Woolly Wormhead Publishes Painted Woolly Toppers Book

It's always a delight when hat aficianado Woolly Wormhead releases a new design and this week knitters have a real treat - a whole new pattern book!

Image courtesy of Woolly Wormhead

Painted Woolly Toppers contains ten hat patterns designed for hand-dyed, painted and variegated yarns. This year, thanks to starting to knit socks, I've taken a real interest in these yarns and the effects they produce when knitted up. It's great to see patterns designed to make the most out of those yarns - plus as hand-dyed yarns tend to be one-off purchases I'm very happy to have found patterns that only require one or two skeins.

So what can knitters expect from the book? The hats come in lots of different styles, whether you prefer slouchy, bobbled, beret or close-fitting. Knitters can order either the e-version or PDF and print version from Woolly Wormhead's website. The e-version is also available to browse and buy on Ravelry.

Beautiful photography shot in an approachable setting accompanies the designs. You really can see how the designs and stitch patterns compliment the variated yarn.

Here are all the delightful designs. All the images are courtesy of Woolly Wormhead.

Cornice

Dancette

Glostra

Jetty

Quoin

Lamitra

Vortice

Helical

Gallone

Risalire

Knowing the type of hat style that suits me my personal favourite is Helical. It's not too slouchy nor too tight-fitting and has a fabulous stitch-effect that looks like diagonal lines.

Included at the front of the book are hints and techniques needed to knit the toppers, such as provisional, alternate cable and cable cast on; knitting in the round using DPNs or a circular needle; short rows and cabling with out a cable needle.

I'm looking forward to getting started on Helical once my I've completed my current knitting projects. I only hope that the yarn Woolly Wormhead used will still be available, seeing as hand-dyed yarns tend to be 'one off' productions. A stockist list would have been useful but seeing as businesses change all the time it would have got out of date very quickly.

Which is your favourite pattern? Let us know in the comments box below.