I finished the hat!!! You remember, my first project using my brand new gorgeous indy-yarn?

I really like how it came out, even with its slightly unconventional shape… the fabric is quite dense because of the weave-pattern (which makes it very warm thankfully) and this allows the hat to take on different forms: so it can be worn either as a béret style hat (when pushed down at the back)….

….or - my personal favorite - in a more hipster style (when just crunched a little bit at the top)! 
Pardon my slightly crazy eye in this pic… I don’t know what was *that* shocking… :)

I did the ribbing with a slipped stitch detail and with diagonal shaping to keep it less bulky at the neck (since I always look like an idiot with either bulky & scrunched ribbing in my neck area or the wider part of the hat starting too high up)!
I think that the biased shape gives also a nice “turbanesque” touch to the whole hat (and keeps the top of the hat slightly lower & near the nape… a good thing when you wear a tall hat and you don’t really dig the smurf-look).

The weave stitch seems to be a little complicated at first, but one gets into the rhythm soon enough…
…but the best thing is: it perfectly hides the jog when knitting in the round!!!!

I have always admired the luxurious looking yarns from independent indy dyers on ravelry… they seem to be the holy grail for knitters: lovely shades of ecological colours dyed by hand on natural premium quality fibres!

Well, it’s one thing to admire and long for some nice squishy yarn in sumptuous saturated colours and another to feel it, touch it, have it, work with it and finally wear it! 
The first three of these wishes were granted to me today:

Yes… I ordered the first (of many I am absolutely sure) batch of genuine indy yarn, by Polo&Co in France, made exclusively out of french wool that is washed, carded and spun on the spot.
The wool is from sheep breeds of central France and even the sheep there all have very elegant names: Black Velay, the Blanche du Massif Central, the Bizet!

This is the Masgot (in worsted weight) and the Masgot Fine (in fingering weight). It is 100% natural wool without any dye: rustic and beautiful original sheep colour!!!

But I had to order some coloured yarn too of course (since I rarely succeed in making one coloured projects) and the point was to get hand-dyed colours anyway….

This colour is hard to describe… it is purple and pink with some almost blue strands. Rustique fine is also 100% wool in fingering weight.

I plan to use this gorgeous mustard colour in a jumper (paired with the natural grey sheep colour) for my next big project: Alpaga is sportweight 80% Alpaca and 20% wool and incredibly soft….

All colours are made out of natural dye that is environment-friendly and biodegradable! They are produced by a small family business and sold via Etsy (you can find the shop here). I don’t know about you, but I always prefer small businesses over big companies… it somehow feels better to give my money to a “real” person like you and me (and the quality is usually much better, since they love what they do and there is no mass production involved).
And another great thing (that shall not be overlooked) is the price: One can find yarns from 5,50 Euros up to 18 Euros in this little Etsy-shop!

All in all I am very excited about this new purchase of mine (and my initiation into indy-yarn) and I will keep you posted about the projects that will emerge out of it…. very soon hopefully!!!!

Have you guys seen this wonderful toy pattern by Julie from “Little Cotton Rabbits”?

She wrote the most wonderful pattern to knit your very own bunny-friend with lots of detailed instructions and great pictures to illustrate every step. 
It’s really lots of fun to decide on colours and texture and to see your little rabbit come to life with every stitch you make!

I did very few modifications (notably the little ankle socks with the crocheted frilly mohair lace) but followed the pattern mostly for everything else…

Because my little bunny girl seemed a little bit lonely and sad I decided to make her a little toy of her own. Julie has a lovely pattern for the teeny tiny bunny on her blog (and she even has a post for the itty bitty dress it wears).

My little bunny was very happy with it’s little doll but there were technical problems involved, since the bunny hands have less than perfect motor skills and it could not really carry it’s new friend around…
so we found two solutions to this problem: one was to add press studs to both the bunny and the tiny toy hand (with a little bit imagination it even looks like a pacifier) and the other was to knit up a bag to help the bunny carry around it’s little friend… when it’s otherwise occupied!

The bag was quickly done: 
I casted on 10 sts of fingering weight yarn with the provisional method on 2mm/US 0 DPNs and worked in 1 row stripes for 8 rows (in red & white), then I did 2 rows of garter sts and bound off in red. 
With the green coloured yarn I picked up 6 sts on the side (needle1), undid the prov. co and knitted it (needle2) and then picked up another 6 sts on the other side (needle3).
Then I just worked in stocking stitch back and forth for 4 rows and increased on both “corners” at the bottom on every RS: 
Needle1: K to end, M1R.
Needle2: K1, M1L, knit to last st, M1R, k1.
Needle3: M1L, knit to end of row.
After another 3 rows of stocking stitch I did the back side of the bag with a method that is often used in the heels of socks:
On the next RS I knitted the sts of needle1 and 2 - then, I slipped the first stitch from needle3 over the last knitted stitch of needle2, turned the work, slipped the first stitch again and purled back to the end of needle2. There I slipped the next st of needle1 over the last purled st of needle2. Again I turned and slipped the first st before knitting back.
I repeated this process until all of the stitches from both needle 1 and 3 were worked up this way and bound off. 
Then I just crocheted around with a simple ds and the red yarn: I started on the left side of my little garter top and stopped right next to it on the other side.
The long strap is also crocheted with a simple chain stitch. Mine is 20cm/8” long, but you should adjust it to your bunny’s size…. I find that it looks cute when it just reaches the hem of the dress.