A Beret for Everyday - my very first hat pattern

It's the hat I grab when I am running out of the house and don't know which hat to grab. It's a go-with-everything beret, and it is one of my favorites.

Photograph by R.B.

It won't win any prizes for the most exciting stitch pattern, but it is a great shape. And that is so important to me. Not too 'big'. Or floppy. It is close fitting, reminiscent of an early 1930s beret - but I can still get my hair into it if it starts to rain.

This is the first of a small collection of hats I have designed in recent months.

Photograph by R.B.

Photograph by R.B.

Photograph by Mike D.

Here it is worn with the open seam creating an alluring V-shape over the eye.

This is a design I first did back in 2006. I originally knitted it in an unknown cream wool, and scribbled down the pattern in my now battered old notebook.

Photograph by Mike D.

I wore it when I photographed some designs back in 2011, as it didn't detract from the jumper.

For this one, I've used Excelana 4 ply wool, in shade Saharan Sand. I just had one ball of it, from the photo shoot of A Stitch In Time Volume 2.

Image from Stitch In Time Vol 2

It's the remainder of this ball in fact! I hate waste.

Here's a bit more info if you are interested in purchasing the pattern:

Knit flat on two needles, from the bottom up. I used a thumb cast on method with one needle to give a neat ridged edge which seems to mirror garter stitch.

Yarn
One ball Excelana 4 ply Shade Saharan Sand (159m)

Needles
2.75mm needles
3.75mm needles

Tension
24 sts and 28 rows = 10cms / 4ins measured over stocking stitch using 3.75mm needles.

Size
To fit 21 - 23 inch head.

My head measurement is 22 inches, and it fits quite snugly. I would recommend using 3mm needles for the garter stitch brim if your head is 23 inches or more. But as with all knitted hats, I find it stretches slightly as you wear it.

It is available on Etsy here, if you fancy giving it a go.

Since rediscovering the social media world after years of self-imposed exile, I've become obsessed with it, taking pics of myself on my phone and posting them on Facebook and Instagram. Usually after too many glasses of wine, in the kitchen, next to the back door. (Ooh, the glamour).

Do you spy my Brace Of Acorns brooch? This is a little brooch I designed some years ago for a workshop I taught for Craft Guerrilla, along with my Posy of Violets. I'll be offering this soon too, in two colourways.

I'm also starting to offer a few vintage patterns from my collection on Etsy.

I really hope you like my first beret pattern. I'm very nervous about it, but I've got to try!

Theodora.

Knitty adventures at Monkley Ghyll

Susan and Gavin very kindly invited us up to the farm they moved into in March, (in fact the same weekend we moved into our new house). It's in an idyllic spot in Lancashire, about 20 minutes from the coast and Morecambe Bay. You will have read of their journey if you read her blog Just Call Me Ruby. We had the most wonderful time, as did the children. It was so good to squeeze one more trip in before school started.
 

 
These lovely creatures greeted us. I can't remember their breeds, I think the brown one is a Zwartbles? They were super soft, and greasy. We also met the chickens.

Miss B rolled her sleeves up ready to set to work.

We had a lovely day out in Morecambe Bay.

We had morning coffee at the Midland Hotel built in 1933.  

That morning I chose to wear The Frilly Jumper which I had finished years ago, but never photographed. Luckily it was from 1934.

I made it using some vintage cotton I found on Ebay years ago, by Bucilla, a 3 ply in pale beige and off white. I don't know when it dates from, I'd like to think the 30s, but more likely the 50s. It's one of the loveliest yarns I've ever worked with. It has a high twist, but is light, even though it is mercerised.

This is the ceiling of the hotel with the spiral staircase leading up to it.

The foyer and lounge area with the original rug.

We went to Brucciani's for lunch, another 30s gem, listed now and almost untouched ever since.

You can just see the mirror with ornate lamp above it.

Now I couldn't visit Susan without bringing some knitwear, in the off chance that she might photograph me in it. I have so many completed jumpers from both volumes now that I haven't had photographed. We managed one, but there are still lots to go.

                                                 Image courtesy of Susan Crawford

The Rose Jumper at last. Knit in the same yarn, in the smallest size. I'm very happy with the result. It seemed a little short at first, but has already dropped after just a few wears. That would be the silk.

                                                        Image Susan Crawford

Photographed outside Susan's front door, on a little stone wall filled with fragrant lavender. Everything was still in bloom.

                                                Image courtesy of Susan Crawford

I also took a few shots of Susan with my camera, a Canon 500D, with a 50mm lens. (In fact all the shots apart from the ones by Michael Demetriou and the ones in and of the hotel and cafe, which were taken with my phone, or Gavin or Susan's phone), are taken with this lens.

Susan also took a few shots of a couple of her designs, Nancy, which is available now, and Asthall, which will be released soon. They will be part of a collection called Knits for a Cold Climate.

As I may have mentioned, lots of the jumpers are being re-knitted in Fenella and Excellana, so I also got to model one of the re-knits - Could Anything Be Prettier, which I completely fell in love with. No photos of that yet though. The fit is almost exactly like the original version in the book, light and airy in Fenella, in the dove grey shade Columbine. Of course after wearing that I had to buy some Columbine along with Marriner to re-knit one of my designs, Bebe Daniels. It was originally knitted in Matchmaker 4 ply which is no longer available.
                                                                               

                                                         Images Michael Demetriou

I think it is going to look lovely in those two shades. Got to finish a few things before that though.                                                                       
                                                                         

Got my husband to take one of my boy and me on the old rusty gate opposite the front door. I was wearing my Blackberry Cardigan. It was so peaceful there, all we heard were the swallows above us, and the sheep bleeting in the field. The pigs got very excited if we went near them though, expecting food.

Filling up their water trough was tremendous fun.

Pottering.

Our last day, waving goodbye to the farm. He was so sad to leave.

So was I. Thank you Gavin and Susan.