Hat season is coming!

It’s hard for me to believe that fall is already here (especially while located in Southern California where summer feels perpetual and seasons never seem to change—it’s like a weird weather-time-vortex) and that I have been knitting for WEEKS on end. I am sourcing some finishing touches for this season’s hat launch and will definitely have the first of the hats up by the end of the month (hopefully sooner). I will certainly keep you all posted.

The story of the hats! I first began knitting hats in November of 2008 when I was laid off from a magazine publisher in Chicago. Luckily, I wasn’t unemployed for very long but the brief break allowed my brain to churn out some creativity on full throttle for a month and a half (while panic-stricken, I frantically looked for work). I had been hunting for a hat to give my little sister as a gift for a bit but I couldn’t find anything that was exactly what I was envisioning so I started testing out some ideas on my needles. I wanted a beret, in a vibrant color with lots of cute cables and just the right amount of slouch. Thus the Twisted Thistle was born! I liked it so much that I started knitting more and more and suddenly I had far more hats than what I knew what to do with. I sold my very first hat on Etsy in January 2009.

Knitting berets has become somewhat of a meditative process for me (each one takes me about 8 hours to create) but last season, I kept saying to myself that it would be my last season knitting hats. It’s a lot of work, effort and time. I spend a lot of time producing and less time creating new things. I try to source gorgeous yarn, soft and durable and remain as cost effective as possible. I want to maintain great quality and a reasonable price but I also want my hands to not feel broken after a knitting sprint! I have a fairly demanding career as an Art Director for a magazine, I like to dabble in all sorts of crafts (as evidenced by rottencupcakes itself), I have a few other side projects that keep me with my hands and head full of ideas & activity and I do actually enjoy spending time with my rad husband and our cats. I enjoy knitting these berets too much to stop entirely but in order to keep my life a little more balanced—this hat season will be a tish smaller and perhaps show up a little more slowly.

That being said, I can’t wait to show to this season’s efforts in the coming weeks. Cheers! <3

I am super happy to announce that I’ve released the Daisy Cutter beret pattern for sale on Ravelry & Etsy!

It’s been a long time coming; hopefully others will be following soon! In honor of this pattern’s introduction, I am giving both of my hat patterns away! One winner will get PDFs of both the Original Twisted Thistle Beret and the new Daisy Cutter Beret knitting patterns. Just leave a comment on this post telling me who you plan to knit the berets for by Wednesday, July 27th 8PM PST. If you want an extra entry, like rottencupcakes on facebook & let me know in your comment on this blog post. I will post the winner on Thursday, July 28th! <3

I’ve been working on this project for awhile now but I finally finished it! Huzzah!

Here is the rad vinyl ottoman I bought on my very first thrifting trip in high school. Clearly, I hang onto things! My high school self painted on pretty much everything in her room, so… of course—the ottoman was also painted. First with some acrylics and then sloppily with some bright blue spray paint. Now I totally wish I hadn’t because check out the amazing mustard color it was underneath!

Before!

I have been knitting a cover out of lots of different random wool yarn that I had in my stash. It’s a slightly mod-podge cobbled look but it works for our home. I knitted a cover to match the dimensions of the ottoman, basing the pattern off of the Felted Boxes pattern from Mason Dixon knitting because it has some clever construction details that help the cover to hold it’s boxy shape.

Materials!

After knitting the fabric & seaming it into it’s proper cube shape, I threw the cover in the washer to felt a bit. I wanted to solidify the fabric a bit more and felting seemed to do the trick rather nicely. I blocked the cover on the actual ottoman (hooray for vinyl!) and then stapled all along the bottom edge. I started at the center of each side & worked my way to the corners, taking care to fold them neatly down prior to stapling the heck out of it.

Multi-angled love

& voila— in action, my newly knitted ottoman.

After

I am incredibly pleased to announce my very first pattern release!
If you wanted to knit your own Twisted Thistle beret, now you can!
The pattern is for sale through etsy for now & soon to come on ravelry.

Hooray for knitting! <3