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Deborah Newton Designs Hat for Christmas at Sea

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block island hat deborah newtonThere are lots of different charities and places where you can send knit items to bring a little warmth to other people, but one that I really love the idea of is the Seamen’s Church Institute’s Christmas at Sea.

The institute was founded in 1834 by the Episcopal Church and it provides advocacy, training, legal help and pastoral care through visiting chaplains to mariners working in the Port of New York and New Jersey, the Port of Oakland and on inland waterways and the Gulf of Mexico.

Christmas at Sea aims to bring a little holiday cheer to people working away from home during the holidays (and in foul weather throughout the winter season) by providing knit and crocheted garments and accessories to maritime workers.

The group has an approved list of patterns, any of which can be made in washable yarn of your choice (though dark colors are best).

This year the group has teamed up with North Light Fibers and Deborah Newton to produce a new pattern — the Block Island Hat — available as a standalone pattern or a kit complete with North Light Fibers’ Ocean Avenue worsted, made in maritime colors especially for this project.

The hat includes diamonds, ladders, cables and chevron and takes one skein of yarn to knit. The kit, which comes with a project bag and your choice of yarn, costs $75, while the pattern alone is available from North Light Fibers for $35, with all proceeds going to the institute. Learn more from the institute’s newsletter.

Is this a cause you’ve given to in the past? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via North Light Fibers.]

Looking for more Christmas themed Knitting patterns? Check out some of our favorite Knitting patterns on Etsy and

These Christmas Knitting Pattern Books on Amazon

 

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Comments

  1. I have started this hat, and want clarification on the BC and FC. Is the cable done with one stitch twice in the four stitch section? Or two stitches, once.

Have you read?

Knit a Blanket with the Texture of a Ceiling

Knitwear designers can get inspiration from almost anything when it comes to re-creating a color scheme, an image or a texture in stitches. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t always obvious in the finished project, but sometimes it’s more literal. 

That’s the way it is with the Tin Ceiling Blanket from Purl Soho. Not just because the inspiration is in the name, but if you’ve ever seen one of these old ceilings you can see that the design of the blanket is quite similar to the pattern of the tin tiles. 

This is also a good example of the idea that you don’t have to use fancy stitch patterns or lots of color to make a big impact with your knits. This single-color blanket (designed by Gianna Mueller and inspired by a washcloth and towel set designed by Sandi Rosner) is made completely with knits and purls, other than slipped stitches at the beginning of rows to make neater edges. 

The pattern is written out row by row, but there’s also a chart, which means this project is a great opportunity to practice reading a chart where you can check your work against the written pattern if you need to. 

It comes in two sizes, a crib blanket and a throw. The yarn used in the sample is an organic cotton sold by the cone, which is a great way to get a large quantity of yarn and have fewer ends to weave in. In fact, you can knit either size of the blanket with just one cone of yarn, which isn’t inexpensive but makes you a great, sturdy, heirloom quality but still washable blanket you’ll use for years to come. (Of course you can use any sport weight yarn you like to make this blanket.)

Check out all the details and grab the free pattern from Purl Soho. 

[Photo: Purl Soho]