Need a basic, easy-to-make, easy-to-wear beanie?

The Boring Bloke Beanie to the rescue!

It's a crochet pattern for a classic beanie made with DK-weight yarn.  (Lighter weight and thus perfect for stuffing into a coat pocket and taking it out when needed.)

I got the idea for the pattern name when I read an article on the annual Beanie Festival in Alice Springs, Australia, where you can buy everything from elaborate sculptural hat masterpieces to a "boring bloke's beanie."

Even if you're not a bloke, sometimes a minimalist hat is the perfect choice.

Just released, the pattern is now available in my Ravelry store here, and in my Etsy shop here.

Recently I ordered yarn from Wool Warehouse, which is in the U.K.  I got this giant ball of wool-blend tweed in the colorway Scree.  

This sample for my just-released Bobblelini pattern barely made a dent in the as-big-as-your-head 400-gram ball. (I have 347 grams of yarn left.)

Since I'm primarily a hatmaker, I don't really need 
huge yardage of a specific yarn.  I tend to get only hat quantities of a yarn, 1 or 2 skeins.  Variety over volume.

However, there's something to be said for a big ball of yarn!  For instance, I wouldn't hesitate to make a
l-o-n-g roll-up brim on a hat, confident that I won't run out of yarn before I finish.  How comforting to know that there will always -- always! -- be enough yarn to make a pom-pom, and not a skimpy one at that.

And, when you're using a giant ball of yarn, you're never playing yarn chicken, worrying about running out of yarn before you run out of rows.  A very good thing.

Here are the yarn specs: Wendy with Wool Aran Tweed is 20 percent wool, 77 percent acrylic and 3 percent viscose.  It's lovely, tweedy and soft -- plus machine washable and dryable.

​P.S. My Bobblelini pattern is also available on Etsy here.  The link near the top is for my Ravelry store.

Yarns under consideration for a new -- and colorful! -- beanie design.  All are chunky weight except for the yellow, which is super bulky.  The main color will be the plum, which does not look especially plum on my monitor, alas.  It's much more delicious in real life.

The yellow super bulky is for a statement pom-pom, and the other colors are for narrow stripes.

Anyway, that's the plan.  Could be terrific.  Could be eyeball-searing.  We'll see.
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