I found this Tarndie yarn at last year’s Bendigo show and just fell in love. Normally not a fan of the natural wool colours, I adored this stuff because it’s a wonderful, subtle mix of grey and cream, making it a sort of warm grey or a cool beige with just enough colour variation to give the fabric some depth and texture. And it hasn’t been dyed, so it’s incredibly soft, with a slight halo.

I couldn’t find a link in the yarn section but here is the website: link text. Please run, don’t walk, to your computer and buy lots of it right now. You can thank me later.

Most of the yarn was destined to be a Huddle jumper for my friend Matt link text but I did add an extra skein to the shopping bag for hat creation purposes. And since I made a hat that looked like road kill for my Dad last year link text, I decided to use a holiday in New Zealand as a chance for the Tarndie and me to create something less scary.

The hat was a great portable travel project but there are many distractions in NZ, especially some fabulous wine, so it took a bit of cram-knitting when I got back to finish this in time for Easter with my parents. Still, Dad is wearing it on his morning walks now that the weather in northern NSW is turning cold, so I’m calling this a very timely hat.