A Colourful Hat for Winter Walks
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This hat is basically a beret knitted on circular needles with an I-cord cast on. The base of it is knitted in black alpaca with random Aran stitch design thrown in - a bit hard to see in the black. Then there is a ridge of black handspun plied with gold thread before a multi-coloured crown made in triangular wedge shaped segments which gather to the centre knob. This hat was a gift for my friend Val's 60th birthday. She wears it to walk her dogs on cold winter mornings. |
Glitzy Beret
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Another beret again made on circular needles with an I-cord cast on. The base is again alpaca, this time using two threads of yarn, one black, one maroon. The crown is knitted with two threads stranding - one a glitzy red metallic thread, the other a ribbon thread in various shades of grey, blue and occasionally black. This beret is being shown at the 2000 WoolCraft Festival in Christchurch, NZ. |
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Beret for Early Spring
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I lost count of the number of, mostly commercially produced, yarns in this beret. It was knitted in the round using a bag of yarns of the gentlest colours - pale pinks, blues, mauves, pale greens. The softness of the yarns complemented the softness of the colours. This beret too is being shown at the 2000 WoolCraft Festival in Christchurch, NZ. |
Goldilocks Eat Your Heart Out
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This is a straight sided hat made from mostly black and gold homespun merino, silk and mohair plied with metallic thread. The crown is made from the same yarn but has kid mohair curls added in at the plying stage. These cover the whole crown and tend to 'dance' when the wearer walks. The hat was made for the Unfettered exhibition in Bega in 1999. |
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Hats 1 & 2
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Headgear made in 1997 and shown at the Artisans at Orana exhibition. The cap is handknitted using 4 ply Gumnut merino yarns in various pink, apricot and cream shades. The ends have been embroidered by hand. The beret is machine knitted using many different yarns - mainly reds and navys. The ends are hand braided. |
Hat 3
| This hat is an exaggeration of the basic beret design. The faux fur is knitted by machine, each needle is threaded with short lengths of yarn before knitting the row. The short thread yarns in this piece are fine weight finger ply wool with some glitter and silk. The yarn for the band is spun using merino, mohair and tussah silk and plied with a glitter thread. The finished yarn is very textured giving a lumpy appearance when hand knitted. The hat was made for the Unfettered Exhibition 1999. |  |
Hat 4
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The yarn for the band was spun as for Hat #3 and with similar materials. The curly fringe was made by adding kid mohair pieces to the spun single then easing out the ends after plying with a glitter thread. The centre of the crown was made using a stranded knitting technique with ribbons and mohair. This hat was made for the Unfettered Exhibition 1999. |
Hat 5
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This small cap was hand knitted using homespun merino, kid mohair, and tussah silk fibre plied with a glitter thread. Ceramic sculpture 'The Skintight Dress' by Lorna Tilley. |
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