Know how you often buy yarn in the same colour that you’re wearing? Well, I went to the Tampere craft fair like this:
And bought this:
Which became this:
The sweater is a basic bottom-up raglan, knit using Elizabeth Zimmermann’s percentage system. I bought the yarn (Cascade 220) from Tampere two years ago, from the booth that’s in the background in the photo. (The sweater made a brief appearance in a post in March, so it’s been in the works for quite some time. Also, I am obviously obsessed with bright green.)
The yarn I bought this time is from Villavyyhti‘s booth, sparkly sock yarn by Lanitium ex Machina. I know they currently carry another sock yarn by the same dyer, but not this sparkly version. (You could always ask, though -at the Villavyyhti Ravelry group, for instance.)
I knew pretty much at once that I wanted to knit a fancy beret out of my green skein, but struggled with the particulars at first. My first attempt didn’t work and got ripped. I then decided to go top-down and to use two yarns. I got the idea to use a mohair/silk laceweight from the Simple Pleasures pattern (available for free). Mine isn’t Alchemy’s Haiku, though -it’s a very old stash yarn and probably another yarn company’s version of Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze.
(Neither of the pictures shows the crown, but I used yarnovers for the increases.)
I am awfully pleased with the brim. The picot cast off took about 1.5 hours (or two episodes of Pushing Daisies, which might be the best show ever) but I like the result. Very fancy and girly.
And in case you’re wondering, the pictures of me modelling the beret were taken in Turku. We went there for a mini-holiday last weekend.
For a lunch in Turku, I would highly recommend the cafe Turun kirjakahvila. It’s all vegan and near the Turku Cathedral.