It was frosty this morning as I walked to work. We are still without a car, and I am so enjoying noticing the differences in the hedgerows and front gardens as the weeks go by. I pulled my hat down over my ears and was particularly grateful for the cosy aran-weight colourwork of our newest pattern release – the Keyford Hat.

This beautiful hat was designed for us by Fair Isle knitter-extraordinaire, Mary Henderson. I am very lucky to attend the same knitting group as Mary, and indeed it was Mary who first encouraged me to try Fair Isle knitting, as well as prompting me to apply for the post as Technical Editor on The Knitter magazine back in 2008! Her knitting has been inspiring me almost since I first picked up knitting needles. Thank you Mary!

Mary’s design features bold, geometric motifs as well as a garter trim ribbing which uses one of my favourite ever techniques: the tubular cast on!

Have you seen a more beautiful cast-on method for ribbing than the tubular cast on?

I just love the way that the stitches grow from each other on the front and the back.

The Keyford Hat pattern comes with a stepwise photo tutorial to take you through working a 2x2 tubular cast on in the round, so that your cast-on edge looks practically perfect in every way!

The diamond motifs on the body of the hat are then echoed in the crown shaping, making a pleasingly sunny effect. Just the job on a cold, grey morning!

The pattern file includes full instructions for both three- and two-colour versions. I’m looking forward to showing you my two-colour version very shortly!

The hat comes in three sizes with unstretched brim circumferences as follows: 42 (48, 54) cm [16½ (19, 21¼) in]

Lots of options, depending on what you fancy!

You can get your hands on Mary’s lovely pattern both directly on Ravelry and via our online shop as a pdf download, where it costs £5.00. We also have Keyford Hat Kits set up in our online shop for both the three-colour and two-colour versions of the hat. The kits cost £25.00 and include three skeins of Something to Knit With Aran, a project bag and a copy of the pdf pattern.

You can get a 15% off introductory discount off the pdf pattern on Ravelry or our website by using the code LOWER at the checkout. This discount is only valid on the single pattern download (kits are already discounted in comparison with purchasing the yarn and pattern separately), and lasts until the end of the day on 12th February 2020.