This neat beanie style hat is inspired by two very different prehistoric archaeological artifacts.

It draws its twined edging and ranks of bobbles interspersed with perforations from British neolithic ceramic ‘grape cups’, but the overall shape and finished effect, and therefore its name, owe a great deal to the iconic ‘Venus of Willendorf’, a European paleolithic goddess figure affectionately referred to by some archaeologists as ‘the lady in the bobble hat’.

Of course, neither our paleolithic nor neolithic ancestors used knitting, but they did have a wealth of twined, netted, knotted and braided textile techniques available to them, and this hat pays homage to that skill, using edging motifs in Latvian braid followed by tiers of bobbles and yarn-overs against a contrast background.

Work in shades of earth and ochre, lichen and stone, or bring it up to date with bold, punchy dye contrasts.

Techniques include Latvian Braid and lots and lots of bobbles.

Samples so far have been worked up in Sport, Dk and Light Aran weight yarns and have all come out nice sizes for most heads.

You will typically need approximately 65g of main colour and 25g of contrast, or a little more if you wish to work additional rounds for a deeper or slouchier hat.