Shrinking Toilet Rolls and Top Down Knit Hats

Has anyone else noticed that toilet rolls have shrunk? Companies have been steadily gypping us out of our money by shrinking packaging, but lots of their ploys are obvious. Take ice cream for example. We all have noticed the disappearance of the half gallon and the price hasn't dropped accordingly. But manufacturers are using stealth mode for many more items now including candy boxes which haven't changed size ..they just weight less now. Same for some boxed spaghetti. Ever notice how much air in those chip bags? Ridiculous. Now I am convinced that the yardage of toilet rolls has decreased. But with the very significant decrease in gas prices, why aren't the grocery bills coming down? Dumb question I guess.

Over the weekend I finished spinning up some wool for Mike's gloves. It's all plied up and ready to go. Since I am knitting toe up socks I decided to see if people actually knit top down hats, and lo and behold they do! So I am trying a pattern in which I do just that. This should ensure a perfect fit. (as always click to enlarge photos for best detail)


This is the bobbin of 2 ply yarn being wound into a skein for Mike's hat. Rather than spin two bobbins I took this wool off the bobbin with my yarn winder and made it into a ball (photo below). Then I plied using both ends of the resulting ball. The bobbin below contains some singles from Albert that I plan on eventually knitting into a bed jacket for my MIL. I've spent for-e-ver searching for a pattern for this project and now have a few strong candidates in my Ravelry queue.


This kitty below ain't no fool. She knows where the warmest spot in the house is on this 15 degree day. She is stretched out for maximum heat exposure in front of the stove.