I have finally finished working on the Draco Malfoy wall-hanging and am now knitting myself a penguin hat! I used to have one called Beth the Penguin, but she went missing after I visited my parents for a while – either she is in a box in Devon somewhere, or has gone on to bigger and better places.
Beth the Penguin was bought as part of a trio, at Towersey Festival – here I am with TJB and JS, who are modelling “Joe-O” and “Tiger Tom”. They haven’t lost their hats – I’m the only dumb klutz!
Penguin Hat
This pattern is from Rachel Henderson’s book “Animal Hats – 25 fun projects to knit, crochet or make from fleece.” I’ll do a more in-depth review of this book soon, but there are some fantastic patterns in it. The front cover project is an adorable polar-bear hat that I may have to make for someone unsuspecting.
Rachel recommends using Rowan Creative Focus Worsted, a wool-alpaca blend. Well, despite travelling to Manchester, Unravel 2013 and a number of other places where I thought I might find this yarn in the required colours, I was unable to find someone who stocked it in red, orange and black.
While at Unravel I found a stall by “Aragon Yarns“, with a selection of roughly worsted weight Romney Wool. They didn’t have orange, but there was a very pale orange/yellow, and I decided to just bite the bullet and buy them. The yarn is gorgeously soft, and obviously a non-mass-produced yarn (I keep finding bits of vegetation in it!) Unfortunately the dye doesn’t appear to be colour-fast – my hands have come out black while I’ve been knitting, so I’m going to have to email the company and see if this is to be expected or I just got a pack that was…wrong.
I’m loving it, though. I can imagine this hat is going to be incredibly warm and comfortable, and I can’t wait to put it on! I hope progress will be quick, but I do have a lot of other things on the go at the moment and as always, personal projects always suffer.
I’m linking up to Yarnalong for the first time this week – head to Ginny’s and also Tami’s to see more projects in progress!
Much love,
Corrie xx
Those are some great hats! And the fun is multiplied with everyone wearing their own animal. Good luck with the non-colourfast yarn. There are some good tips in the Ravelry forums for this.
Thank you. My boyfriend actually bought me a penguin hat today because I was so disheartened by my attempts. I might frog it and find another project for the yarn, which I’m finding it very difficult to work with!
I love those hats! I did not know the book, will have to investigate!
It’s really good! I thoroughly encourage you.