Alice Springs Hosts Celebration of Hats

Funky 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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Using your yarn stash is important to me throughout the year, but as I start to feel the end of the year coming on I get more excited about using things I already have in the house. Maybe that’s because I don’t want to go to a store in the thick of holiday shopping times, or I like the idea of having a little space in my stash when the new year rolls around.

It’s super satisfying to use up all the little odd balls you’ve made over the year (or years), and I have several stash busting blankets I work on when it’s cold and will maybe finish someday.

If you’d like to start a stash busting project that’s perfect for using up odd balls, check out the Soukish pattern from Neisha Abdulla. This pattern is made for fingering weight/sock yarn, and it’s worked in a tube with allover color work.

This is great for a couple of reasons. You don’t really have to weave in your ends when you can hide them in a tube (this is one time you might even get by just tying a knot when you change colors!) and you can change colors whenever you run out of yarn and it will look good.

Of course the pattern is made with blocks where the designer changed colors, but you can change yours more or less often as you need to make it work for your stash. You can use blank charts to design your own color combinations, or even your own stitch patterns if you like. You can also adjust the length of the scarf as needed or turn it into a cowl based on the amount of yarn you have.

This project looks like a lot of fun and would be a great thing to have on hand to stitch up and then to wear during the cold, gloomy months.

You can get a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Neisha Abdulla]

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