This a winter tam inspired by the pine trees and frost crystals of Richmond Deer Park in London where Queen Elizabeth I used to hunt. The love hearts are inspired by Christmas in Denmark.

This summer our daughter is sailing a Tall Ship around the islands of Scotland with her best friend who is herself from the remote harbour town of Ullapool. They have been writing letters to one another since they were seven years old. On their great adventure they will dock at Ullapool and later the Orkneys, Fair Isle and Shetland. I am especi...

This is a basic 25cm (10 inch) eight-point, traditional tam pattern for you to add your own designs. It was inspired by Sheila McGregor’s ‘Traditional Fair Isle Knitting’ where she has pages and pages of beautiful designs for colour-work but no actual pattern for a tam to use them on.

The inspiration for this pattern came from a photograph of several traditional Fair Isle tams on the back cover of Sheila McGregor’s ‘Traditional Fair Isle Knitting’. I thought it such a pity she didn’t include a tam pattern in her book I thought I would write one myself.

This pattern is based on these Faroese footlets http://www.schoolhousepress.com/kalf09f.htm by Marilyn VanKeppel. However, I wanted to make some that had no sewing whatsoever and so used conventional toe decreases. I kept the patterning simpler by only having Fair-Isle stitching across the foot.