'Templar' style headdress

Gareth and I have just finished this headdress and thought we'd show it off. The Templars and circlet are in hand forged and drawn brass and bronze wirework, and the goffred veil is in linen. I suspect ideally the veil needs remaking in a finer weight of linen, but overall we're really pleased with this as a first run at this type of headdress.

There does seem to be a few different things that this style of headdress can get called, so if anyone has any good evidence for it being called other than 'templars/templettes' please shout. This one is based on evidence from a number of effigies and church brasses dated from the 1360-s to about 1415. To the best of my knowledge there are no currently known surviving physical examples of these, again, would love to be pointed at them if anyone knows otherwise.

Dwarven Battle Bonnet- variations

When I brought out the Dwarven Battle Bonnet pattern a couple of years ago I had no idea it was going to appeal to as many people as it has. Clearly its not just me that firmly believes that everyone needs a silly hat in their lives.

One of the really great things about having the pattern out there being made by all sorts of people is seeing the variations on the basic pattern that people come up with, and it is a pattern that lends itself well to being modified slightly to create different character looks.

For example, here's one I made for a client last week, its got a spangenhelm/spectacle helm variation made simply by adding extra strips to frame the eye area, and 'rivets' added to the helmet by knitting a basic bobble at intervals, and hey presto, a completely different look for not much more effort.
If you have a look over on Ravelry at the projects page for this pattern, you'll see variations with horns on the helmet, different beard treatments, all sorts of different yarn choices, and lots and lots of really fantastic photos of people in their battle bonnets. I love creating hat patterns :)

If you fancy trying it out yourself, the pattern can be bought via Ravelry for just $3.00

General Carleton of Whitby Hat

Every now and then I get a chance to make a historic hat that is glorious in its slight daftness. The cap from the ''General Carleton of Whitby' (sunk 1785) is just such a hat, its nigh on as close as you can get to a bobble hat in re-enactment

The original is very faded, so the use of the madder stripe is my interpretation- it may have been another colour, but I'm generally pleased with the overall effect. Three shades of undyed wool and some madder dyed, very very lightly fulled, just enough to allow the thrums to settle into the form seen in the original, without any fulling at all they look too fluffy and odd. Based on examination of photos, sadly I didnt get a chance to see the original whilst it was in Whitby last year.

I did have a quick look at the pattern offered in 'the Yorkshire Mary Rose' by Eleanor Clapp when I was first planning this hat a few months back, but a few details in her version seemed at odds with what I felt I was observing in the photographs, so I worked this one based on stitch numbers and structures I could count on the various published images of the hat. I'm not for one moment saying her pattern is necessarily off, just that without the benefit of seeing the original hat in the flesh I chose to work with what I could explain with the information available to me. On the whole I'm very happy with this as a first work up of the hat and hope very much to have a chance to develop my interpretation as I come across more details of this hugely entertaining hat.

Original hat here: http://freespace.virgin.net/suesteph.ba ... %20hat.jpg
My version here:

Forever Autumn

I've been a bit quiet recently, mostly because I have been working on these new socks! May I present my latest pattern, Forever Autumn festures richly textured oakleaves and cables, just perfect for kicking through the woods whatever the time of year.

This pattern is being hosted by KnitPicks and can be downloaded from their website or from Ravelry, either way its a bargain at just $1.99. I hope a few of you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed working on it.

A hat for an Archchancellor

I'd recently been asked to make a hat suitable for the Archchancellor of Unseen University, and this is it!
The hat is a blend of wine and claret merino, with a band of shot velvet trimmed with 'vermine' (actually 1940s vintage salvaged mink from an old stole) and then sprinkled with vintage glass beads and silver set jewels.
Hope they like it! I'm rather pleased with it I must say.

Holly Leaves & Berries

A couple of years ago I worked up a pattern for a cloche hat trimmed with textural holly leaves and berries . The hat itself is nice enough, but I kept getting requests just for the holly leaves and berries as a stand alone pattern.

Here it is, available through Ravelry as a downloadable pdf and just $1.99, and in perfect time for the winter season, these little leaves and berries work up fast using just a few yards of yarn and are perfect for trimming garments, presents or jewellery. I quite fancy making a whole holly wreath for the front door with these.

Festival in the Shire

We're back from the Festival in the Shire, and it turned out to be an interesting event. The organisers clearly had some teething problems with the arrangements, and the whole thing was rather quieter than we'd hoped for, but everyone we met was lovely and a few people bought pretties from the stall, and we had good friends to camp with, so overall a good time was had.
Quick pic of the stall, taken on my phone so not the greatest image I'm afraid:The cloaks with applique detail went down particularly well, I enjoyed making those and think I'll do more in due course. Started off with a bale of undyed wool cloth which I fulled and dyed before adding a bias edge and a wool applique detailing to the back:Gareth's new jewellery was the real star of the show though, we've just had his hallmarking punch set up so we can now have his silver all stamped officially by the assay office, and it all looked wonderful. This is a dreadful picture though, I must learn to take good pictures of shiny objects.

Anyway, this week I am working on silk stockings, a Victorian bonnet, and must start uploading the items that came back from the show onto the shop site. All this and I go off to the very wonderful Cwmoernant Farm tomorrow for the fibre retreat, I'm so excited!