Thistle

With the weather turning a little autumnal, we're all about the hats at the moment, and we've got one in two versions to show you. This is the Thistle hat, our latest in-house pattern, warm as toast and easy as anything. It's made with one ball each of two contrasting Aranweight yarns, and we used Louisa Harding's new merino/alpaca Akiko with Debbie Bliss's wool-and-silk-rich Milano. That's the other version, with a slightly different stitch pattern. The only difference between the two is one round which is knit in one version and purled in the other, and there's a good story about how it came about. When Jacqui was test-knitting the pattern, she changed the pattern without meaning to. After realising that, many people would have ripped back. But Jacqui liked the fabric she was getting, and just kept going! The result was a slightly different but equally lovely version, and the two-option Thistle hat was born. And a moral, too: patterns are only a guideline, and if your variation pleases you, go for it! Then it's not a mistake, it's a design feature!