Hobbit Hat or Tea Cozy and More on Energized Singles

After spinning a bobbin full of yarn, it is so much easier to knit or crochet something when the wool is not removed from the bobbin and plied or the twist set.  If the twist is not set, the yarn is referred to as energized.  I have recently posted on energized singles and you may want to refer to those posts.  Usually, I crochet with energized singles.  In this case, I knit a hat in one piece and seamed the pieced together.  As you see, a normal triangle is not made.  It was not curved this way due to my knitting expertise, it was the use of energized singles.

Once I sewed the seam, the hat became more of a triangle, unless the stitches are followed. The stitches do not go straight up and down like normal knitting.  They curve to the right.  I added locks to the top of the hat, crocheted along the bottom of the hat, and brushed up the knitting to make the hat a little fuzzier.  I also gathered the seam which allowed for the top to curve down.  The type of wool I used to spin this hat with is Cotswold I purchased from Nistock Farms.  This wool was not cheap, but it was covered and much cleaner than most raw wool. Usually wool has bits and pieces of pasture, not to mention a little poo.  I buy most all of my wool raw (unwashed) from a farmer.  I then wash, dye, comb, and prepare the yarn to spin.  I could buy processed and colored wool, but that would take the fun away from the prep, not to mention all of the variations that can be done in the prep.  This yarn was spun thick and thin with some of the lock curl showing in the yarn.

I could stop with the hat at this point, but if the hat is for me, I can't put Cotswold wool next to my skin.  This would make a cute tea cozy also, but I would still want to line it for optimal warmth.  It has been a while since I posted about lining hats with fleece.  Not wool fleece, but the fabric fleece used to make blankets, scarves, jackets, etc.  Originally, I thought I should line the complete inside of the hat, but all that is needed is a band that covers the area of the hat that touches skin.  Here is how the hat looks at this time.  What do you think?

Thank you for viewing!  Dawie