Hello everyone! today I have a new design to share with you. I have a lot of ideas for yoke designs, sometimes they come to something and other times I get a bit stuck. A couple of years ago I bought the Selbuvotter book which contains hundreds of amazing charts – some of my favourites are the ones with little people. I had an idea to take different sizes of these charts and decrease them over the yoke. But I couldn’t decide how I wanted to treat the rest of the yoke designs (cuffs, length etc) so I just saved it in my folder for another time. Then a few weeks ago at work, I was working on one of Sandras patterns – the Guizer’s Toorie, which also features little people on the chart and it made me think perhaps I could take my yoke chart and try it on a hat, the Erne Beret is the result.
I was also inspired by the yarn, Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight, its a totally undyed yarn which means different shades look different every time we get them, the current lot of shade 2006, the background colour used here is soooooo nice and I’ve been wanting to use it for a while. Its the perfect fawn and combined with 2009 which is a dark, browny-grey I think is a great pair. I wanted something both strong and subtle and I think it works.
I don’t much enjoy knitting corrugated rib but for a hat, I will do it as I think the effect is so good, I cast on in the darker shade then it goes right in the rib with the lighter shade as the MC. The people motif gets smaller as you go up the hat decreasing as you go.
So in terms of the name, Erne is a Shetland word for sea eagle and how I came to that was I was thinking about people, families, stories etc.. one story which I only heard a few months ago was when someone asked me if I was an eagle bairn… I’m sorry, what? the story goes in the 1690s a baby Mary Anderson was stolen from her croft in Unst by an Eagle and she was taken to a cliff nest in Fetlar where she was rescued by a young boy named Robert. Robert and Mary went on to be married and many Shetlanders are said to be descended from ‘The Eagle Bairn’. You can read the story here. So I like to imagine all the little people on the hat are Eagle Bairns.. :) you can buy the pattern on my Ravelry page here
Speak soon xx
ella gordon 
Lovely!!
I loathe doing corrugated rib but put up with it grudgingly because it just looks so great. I must say that since I learnt Norwegian purling it is not quite so arduous. Love the wee folk on the tam!
Love the beret! And, thanks for the tale — very riveting :-).
Your hat is just lovely and beautifully designed with these figures. I also love them. And now you have given us a striking hat to knit with them all over. Thank you!
Really striking, a lovely hat which I’ve now added to my knit queue. Thank you
What a beautiful fairy-tale-like ending to the story of Mary, Robert and the Erne. Your name sake beret is beautiful too.
What a lovely story. Thanks.
Love this pattern! The tiny people at the crown make me small. Going the buy the pattern right now.
Smile not small! 😬
Dearest Ella, Your hat is beautiful! Are you by any chance going to publish the pattern? The minute i saw it i knew it would be perfect for my daughters teacher! :)Lots of love, Catherine. X
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
Yes, sorry i forgot to add a link, its on my ravelry page :)
Nice story and Toory, I also, as a Norwegian knitter love the book:Selbuvotter. Greetings from the Netherlands!
hi Ella, Thanks for the lovely tam. I just got it on ravelry and look forward to knitting it. You do good work. gail roche >
Lovely story. Thank you! Sweet beret too!
I’m an eagle bairn on my dad’s side. I discovered a few years ago when doing geneaological research. Until then I had no idea I had Shetland heritage, though I had been to Unst when my uncle was stationed there with the RAF in the 60s. My ancestors left Unst in the 1850s, first to Northmavine and then to Glasgow.