autumn knits

thimble's loop

ponytail hat by Sheila

devil trap

Sigh. Winter looms.
The only good things about this time of year are coal fires, an extra hour in bed today, hot water bottles and home made woollies.
Purl Bee has some gorgeous free patterns, which is where I found this Shawl Collar loop Cowl. These knitters make me believe in the possibility of perfection and not only that but consistent perfection.
I'm not quite there...but now have a warm neck. I used up the last of my Torridon Croftwools hand-dyed Gotland for the lining - perfect and not at all itchy.

Sheila has been busy making ponytail hats for everyone she knows with ponytail potential - thanks! This is a tried and tested favourite from Knitty but she added the crocheted flower which transforms it. The wool used for this was from another Scottish holiday and a trip to Ardalanish weavers on the Isle of Mull. It actually smells of sheep (clean ones of course). The hat looks even nicer from the front but I got camera shy. I stumbled on the cutest pony tail hat pattern today: the urban homesteaders winter hat. Oh to be six again, I would have loved one.

Escargot helmet

Last year, without a specific project in mind but unable to resist, I bought some lovely hand-dyed wool from Croft Wool and Weavers in Torridon (mentioned in the post 'good hats'):

nettle

weld

Inspired by my current Poirot box set marathon, I was looking for a Cloche hat pattern. Must be getting a bit mature in my tastes because although this is my 3rd time through this box set, for the first time I find myself admiring Miss Lemon's style:

Miss Lemon

I scoured the net and came across this magnificent free pattern on Ravelry, designed by Veronica Parsons: the Escargot hat. There are lots of versions on google images and I noticed that many of them are a bit roomy. I have a tiny head (no wasted space in there) so I reduced the pattern by 10 stitches:

Escargot cloche

Veronica Parson's 'Escargot' worn by Thimble

So far I have worn it once and received many exclamations of admiration, awe and astonishment. What a hat! I think it makes me look like a warrior lady soldier...

Chalcidian helmets

...but someone else said it looks like an old american football helmet. Nevertheless I feel I have notched it up a step in the style stakes for 2013.

Good hats

Herdwick hat

Herdwick hat with lining

I was planning to talk about every good hat I ever knitted or had knitted or bought hand-knitted or admired, but realised it was a bit ambitious and would involve too many pictures of my head.

So instead I have picked 2 recent lovelies. First is the hand-dyed hand crocheted Herdwick hat I bought at Woolfest this year. I believe it was made at Crookabeck farm. A Herdwick hat?! Yes, that is correct, an itchy scratchy Herdwick hat. The colours are incredible - those hand-dyed greens really do shimmer in the all too brief glimpses of Cumbrian sunshine - always makes me think of the iridescent Green Tiger Beetle for some reason. I have no idea how the spinner managed to make something like this into something so vivid, I have a lot to learn about dyecraft.

Nevertheless, although I tried to be stoical, it really was like wearing a hair shirt...I think...and before long I added a lining. Now it is my all time favourite hat. 

Second I will mention this hand spun Gotland wool hat which we bought from Croft Wool and Weavers in Torridon. The couple who spin and dye and weave this wool from their own sheep had a lot of interesting things to tell us about wool and sheep. One fact I recall is that the harder the life for a sheep (the bleaker the winter, the crappier the weather, the sparser the diet), the finer/ softer the wool. I might have got that completely wrong as I only had half an ear on what he was saying - I was too busy fondling all the lovely scarves and shawls to pay full attention.

Anyway this hat caught our attention for its simplicity and the unusual gathered top. We decided it was definitely a man's hat even though we were told it was not committed to any particular sex and could be whatever we wanted it to be. I think that was a sales pitch. Not sure what makes a hat a man's hat but this hat has whatever it takes.

Gotland wool hat: Croft Wools and Weavers