The Goldilocks Project

A very happy holiday Friday to all!  I hope this finds you safe, well, and joyful.  We're good here!

So now that the gifts have been wrapped, sent (well, mostly!), and opened, I have some work to do!

First I thought it would only be two items I gave Oogyhubby:

Yes, I gave him protoprojects as gifts.  Why?  Well, mostly because I needed his input on both of them, and I usually have no idea what he really wants.

The yarn on the left is just as in the pic - it's mostly combed Samoyed fur, mixed in with some wool.  My aim is to make Oogyhubby something very warm for his hands or head so that when he is out on the tractor that part of him doesn't turn into an icicle.  I thought for sure he'd vote for mitts, but no - he wants a hat.  A very warm and windproof hat.  More on that in a minute.

The other yarn is Rowan Felted Tweed in a lovely dark gray colorway.  I have a bunch more of it, and intend to make him a knitted vest (this one actually).  What I need for him to do is find a sweater he likes to wear so I can use its dimensions for the vest.  He wants the hat first, so I have time to swatch, LOL.

In the meantime, guess what - my dad's Xmas slippers are a tad too small.  I was so worried about them being big I guess I got carried away!  He's trying to stretch them out but may just revert back to the ones with the holes in them plugged with felted sweater inserts.  I just ordered some more Cascade 220, this time in blue, for what I've dubbed The Goldilocks Project.  The first pair was too big (then my mom shrunk them too much, LOL); the second pair was too small (my mom is going to end up with a bazillion pairs of these slippers!), so this last pair will be - just right.  Right?

Oogyhubby has some definite ideas about what he wants for his warm hat.  He wants it soon (so before the vest), and he wants to be able to roll it up (to double over his ears).  My plan so far is to make a double-layered hat, sort of like this one, with the Samoyed on the outside and a tighter-than-usual gauged alpaca on the inside.  I didn't really have anything suitable in my stash for that, but conveniently that extra skein of alpaca was exactly what I needed to get the Webs discount - so it's almost free with all of that together.

So there you go.  I have three priority projects but can't really start any of them yet (except for the vest swatching).  Such problems!!

In the meantime, I've only got a couple of inches left to do on Storm Clouds, and thanks to Neuro I have at least two more cowl projects planned as well (with existing yarn!).  I think we're going to see if we can't make it through 2021 without buying any new yarn.  We both have plenty to do to keep us busy, even though it might not be the perfect latest new thing.  I can always make a wish list for 2022!!