North Wind and Creekside

Brand new for fall/winter, we are releasing two easy, gift-worthy hat designs: North Wind (on Ravelry) and Creekside Cables (on Ravelry). Both have been in the works for longer than I am willing to admit… but if you can see that my first prototype for North Wind was knit up during the 2010 Olympics, you’ll have an idea.

North Wind

Knit with CashLuxe Fine sock yarn held double

The North Wind hat was designed to be a super quick slouchy hat pattern that I could knit up in a rush and wear to Cypress Mountain for one of the snowboard events. I knew I wanted the hat to be in Canadian red and also with a zig zag pattern that reminded me of fresh snow tracks. The double-brim was inspired by Jane Richmond’s fabulous hat designs and it was perfect for keeping my ears warm on the mountain.

Originally, I knit up this hat in our Superwash Worsted. The yarn gives it great weight and the superwash gives it a bit of slink which is needed for the slouchy effect. I know a couple knitters have made it in another standard worsted weight yarn, Cascade 220, and it doesn’t slouch as much (it’s more “wooly”). Another option we tried is knitting up the hat with sock yarn held double. The version with the two strands of CashLuxe Fine is so incredibly soft and squishy. It’s the perfect way to show off a skein of sock yarn that is too nice to put on your feet.

Creekside Cables

Creekside is the smaller, quieter, but original village at Whistler Mountain and I have very fond memories of inhabiting a tiny attic crawl space at Creekside while I took a snowboard course at Whistler, nearly four years ago. Ohh, how time flies.

I have such a soft spot for this sleepy little neighborhood, I’ve long wanted to knit something to remember it. So finally, here is Creekside Cables, a quiet and minimal cabled hat pattern, with a fine column of lace eyelets that remind me of rabbit tracks. Even though the cable looks complicated, it’s actually quite easy — only three rows where stuff actually happens, the rest is all straightforward and easy peasy.

Both patterns are available on the shop site and on Ravelry:

• North Wind (on Ravelry)
  
• Creekside Cables (on Ravelry)
  
• From now until November 15, 2011: Get 15% off if you purchase both the Creekside Cables and the North Wind hat patterns together
  https://www.ravelry.com/redeem/sweetgeorgia-yarns?sale=2482

A great big thank you to Stephannie Tallent for tech editing these two patterns for us during her own book writing/designing/knitting crunch! Stephannie and I had randomly met when we took the same hotel shuttle at Sock Summit this year… it’s serendipity at it’s finest. And another huge thanks to the fabulous knitters who helped test knit these hats, suffering through both my major and minor fails.

SGY Winter KAL

Join us for the SweetGeorgia Winter Knit-a-long! Our fabulous, fabulous new forum moderator, Susan, has organized a Winter KAL for us. It starts October 1 and ends January 31, 2012. Read all the details in the Ravelry forum and knit along with us… we will have prizes at the end! Come join us and knit one or both of these hats with us. Thanks so much and welcome, Susan!

Happy knitting!