Jools Beret

After knitting the Freedom Scarf I found I had enough leftover yarn to knit another three! Fabulous, I loved the hand-dyed Madeline Tosh merino, which I'd never used before, but had drooled over several times on our knitters' tours when US visitors were using it. So the prospect of having another project on my needles in this gloriously light and luminous yarn  was very seductive indeed.

Freedom scarf

I bought the yarn in New York at Knitty City recently and absolutely adored the feel of it running through my fingers. The pattern came free with the yarn and much as I loved the basic concept, I just couldn't resist doing my own take on the size and hue ie taking liberties, get it, Freedom Scarf?  Also named for the Freedom Tower in New York.

I love wearing berets, and it occurred to me how fab it would be to have one to go with the scarf. So without more ado, I dived in and started the Jools Beret.  I chose this name as it reminds me of both the tiny jewels in the design and the boogie-woogie music of Jools Holland. The colours of the yarn are just fabulous and it was thrilling to see how the different colours interact as the pattern develops - the element of surprise giving an extra incentive to knit on to the next colour.

I wanted the design to be a stashbuster, so I chose an easy fairisle design with a stripey rib, with no more than 20yds(18.25m) in each colour. There's eleven colours in both the scarf and the hat and as I only had six in Madeline Tosh, I chose kettle-dyed Araucania Ranco for the rest.

Quite by chance, the way I grouped the colours gives a totally different feel to the top and the underside of the beret - luckily I quite like this. The underside has a purpley damson feel to it whilst the top is more zingy green.

Top

Underside and band

As today was horrible outside, wet with intermittant sleet and rain, it was the perfect opportunity to write up the pattern - no distractions from the outside when I'm crunching the numbers.  So I settle in, turned up the heating and finished it by tea time.

I posted the pic of the unfinished project on Facebook and was delighted with the positive reception it got. This led me to wondering if it might become my first ever KAL.

Unaccustomed as I am to these newfangled knitalongs, I'm presently looking into how to set about this. My initial plan is to put the pattern on Ravelry, then open a Jean Moss KAL group. I did say I'm a complete ingenue when it comes to KALs, so if there are any of you out there that know more, or better still have participated in one, I'd be pleased to hear from you.

More anon...