Cuboidal review from 'A Bee in the Bonnet'

Hearing bout reviews of my books always cheers me up, so if you’ve written a blog post about my work or talked about one of my books on your socials, please do get in touch to let me know! Likewise, if you’re interested in reviewing one of my books, I’m open to chatting about it with you.

This latest review is from A Bee in the Bonnet, a knit designer and blogger. And it’s all about Cuboidal!

You can click through and read Lauren’s review on her blog. She made a Basalt and having never knit mitred squares before, I reckon she’s done an amazing job!

“This collection is, quite frankly, a masterpiece of both design skills and technical writing.”

Thanks for your review, Lauren, and I’m glad my approach to writing this collection worked for you so well. And that the tutorials gave you everything you need. Once you’ve started with mitred squares it’s kinda hard to stop at one project ;)

And during the Fasten-off YAL sale period, that ends 8th December 2022, you can get 25% off the Cuboidal collection - and any of my other eBooks and patterns - with the code FO2022!

Project Spotlight - Bronwen's Bedrock

The Bedrock pattern from the (forthcoming!) Cuboidal collection is one of the Hats in the book that can be worn in different ways. Bronwen has kindly permitted me to share her photos here of her son modelling her beta knit project.

You can find Bronwen’s project on Ravelry and explore more of her knitting adventures on Instagram. Photography credit goes to Bronwen, she’s a photography account on Instagram too!

This Hat was finished with an I-cord edge, which isn’t something that’s written into the pattern but it’d be easy enough to add should you wish.

Doesn’t it look great worn both forward, for a flat-cap look, and back like a lot of berets are worn? I’d really like to get more photos of berets being worn in different ways, and I’m glad Bronwen took these shots and let me share them.

Project Spotlight - Molly's Scarlite

I love seeing what folks with my patterns, and sharing those makes with you doubly so!

Hashtags on social media are might helpful as you can see what someone else has made from the same pattern - the colours they chose, the modifications they made, how the style fits and suits them - and that’s even more important in this post-Ravelry age.

Sharing your projects here, with the ‘Project Spotlight’ feature is an extension of that. Honestly, I reckon it’d be wrong of me to not show off the amazing Hats my knitters make from my patterns!

This is ‘Scarlite’ from my Cuboidal collection. The Hats is knit and modelled by Molly Tebo, photographed by Craig Ringer.

Molly was a beta (preview) knitter for the Cuboidal Hats and she was assigned the helmet design. Rather than work the squares as given for that pattern, she wanted to give rainbow stripes a go. She followed the construction as given, which was the most important thing for the beta knit, and I’m rather glad she did experiment a little because doesn’t this Hat look amazing?

Molly modified the Hat slightly to add a chin strap, and continued the rainbow striped pattern throughout. This is the fun thing with mitred squares and this whole collection - you can mix and match the square patterns and go with a striped square instead of a half-and-half should you want to. You can use up stash oddments to create a whole range of different effects or stick with one or two variegateds - it’s up to you.

What Molly has noticed, and I’m really glad she was happy to let me share her project photos as it gives me the opportunity to talk about it, is how the depth of the border finishes the Hat!

The ‘Scarlite’ and ‘Basalt’ patterns both rely on the depth of the border being half that of a square. They don’t have to be, but if they’re not, the rest of the Hat won’t be quite proportional, and it may not fit as intended. This very much depends on your own head measurements of course, as the depth of your head, and thus Hat, is not proportional to the circumference. However because ‘Scarlite’ is only one row deep before it splits, it needs the extra depth from the border to sit more comfortably over the forehead. Working a deeper border can still keep the Hat in pattern, especially with one of the striped square styles.

Thanks for sharing your brilliant Hat, Molly! Find more of Molly’s yarn adventures on Instagram.