Knitting the Gro Hat By Fiber Tales
Hello friends,
I have a knitting project start and finish to show you today. Ever since I finished my latest blanket some months ago, I've been procrastinating over which knitting project to do/finish next.
I've got a pair of socks, and also a set of leg warmers on the go, but I wasn't feeling like working on them while it was so warm outside. And then I wasn't happy with my socks so I frogged them, and then procrastinated some more about knitting the yarn up with a different sock pattern..
But then while I was cleaning up my craft room I found a knitting project bag with 100 grams of DK weight possum/merino yarn that I'd hand dyed a sage green for a knitting project with the pattern Gro Hat by Fiber Tales. I instantly fell back in love with the project, especially the leaf pattern around the hat, and started knitting the pattern.
First up I needed to learn a new cast on method for the edge of the hat, Italian Tubular cast on, which ended up being similar to other cast on methods I've learned, so that was okay. Then I knitted the ribbing at the bottom of the hat, which folded over at the end. After that was switching needles to a bigger size, and plain knitting for a while. All that was relatively easy.
After that came all the hard parts, and at this stage I wish I had put in a safety line before the cable and lace section, as it would've made the pattern knitting way less stressful. My advice to anyone considering this pattern would be to do the following in the cable and lace sections: put in a safety line at the start, put stitch markers and the beginning of each repeated section, so it's easy to frog back to a section in a row if necessary. And the last thing I would suggest is to knit the k1yok1 repeats much looser than you think, because if that repeat is too tight, it makes it super hard to do the cables in the next row.
Once the tricky part of the cables and lace work is done, the rest of the hat is pretty easy to knit until the finish. I have done both cables and lace work in knitting before, but this pattern was tricky for me to do. Just a thing to note is that this pattern has only one size, and you can't upscale it or downscale it easily without ruining the repeats.
And here is the finished Gro Hat knitted up before blocking, as you can see, you can see the stitches between the DPNs, are slightly wider vertical rows. It was unfortunate, but I hoped it would come out in blocking.
I gave the hat a nice and long soaking in luke warm water and wool wash, and then blocked the hat using a head mannequin covered in a plastic bag.
And here is the finished hat.
I absolutely love the finished hat, and especially in the sage colour, as it just really matches so well with the leaves. I'm glad that I stuck it out and finished the hat despite the trickiness of the cable and lace section. I think the pattern is totally worth knitting but it's good to be aware of the trickiness. I can't wait to wear this hat all winter long.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Random Farm's Tilda and Biscuit Fleece Project - Washing and Storing
Hello friends,
Yes, I went and bought two more raw fleeces, but in my defense, it was only 500 grams of fleece each. I saw a social media post from Random Farm in April announcing the release of their raw fleeces after they'd been taken to the 2025 National Black and Coloured Sheep Breeders Association Competition. After searching through the photos of their fleeces available, I was really tempted by two raw fleeces, from the sheep Tilda and Biscuit, so I bought 500 grams of each of them.
First up we have Tilda the sheep, who is a silver grey pure-bred Romney, with fleece of 34 microns across and a staple length of 13 cm. Her fleece came second in the Strong Handcraft Fleece section at the National Black and Coloured Sheep Breeders Association Competition in 2025.
With her fleece I scoured it using my previous method of scouring wool using Unicorn Scour Power, but this time I used a new drying method.
Usually I put scoured fleeces into plastic trays to dry while outside, but I have the problem of fleece trying to blow away in high winds, and also when I bring it inside Missy and Rosie cats think of them as warm and fluffy cat beds. I saw a social media post a while ago of someone using a foldable fish drying mesh rack to dry fleeces and yarn, so I was interested in buying one, and I eventually found it on Temu after I couldn't find any for sale locally in New Zealand. I opted for the four tier rack with zip closures as it gave me many options for drying fleece, fibre, and yarn. It also folds down into a very small space for storage.
And the new system works great for both outside the house, and also for hanging inside near the fireplace on cold nights. It didn't take very long at all to dry, hung up safe from both winds and cats. A quick flick carding of Tilda's dried fleece shows a nice clean and long staple with great crimp in the fleece.
Biscuit the sheep is a silvery-grey romney/corriedale fleece, with romney lustre and corriedale softness. Her fleece was shorn when she was 18 months old, so this is her two-tooth fleece, at 31 microns and a staple length of 14 cm. Biscuit's fleece came 4th in the Mature Strong Handcraft Fleece section at the National Black and Coloured Sheep Breeders Association Competition in 2025.
