Birthday hats

Don’t you just hate it when someone has a birthday close to Christmas? This means thinking of two gifts rather than just the one! Luckily one of the pre-Christmas birthdays is my Mum, and she’s dead easy to think of gifts for. This year she got a very craft-based gift from me… I made her a hat, and bought her a length of fabric I thought she would like (she sews… and which sewist wouldn’t want fabric?!).

So the hat! Which is really what I’m here to talk about today…

The hat proved surprisingly difficult to photograph!! It’s actually a lovely rich bottle green colour, but it kept coming out quite grey. I used the same wool that I made my Brass and Steam shawl from which was Plymouth Yarn Encore Heathers (bit of a mouthful), and the pattern is the Ridgewood Beanie (Designs by KN).

Really easy to knit up I must say… this took me a grand total of… one afternoon… including Pom Pom. I think the fact that this is Aran wool really helps. The pattern is a free one, and consists of a few rows stockinette, then one purl row… I know… mind boggling! But I like the effect, and the decreases at the top look lovely and neat which helps.

Ooh that’s better… you can see the green properly in this picture. I had great fun with the Pom Pom… I made a giant one in a grey alpaca mix that I had leftover. And your eyes do not deceive you… I did end up with two shades of grey… let’s call it a design feature.