It's Hat naming time again..

There's a few Playful Woolly Toppers Hats in need of a name, but we'll start with this one.

If I'm honest, this is probably one of my favourites from my book. It's also one that needed more kinks working out than others; those short rows were fun! The Hat is all short rows, and they graduate carefully and cleverly into the crown.

These are also a few of the photos of the shoot we did the other day with Aran - they're not edited yet, these are straight off the camera, but I'm pleased with them.. and considering he wasn't feeling very cooperative these are an achievement!

It's working title has been 'Wonky' but I don't think that sums it up very well, y'know? The naming theme so far for PWT has taken on an folklore type of theme, yet this one (and a couple of others) have proved rather challenging in the context.

What does it say to you?

I'd love to hear your suggestions for names! The prize for the chosen name will be a copy of the PWT eBook, and if you already have that, another eBook of your choice or a selection of patterns to the same value.

I'll be looking for something that describes it's nature and/or structure, and if it fits with the folklore/mythology theme, or at least sounds like it does, even better.

Leave your suggestion as a comment here on this blog post and if I select your name, I'll be in touch (don't forget to fill in that email addy) Fire away!

Get ahead, get a Hat! pt.2

Here we go with the 2nd half of the article, following on from yesterday's blog post! This part looks in more depth at face shapes, hair and even glasses.

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Don't strangle that forehead

We all want a Hat that stays put and survives the fiercest of winter gales, but that shouldn't mean that the brim of the Hat has to pinch our heads oh so tightly. Negative ease will determine fit and how well it stays on but the choice of knitted Brim will make a huge difference to how it looks, without affecting fit. 

Brims work for just about everyone, and the deeper rolled edge on this design, Dulcie, provides an alternative to regular brims

Ribbed brims are classic; a soft 1x1 rib suits women better, whereas a 2x2 or wider would be more wisely used on a mens Hat. A short ribbed brim will have the effect of softening the edge, and a deeper brim adds more emphasis to the tight fit and will look more dramatic. One of the most flattering edges I have ever seen doesn't belong in the ribbed category though, and is often considered insufficient on a Hat until it's actually tried – a basic stocking stitch rolled edge. Sure, ribbing has much more stretch than stocking stitch, especially if a ribbed cast-on is used, but do we really want the brim of our Hat to be able to stretch through 5 sizes? It's prudent to remember that a suitably sized Hat with a soft brim edge will both fit better and last longer.

Another example of brims suiting most people – they break up the face and add interest, and are a perfect addition to berets. Here we see Roberta modelling Camden Cap.

Manage your hair

Long hair is easy to please with knitted Hats, especially long straight hair. Short hair can be more difficult, as can a lively curly mane, yet that's not to say that these styles don't or won't suit Hats. The key with hair is to let it frame your face and work for you. Don't tuck it up and under, or squash it under a tight fitting Hat causing it to flail out wildly. Even short hair can be of benefit provided it's allowed to be seen. Hair pulled back or tucked away often looks harsh, which in turn will make the Hat, and your face, look harsh. Have super short hair and don't want to look bald with your new knitter Hat? Allow a touch of your fringe or a few strands either side of your ears to be visible. This works every time.

Karenin is a Hat that really hugs the face, yet here we can see that even short hair works with this style if it's allowed to be noticed.

Don't be afraid to let your Hat hug you

There's been a trend of late to wear Hats, particularly berets, towards the back of the head. This can be a flattering look, especially for those with shorter hair or rounder faces, as it can add length to the face. Yet it's not a great look for everyone.

The biggest deal breaker with wearing the Hat towards the back is that it isn't necessarily going to keep those ears warm. There's no reason why you can't pull that beret or slouchy Hat down onto your forehead, even to eyebrow level, if you want. Provided other points are considered (some hair visible, either at the fringe or the ears, proportion maintained with features etc) wearing your Hat more snuggly not only provides you with a good look, but a warm one too. 

Wearing your Hat lower works particularly well for those with long faces and/or long hair, as it breaks up the length, visibly, whereas wearing it back enhances the length, which is something those with long or narrow faces should avoid.

The Meret is a fantastic Hat, as it not only provides that soft rolled edge, but also height and width to suit all face shapes.

Let's not forget glasses

Right behind “Hats don't suit me” the next most common thing I hear is that glasses and Hats don't mix. They do. Glasses are simply another feature to bear in mind, and don't affect how you wear your hair or the shape of your face. They main thing to avoid doing with glasses is pulling your Hat down so low causing the edge of the brim to meet the rim of your glasses. You want to give a little room around your glasses but not too much at the same time. Allow your hair to maintain balance; it's good to see a few wisps between the brim and the rim of your glasses.

