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| Completed Batts to Hats challenge projects. Photos courtesy of Genesee Valley Handspinners Guild. |
Can you spin and knit a hat in under two hours? This was the latest challenge
posed to members of the Genesee Valley
Handspinners Guild. Participants paired up for the challenge so one person
could concentrate on spinning while the other partner worked on knitting. Seven teams competed at the event, held during a guild meeting. The winning team,
Marcia and Serena, had a great time and attributed their success, in a large
part, to Rita
Buchanan. Marcia remembered Rita's lesson on spinning bulky yarns from a
workshop in 2005. Serena blended beautiful batts for the competition, and they
finished their hat in a half hour! Marcia wrote a great article about their adventure
and included a pattern for the Half-Hour Hat, which is posted on the guild
website.
The Challenge:
"Here's how it works.... Choose a partner.
Develop your strategy. The goal is to create an adult sized hat from raw
material to wearable item in two hours. Each team will provide their own fiber
and any necessary tools (knitting needles, crochet hooks, pattern, sewing
needle) It can be in any preparation with the exception of pencil roving. So
it can be batts, locks, or commercial roving. You and your partner must spin
the fiber and then craft it (knit or crochet) into a hat (that would cover
your ears - we do live in a wintery region) that will fit an average adult
head. You can add any embellishments that you want as long as you remain true
to the rules. At the two hour mark, we will stop the activity and judge the
finished products."
Awards were based on completion time, in addition to an over-all Guild Favorite Award.