project: brooklime

I don't think I've talked enough about the Knitting and Stitching show I attended at Alexandria Palace in October yet, do you? All joking aside, it was a fantastic source of inspiration, patterns, and yarn that has carried me through the Autumn/Winter months... and this project is the perfect example of that!

The Brooklime hat by baa ram ewe, and made with pip colourwork yarn instantly caught my eye as I walked around the show, and I knew I had to make it. I selected shades of burgundy, navy, and mustard - they would coordinate with all of my winter outerwear, and honestly a vast majority of my accessories. Apparently, I have a much more boring/consistent fashion sense than I thought I did.

It was a great fun and engaging knit. The colour changes and fair isle kept it interesting throughout, and the small needles meant that it wasn't just a FLASH BANG FAST project as many hats tend to be.

In retrospect, I probably should have bought myself some circular needles in the right size - working on DPNs across so many stitches was a bit of a dubious process at best. When using 5 needles (as I did on the brim), the stitches nearly filled the needle, putting themselves at risk of falling of at any point. When I moved onto the body - and after several near-misses, I grabbed another st of DNPs to reduce the number of stitches per needle, which helped to prevent accidental stitch drops, but did lead to a very unwieldy (not to mention scary-looking) project. But in the end it was definitely worth it!

I've already had lots of admiration, and several requests for me to make other people one - so I know it's a happy, successful project! It's definitely one that I would recommend making for the sheer joy and celebration of colours.

Happy stitching,
Molly x