Regular readers and followers will know that we have a ‘Woolly Dozen’ – an annual knit-a-long – running in my Ravelry and Facebook groups. This knit-a-long is now in it’s 9th year!

At the start of this year, myself and my trusty moderators decided that having a monthly Hat-a-long – affectionately known as ‘HoTM’ (Hat of the month) – where we focus on a particular style or technique would be a really good way of encouraging more knitters to try something new, and be on hand to help as needed. Folks can use free patterns, discontinued patterns, or they can buy the premium patterns on promotion – usually 2 per month – as long as we’re working that technique or feature together, it’s all good! And it’s been a huge success – lots of knitters are learning new techniques and gaining confidence in their skills, and venturing into patterns they may not have otherwise tried. Many are knitting Hats for charity, many for themselves or for gifts. It really cheers me up to see so much chatter and so many Hats on everyone’s needles!

For July, we’ve chosen Brims. To join the KAL you can work any Woolly Wormhead pattern with an atypical brim – be it sideways, asymetrical, anything really! Why not mix and match different features from different patterns? I’ve plenty of modular Hats with sideways brims, for instance, that can be adapted to work with other patterns. And I’ve also a few articles that might be of interest – Creating a Wedged Brim and how to knit an After-thought Peaked Brim. Mixing and matching elements is also a really good way to use up oddments of yarn – why not knit your sideways brim in one colour, and the body in another?

For the promotion side of the KAL, I’ve widened the selection this month to brim shapes. That means peaked brims, split brims, wedged brims and wide brims. Any single pattern in one of these categories qualifies for the discount!

Before we look at some of the patterns available on promotion, here are the promotion details!

Add any of the single patterns from the Brimmed category to your cart and the 40% discount is automatically applied! The discount is valid until midnight Italian time, 14th July.

As an extra bonus, on this website you won’t be charged sales tax (because yes, some states do charge it on digital goods), VAT or GST. I’ll explain another time why, but please know that you’ll be paying the same price wherever you live – there’s no extra tax to pay, and it’s not coming out of my pocket, either (as I say, I’ll explain another time – just trust that I’m not earning any less because you’re not paying more!)

Split brims are a lot of fun, and really versatile. I’m hoping to write an article about them specifically in the near future, for part of the Hat Extras series. Here we have Campello, Slonnet and Quoin all showing how a split brim can be worn, and shaped, to fit with a wide range of different style Hats. The split brim can also be a wedge brim; it can also be asymmetrical, or worn to the back or front.

There’s a lot you can do with this style of brim, and I’m enjoying exploring new ways of designing with it!

Dulcie, Vlora and Bella are 3 examples of an all-round wider brim, but not as wide as Daisy or Molly. The gentle brim sits away from the body, framing the face. And I think these 3 really highlight how a wider brim can fit with a range of Hat styles.

If you want to go wide brim, then Daisy and Molly are perfect! They can be wired, or left un-wired for different looks.

This is only a few of the brimmed patterns I have available, but I hope they give you a taster!

As a final reminder, add any of the single patterns from the Brimmed category to your cart and the 40% discount is automatically applied! The discount is valid until midnight Italian time, 14th July.

I do hope you’ll join us for the month’s Hat-a-long and have some fun with brims!