Here Piro shows how a classic style, Dylan's Beanie, can be worn with glasses.

It's really just a balancing act

Really, it is. The trick is to emphasis the good bits and distract from the not so good bits. If you have a round face consider a Hat that adds a bit of height without pulling in – tight Hats on round faces really are a no-no. Round faces are also better suited to softer looking brims too, and should avoid deep or tight ribbing. If you have a long face consider a Hat that adds a bit of width without too much height – such as a beret worn lower over the ears. For a square face, consider something with a more upright structure, and again, avoid anything too tight fitting beyond the brim. Those with heart shape faces are lucky, in that they can wear many styles, but would they'd still be wise to avoid anything too tight, especially if it's short in length.

Alyx's squarer jawline is well balanced by the shape of this turban inspired Hat, Imagiro.

Try on a few Hats. Be prepared to experiment. Grab Hats belonging to your friends/family/neighbours and see what works for you. And don't be afraid to try the Hat in different positions. There really is a Hat out there for everyone!

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I hope this article has been helpful! If any shop is interested in having the Hat Clinic then do drop me an email. Personal consultations via email just aren't possible I'm afraid, however, you may wish to check the 'Which Hats Suit Me?' thread in my Ravelry group - lots of great tips and tricks have already been posted. I'm only able to help out there when time is on my side, which it isn't right now, but I do think it's worthy of a read :)

Get ahead, get a Hat! pt.1

The rights to an article that I wrote for Knit Now magazine have recently reverted back, and I thought you'd all like to have a read, too. The article is longish, especially with the photos, so I've decided to spread it across two consecutive blog posts. Once time is on my side again, I'll put it all together into a PDF and add it to the Tutorials section. 

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Get ahead, get a Hat! 
A guide to choosing the right knitted Hat by Woolly Wormhead

I'll confess, I'm not a lover of beanie Hats. The tend to sit there, squashing your hair, making you look like a bit of an egg head. And I'm a little confused too as to why they're the most commonly knitted Hat. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-beanie, and like any Hat they have their place. They suit our men folk well, and they do keep our ears toasty warm when they fit properly, yet when it comes to women, they are probably the least flattering style. Unless you have the right shape face for a close fitting Hat like a beanie, you'll want to consider one of the many other styles available.

Roberta is one of the few lucky people who can wear beanie styles like Sumner with great effect – her long/oblong face and long hair are not out of proportion with this style.

I travel to yarn shops with my Hat Clinic, armed with suitcases full of woolly Hats, and I'm often told by knitters that they're not a Hat person. That Hats just don't suit them. Invariably it'll be because they've not found the right style for them yet, or are unsure of how to wear a Hat, and have given up upon seeing the results without trying something different. The aim of my Hat clinic is to help knitters not only find the right Hat for them, but also to learn how to wear that Hat. And that's my aim here today.

When it comes to wearing a knitted Hat, or any Hat for that matter, the one thing we need to consider is balance. For a Hat to look good, to suit us as and to keep us warm, it needs to balance with our features. And as wonderfully diverse as we all are, there aren't any hard and fast rules about how to achieve this. Knowing our face shape is a good place to start, as it will give us an idea of our strongest features, and most of us know our face shape already.

Here, Charlie wears Annular, a slouchy beret that provides warmth as well as great style.

How much negative ease?

For a Hat to stay put and do it's job, it needs to be smaller than the head. How many beginning Hat knitters have laboured over their handknits, only to find it won't stay on because it's the same size as the head? It always fills me with sadness when I hear such a tale, and so the subject of fit is an important one.

Ease is the technical word that describes how much bigger or smaller a garment is in relation to the body. In a baggy jumper or loose fit cardigan, we want positive ease. When it comes to Hats, we're aiming for negative ease. But how much smaller do we really want the Hat to be? Ideally, you'd want to aim for somewhere between 2in/5cm and 4in/10cm of negative ease. How much exactly depends on a) the fabric or stitch pattern, b) the fibre content of the yarn and c) the look you're aiming for. 

Some stitch patterns, such as cables, really don't want to be stretched as much as others, such as ribbing. And some fibres, such as silk or alpaca, really don't have as much elastic memory as others, such as wool. As a general rule, if you're knitting a cabled Hat from an alpaca silk blend, you'll be wanting less negative ease. If you're knitting a ribbed Hat from pure wool, you'll likely be fine with more negative ease.

Beyond the stitch pattern and yarn used, the other fact to consider is the fit or look. More negative ease creates a skinny or sporty look. Less negative ease creates a more comfortable, casual look. This is as much about personal choice as it is practicalities, and a good Hat knitting pattern will give you the finished size as well as the intended to fit size. Armed with this information you not only know the fit the designer intended for that Hat, but you're also be able to decide for yourself which size you'd like to knit.

