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Daily hat

Hats are the ultimate knitting projects. They are small enough to fit in a pocket, they are usually knit in the round, they don’t have to be matched with a twin, you can experiment with difficult techniques without giving up and you can finish them within a week. Join me in my daily hat parade.

It all started with the Waiting for rain shawl I knit in November, from stashed and ripped handspun yarns. When I had finished it there was still yarn left, so I knit a hat. And another. And another. Suddenly I stand here with seven hats that I have knit during November and December from my stashed handspun yarns. That’s a daily hat for every day of the week.

Seven knit hats in a circle.
A daily hat for the whole week, all from my handspun stashed yarns.

Stranded knitting and Algae

The first hat I fell for was Algae by Marie Amelie designs. It’s a stranded colourwork hat with an algae pattern, which suits my daily dip in the lake perfectly. The folded brim together with the stranded colourwork keeps my head toasty and warm on even the coldest of days.

The wrong side of a stranded colourwork hat in petrol, turquoise and white. An elephant patterned purse and a needle case in the same colour scale beside it.
A woman wearing a stranded colourwork hat with white algae growing up from a folded brim. The background colour begins in petrol at the brim and change to turquoise and dusty blue towards the crown.
TheAlgae hat has a stranded colourwork algae pattern and is nice and warm.

The original pattern is knit in a white main colour and yellow background colour. I chose three different background colors that on a sunny day resemble the colour of the water. I used all three of them in the Waiting for rain shawl.

A woman hanging in the lake from a buoy pole. She is wearing a stranded colourwork hat with white algae and a petrol, turquoise and dusty blue background. She is also wearing a bikini and gloves. There is snow on the buoy pole.
The algae hat fits my daily dips perfectly in both design and warmth.

The Algae hat has quickly become my favourite hat for this time of year. The folded brim is soft and gentle and I love the colour scheme.

Mindless ribbing hipster hat

I have knit a couple of hats for my husband, but they are all starting to fall apart. I wanted to knit him a new one, a fairly plain hat. The HipsterHat by PetiteKnit was my choice, together with a soft 2-ply yarn I spun ages ago from an Shetland Eskit fleece.

A woman wearning a dark grey ribbed hat with a folded brim.
A woman in the water holding on to a ladder. She is wearing a bikini, gloves and a dark grey ribbed hat with a folded brim. There is snow on the ladder.
The HipsterHat is warm and cozy and can be worn unfolded or with a single and double fold.

This was a mindless knit, just the 2×2 ribbing all the way plus some sweet decreases towards the crown. I love how the hat can be worn in different ways – straight, folded or double folded.

Arkanoid garter building blocks

I have always been curious about Woolly Wormhead’s hat patterns, so I searched among her hat designs. I wanted to knit something for my son who is an architect student. Woolly Wormhead calls herself a hat architect and the Arkanoid pattern resembles a brick Wall, so the match was perfect.

A woman wearing a turquoise semi-slouchy hat with a brick-like pattern.
A knitting project on a wooden floor. The knitting has a brick-like structure. A ball of yarn in the background.
Just the ringht amoung of slouch in the Arkanoid hat.

The yarn I used was a 2-ply finull yarn I spun a couple of years ago and dyed in an ice bath with fresh indigo leaves.

Greystone cables

My daughter has sensitive skin, so I used the softest handspun I could find for her, Swedish Jämtland wool. I had ripped this yarn from an older project. Since the yarn was so fine I held it double throughout the knitting.

A woman is bathing in a hole in a frozen lake. She is wearing socks, mittens, bikini and a white cabled hat.
A cabled knitting project on a wooden floor. A ball of white yarn in the background.
I used the softest yarn I could find for a cabled hat in natural white for my daughter who has sensitive skin.

I chose the Greystone hat pattern by Melissa Thomson (Sweet fiber), a fairly simple cable pattern. My daughter is quite picky, but I hope a subtle cabled natural white hat works for her.

Jessica Jones and linen stitch

Okay, so if a hat is called If Jessica Jones had a hat (by SMINÉ), don’t you just have to knit it? I know I do.

A woman wearing a petrol coloured hat with an envelope crown.
Both the linen stitch and the envelope crown were new to me. While I didn’t enjoy the slowness of the knitting, I love how my If Jessica Jones had a hat hat turned out.

The hat is knit in linen stitch, which gives the loveliest weave-like structure. The pattern is knit one, slip one with the yarn in front, from bottom to top. This took ages. The moving of the yarn from back to front and back again slowed the pace down, but I do love the result. The yarn I used (the same yarn as in the brim of the algae hat) was very fine, so I held it double. I realized there was a risk there wouldn’t be enough yarn for the whole hat, so I started to think about what colour to use for the crown, but in the end there was just enough yarn.

Growing plants

I had a few skeins of gradient yarn from a brown fleece I had sorted into different shades. I wanted to use the gradient in another hat, and I chose the Gro hat by Fiber Tales.

