Remember the hat design I said I was working on, well I did actually finish it! Ta daaa, the Black Brook Beanie! It seems a bit late in the season to be revealing a hat, unless you’re in Canada or something! Whatever, it’s not too early to start preparing for next Christmas, right?
I got the name, of course, from my home in Cape Breton. Black Brook is a beach where I used to swim every summer. The sandy beach with the waves and huge stones was a great place to swim and I always enjoyed climbing over the rocks to a nearby waterfall. It’s another place that brings back really fond memories of growing up on Cape Breton Island.
This is a photo I took of Black Brook on one of my trips home to Canada. It was October, so the water looks slightly less inviting than it does in the summer!
You can see it in during the summer in this video, it’s a little more lively. Definitely less jam packed and intense than the beaches here in the Netherlands during the summer!
I finished this hat a few months ago while I was on holiday in the south of France, but a few things got in the way of me working on the pattern. Firstly, hello, I was on holiday! Secondly, I have pretty bad anemia again which affects my concentration pretty significantly, so I was worried that I’d make mistakes in the pattern from not paying attention properly (this is still an issue, but I was getting tired of not showing the hat off!). Thirdly, my laptop broke and had to be sent away for repairs, which meant I didn’t have access to my PDF editing software and other things I needed. Lastly, the idea of sizing something totally put me off. When something intimidates me, I’m a master avoider. I found a great way around it, though. I’m just not going to size it! It fits my husband, it fits me, so I will be calling it one size! haha, Genius.
Anyway, it’s finished now and I’m going to start working on the pattern in hopes of releasing it within the next short while.
I really enjoyed the process of designing this hat, even though I drove myself crazy at times trying to get it just right. The hardest part for me was figuring out the decreases at the top so that it didn’t make a dogs breakfast of the pattern. It worked out pretty well in the end. I’ve knitted a few hats but have never designed one and I knew I wanted something ‘pebbly’ and using two different colours with an interesting stitch. After playing with seed stitch for ages and not getting what I looking for, I worked out this combination with linen stitch and it was exactly right!
The great thing about this hat, that I really wanted, is that it’s nice and warm. The doubled band is great over your ears but the linen stitch has the yarn being carried across the back which creates a thicker hat that also keeps your head roasty toasty. I initially designed this for a trip we were planning for Iceland, but we have sadly had to cancel postpone that trip as we are currently trying to sell our flat and it’s looking like we’ll have to reduce the price again and take an increased loss. BOO!! Grown up priorities are no fun, right? If only it could always just be about designing pretty hats!
Regardless, I know this hat will come in handy when I do eventually get there, or when we eventually move to Pittsburgh. There’s never a shortage of cold situations for a warm hat!
2 balls of Scheepjes Merino Soft yarn (1 of each colour)
3.5mm and 4.5mm circular needles (I used 80cm length for magic loop)
Pompom maker (if you choose to have one)
Stitch marker
Needle for weaving in ends
You can find a list of retailers that sell Merino Soft yarn here on the Scheepjes website. It is also available worldwide via Wool Warehouse*.
Ok, back soon with the pattern!
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I love the stitch pattern! I already have too many hats in my queue, but this is tempting! I’ll might just have to add an other one when you release your pattern. ;)
The beanie is lovely, Tammy. You are tempting me more and more with your knitting!
Come to the dark side! :P