Not quite full circle, but...

Last summer I started a project that I hoped would give me the creative surge that was very much needed. But it didn’t work out as I envisaged; I think I was asking too much of the project and of myself, given the poor state of my mental health. I kept pushing and pushing, getting more and more frustrated, whilst at the same time knowing that there was a way to make it all work.

Thankfully I’ve been living with my ADHD and Autism diagnoses long enough to see what’s at play and why, and to be a bit kinder to myself. So I eventually realised there was no point in keeping butting heads with this project; I needed to park it and wait for my brain to switch into gear when it was ready to.

About 6 or 7 weeks ago I figured I’d pick this up again and see if I could form it into a publishable collection for this coming September. It was a tall ask; I’m still not coping well with deadlines and although my EMDR treatment has been effective and is still ongoing, it is still ongoing and progress takes time; some days, or even weeks, all I can do is hide in a corner raging at the world.

But I figured that I could try changing my approach.

Originally I’d been wanting to write this collection along the lines of Get Garter and Introspection - a guide to making a range of styles of Hats using this modular construction method. I was trying to make the mitre squares fit the Hats, and it wasn’t working. So what if I tried it the other way round? What if I pulled myself out of that rabbit-hole and let the squares lead the way?

Within a month I’d designed and knit 8 sparkly new Hats.

What’s really fun is that the squares decided they wanted to be a whole different set of Hats. They don’t fit what we might expect of Hats and certain Hat styles in lots of ways, and they’re proving hard to name. So rather than label them as a ‘beanie’ or ‘beret’ or similar, we’re going to run with a Minecraft-esque theme for the names because they really are built by adding more blocks and developing skills. They’re as cuboid and modular as they come.

The patterns are written and in the tech editing queue already! I’ve needed to write a whole bunch of new photographic tutorials and they’re mostly done and waiting for editing, I’ve a couple more short ones to finish today. Then all they need is a photoshoot and layout.

We’re on target to publish in September which makes me daftly happy as I haven’t published a proper creative collection like this in two years. I need this to feel like my brain is working again, and to be totally honest, the business needs it too - September sees the start of my busy season and if I don’t have something to launch and kick things off with, sales over the winter can struggle. It’s been a scary time for a lot of folks and we rely solely on this income to feed, house and clothe my little family, as you know. So I’ve very much felt a lift, even a hint of optimism, with these Hats.

Given their construction - only one small square to make at a time, with minimal thought to shaping needed, and their suitably for using up oddments and playing with colour - I think they’re the perfect thrifty projects for brains short on bandwidth or tight budgets. I had an awful lot of fun knitting and designing them and I’m pretty sure you will, too.

A little later into the summer we’ll be putting out a call for beta-knitters - the aim being for you to try the Hat construction method out and help generate interest on social media. You’ll get early access to one of the patterns and all the tutorials and in return for talking about the projects online and using the hashtags, you’ll get a free copy of the full and final eBook containing all 8 patterns! I did mention there were 8 designs, yes?

We’re not ready to start the call for beta-knitters yet but when we are, members of The Woolly Hat Society and Patreon supporters will be the first to hear about it. The last time I did something like this, for the Imperceptions collection, literally hundreds of people signed up and it was a huge success! But it does mean that we may need to limit places this time around as there’s an awful lot of admin for us to manage, so you’ll want to keep an eye out for newsletters over the next couple of months to make sure you can grab a place.

So, yeah. A whole new collection! 8 Hat designs written for 12 sizes across 8 gauges. The methods can be adapted for an even greater range and they’ll also work with other square types, too, including crochet. They’ll love your leftovers and oddments and they’re the perfect playground for trying out colour combos and seeing Hat construction from a whole new perspective. They’ll demand little of you in return for a stunning Hat.

Can you tell I’m excited about these? Can’t wait to get the photoshoots finished so we can start sharing the photos!