I’m running a bit late with this Inspiration Saturday post due to feeling a little under the weather. Which is a shame, because my spinner’s guild is having a dye workshop today that I am missing. But sometimes you get to go out and play with wool in the October sunshine and sometimes you have to stay home with the sniffles and work on a paper you’re trying to publish. Sigh.

Anyhow, in honor of #Spinzilla, I’ve gathered together some gorgeous projects from Ravelry that used handspun yarn. All photos belong to the stated Ravelry user, and you can click the photos to visit the project pages.

Photo copyright SmokingHotNeedles

The first projet is a great example of what you can do with just a small amount of handspun. This Raveler took 2 oz of fiber, spun it into a lovely self-striping laceweight, and knit a great dropped stitch scarf with it. I’ve had this pattern in my mental to-knit list for a while, it’s so fun with multicolored yarns.

Photo copyright Fleegle

This is another example of beautiful laceweight handspun. This spinner got about 600 yards (!) of yarn out of only 2.5 ounces and knit this fabulous gradient shawl with it. I LOVE GRADIENTS SO MUCH, GUYS. I already have some non-handspun gradient yarn that I’m planning to turn into a shawl like this… someday.

Photo copyright digitalnabi

Speaking of gradients, this Citron shawl is another beautiful example of gradient spinning, this time from 4 oz of fiber spun into a laceweight single. This project led me to a fantastic teqchnique tutorial on carding to create gradient handspun from hand-dyed top on the digitalnabi blog. Check it out, I will definitely be attempting that technique in the future!

Photo copyright klippity

To switch things up a bit from gradient yarns, we have these fabulous mitered mittens. These were created from about 150 yards of a wonderfully colorful handspun 2-ply, proof that you can make something lovely with small amounts of yardage!

Photo copyright CatReading

Last but not least, we have this simplified version of the Norie hat knit with about 175 yards of sport/dk 2-ply handspun. I love how this hat is working with the nature of handspun: keeping it simple stockinette and texture to show off color transitions and embracing the heathered look of portions of the yarn where the color changes in the 2 plies differed (barberpoled). This Ravelry user has a whole slew of gorgeous handspun projects on her page, I had a hard time choosing just one.

I hope that’s provided some ideas for what to do with your handspun yarns! What’s your favorite pattern or project for handspun?