I have not done much knitting lately. This shocks me a bit but I just haven’t been up to it. Not the knitting part but the holding of multiple instructions in my head, things like following a chart and shaping at the same time or centering a pattern by dividing pattern repeats, even working out sizing has just been too challenging.

After multiple attempts at a sock, I just gave up and went back to basics. I cast on for a hat that I could just knit round and round till some simple shaping. I needed a hat, my old faithful had disappeared, I shrank one, another had been appropriated by Our Dear Boy and it is unexpectedly cold here.

This was knit from the free pattern by Hanna Leväniemi called Siksak. It is knit in DK with a deep folded brim to keep the ears warm.

Whilst I had to buy two balls of Zealana Rimu in natural (a possum and merino blend from New Zealand) all the other yarns came from stash. The hot pink is my own handspun, a laceweight from handpainted merino top that was left over from a shawl project and cabled into a light DK. The blue is from left overs from Oakenshield Armoured, an ultrafine merino by Cleckheaton. The white is a gorgeous plump undyed Corriedale from Jarob Farm in Victoria and the green is from Nundle, a small mill in NSW. Ravelry details are here.

Our Dear Girl asked for a hat after I finished the Siksak. She has called it Colourful Day and it has been improvised with motifs from Mary Jane Mucklestone’s 150 Scandinavian Knitting Motifs. The main yarn is undyed gray Gotland from Granite Haven and the contrasts are the white Corriedale, blue Ultrafine Merino and hot pink handspun described above.

Both of us are living in our new beanies. They are not too matchy-matchy but rather comfortably related. And we both have a hot pink pom-pom which lifts the spirits immediately.