Hello! here is my design for the 2016 Shetland Wool Week, the Crofthoose Hat! As you know I love crofthouse’s and i’m known for my cushions but I wanted to develop my favourite image into a fair isle motif, my hat uses traditional Shetland techniques: two colour Fair Isle, corrugated ribbing and a patterned crown but with the fun house imagery!
Like other years before me I have designed a few different colourways for the hat, one using J&S 2ply Jumper Weight (see above), Shetland Organics Jumper Weight, Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift and for a fun idea I used the naturally dyed Jumper Weight I bought at the Craft Fair in November.
Im currently in Edinburgh and the Edinburgh Yarn Festival where the pattern will be available for the first time, you can download it now here! thank you for all the kind messages so far, I’m really looking forward to this weekend and I’ll be back at the first of the week to talk about my trip away,
speak soon xx
ella gordon 
love it look forward to knitting it
Its lovely ! x
It’s fantastic! Can’t wait to cast on!
It beautiful! Unfortunately, it’s still beyond my capabilities!
Oh Ella the hat pattern is just lovely!
Have fun at the EYF
Great pattern, Ella. Looking forward to seeing hundreds of folks’ versions.
Hi, Ella, I downloaded the pattern & it’s in the queue. Have a great time at EYF.
I was excited to see the pattern was available and I already printed it out. The design is just delightful!
This hat pattern is wonderful, Ella! I plan on downloading it today. Also, congratulations on being named the Shetland Wool Week patron. You are going to have a very exciting 2016!
cute hat – love the colors. Have a wonderful time in dear old Edinburgh!
Very cute hat!
OMGosh, mahalo nui loa for sharing. This is such a cute hat. The bottom two color schemes are my favorite.
FABULOUS, so creative and original.
The hat is wonderful. And congratulations on being chosen in so special a role for Shetland Wool Week.
Will love making this. Disappointed that I can’t come to Shetland Wool Week this year, but at least I can make the hat.
I t is YOU!! Love it, printed it out! thank you so much. congrats for your special role at Shetland Wool Week.
Congratulations on being the patron for Wool Week Your hat is a beautiful design, I’m looking forward to making and wearing it. Lovely to meet you today at EYF. :-)
Gorgeous hat! Love the orange colour variation :)
Lovely hat pattern – and I managed to miss you completely today. Oh well…f
It’s just great, well done!
What a fun hat! I have received the pattern and can’t wait to pick colors. I was with Amy Detjen’s group last year. I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation and will count this hat as a remembrance of you and beautiful Shetland.
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Hi Ella…just knew that your hat would be crofthooses..so like what you love….fabulous hat..cant wait to knit it…if I cant be in Shetland at least I can do a shetland hat….thanks pat j
I love your pattern; can’t wait to get it on my needles! Thank you for making it available to us. I look forward to meeting you in person at SWW or EYF one day soon.
This is such a sweet hat! I can’t wait to knit it!
Congratulations on being this years woolweek patron!
Enjoy Edingburgh!
Love it!! I can’t wait to knit it up. You did a fabulous job designing it. It is lovely.
Lovely pattern! I love the set of colour combinations you chose. I’ll definitely cast this on. Hope you had a great time at EYF!
Just finished my crofthoose hat last night and I love it! Thank you for your clever pattern – I enjoyed every minute of making it… Blocking at the moment, then I’ll send you a picture. I needed a treat to distract me from longing to be at Edinburgh yarn fest, and your fabulous hat fitted the bill perfectly!
Just found your blog today and have been enjoying reading through the older post. Your crofthoose hat pattern is adorable! I look forward to casting on. Thank you for making my day!
I can’t help but being curious about the mitts that are in the pictures. Are they yours? is it possible to get a picture of them?
Your crofthouse hat pattern is lovely. I will try to knit it soon.
Yes they are mine, I bought them from a local charity shop in Shetland. They are traditional Shetland gloves, I put a picture on Instagram when I bought them a few months ago 😊
I picked up a copy of your Crofthoose hat pattern when I visited Shetland in June last year. It’s many years since I’ve knitted, but the pattern inspired me to have a go. I made it in natural jumper weight wools from Jamiesons; it was a lot of fun to make and I am so pleased with the fit and how it looks. I’m wearing it a lot.
The only real problem I had with the pattern was with the increasing, after the rib: the instructions didn’t seem result in the correct number of stitches, so In the end I made it with one less repeat of the pattern. If I make the hat again, perhaps I’ll be able to underwtand the pattern better; luckily it hasn’t spoiled the fit.
A friend posted me the link to this blog, so I will continue to look out for your patterns in future. I love your designs: thank you very much.
Hello, i’m glad you liked the pattern! the increases are correct so if you do knit it again you should be able to make it work, thanks! Ella x
Hi, great pattern! but I’m having the exact same problem as Bronwen. It’s the step of increasing from 120 st to 168 st – every time I follow the pattern I end up with 152 stitches! “k13, inc 1 *k2, inc1* rep from * to * until last 13 stitches, k13”.
So if it’s 120 stitches to start off with, the stitches outside the * = 27, which leaves 93 stitches to increase with. If it’s k2 and then increase 1, it’s logically creating 4 stitches for every 3, which keeps ending up in 152 stitches – I just can’t work out how I can get it to 168 stitches!
Sorry, i’m obviously interpreting something wrong. if you have any pointers I’d greatly appreciate it.