I have come back from Sussex absolutely refreshed and inspired and it was exactly the sort of adventure that was required. I have come back also with a very warm head.

The pattern is Red Lipstick’s Headigan, available to buy from her webshop here and worth every penny.

I knit the hat with a combination of some green yarn I already had and the wondrous handspun that Liz gave me for my birthday. Liz’s yarn was an absolute treat to knit with; subtle shifts in yellow undertones and greenness give the stripes a lovely, lively vibrancy.

I heart this yarn… it has just the perfect amount of interest to make every row a pleasure to knit, but not so much variegation that it results in OTT fussiness. And it achieves a rare degree of richness; a quality sadly lacking in many greens. This is golden, fertile, lively, lush, verdant green at its very best and I love love love wearing it on my head. It is also very lustrous and soft. I think the fibre she used was BFL.

Thank you so much Liz!

In other knitting news, all my swap-partners for the knitted vegetable harvest swap have received their parcels so I can now blog the fruit and vegetable goodness that I sent. Here are the knitted veg I sent in the swap, starting on the left with Gewerken’s squash pattern and moving across to two improvised designs of my own, variegated squash and bramley cooking apple.

I actually bought this squash with the express intention of using it as the basis for a knitted design…

I think I did OK with the colours, but some work could be done with that ribbed structure and the slight tightness on some of my clothes indicates that I will have more joy in my life if I eat the vegetables, as well as using them for knitting inspiration.

Now to creating worksheets for The Knitted Vegetable Workshop this Friday. There are still some spaces if anyone is thinking of booking!