Narvik Beret

Design: Slouchy Beret, based on Esme - free pattern available here 

Designer: Amy Pickard, modified by me

Yarn: Wendy Narvik(discontinued)

Fibre: 85% acrylic, 5.5% mohair, 5.5% wool, 4% polyester.

Colour: Polar (644)

Needles: 5mm and 6mm

I bought a couple of balls of this yarn in Atkinson's sale for the princely sum of £0.69 per ball. I don't know why - it's kind of a blue base with yellow and orange running through it. I think I meant it for a pair of mitts for The Hermit, but he kind of recoiled ...

I was going on a trip to Manchester and needed something on the needles, so I thought I'd try this beret again, but make a narrower brim - and if it didn't work, then I wasn't really losing anything yarn wise, even if it ended up in the bin...

But it worked. And worked well. And I had about 20 feet of yarn left from the 100g I'd purchased by the time I'd finished! This fabric has a nice drape to it and although blue isn't my colour, the yellow goes with my favourite winter jacket...

Chunky Beret

Design: Slouchy Beret, based on Esme - free pattern available here

Designer: Amy Pickard, modified by me

Yarn: King Cole Magnum Chunky

Fibre: 75% acrylic, 25% wool

Colour: Amber (317)

Needles: 5mm and 6mm

I knitted an Esme beret last year and loved it, so started this one when I went away on my knitting retreat in November. It worked up very quickly - I started it while waiting for lunch to arrive at the pub, and finished it before dinner that evening.

The original Esme has a cabled band, but I just did garter stitch. The band is a little wide, and the yarn with this needle size is a little firm, so it doesn't slouch as much as I'd hoped. However, it makes a great cloche, and I wear it with a brooch pinned to the band. With my bobbed hair, I feel very Thirties!

The hat took only 100g (110m) of yarn too!

Speedy Cable Beret

Design: Speedy Cable Beret - Ravelry link here to free design
Designer: Paulina Chin
Yarn: Rowan Spray (60% wool, 40% acrylic) Colour 005 Mood
Needles: 8mm and 9mm

One of my local charity shops provided the yarn - I think I paid £0.50 for the ball, which is rather less than the RRP of £7.95 - but there was only one ball of this colour. So, what to make?

Well, of course a quick search of Ravelry provided the solution, and I got to work on this pattern. The pattern itself is great, but I think the yarn is really a bit too busy for it, as it doesn't really show up the cables well. And the yarn was *horrible* to work with. For something that was 60% wool, it was like working with a really bad acrylic. For such a "name" yarn, that sells for so much, I was very disappointed. And I think the project looks a bit like a sea anemone, or perhaps a jelly fish, if you take into account my hair acting as tendrils...

If I'm looking a little anxious, I was balancing my (then new) camera on the windowsill in the bathroom to use the self timer. Oh, and I don't have a vicious blemish on my nose - it's a diamond stud :o)

I have another ball of this yarn, in a green colourway. I'm not sure what to do with it - possibly a plain version of this beret, to show off the yarn better. And this beret may yet get ripped back - what do you think?