It's the first of June, it's pattern release day, so summer must truly be here.
The technique for June, the first of the summer projects within A Year of Techniques, is knitted-on edging, a common feature in shawls, blankets and so on. Essentially, it involves working a decorative edging strip at right angles to the main body of the piece. You join the edging to the main stitches as you go, so you don't need to cast off the main stitches, or spend hours carefully sewing pieces together, making it a pretty efficient process. Furthermore, the join you achieve with a knitted-on edge is more stretchy than with a cast-off edge with a sewn on border, so the risk of puckering is far reduced. Head over to Mason-Dixon Knitting if you'd like to see the video tutorial.
Talmadge Cloche by Romi Hill; photo ©Jesse Wild
This month's pattern is the Talmadge Cloche, designed by Rosemary (Romi) Hill. It is worked top down, starting with a pinhole cast on. That's right, this is the first of the projects to use a technique previously encountered in A Year of Techniques alongside the new one. You will work increases within the lace pattern to shape the crown and continue with a lace pattern through the body of the hat.
©Jesse Wild
The knitted-on moss stitch band around the bottom of the hat is worked backwards and forwards, perpendicular to the direction of knitting for the rest of the hat. Once the band is completed, you fold it over and decorate with buttons to complete the look. Romi has created a thing of beauty, I'm sure you'll agree.
©Jesse Wild
The inspiration behind the hat is Norma Talmadge, silent movie icon who appeared in hundreds of films in the 1910s and 1920s. At the height of her fame and popularity in the early 1920s, she was the number one box office star. As a glamorous movie actress, Norma was photographed in all of the latest fashions and Romi is sure that, given the chance, Norma would have worn this cloche hat through cooler weather.
Norma Talmadge
If you haven't come across Romi's designs before, you should definitely have a look over her amazing catalogue of patterns.
It's not too late to sign up for A Year of Techniques! You can buy a print+ebook bundle for £19.99 plus shipping over in our online shop, or the ebook only is available for £19.99 either directly from Ravelry, or here on our website. When you buy a copy from our website, you also have the option to add A Year of Techniques to your Ravelry library - simply follow the buttons on the final checkout page. You will immediately receive all 4 of the projects that have been released so far, and the following patterns will be added monthly until September when the whole print and ebook is launched (you receive an update email when each pattern is added). We also have a few Summer Kits remaining, containing yarn for this project and also those for July and August.
Please share your projects online using the hashtag #ayearoftechniques and join us in our Ravelry group for the June knitalong.