Hat Scheme

Previewing (and animating) a designer hat pattern

Dear Reader,

just a short post this week as I’m officially on holiday and hanging out with friends and family in the UK. I’m spending time walking, crafting, playing games, cooking and just drinking tea with loved ones and it feels wonderful. The horrors and turbulence in the world right now make me feel very grateful to have this chance just to be with people special to me and not have to worry about where the next meal is coming from or even if I will survive the day.

Keeping my hands busy helps, and I always travel with a holiday craft project or three, so I thought I’d show you this one.

I’ve been selected as a pattern previewer for a new book of knitted hat patterns from the very talented designer Woolly Wormhead. Woolly designs only hats, with perhaps a smattering of cowls too, and their designs are true genius. I would really recommend looking at their website, there’s loads of great hats and really helpful tutorials too. I love knitting Woolly Wormhead hats as there is always a new technique for me to learn and a very well designed pattern. I was assigned this hat, ‘Petiola’. The pattern will be officially released sometime this autumn and I can’t share anything about the instructions or method or tutorial but I can show you photos of the finished hat.

Petiola hat design by Woolly Wormhead

I knitted the hat in a navy blue yarn for the main colour and paired it with purple and blue yarns that were hand-spun by my daughter. The hand-spun yarn is gloriously soft and excitingly inconsistent in both colour and thickness, I really enjoyed knitting with wool that I had watched my daughter spin. A family project you might say.

Petiola hat worn by me

This holiday I also wanted to have a play with some more animation, so I made a little film with my pocket doll character. He still doesn’t have a name, but I’m considering Geoff.

I’ve also been buying books; two classic Raymond Briggs charity shop finds, a lovely book on book covers by the wonderful Batsford publishers, and the stunning ‘I Talk Like a River’ by Jordan Scott which I’ve been hoping to find since I saw illustrator Sydney Smith talk about it at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair earlier this year (You can read about this in my post here).

I’m going to head back to my family now. I hope you’re enjoying the summer warmth and some time with loved ones too.

Hannah

P.S.

Did you know that I had my first solo exhibition in Trieste at the end of 2024? You didn’t? And you’d love to know more? I have a video tour of my exhibition free to view up on Youtube, you can view it here.

Many thanks to Michael Munnik for allowing me to use his beautiful music in the background of my tour video and also alongside my videos here, go and listen to his songs on Bandcamp here.