heid cases

Did you know that our Milarrochy Heids book was now available to pre-order? I’ve been really enjoying revealing one hat per day over on Instagram and Ravelry, and here’s a round-up of the first few heids.

First up is Ella Gordon’s Breiwick – the featured cover design.

Inspired by her own elusive search for the perfect Shetland beret, Breiwick features a bold palette, shaded diamonds, and a beautiful star crown. I love Ella’s use of the Milarrochy Tweed shades in this hat, especially the way that Campion and Buckthorn play off against Stockiemuir. This superb heid really captures Ella’s signature combination of vintage and contemporary, and you can read more about how Ella created Breiwick here.

Next up we have Ute Vos’s wonderful Let’s Stripe: a hat which I immediately knew I wanted to include in this book, as soon as I saw Ute’s sample back at the start of the year.

Ute loves stripes, and this hat uses twelve shades of Milarrochy Tweed in a stripey sequence that’s simple, non-repetitive, and incredibly striking.

Ute’s heid is a very straightforward knit, so as well as looking fabulous, it’s a great hat for beginners to try. If you can knit in the round, yes, you can make Let’s Stripe! Follow Ute’s stripe sequence, or follow the basic pattern, and devise your own.

The third heid is my own familiar Peerie Flooers (mentioned in an earlier post)

. . . and the fourth is Dianna Walla’s Caithness.

If you’ve seen Dianna’s designs, you’ll know what an incredible feel she has for rhythm and pattern in colourwork. Caithness combines tiny, luminous motifs (which shimmer, jewel-like, across the surface of the hat) with a stunning seven-pointed crown.

Dianna describes how this design sits at the playful intersection between traditional Norwegian and traditional Fairisle knitting – and I think this sums up Caithness perfectly. I’ve been a fan of Dianna’s thoughtful approach to design for a very long time, and I’m so very happy her heid is in the book.

Another designer I’m pleased to include in the collection is Emily Williams (fellow Scottish designer, and fellow cold-water swimming enthusiast) whose work I very much admire. For a couple of years, Emily has been developing a range of hat designs with distinctive twisted crowns, and the heid she’s created for this book represents a breathtaking evolution of her signature style.

Tarradale really is an extraordinary hat, combining a multi-directional construction and double-knitting with bold two-tone motifs in Milarrochy Tweed shades Birkin and Lochan. It is completely reversible.

I think what I love most about Tarradale is the way that Emily has combined sheer technical sophistication with simplicity: there’s basically nothing unnecessary about this hat. It is striking and graphic and wonderfully cosy. I love it!

Though the techniques involved may sound daunting, Tarradale is actually a really straightforward, pattern to follow, and Emily has put together a great tutorial for executing the crown twist which you can find here.

Today’s final heid is Jennifer Donze’s delightful Cottage Garden . Jennifer lives in Wisconsin and teaches knitting at Cream City Yarn (Milwaukee is known as ‘cream city’ because of the distinctive colour of its nineteenth-century brickwork). I’ve really enjoyed seeing the range of designs which Jennifer has begun releasing on Ravelry over the past couple of years, including this fabulous piece in my own Buachaille yarn.

Cottage Garden is a lovely, easy-to-wear, and slightly-slouchy beanie, which features a structured, floral motif and which can be knit in two colourways, inspired by Jennifer’s grandmother’s favourite blooms.

I’m wearing ‘Peony’ which features an optional pompom, and two-shades only, while Mel is wearing the other colourway, which is knit in four shades, of Milarrochy Tweed, whose combination perfectly suggests its floral namesake – ‘Clematis’

All of us here at KDD are very excited about this book, and we are getting ready to ship it out to you as soon as it arrives. You can now order Milarrochy Heids at a special worldwide-shipping-inclusive pre-order price until November 30th, when the final heid is revealed.
Just to be clear: this book, Milarrochy Heids has nothing to do with our forthcoming club, which is a completely separate project, beginning early in 2019, about which I’ll be able to reveal further details next month.

Thanks to Tom, as always, for photography, and to models Dianna, Jane and Mel (and, ahem, me).