I'm Johnny Two Hats, why do you think they call me that?

Just a warning: this post is going to have a LOT of pictures of my head. Photographing hats, quite the ego trip...

I've been on a bit of a knitting kick lately, and hats are one of my favourite things to knit. They're easy enough to make whilst watching tv, they don't use a lot of yarn so you can splurge on nice stuff and they don't take forever like a scarf or a sweater does. I made a few hats last winter and over the past few weeks, and today I'll show you ALL OF THEM.

The first one is one of my favourites. It's the Rooty, a pattern I spotted on Jo's blog before, and it was a bit of love at first sight. The construction is easy but quite clever: you knit the band first on straight needles and then join it in the round for the body of the hat. This creates a vent in the back so your entire head is covered without any awkward bunching up!

The yarn for this isn't super special: two different colours of sock yarn held together. It was on sale at the shop, and combined with my employee discount this made for a super cheap hat that has already gotten tons of wear!

Here's another firm favourite! This yarn is a nice and warm alpaca blend, and I sort of made the pattern up as I went with it. If I remember correctly it went a bit like this: knitting a swatch, calculating how many stitches to cast on, knitting ribbing until I got sick of it, deciding  this yarn would look cool in a seed stitch, cursing myself for doing what's essentially more knits&purls, finishing the hat as a slouchy beanie, deciding to forego a pom pom for once. I love it. It's burgundy!

This was a new addition to the hat collection, shown together with my friend Dead Waldo (wearing one of the very first hats I ever knitted. So deep, you guys). I had been eyeballing this yarn for a while now (the main problem with seeing things almost every day...) and went for it in the end. It's pretty interesting: bulky strands of white wool (that go from thick to thin) wrapped in dark blue yarn. I used a plain white bulky yarn for the ribbing since that looked horrendous in the effect yarn (so uneven!) and made a big fluffy pom pom with the leftovers. Toasty!

You wouldn't say it, but it's also the perfect hat to be dramatic in.

Next up: another Rooty hat! This one is made from a super luxurious alpaca and merino mix, and it took longer than all previous hats combined. Most of this was my fault: I wanted to knit the pattern with smaller needles (since this yarn is finer than what the pattern calls for) and add a stranded pattern around the brim, so I had to work with a certain number of stitches to be able to make a nice repeat. I think I cast this on and ripped it back out three or four times.

It worked out in the end though: the end result is a bit more snug than what I'm used to, but it's totally wearable. The yarn is amazingly soft, and it has skulls on it. Because I'm really a tough and badass person, yes sir!

And finally, a new favourite! I bought 100 grams of this yarn at Julija's shop when Tasia was visiting Belgium, and I LOVE the colour. Seriously, I have an appointment with my hairdresser later this week (back to blue!) and I'm tempted to bring this hat to show the exact colour I want. Is it silly to match your hair to your hat?

(At this point I was a bit fed up with taking pictures so all the other ones look like this. The life of a sewing blogger.)

Again, no real pattern here. cast on stitches until I think it will fit my head, try on a few times along the way, make big fluffy pom pom. The yarn is a lovely soft merino, dyed in small batches and OMFG THE COLOUR.

And with that, I kind of managed to get hats out of my system! There's more knitting on the agenda though, I have a cabled scarf (ouhhh) almost finished (around 50 cm to go!) and I have some yarn lying around that would like to become a Guernsey wrap...

(For those of you wondering about the post title, click here! And then watch the entire show, 'cause it's amazing.)

Superetteketet

I have wanted to write this post since FOREVER but stuff just kept... Happening. Loads of extra hours at work and sudden energy to put into knitting... A bit of a shame, since this is something I'm super excited about!

A few months ago two dear friends told me and my boyfriend they wanted to start their own business. They both had a long retail background and a passion for beautiful things, so starting a store selling gifts and design objects seemed like a logical step. They wanted to offer a variety of nice things, including art made by local young artists, and so Superet was born!

We did some brainstorming about things we could contribute, and I decided to sell some postcards, limited lino prints, printed tote bags and handmade brooches (which I posted about before). They worked their butts off to get everything ready, and the result is a gorgeous shop in the middle of Antwerp (seriously, it's smack in the middle of the city)!

My friend Hélène provided an awesome tiger for the shop window! She also has some beautiful postcards and gift tags for sale. My boyfriend came up with tons of super happy colourful prints and posters!

I thoroughly christened my block printing press by churning out some lino prints. It's a really cool process, even if it leaves everything dirty and the cat very confused. The press I have is a super simple one, basically two planks and a lever, but it works really well! This cat print is available, along with a few others you might have glimpsed before.

The one thing I was really excited (and a bit afraid) about are the tote bags! The good thing about the type of press I have is that it doesn't go through a roll like on a more advanced printing press, so while the printing surface is the same (around an A4), you have some space around it to use larger paper, or in this case, tote bags! Each one of these is handprinted and unique.

They have loads more amazing things, and some beautiful gift ideas. If you're in Antwerp, go say hi and have a look!

Superet
Wijngaardstraat 21
2000 Antwerpen