A woman standing in a bikini and brown cabled hat on a ladder by a lake, ready to get in between the ice floes.
Two hats mounted on balloons on top of two vintage liter measures. One hat natural white, the other natural brown, both in cable patterns.
My Gro hat in a gradient of browns from one and the same sheep. To the right the Gro hat together with the Greystone hat, in my favourite hat blocking setup.

I started at the brim with the darkest colour and ended two shades later at the crown. The pattern is sort of a cable pattern with grass-like plants. The pattern also includes knitting three stitches together right after a cable, which was quite cumbersome, at least the way I did it. So not the most comfortable and swift knit, but I love the design and my subtle gradient.

Shortrows and Rhinebeck

Another Woolly Wormhead design is the Rhinebeck hat, this time with an intricate bauble pattern made sideways with a gazillion shortrows. The pattern description looks daunting with its 88 row pattern repeat for 13 panels, but once you get the hang of it you can knit it with relative ease.

A woman wearing a slouchy hat with a bauble-like pattern in browns and blues.
A woman in a lake wearing a slouchy hat with a bauble-like pattern in browns and blues.
I’m not used to this amount of slouch, but I am sure I will get used to it if it stays with me. But knitting the short row baubles was

At first I was reluctant, I didn’t want it to look too loud. After having browsed through the projects on Ravelry I knew how I wanted to combine the colours. I chose blue-ish and brown colours for the baubles and white for the stripes to keep it all together. I love the result.

My plan is to hang the hats in the Christmas tree and let my family find them. Perhaps they go for the hats I had in mind for them, perhaps they surprise me. I’m keeping the Algae for myself, though.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
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Stash top

Several coincidences led me to knitting this stash top – a weekend in need of a knit. A stashed handspun yarn in need of a project. Hands and mind in need of wool on long work meetings.

The idea for this sweater project started quite a while ago, but was sparked by a weekend in need of a knitting project.

Yoga practice

I practice yoga asana every morning and evening. Towards the end I want to put something on to avoid getting cold, but nothing too warm. I started to look for patterns for a cropped top, something to just throw on before the final relaxation of my practice to keep my chest warm. I found the Ursina pattern by Jacqueline Cieslak and saved it for later.

In need of a knit

A few weeks ago I went with my wool traveling club to our annual wool journey. I realized I needed a knitting project for both the train ride and for our hours and hours of chatting.

A woman wearing a sweater with a knit weather with a stranded colourwork yoke. The colours are white, light grey, dark grey and blue.
Photo by Dan Waltin
Skeins of handspun wool yarn.
I had some handspun singles left from knitting the Telja sweater, a lopi style singles yarn from Icelandic wool, that was perfect for the top.

After browsing Ravelry for a while I found the saved Ursina pattern and decided it was time for it. I had some low twist lopi style handspun yarn left after knitting a Telja sweater by Jennifer Steingass and it was the perfect fit.

Colour scheme

I had five colours left of the yarn – the natural white, light grey and dark grey and some light blue and medium blue that I had dyed. Stripes was my choice for the project. I picked the smallest yardage for the neckline and changed into increasingly larger yardages as I knit. I added a thin white stripe between each colour shift to avoid a gradient feeling.

A top on a hanger outdoors. The top has a short body and long sleeves. It is striped from light blue at the neckline, through medium blue and dark grey to light grey at the hem. A wood shed in the background.
To optimize the colours in the stashed yarn I decided to make the stash top striped.

I have knit stripes with stashed yarn like this before in my Bianka sweater, and the fiddly part is always after separating body and sleeves. both times I ended up with live stitches on cables in body and sleeves, knitting a couple of rounds at a time to end up in an even stripe across sleeves and body. In the end it’s worth it, though, for a smart striping and efficient use of stashed yarn.

Knit reknit

Due to optimistic measures of gauge I ripped and reknit the top. Twice. But I didn’t mind, it gave me something to knit on meetings at work. I remember some of my colleagues looking at my knitting and wishing they had something to do with their hands too to avoid falling asleep in a stuffed conference room.

Ursina and Jacqueline

I want to tell you about this pattern. Of course I fell for the design – the cropped body, the brioche stitch triangle at the hem, the brioche stitch faux seams and the sweet V-neck.

A woman is sitting cross-legged outdoors. She is wearing a cropped handknit sweater in blue, grey and white.
A woman is sitting cross-legged outdoors. She is wearing a cropped handknit sweater in blue, grey and white.
Ursina has brioche stitch faux seams and hem and a sweet V-neck.

But after having bought the pattern and cast on I was astounded by the pattern description. I have never seen a pattern description with such a well-planned structure! Not only does Jacqueline Cieslak accomodate for different body sizes, bust sizes, body shapes and yarn weights, but she has structured the description in a unique and very clear way to make it easy and effortless to find where you are in the pattern. She is a true pattern construction and pattern designer star and I want to knit all her patterns.

My new post-yoga stash top does exactly what I wanted it to do – it keeps me warm after my practice and is cozy to wear. I may knit another one.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.