Monday, October 31, 2011

A very spoooooky Halloween

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Guess what spooooky project I've been keeping under my hat?


Well okay, not under my hat. It is my hat! And surely a spooky bit of knitting will help strike the fear of Halloween into you!


There are creepy black bats, flying across an orange background...


Skeletons with ghoulish red eyeballs...

Gross green worms inching along on a purple background...

And, well, I think those are supposed to be spiders down towards the bottom.


What a fun knit this was! I actually finished up this beret back in early September and have been waiting until Halloween to share it.


I bought all the yarn to knit this last Halloween (KnitPicks Palette, a nice and inexpensive yarn for colorwork), then suddenly it was past October 31st and I didn't feel like it any longer. Fast forward to this September. I was going to take it as my knitting project for our trip to New Mexico, except I started on the ribbing and accidentally had 3/4 of it finished before the trip. It was just too fun to put down!


It's a free pattern from Knitty called Scare Isle, on Ravelry here. I admit, I'm a sucker for seasonal knits in fall and winter, so how could I resist a Halloween beret?

(By the way, I was considering doing a tutorial for this hairstyle... it's a great way to fake a good hair day when you're having a crappy hair day. And all you need is a hairpins, hairspray, a hat and a sock. Hee!)



Hats are a great place to start if you're new to colorwork. You work them in the round so there's no purling with the back of the pattern facing you, and they go pretty quickly. Soon you'll have an awesome hat to be proud of! I like to work hats on two circular needles, so that I can keep the work relatively flat as I knit instead of it being all bunched up on DPNs or a 16" circular needle. I find it more tedious to manipulate the knitting using either of those methods. If you're new to colorwork, you may find it more difficult to keep your gauge loose enough when the work is all scrunched up, as it's hard to spread out your stitches so your floats aren't too tight. That's much easier to do when working on two circular needles. (Cat Bordhi has a good video on how to work on two circulars here.)

It's not a vintage pattern obviously, but you know how obsessed they were with novelty knits, so I think this would have been right at home in the 40s!


Have any fun Halloween plans today? We'll be staying in tonight, eating homemade chicken noodle soup and pie, and watching scary movies. No costumes for us this year, although I'm wearing an orange cardigan and my beret at work. But Pia got dressed up! I'm sure you can guess her wearing the hat lasted about as long as it took to take the photo. ;)


Hope you're having a spooktacular Halloween!

22 comments:

  1. You are so clever! :) and your hair style is cute too. x

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  2. This is just fantastic! Your knitting skills are amazing! And I'm totally going to figure out how to get my hair like that cuz I love wearing my berets but am never quite happy with my hairdo with them.

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  3. some day i will learn to knit.....i swear!! that hat is pretty awesome, and i love the hair style. i'm in the really obnoxious phase of growing my hair out, so it's been in pony tails for a month. i can't wait to be able to do cute styles again :)

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  4. hehe, your hat is cool!
    Fantastic. I think it must be difficult (I'm the knitter beginner:))
    I really love it!

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  5. OMG. I love the beret so much!! It's perfect!

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  6. Hello! The hat is so cute.
    Would you please share the secret of WEARING a baret? tam?
    I have 3, and I look stupid in all of them them.
    Do you pin them on to achieve that nice flat look?
    I'm tired of looking as if I'm off to dogsled through the barren tundra.

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  7. Wow I love the skulls and the bats! How cute is that hat! I think those things near the bottom might be haunted trees? Seriously though LOVE it.
    Happy Halloween
    Karlene

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  8. Wow this hat is amazing, so much to look at! My fave is the skulls :)

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  9. I love it! And I was curious how you did your hair, so please do a tutorial. We are taking the girls out trick or treating tonight. Papa and I look forward to late night candy and bad TV, once everyone is in bed and we raid their bags.

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  10. that hat is fantastic! i love the hearts for eyes on the skull!

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  11. What a fun hat! So cute. I'm interested in your hair - any style for a bad hair day sounds good to me and yours looks very neat and smart.

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  12. What a lovely knit hat! Love the little hearts for the skull eyes. And Pia is just the cutest little bee.

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  13. happy halloween! amazing details on your hat. I love it! actually the whole outfit is spectacular. what a great color for your coat and all the lovely cream accessories work like magic! so beautiful. anyway, hope you have a great night, tasha. xoxo

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  14. That beret is so adorable.Love the detail.you do such a great job with all your knitting.This year was the first time in a long time I dressed up for halloween,My dog was a hot dog.lol.She s the same.have to be quick to take her photo cuz she wanted that costume off.I managed to get two.lol.Happy Halloween.xx

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  15. Wow this beret looks absolutely amazing and so cool!! I'm in awe of your knitting!! I adore your top border by the way its fantastic!! I wish my blog could look this good!! XxxX http://thesecondhandrose.blogspot.com/

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  16. Tasha, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this hat! The colors are beautiful! I think a tutorial on the hairstyle would be great as well. (I'm intriqued about the sock..)

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  17. The skulls! The bats! I love it! (also, shout out to Pia for being a cuuuuuute bumble bee.

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  18. AHHH that is so cute! I've always wanted to take up knitting.... and that little bumble bee, adorable!

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  19. That hat is adorable, it's spooky pattern but the style is so sophisticated.

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  20. Oh wow. That's one of the best hats I've ever seen!
    -Andi x

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