Labor Day Sale

In order to celebrate everyone's productivity and hard work, I have decided, admittedly a bit spur of the moment, to have a Labor Day Sale over on Ravelry. Starting tomorrow, August 30th, I am offering a 20% discount on all of my patterns until midnight Central US time on Friday, September 6th. All patterns in my store will be included, including my newest release, Venetia, and my upcoming release, Lady Danbury.

Here is a link to my Ravelry store: Knits Who Say Needle

The coupon code is: laborday.

Venetia will be available tomorrow (8/25)!

Venetia will be released on Ravelry and Etsy tomorrow in my pattern stores! Remaking this hat is the most fun I've had knitting in a while- it was a relatively quick knit (about 5 hours) and the pattern isn't repetitive, so I didn't get tired of it. And I've discovered that it works up surprisingly well as both a beanie and a beret, depending on the needles used. Here are the two versions:

Beret

Beanie

 

 

One of my testers discovered by accident that if you skip the increase round and only repeat the cable pattern 4 times, it works out as a good fit for a child. The beanie fits an average woman's head (20-22"), but if you use larger needles, both hats could fit larger head sizes.


As a bonus: here is a pic of my reversible Drum Beat Cowl and Scarf pattern that will be released in mid September.

A Hat a Day

Apparently, I really am on a hat kick. I have made three hats in three days... well technically the last one was finished on the fourth morning, but that was just weaving in the ends as I couldn't find my yarn needle the previous night. I've been trying to come up with hat patterns that will fit a bunch of different head sizes without feeling tight. Here is the hat I just finished:

The pattern is one I used for Jason's Christmas present a few years ago. It was originally going to be part of my donation to the Cancer Care hat drive, but I started to run out of yarn and had to decrease rapidly in order to finish, resulting in a hat that is a bit too short. Since Lauren has a hard time finding hats that don't cover her eyes, I decided to give the hat to her instead. The non-shortened version of this hat pattern is available on the side bar under "Jason Hat." Both this hat and Venetia will be done again in some Red Heart Soft that I have been trying to use up and donated.

Hats, Hats, and more Hats!

I have news about three different hat patterns.

The first is an update to my last blog entry. I decided on the name Vinculum, the Latin word for binding or chaining. It is now available for free in my Ravelry Store.

 The second is a free pattern designed for cancer patients. The Hogwarts at Ravelry group is having a hat drive for Cancer Care of Maine to support Holly, who recently lost her husband to cancer. The goal of the hat drive is for Ravelry to donate 500 hats before Christmas, with an emphasis on hats for men as those are the most in need. I pledged to donate a few and started to think about a good unisex pattern. My geeky mind automatically went for the hat I saw Mickey Smith wearing in Doctor Who's "Christmas Invasion" episode and a somewhat similar one worn by Nigel at the Second Task in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Both were ribbed hats which I know from experience can fit a wide range of head sizes. So I mixed the two together, pulling out different elements from each, added my own touch to it, and Voila! The Mickey Hat was born. It is a beginner level hat that works up very quickly (I did it in an evening). The complete directions can be found on the side bar.

Mickey

The third hat is called Venetia (for now- me being me, that is likely to change before release). It is another pattern I created a while back and never wrote up. This time it was because I had done the original by slipping and cabling the stitches at the same time and my software didn't have a good way to express that. when I started thinking about hat patterns again, I decided to see how it would work if the steps were spread over two rows and it worked. I knit it at a smaller gauge this time and it ended up a nice sized beanie. The pattern is now in testing and should be available by the end of the month.