Random Farm suggests spinning this fleece semi-worsted/worsted style, which require wool combs to align all the fleece in the same direction. I have actually have a set of wool combs ordered from Majacraft, but I'm waiting for them to arrive so I can try this method of fleece preparation.
When dried I flick carded a lock of Biscuit's scoured and washed fleece, and it turned out just beautiful, with two toned colours on a long staple. I'm looking forward to using my new wool combs with this fleece when they arrive.
With four scoured and clean fleeces now in storage, I will not buying any more fleece for quite a while. The next step for all these fleeces is to process them for spinning, by either drum carding them, or using my wool combs.
And I just wanted to say a big thank you to Random Farm, who gave me permission to use their photos of Tilda and Biscuit the sheep in this blog post. Please check out Random Farm's Facebook and Felt pages to see all their lovely fleece available.
There won't be a blog post next Thursday, as I'm having cataract surgery on my left eye next Wednesday. I am planning on posting a blog a week after that if all goes to plan.
Have a wonderful day.
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
Planting Garlic and Shallots
Hello friends,
A couple of weeks ago I was finally able to get all my garlic and shallot bulbs into the ground. I've been meaning to for a while, but first I had to weed, and then dig over the vege garden bed they were to go into.
Once hubby and I did the hard work of weeding and digging the vege garden bed one Saturday afternoon, I pulled out my trusty bulb planter, and got to work first planting out six shallot bulbs that I had picked up from our local garden centre. I haven't planted shallots before, so this is a small experiment to see if they were worth doing so in the coming years.
Once they were in the ground, I planted out a couple of bulbs of Printanor garlic I also purchased from our local garden center. I've grown these for years, but I've had some problems with garlic rust with this variety each December.
Next up were the garlic varieties I bought from Bulbs Direct. I've wanted to try new varieties to see if they were more resistant to garlic rust, and I was also interested in how they tasted. I planted a bulb of Creole garlic, which is supposed to taste very intense and much more firey than other garlic varieties. Creole garlic has beautiful red/burgundy cloves when the bulb is broken up for planting.
And the last garlic variety to plant was Fire which was also from Bulbs Direct. Fire garlic is supposed to form large bulbs and have a fierce spicy taste.
And now with all that planting done, my garlic and shallot bulbs are in the ground for the next 6 - 7 months. I hope come the end of December, there is a large harvest for me to dig up.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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The Artsy Housewife's Abalonia's Apple Tree Cross Stitch Finish
Hello friends,
I have a new cross stitch project finish to show you today, with The Artsy Housewife's Abalonia's Apple Tree cross stitch project being completed in early this May.
It was only a little while ago that I posted this in a blog as a new project I was working on over the autumn. In the next few weeks after that, I monogamously worked on this cross stitch project until it was finished. I am currently having eye sight problems (which will soon be fixed with cataract surgeries in the next few months), and the Aida in this project was the only one of my current WIPs big enough for me to see easily while cross stitching.
And now that Abalonia's Apple Tree is now finished, I am so very pleased with the results. This cross stitch project finish shows off everything good about the autumn season with shades of red, orange, green, and yellow, and I just love the big and small details of the pattern.
The cresent moon and stars are just so beautiful.
And so are the blackbird and the ripe red apples.
Abalonia, the fox, is so nicely detailed in shades of browns, reds, and creams.
The wicker basket has wonderful shades of brown and cream, and it really stands out against the Fiber on a Whim Old Gold 18 count Aida.
I am very happy with this project, and all that remains now is to find a perfect frame to house it in. I hope to get that done in the next couple of weeks.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
Planting Tulips
Hello friends,
A little while ago I did an online order for garlic bulbs to plant this autumn, and while I was on the Bulbs Direct website buying those, I had a chance to peruse their other spring bulb collections. I've already completely filled our garden with daffodil bulbs, but other spring bulb plants are few and far between.
A couple of weeks later a package arrived from Bulbs Direct, and I had four new varieties of tulips to plant, including Katinka, Kickstart, Marvel Parrot, and Purple Sky. In shades of purples and pinks, these tulips will brighten up my front garden in spring.
The day the Bulbs Direct package arrived, I pulled out my trusty bulb planter, and got to work in the front garden.
I decided to plant each bulb variety in a clump together to really give a big floral punch of colour in various part of the front garden. The tulips will greet us every time we enter or exit our property, and they'll look great from the street too.
Now there is nothing to do but wait over winter and into spring for my new tulip bulbs to make their way above ground. It'll be something to look forward to over the coming dark and cold winter months.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
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