Holiday Hat No. 1

I went to Shetland. It was amazing. I had such a lovely time with lovely people and lovely wool, I can't even begin to tell how good it was!


It's such a beautiful place, with it's treeless views and an abundance of rainbows:





On this holiday I knitted two hats. This is the first one - Puffin Apple by Jen Arnall-Culliford.





I took this when I was freshly off the needles, I stayed up late to finish it, the pattern is beautifully written and laid out, the whole collection is fantastic.





This is a photo the lovely Ella took of me wearing it at Jamieson & Smith. This was pre-blocking, I knitted some extra rounds in the ribbing because I like my hats slouchy and the fabric is a little bit stiff in this photo. When I got home I employed my favourite hat blocking technique:





The balloon. I blow up the balloon to the circumference I want the blocked hat to be, put the hat on dry and then wet the body of the hat, keeping the brim dry so it doesn't stretch out too much.


This is my new absolute favourite hat. I love it. A lot. The yarn softened in the blocking and it now has a lovely slouch, the colour is so happy - everyone should have a yellow hat!