Featured FO: Talmadge Cloche

Yesterday evening, just as the last bits of color were fading from the sky, Mr. N and I decided to take advantage of the dry evening and pop out for an evening walk.  Even though it’s only early September, it’s already feeling quite cool in Lancaster (or “fresh” as I’ve noticed the weather reporters are calling it).  Unfortunately, the delivery of our things from the US has been delayed, so I don’t even have a jacket with me at the moment, but as I was about to walk out the door, wrapped up in my Starting Point, it occurred to me that I do have a woolly hat with me — my Talmadge Cloche, which I finished just before we left Los Angeles!  So I popped it on and resolved I’d remember to tell you a bit about it before the weekend was out.

Today, we woke to slate gray skies, rain that’s alternated between a very insistent drizzle and a downpour , and wind gusts that almost have the windows shaking. I don’t mind the rain– and it’s even useful on a day like today, when I need to be in front of the computer, trying to get a bit more work done before we move into our new house next week.  But the foul weather outside made looking back at the pictures we took of my cloche before we left California, on a typically hot and bright day, particularly fun.

The Talmadge Cloche, designed by Romi Hill, was the June project for A Year of Techniques.  The pattern description notes that it is an “elegant cloche to see you through a rainy British summer” a claim that I now understand better: having spent all of my life in places with hot and– with the exception of LA — very humid summers, I would never have thought you could wear a wool hat in the summer. But having seen the very tail end of summer here in the Northwest, I can see that wool and British summers are by no means incompatible!

I have a deep and abiding love for 1920s styles, developed as an adolescent who spent perhaps too much time reading Fitzgerald and Hemingway novels.  So this pattern was completely up my alley!

The hat is knit top down in a stretchy and easy to work lace pattern that I found super enjoyable — I’d like to try more Romi Hill patterns in the future.  It’s finished with a knitted on edging (the featured technique for June):

The brim  of the hat is then tacked and buttons sewn on — I found these lovely horn (I think) buttons at a fabulous button shop in LA.

The yarn is Fyberspates Vivacious 4-ply in Dovestone, a perfect stormy grey — in fact, it matches the sky out my window! — and a really pleasant yarn to knit with. I ended up with over over half the skein left.

Overall, a really fun and quick project, with a gorgeous lace pattern.  I did the finishing — tacking the brim and sewing on buttons — a bit in haste as I really wanted to take pictures of the hat before we left California.  Ultimately, it’s not as tidy as it could be, and I think I’ll redo the sewing bits at some point. But I think that can wait until the rest of my knitwear (and other earthy possessions!) arrive here in Lancaster!

And for those of you who are, like me, sat inside on a rainy Sunday, here are a few more pictures of the beautiful Chinese garden at the Huntingon Library & Gardens, where I was working over the summer:

Hope whatever you’re doing (and whatever the weather!), you’re having a lovely weekend.

xo K