A word of caution: too much negative ease can make the Hat look too small and cause it to ride up and pop off your head. Too much will make the Hat look to big or fall off at the slightest sniff of a breeze. Which leads us onto our next point...

Once size doesn't fit all!

I have another confession – the 'one size fits all ' tag that you see on Hats bothers me. A lot. Because it's just not true.

Yes, knitted fabric stretches. And if you take an averaged size Hat then you'll likely get it to fit on much larger heads. But will it really look so lovely when it's stretched to capacity? In fact, will it even look like the same Hat? A beret can look more like a beanie on the wrong sized head. And how much will it loose in length? Here we have to remember that as we stretch a knitted fabric out widthways, it shortens in length, as the stitches compensate for the pull in the other direction.

Once we've mastered Hat sizing, we can start to knit more intricate designs; Hats that require a more precise fit – those that use more detailed stitch patterns or are intended for a distinctive or unusual look. 

Taboosh is one Hat that benefits from correct sizing – it's structured shape would be lost if stretched too far.

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Pt.2 of the article will be posted tomorrow, where we get to the meat of the matter and talk about hair, face shapes & glasses, with loads of examples & photos. See you then!

Hats on Film

For the last week we've had a film crew on site, making a documentary about how we live and how our small community functions. We get a lot of people coming here to film or take photographs, yet this crew have been different, because they are looking beyond the surface of the artwork or strange looking homes. And they're making a documentary in support of us, and for that reason we've been happy to co-operate.

In my usual fashion I tried my damnedest to hide from the cameras, until I was caught out early one morning taking my washing up to the communal washing machine, wearing a tatty old dressing gown and my wellies. Having been caught at my worst I figured I'd little left to lose and granted permission for an interview and for a photoshoot to be filmed.

It got a tad crowded in my caravan, with the camera guy and the sound guy and the director giving the interview, however Tom did manage to grab a few behind the scenes shots from the photoshoot; recording the film crew recording me recording Silvia. 

Gotta say, I found it difficult trying to work with anything up to 3 cameras on us at any given point! And it made me feel like a bit of an amateur, as we weren't having the greatest of luck with lighting and composition (i.e. it was way too sunny to get the angles I wanted). My body language in these photos isn't great - hunching to concentrate on the camera as you do, but methinks there's a hint of "leave me alone..." going on there, too.

That said, we did get some good shots. I haven't finished looking through them all yet, let alone editing, but here's a couple from that shoot..

Yup, that's Silvia modelling Playful Woolly Toppers Hats. I realised with Bambeanies that it's seen purely as a kids Hats book, even though I included adult sizes, because of the way I presented the book and photographed the Hats... so with this book I want to highlight the fact that big people can have fun with these Hats, too. And Silvia is the perfect grown up to show them off! She carries the offbeat and quirky so well.

It's been a tad strange to say the least, though. Having cameras everywhere can get intrusive pretty quickly. Thankfully they've been a friendly and understanding crew. The film will preview at the local film festival in July and when they put the film up for public viewing online I'll be sure to let you know.

Icelandic Handknits

Icelandic Handknits is a beautiful new book by Hélène Magnùsson. When I received my copy, I was in awe of all the beautiful scenery and the amazing photography, as well the intricate designs. I was intrigued by how the environment and culture inspired Hélène - naturally my stop on the blog tour has taken a Hattish slant - yet I hope the questions also give you some insight into the history and culture that feature so heavily within this book.

©Arnaldur Halldorsson, reproduced with kind permission

1) When you start a fresh design, is there one part of the construction or a physical point that you start with first? For instance, when I design a Hat I start with the crown, and provided the maths of that works out, I move downwards into the body and brim sections. It may not be knit in that direction, but that's where my thinking starts.

Absolutely. Because I'm mostly working from traditional Icelandic items, in the hope to preserve the knitting traditions by giving them a new life, it is very often a particular construction or motif or way of doing things that will be my starting point. It is quite clear for example with the Checkered beanie: it's all about the crown made from a succession of mitten gusset thumbs. I "just" had to determine the number of repeats according to the yarn I had chosen and the resulting gauge and then calculate my way down to the brim. The lace hood is also a good exemple: I thought I could give a hood shape to a triangular shawl by playing with the central and side decreases. The rest, choosing which shawl in the Museum, which lace motif, which colors, which yarn came later.

 ©Arnaldur Halldorsson, reproduced with kind permission

 2) What was the greatest challenge to you when writing this book?

