Cable Hat and Dorset Buttons

I actually knit something with my handspun!! I've been enjoying knitting hats and wanted to do a cable hat so I found this free pattern Ravelry. It is designed by Dora Stephensen.

I didn't put a pom pom on it - yet. When Skip and I were in the US at the beginning of the week I found a sale on fake fur pom poms so I do have one that would be perfect.

The pattern is sized for a baby, child, and adult. Although I have a small head, I did pick the adult size.

The handspun was worsted weight - more or less - and hand-dyed by me, using Jacquard dyes in spruce and teal. It does have somewhat of a mottled look. I have some left but probably only enough for a pair of hand warmers.

At my spinning and weaving guild on Wednesday, Suzanne did a workshop with us on Dorset buttons.

We took a plastic ring that was about 3/4" in diameter and did buttonhole stitch all around the ring, hiding the tail under the last few stitches. We then 'slicked' where we twisted the edging to the centre, then we wrapped the 'spokes' of the 'wheel'. Once they were done, we did a series of backstitches all around the spokes, filling them in.

Here are several completed ones.

There were also instructions for adding a shank to the back that we could decide to do or not.

Suzanne also circulated a very cute quilt she created with various buttons and embmroidery using variegated threads. Some of them had beads, others had the spokes wrapped in different ways. I'm sure an online search would give many ideas for decorating the buttons. And there is a myriad of ways the embroidered embellishments could be done.