Marram

Here is my latest pattern, ‘Marram’.  Featuring spiralling slipped stitches and a secondary spiral of stepped colour changes in thin, graphical stripes. I have been wearing this hat, knit in a blend of warm alpaca, merino, and even a touch of silk, quite a lot over the last week or so, now that the temperature has dipped into a cold that bites just a bit harder, but here it is warming the head of my other half. I wanted to show how suited I thought it was to a man as well as to a woman, especially in the season of knitted gifts when sometimes it is a little harder to find small knitted items for male recipients that have interesting aesthetics as well as an engaging but quick project.

"look over there, it's the Goodyear blimp!"

After I managed to trick Craig in taking part in a spontaneous photoshoot I had to settle upon a name, as the pattern was written up and ready to go.

The name ‘Marram’ came from my last blog post where I asked if folks might have any suggestions over what I might call this hat.  I was actually quite surprised by the number of kind and thoughtful responses.  There were a few I have to admit that I had to google: ‘Sphagnopsida’ and ‘Sphagnum’, both meaning a type of peat moss from what I gathered, and very apt given the mossy appearance of the hat as had been noted, but they also kept making me think of bolognese.  A few suggestions based on the spiralling design: ‘Fibonacci’ (another I need to check the spelling of) and ‘Ammonite’.

Craig’s favourite was not a comment left in suggestion of a name, but rather a very kind response to the hat itself by Jane – ‘Great hat!’.  Craig actually suggested I call it ‘Great Hat!’, which, though cute and funny, I didn’t have the nerve to do.  For one it sets a dangerous precedent.  Clearly my next hat would have to be ‘better’ than the Great Hat, otherwise it would be the ‘Not-So-Great Hat’, or the ‘Well, It’s OK Hat’.  If the next hat was to be better, it would then have to be the ‘Even Greater Hat’, and the following one the ‘Best Hat Yet!’, and then where would my lack of modesty take me?  So I had a look at the other suggestions: ‘Sea Grass’, which  could imagine spiralling in the movement of the water, and finally ‘Marram’.  Similar to the Sea Grass suggestion, I could imagine the curving lines of long grass blades, and it seemed to fit perfect.

Marram Grass

Also, it is of course a palindrome, which scores extra points as I am a nerd. These few lines of poetry seal the deal:

The spiked marram’s springy knitting-needles
Purl and entangle what concrete cannot conquer
And the green holds back the brown.

From ‘The Rock-Face’ by Norman Nicholson

Thankyou to Linda for the suggestion, and to everyone else who took tome to comment and give me suggestions when I lost inspiration.

Download the PDF for the Marram Hat