The little time versus the number of designs, 25 in all but there were originally 30 and 5 were cut down. I usually knit all the prototypes myself making amendments and correcting as I go, especially since I'm not always sure my ideas will work out or how they will work out. But in this case I only had the time to knit myself a limited number of items. So I did knit very many swatches and wrote down all the instructions as precisely as I could from the beginning. Then my sample knitters had to knit blind from those instructions! I made a lot of sketches to help them "see" the items and often the instructions would include in neon yellow: "Here please stop and talk to me, I'm not sure if I should add one or two repeats" then we would talk on skype and I would sometimes let them try the item on to see how it fit and ask many many questions. Communication and trust were the key and I was lucky to work with marvelous knitters who kept me updated regularly of their progresses, never hesitated to ask and made suggestions on how to improve this or that. It was actually very exciting! I remember when I received the finished samples: I was seeing them for the first time!

3) In the introduction to the Lacy Skotthufa Hat, you hint at the headwear traditions of Iceland - can you expand on what it is about the skotthufa that interests you?

The skotthúfa, or tasseled cap, is part of the everyday traditional costume and a very popular item in Iceland. There are many modern versions of the skotthúfa, handknitted but also machine knitted, for men, women and children and for sale in selected stores in Iceland, Museum shops, etc... You will see one version for the great outdoors for example on the Icelandic Knitter website, knitted with very thick lopi wool and felted, and adorned with a modern stainless steel tube. I wanted to make one that would be quite different, very light and airy, and again my starting point were the triangular lace shawls, since you can create a circular shape from triangles.

©Arnaldur Halldorsson, reproduced with kind permission

4) The recipes are such a great addition to the whole collection - how did they come to be included in the book?

It was the editor's idea to include recipes in the book. I loved the idea! Food and clothing are often the first exposure to another country's culture so I found it very exciting to have recipes as well. During the knitting tour to North Iceland and the Textile Museum this summer, beside the knitting workshops, we will also prepare together a few traditional dishes from the book, so it's going to be a complete immersion in the Icelandic culture!

It' s not the first time I've mixed together food and knitting: in the book, you can see the copper cutters I have designed that allow you to make colorful cookies and food with the shape of an eight-petal rose, like the Icelandic shoe-inserts motifs. I worked as a chef in a popular Icelandic restaurant and as a mountain cook before I started as a mountain guide. And I have written a cooking book too: "The secret of good vinaigrette revealed to Icelanders" (Salka 2005, also in Icelandic, German and French)

5) The scenery in the photographs is absolutely stunning - is there a particular moment from the photoshoots that you'd like to share with us?

The photoshoot happened to be in January. At that time of the year, there is very little light in Iceland - only three hours a day - and it's the middle of the winter. There was a snow blizzard when the pictures were taken. Or it was freezing and the wind blowing like mad, meaning it was really really cold. I was never supposed to be on the pictures either, but my models couldn't last long and I had to jump in and use the time with the photographer! I like that the pictures convey a sense of the weather but also reflect a cultural trait of a tough and strong Icelandic woman.

 

©Arnaldur Halldorsson, reproduced with kind permission

6) Which is your favourite design in the book, and why?

That's a tough question! I don't know, I like them all ! Some I would certainly wear more than others. The Halldora scarf is special to me because I'm using my own Icelandic yarn, Love Story, a fine artisanal lace made of pure Icelandic wool. I select the wool very carefully, it is not bleached not treated and it is very soft compared to other Icelandic yarns. It really makes the difference for this design: the shawl is so light and airy, almost like the old ones!

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Thank you Hélène for sharing your thoughts and asnwering my questions! The book really is stunning, and I'm sure it's going to be very popular.

You can purchase the book from Hélène’s website, and here's the linky to the Ravelry page.

And finally, here are the blog tour details, so you can follow along:

April 11th, 2013: Donna Druchunas – sheeptoshawl.com
April 18th, 2013: Woolly Wormhead – www.woollywormhead.com/blog
April 25th, 2013: Mary Jane Mucklestone – maryjanemucklestone.com
May 2nd, 2013: Susan Crawford - justcallmeruby.blogspot.com
May 9th, 2013: Terri Shea – spinningwheel.net
May 16th, 2013: Alana Dakos - www.nevernotknitting.com

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The book's publisher, Voyageur Press,  have very kindly donated a copy of the book as a giveaway to one lucky winner! To take part simply leave a comment here and I'll randomly select one in a weeks time, on 25th April. Don't forget to leave your email address in the right field when leaving your comment, so I can get in touch!

ETA: this competition is now closed & the winner has been notified. Thanks so much for your interest!