Nel Blu is the name of a hat I designed last February, using the yarn by Le Tinte del Bosco, my friend Betta, an Italian Indie Dyer and Designer.
We had meant to present a more ambitious pattern in a Fiber Arts Festival in Italy, a cardigan, but the pandemic had made other plans for us. Festivals and Trade Fairs were cancelled in the North of Italy where Betta is based, Greece (where I live) went into lockdown mode soon after that and I found myself knitting at home and sobbing as I was watching the news about Italy, a country so dear to my heart. For quite some time I couldn’t even think of designing anything and then I bumped into this skein of yarn and its denim blue color brought an old Italian refrain to my mind: “nel blu, dipinto di blu/felice di stare lassù” and then I realized I did not need to create BIG things to be happy; beautiful hand-dyed yarn and knitting were more than enough.
I started working on a very simple, humble project and found the happiness of knitting a small accessory, no complications, not too much fuss. Here you are with a pattern that will satisfy your need for happy, easy knitting and maybe you will find it inspiring, too!