Baby Bear wanted a warm beanie to take to Europe with her for January and February.  I had a big bag of yummy skeins of handspun in a variety of colours donated by Yarnivorous when she left Melbourne a few years ago.  She expressed a desire for the beanie to be made from a selection of appropriate thick warm yarns, and this is the result.

It's just a very plain beanie with a double fold-up brim for extra warmth and a pom-pom.  I used The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd which gives sensible basic patterns for things like beanies, gloves, jumpers, etc based on the weight of the yarn.  Yes, I had to do a tension square!  And then another one because the first time I cast on I obviously had too many stitches!

Baby Bear says it is nice and warm, she loves the colours, and the 11 year old boy she is staying with (obviously, a whole family, not just a boy!) likes to steal it!

I don't finish things very often these days, but this was a quick knit for a specific purpose and therefore I actually managed to get it done.

Alice Springs Beanie Festival 2013

George promised that if I entered at least one beanie in this year's festival, we would go and visit.  So I did the maximum two permitted. The theme this year was 'Friendship'. I must say I had trouble working out wht most of the entries I saw tonight had to do with friendship! But they were all amazing.  I didn't win any prizes, which I hadn't really expected to do, but sold one of them tonight, which was the opening night.  Without further ado, here are the two entries and their stories:

I admit to being obsessed with Dr Who. They are Dr Who entries.

The red one is based on a fez, though it's much taller - imagine the really ridiculous hats worn in the medieval series of Blackadder, and that's what it looks like on.  I took the words from C.S. Lewis's the Four Loves to signify various forms of love/friendship.  An overriding theme, to me, of Dr Who is the way he always has to leave his friends behind, no matter how much he loves them, and outlives them by centuries.

It is knitted in two strands of red DK pure wool and felted in the washing machine, about five times, and dried over a flower pot on top of a large tin of dog food.  And the words embroidered with black knitting cotton.

THE FOUR LOVES

This one was inspired by the Van Gogh story in a previous series of Dr Who where the Doctor and Amy Pond jollied Vincent along and he painted Starry Starry Night with the Tardis in the sky.

It is a standard cloche shape knitted in DK dark blue pure wool and felted in the machine, then dried over a Pyrex mixing bowl.  A variety of dyed Wensleydale locks were needlefelted in swirls around it, using my trusty (but not much used) cheapo needlefelting machine, then holographic star sequins were sewn on in clusters.

STARRY STARRY NIGHT

 This is the one that sold!!!

The opening night was huge fun.  I will blog more another time.  I bought three beanies, one sober manly one for the sober and manly George, and two madly frivolous ones for me.

We are having AN ADVENTURE.