Kep Hat

I love Fair Isle knitting.  I love the patterns and endless colour combinations.  I find changing colours and patterns so often keeps the knitting interesting all the way through even though it's all stockinette stitch.  I also love knitting in the round which means you never need to purl and best of all, no sewing is required at the end!

Here is my hat finished.  I was only working with whatever leftover wool I had from other projects and improvising with colours as I went along so wasn't sure I'd like the end result... but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

I like that you can wear the extra fabric on the side

or on the back for a different look.

I had fun making the big colourful tassel.

Keps were/are traditionally worn by Scottish fishermen.  I used Shetland wool which is renowned for being warm, strong, durable and has a "grippy" quality which is particularly good for stranded knitting.  And the best part with this wool is that you don't have to weave in your ends (there are so many!), you just knot, tear, and leave to felt into the fabric with use and washing.

I looked up Shetland to find out a bit more about the area... I didn't know it comprised of so many islands!  And that it is so far north.  There are 100 islands in the Shetland of which only 16 are inhabited, Fair Isle being one of them with about 65 residents nowadays (down from about 400 in the 1900s).

This particular pattern is from a book I recently got by Mati Ventrillon called "Knitting from Fair Isle".

There will be some more Fair Isle knitting going on as my son has now requested a sweater for his birthday.  I have made a start on it but this will take me several months to knit.  I'll be showing that in a future blogpost.  I might also make another hat or two (time and elbow permitting!), as family members would now like one too!  My son asked if I could make him a beanie version of this hat.  But I won't be remaking the same one, I'll look for different designs... or maybe even design my own as I have books that show many traditional Fair Isle patterns (peeries and border patterns) so that you can mix and match depending on the number of stitches you require.

Best wishes,

Frivole

New Year

I completed one project during the holidays and got it posted just before Christmas.  It was the blanket I made for my new niece.  The colour is really a nice duck egg blue (not obvious in the photos).

I'm sorry I didn't take better photos of it, they are evening/artificial light photos and the weather was too horrible to take any nice ones outside before I packed it up to ship it.  The square pattern is by Destany Wymore and can be found here on Ravelry.

And now I'm using up some odd and ends of leftover shetland wool to knit a Fair Isle hat.  The pattern is "Kep Hat" by Mati Ventrillon.  I've knitted several Fair Isle jumpers over the years... but it's the first time knitting a hat!

I send all of you my best wishes for a better New Year 2021, full of peace, love, joy... and lots of creative projects!

What's your first project of 2021?  Please let me know in the comments.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Holiday Wishes

Joyeux Noël!

My very best wishes to everyone for

a peaceful and healthy Christmas

and for a better New Year 2021...

when we can finally get together again.

Take care everyone.

Frivole

And the number is...

The winner of the shuttle is the person who wrote comment no. 33

Occhitat

Please contact me with your details so that I can send you the shuttle!

It's 23:59...

so I'm posting this now.

Thank you to all those who entered

and for leaving the nice comments.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Holiday Draw

I think it's time for a little holiday cheer, especially with the difficult circumstances we're all living under.  So I decided to have a draw!  This shuttle was slightly "imperfect" and I didn't want to sell it in my shop so I'm offering it for a draw instead. 

I'm afraid I can't remember where this little doily is from...

I need to do a bit of research.

Update 16.12.20 

Thank you for the replies!

Yes, the design is from

Tatting Patterns and Designs" by Günter Blomqvist and Elwy Persson

I hope you'll like these two little winter fox cubs.

All you need to do to be entered for the draw is to leave a comment.  I'll ship to anywhere in the world.  To make it easier to count, I won't answer your comments to this post but I thank you all in advance for taking part and for writing a few words.  As it's already Wednesday,  I'll hold the draw next Tuesday - it's getting a bit close to Christmas, so it may end up being a New Year present for whoever wins, but I want to give you all time to enter.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Small JS Doily Completed

I finished the "lost & found" little doily designed by Jan Stawasz.  I did run out of thread... but managed to find which one I had used which was Anchor Freccia in size 16, a thread I have not used much in the past. I knew it definitely wasn't my usual Lizbeth and couldn't remember which one but luckily I found it!

Now I really need to tat a few more snowflakes to include in my Christmas cards, time is getting on.   I hope you're all enjoying some cheer in your holiday preparations in spite of the difficult circumstances.

It will no doubt be an unusual Christmas for most of us but I hope you'll still be able to find joy and happiness with your families and friends.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Baby Blanket

My sister just had her first baby!  We're all so excited.  Except that she ended up having her baby early and I'm not ready with my gift.  I started work on a crochet blanket for her but I thought I still had a couple of weeks at least to work on it.  Never mind.  I'll have to be a bit late with my present.

I'm making a Victorian Lattice Square blanket for my new niece.  I really like this pattern which I made once before in green and fuchsia.  I went with a colour I know my sister likes and chose a duck egg blue shade (it looks a bit like baby blue in the photos but it is more duck egg in real life).

So I'm now crocheting furiously to try to get this in the mail this week!  Will I make it?  I'm being further thwarted because I bought all the balls of this colour that my local wool shop had thinking that would be enough... but no.  Luckily I found some online and am waiting for a delivery... hope it comes soon!  I managed to make 14 squares so far.

The little doily from the previous post is now finished.  I will block it and show it to you in the next post.  

I can't believe we're in December already! 

Best wishes,

Frivole