november post 14: more hats, bulky hats

Knit big or stay home. No, wait---knit big AND stay home! Nominating these for  Craft Friday single day projects, and fab gifts, all from photo shoots for my clients earlier this year.

Coast Redwood Hat . I love everything about this photo--the Tilda Swinton-ish model, the natural  undyed bulky yarns from the Tahki Terra collection,  the styling by Karin Strom (I mean, that acorn necklace? Nailed it) and the  colorless dewy light that we had, thanks to drizzly rain as we were shooting. Of course, the hat, itself. One of my favorite photos from the year.

Silver Fir Hat  from the same shoot, also a contender. It has a matching capelet. (I am not sure I'd call it a capelet but you can see, it is one of those big shoulder covering not-quite-a-poncho-but-way-bigger-than-a-cowl things)  This is the most amazing mash-up of natural wool yarn and high fashion that I've ever shot. My forever gratitude to  Stacy Charles for just letting me do my thing with these.
You can see the rest of the collection here, in the Oh, Natural flipbook. (I also love that cover piece.)

Annnnd....two fabulous super bulky hats from Lar Rains' new book Presto. Excellent gift knitting ahead from Mr. Modern Lopi himself.

Threesome So cushy and lovable that the model requested to pleeeeeeeeeease keep it, and got her wish. (Thanks Lars!). For me, I'll just make that pompom a little chubbier, and then: perfection.

Polar Coordinates , a rare slouchy super bulky hat. As usual, Josephine rocked it. It's got volume, and a lot of warmth.

The whole Presto book is fun, upbeat projects in MadTosh ASAP.  You can see the cover cowl knit by Kay of  MDK here, along with a great review. You could sub in the super bulky yarn of your choosing, no prob.  Fun fact: super bulky doesn't always mean the warmest-- because you knit in a fairly loose gauge to keep things drapey, the air gets in between the stitches. So don't rule out the supersized just because you are in an non- arctic zone. There's something about a big hat that's...cheerful. 

If you're prepping for Thanksgiving today in the US (or elsewhere), have a blast! And take a break to knit a little. It can't hurt, right?

november post 13: more hats- Sidekick and Headford

Back at you with a hat post. Pretty sure this won't be the last, hats are a real THING with me this week.

Sidekick Hat by Mary Lou Egan, from Drop Dead Easy Knits is top of my list. I'm loving color work at the moment, this is the 4 color version. It's a month before the gift giving kicks in, so plenty of time to knit these, right?  Mary Lou designed it for our Drinking Buddies chapter-the idea is you buy yarn together with a few friends and knit along, sharing the contrast colors. Buy the good stuff, you only need about 20 yards per hat of contrast color.And you can swap hats for added entertainment.

Here's Sidekick Hat  in 2 colors. This pattern is the one in Drop Dead Easy Knits most likely to find us on the receiving end of the query "Easy? You call this.... easy?". The answer is, yes, truly. You are only ever working in two colors per round, and the repeat is short and easy to memorize.  Short floats are less likely to get pucker-y. It's only a hat's worth of knitting.... you can do it!
The secret is use contrasty colors--I am thinking this may be an opportunity to finally nab a couple of the Unicorn Tails I've been eyeing at my LYS for ages. I am thinking Edison Bulb could maybe get a repeat in there, just for fun. 
Fun fact: we originally named this hat a Sidecar (a cocktail I am very fond of in the winter...in case you have me over, now you know). All the patterns in this chapter were drinks (get it? Drinking Buddies? we are so subtle, yes?) but an editor pointed out that maaaaaybe we were a little too boozy--and so the Sidecar Hat became a Sidekick Hat.

I had the annual hat gift convo with bro-in-law Lamar (of Lamar Scarf fame). He said this year, he wants a beanie, close fitting, any weight and go wild with the color/design. He confessed his fave hat ever from me was this one-of-a-kind from a decade ago. He still wears it. So, I have a plan!

I'm starting with  Headford Hat from Drop Dead Easy Knits, by Theresa Gaffey. It is a great basic beanie. She designed it to be knit in multiples, as you travel, give away as you go. Of course you can color block it, or add stripes --but  I'm going to make it into something one-of-a-kind with  use of this book I acquired at Rhinebeck, from Mary Jane Mucklestone, I can't wait to start it.

Best of all part of this plan: in size S adult, the Headford Hat is 96 stitches around--that means I can make use of motifs that are 2,3,4,6,8,12 or 16 stitches across and have them fit in neatly. Restraint, gone. FYI the motifs are pretty mixed, from traditional to modern to geometric--so I can have a lot of fun with it. Maybe the Edison Bulb will show up here, as well.....