The Beret Project: The Second Installment

Berets are addictive to knit and a girl just can't have too many. The documentation of the The Beret Project on this blog began here. After the success of the first berets, I was now ready to try lace berets.

The first beret the girls tried to get me to buy was a light and lacy leaf patterned beret. It was gorgeous but too expensive. I haven't ever found a pattern that was quite the same but this one jumped out as being close. The pattern for this beret is the Lace Tam and Scarf by Susan Rainey of The Rainey Sisters which can be downloaded as free pdf file here. When I saw the pattern I immediately knew that the beret had to be red too. (Plus I'm old enough that the Prince song Raspberry Beret was running through my head too).

Actually the stash had several gorgeous red / cherry / maroon odd balls of yarn. Mel's beret is knitted in a Bendigo Woolen Mill's 8 ply wool alpaca blend on a set of four 2.75 mm needles. The eldest daughter also has the same beret knitted in a slightly different shade or red in a wool acrylic mix. I don't have any photographs of this one as it lives a few hours away and is rather shy. However, Facebook stalking has located it on holiday in Daylesford (see the small photo at the end of the post).

Mel wearing her red beret

I should apologize to my family (Mel is particular). Since I started blogging I do tend to creep up on people who are wearing knitted garments I have made for them with the camera yelling 'Stand still and Smile'. I do seem however to end up with photos of people looking startled, annoyed or grinning manically till I go away. I think the photo above probably illustrates "Just take the stupid photo and go away'. The scarf Mel is wearing was hand-knit for her by  little Italian lady from Spinete, a small town in Italy where she was on a home stay a few years ago on a school trip.

This is actually the first photo. I sneaked up behind her.

The underside of the beret while it is being blocked. Note the gathering thread run through the brim stitches. For a more complete description of how to block a beret see The Beret Project: Chapter 1

Close up of the blocked beret

The underside of the beret after blocking

The finished beret

The other elusive red beret on holiday in Daylesford