Hope 2012 has got off to a swinging start for everyone? It's doing well here: yesterday I had a massage that I'd traded for a knitted Hat (which was a very fair trade, given the time involved from both parts), then we mulled some home made wine that had been gifted to us (2 litres of the stuff! It needed mulling, too, to tame it) and then dinner cooked from locally grown straight-off-the-farm veggies. Lovely.

I think I've said before that the plan going forward is to release a new single pattern once a month, rather than in clusters - it seems to benefit the patterns more, as each one gets it's chance to shine without being over-shadowed by the most popular one(s). (Book releasing will stay pretty much the same; more on that another time). This new schedule got underway last September, and the aim now is to release each as close to the beginning of the month as possible, so we can use it for the monthly KAL in the Ravelry group if folks are up for it.

And January brings us North Lyme!

North Lyme includes 2 styles of Hat - the first here is a fitted watchcap style, with a deep folded brim (links to tutorials are included, as always) and a structured crown shaping.

The yarn used is Anzula's Oasis which has a wonderful texture and gives fantastic yardage to the skein - I just about squeezed both samples out of one skein! It isn't as elastic as some yarns though, and because of that I've included a few extra sizes to help you choose one even closer to your own size to avoid any over stretching. Of course, if you're subbing with wool, you'll find that much more forgiving.

The slouchy version also has a folded brim, though not as deep, and has a clever envelope type construction at the crown, which really adds to it's shape.

The crown here does require a little bit of grafting to get that perfect finish, and everything you need for that can be found on my Tutorials pages.

While I'm on the subject, can I put a reminder out into the universe about linking to the page the tutorial is listed on, not the PDF itself? The kitchener tutorial in particular is very popular, which is fantastic, but every time someone links to the PDF direct it eats my bandwidth, and that costs me money. Linking to the page is much better, and also avoids any mess with copyright. Thanks!

None of the techniques needed to knit these Hats are completely new; they're all things you'd have encountered in my patterns before, so please don't let that put you off! It's simple, modern shape works so well with it's construction, and with the 2 styles included, it's a winner.

Enjoy North Lyme!

ETA/ I completely forgot to tell you about the name! Doh.

We were in Lyme Regis this summer for the wedding of one of Tom's best friends (I know, another summer adventure I've failed to blog about), and I was knitting one of the samples on the journey down in Barp (our smaller bus), hence the Lyme aspect to the name. At one time we found ourselves either parking or walking near North Avenue, and North Lyme seemed so right. I think it suits it, and I enjoy making up interesting names!

And that brings me round to the next bit of news... throughout January I'm having a wee sale! Simply use the code woollyjanuary before proceeding to checkout to grab yourself a 20% discount!

I’ve advertised the sale on the newsletter, the Ravelry group and here - I’m afraid I can’t refund the difference if you missed the coupon notice before making a purchase, sorry!

Some folks have had problems previously applying the coupon code, so here's a quick screen shot of the cart, with the arrow highlighting which button to click to use the code: