Knit Hats Inspired by Lady Detectives (and Get a Deal This Week Only)

Over at About I recently got the chance to review a really fun book by Julie Turjoman. A Head for Trouble: 20 Hats and Adornments Inspired by Lady Detectives of the Roaring Twenties, is a book full of stylish hats and other accessories updated for modern sensibilities.

These projects would be perfect for a costume party or just for keeping yourself stylishly situated through the cool weather (and cold office) months.

I mention all this over here today for a specific reason. A Head for Trouble is currently in preorder and Turjoman is running a special that ends this week, so I wanted to make sure you knew about it if you want to check it out.

Anyone who orders the printed book/ebook combo of A Head for Trouble this week will also get a digital copy of the six-pattern mini-collection A Head for Fashion, which includes five hats and a pair of mitts inspired by fashionable ladies of the past. If you don’t want both the printed and the ebook version, you can order one and still receive one free pattern from the mini-collection.

This book is really cute and I hope you’ll check it out if you’re into vintage fashion. If you see anything that catches your eye, I’d love to hear about it!

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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