18 September 2015

On Friday 9th October, The Campaign for Wool will be supporting ‘Woolly Hat Day’ in support of ‘The Mission to Seafarers’ charity that provides care for seafarers around the world. Across the UK, The Campaign for Wool will encourage its partners, retailers and our community of wool-lovers to put on their finest woolly hats to raise money and support this important cause.

Woolly hat patterns from Craft Revolution, Marie Wallin, Wool and the Gang and other leading knitwear designers will be available to download here.

Ahead of the big day we met with Helen, founder of Craft Revolution.  Helen shares her passion for knitting and source of inspiration behind her woolly designs.

Helen from Craft Revolution

Craft Revolution are inspired by the brightly painted fishing boats and the round colourful buoys I love watching bobbing in the sea. I have a passion for pom-poms so seem to see their roundness mirrored everywhere in the landscape. Knitting is one of my greatest pleasures in life, and a sea of hand knitted bobble hats is a joyous sight to see wherever you are.

I live in Brighton and holiday in Cornwall, West Wales and the North East so feel very connected to our coastline, thus I am delighted to be help the Mission to Seafarers charity and The Campaign for Wool with their Woolly Hat Day fundraiser. Woolly hats and Seafarers are the perfect fit!

I love simple knitwear designs, especially the classic cheerful bobble hat. Simple designs often show off the beauty of the wool yarn more successfully and are also more achievable to make – I’m always thinking ‘can I teach someone how to make this?’ as I love passing on my love of making to others. This design is a great first knitting project as it is super easy and can be personalised with your own choices of colour stripes and pom-pom.

I chose to knit with British Aran wool as it is a classic yarn and has been used for centuries in Seafarers hats and jumpers. It’s really warm, cosy and hard wearing. I love the Erika Knight and Rowan British Wool ranges I have used in my designs, the colour, feel and provenance is a winning combination. Aran weight wool is also a great yarn to use for beginners as it shows up the stitches really well and knits up quickly!

I enjoy listening to the Shipping Forecast on the radio whilst knitting, amongst other things, so decided to name each of my designs after the regional names I have become familiar with!

I hope this inspires others to knit a bobble hat or many, for all your friends and family, as I have – I always think heads look well looked after in a bobble hat!

Download Craft Revolution’s bobble hat pattern here and watch Helen’s how to guide:

Support the campaign using @Campaignforwool  #woollyhatday #woolweek

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