A Sunflower Hat

There's a new book out called Folk Style from Interweave Press by Mags Kandis of Mission Falls fame. I've known Mags professionally for about ten years. I met her in Canada at a big "Stitches" type show - can't remember the name of that show now. I taught a class and she was in it. She was delightful but definitely over-qualified for my class.

While I was on my "child sabbatical" Mags started Mission Falls. I watched from the sidelines and admired the things she was doing. I even used her 1824 Cotton in Knitting for Baby. Lovely yarn, that textured cotton.

Fast forward to last year and Mags was editing Folk Style. She asked if I would contribute something and I said yes. The due date came and went. I was in over my head with a million things, not including the sunflowers I had to cut and pick and stock our little stand with. I couldn't let her down and so I did what I could think of at that moment -- I knit a sunflower hat. I was really happy with the hat I made and sent it off just in time. The shape of the hat was inspired by some ethnic costume books in my library that I often reach for when I need a jumping off point for a project. The shape looks great on lots of different shape faces.

I was thrilled when I received my copy of Folk Style last week. It is a lovely collection of projects in beautiful colors. It's quite creative - I'm happy that people are starting to think beyond the knitting box. There's quite a bit of embroidery and felting.

I was also delighted with the photos of my sunflower hat. There are four of them (that's what happens when your project is rather easy and they don't need to use a lot of type). The model is Pam Allen's lovely daughter Caitlin who makes the hat look so cute. You can probably make this hat in a couple nights - definitely a possibility for holiday gifts. Great job Mags!