Revealing the MKAL Hats - say hello to the Armley patterns

Our 9th annual Mystery Hat-a-Long came to a close last weekend when I was in Lyme Regis for the final stop of my teaching tour. Full copies of the patterns were duly sent out, and the name and photographs revealed to MKALers.

Armley Beanie, front view

This year's MKAL consisted of 3 styles, split across 2 patterns. The first pattern consists of the beanie (shown above) and the slouchy beanie (shown below), which is best described as a comfort fit rather than full on slouch.

Armely Shouch, front view

The 3rd design, and the 3nd pattern, is the Armley Beret, shown below.

Armley Beret, front view

The beret is the original design, and the beanie and slouchy came into being some time after. The name comes from the day I spent at Armley Mill with Ann Kingstone and Susan Crawford, on the photoshoot for Ann's Lace Knits book.

During this time, Babylonglegs was facing one of the hardest things life can throw at you. As most of you know we're very close, and she wanted to spend some time with woolly friends and I wanted to give the hugs I could offer. And so she came along to our shoot, and with her she bought the skein of Mesmerino DK that you can see used in the beret design above. It was a brilliant day. It rained some (hey, it's Yorkshire in October!), we laughed, and between us we took some great photos. The series of Hats is named for that day spent with 3 friends at what was once the world's largest woollen mill, supporting each other, and giving Sarah the love she needed.

As well as Babylonglegs offering yarn support, Fyberspates were very kind to offer support for the beanie and slouchy versions of the pattern. Their Vivacious DK is the perfect weight for the pattern and the colour blends lend themselves perfectly to the design.

The patterns are now available at the regular price, and if you put both in your cart (or if you've already bought one) the system will detect this and charge you the bundle price (if you've already bought one, the system will deduct what you've already spent - clever!)

This MKAL has been really enjoyable, and I hope everyone is happy with their new Hat - rather seasonal, wouldn't you say? I'll also add that Tom did the photos for these, and I think he did a cracking job (that beanie shot is my favourite :D)