Advent Giveaway I: More Than a Dozen Hats and Beanies

Ready or not, the holidays are now - without a doubt - upon us.  I've felt no guilt playing my A Winter's Solstice albums on repeat and the stress of finding enough time to do all the shopping and baking I'd like to do has fully set in.

Anyway, for this year's holiday season, I thought I'd do a set of reviews/giveaways in the days leading up to Christmas*.  There are four weeks of Advent and, accordingly, I'll do 4 giveaways - one per week. (Pretty tough math, eh? :) )

This week's giveaway is the extremely well-done More Than a Dozen Hats and Beanies by Cari Hammett (Amazon link here).  As you might guess from the title, this book includes patterns for more than 12 (15 to be exact) different hats, ranging from a very simple rolled-brim beanie to slightly more complicated designs involving lace and colorwork.

What I love most about this book is the basic hat tutorial in its beginning pages.  When I was a fresh, young knitter back in the days before Ravelry I once had some yarn I wanted to make into a hat, but no pattern.  I had no idea where to start...so I knit it flat.  I don't think I have to tell you that it was pretty fugly.  Now, even with the wealth of knowledge on Ravelry, I think any beginner would benefit from this tutorial to get a grasp of the basics of hat construction and knitting in the round.  I think many knitters, beginners included, want to be able to customize their knits, and this tutorial is a great way to learn how to do that with hats.

In addition to that tutorial, the instructions for how to perform the other techniques in the patterns are great.  There are guides for doing short rows, i-cord, pom poms, magic loop, and your usual basics.  Again, perfect for beginners.


And if you already know how to do all of that stuff, there are the 15 hat patterns, with choices for men, women, and kiddos.  They feature several different techniques, crown shaping methods, etc. -- which, again, is nice if you'd like to customize your own cap.  Below are some of my favorites...

The Basic Rolled Brim Hat

 

Slouchy Beanie

Chunky Lace Beanie

Color Brick Stitch

Stocking Cap for Little Ones (you can't see it here, but the pointed stocking cap part hangs down in back -- so cute!)

And Folk Art, which I had to include because I think this model is just way too serious and fancy to be wearing a colorful hat with a gigantic pom pom.

Would you like a copy of this book?  Just leave a comment here telling me what your favorite style of hat is (beanie, slouch, beret, or none at all!) before midnight this coming Sunday (the 9th) and I'll draw a winner that afternoon.

*No need to specifically celebrate Christmas to participate!