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Alice Springs Hosts Celebration of Hats

July 3, 2014 by Sarah White

alice springs beanie festival winnerFunky hats abounded in Alice Springs, Australia, with the Beanie Festival and Exhibition that took place late last month. (This article says it goes on through mid-July but I’m not seeing that anywhere on the event’s website, but it’s cool regardless.)

Entrants from around Australia and as far away as Germany, Japan and the United States sent hats to compete for prizes and the chance to be purchased in the marketplace. Organizers said there were about 7,000 hats on display and that they expected about 5,000 of those to sell.

The exhibition highlights indigenous crafters, and workshops are held through the year to pass on beanie-making skills to people throughout the countryside.

Visit the expo’s website to see more of the amazing hats that took prizes this year related to the theme “Out of this World.” The hat pictured above was the winner in the stitching category. It’s called “Let Me Bring You Down to Earth” and was stitched by Shaz Harrison-Williams of Tasmania. Beautiful work!

[Photo via BeanieFest.]

Looking for more Knitted Beanie patterns? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

Looking to buy your Yarn online? Check out these online yarn specials.

Specific to knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get, well, knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next.

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Knit a Hat with a Flock of Chickens

It’s well known (among knitters, anyway) that knitters seem to love chickens as a motif and a subject of our knitting projects. The Emotional Support Chicken and all the other chicken knitting patterns are just the beginning of our devotion to farmyard friends. 

For example, there’s Farmer Dennis’ Chicken Hat. This free pattern from Stacy Black is a simple worsted weight beanie sized for adults and decorate with a couple of little rounds of colorwork fences and a flock of chickens strutting around the body of the hat. 

You don’t need a lot of any of the colors for the chickens, their facial features or the fences, so this is a great project for using little leftover bits from other projects. The main color for the body of the hat is less than a skein using the yarn suggested, so you might just have everything you need in your house to start stitching up this hat right away. 

The colorwork is presented as a chart, with a 16 stitch section that repeats around the body of the hat. All the color changes are shown on the chart but I think it would be easier to knit the whole chicken in the chicken color and add the eye, beak and other features using duplicate stitch when the knitting is done. That way you don’t have to carry those yarns around the whole hat for just a few stitches. 

As the name suggests, the original hat was given to a farmer who shared their eggs, but anyone who raises chickens or just has a thing for the fowl is sure to love this cute hat. It wouldn’t be too difficult for someone new to stranded knitting or reading charts to make, either, so if that’s you, give it a try. 

The pattern is available for free on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Stacy Black]

Knitting Patterns for Little Chicks

Tiny Hens to Knit

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