Free pattern: Bonkers Beanies for St Mungo’s Woolly Hat Day

St_Mungos_Whodunnknit_fbTo me home is where the huge pile of yarn and a cosy cup of tea is. Those of us lucky enough to have a roof over our heads know how terrifying the idea of being without a home would be, and yet out there in the world there are people who have nowhere to call home at all. Can a ball of yarn and some of my wild woolly ideas make a difference? Of course it can!

This autumn I’ve teamed up with the folks at St Mungo’s, a charity ‘opening doors for the homeless’, to champion their Woolly Hat Day and rally the knitting masses to use your purly powers to make a difference in the lives of people who need your help to find a home.

I’d like you all to meet the Basic Blank Beanie. The BBB is an easy peasy knitted hat that you can make in a few hours, while you’re watching rubbish telly or slurping pints in the pub or waiting for the number 3 bus home.

Whodunnknit Basic Blank Beanie

He's so basiiiiic! He's a beaaaaaanie! Sing it with me!

But the BBB doesn’t want you to stop there. Oh no! The Beanie, St Mungo’s and I have a challenge for you! We want you to customise your Beanie to give it a bit of character. Look at him all plain and unadorned. Wouldn’t you like to pepper him with purly personality, jazz him up with a blizzard of buttons or add some awesome sauce with some elegant embroidery?

Wanna see what a difference a little crafty customising makes?

St_Mungos_Whodunnknit_three

Face off!

My versions of the BBB are:

Googly Eyed Goldfish 

This orange purly poisson is customised with orange, white and black icord and a little sewing. He only has a three-second memory so he’s not great a conversation but he’s always really happy to meet you!

Whodunnknit  Googly Goldfish Beanie

Curiosity Cat Cap

This fibre-based feline is curious. Much like the little Mars robot he’s always peering at things trying to understand what the bloomin’ heck is going on with them. He’s made from black, orange and white i-cord too. Same stuff as the Goldfish. But don’t tell him that.

Whodunnknit Curious Cat Beanie

Hello Halloween Hat

Hooray for Halloween! I’m a firm believer that if you put skulls on it it makes it cool. So here is a beanie with a circle of spooky skull buttons around the brim to prove it.

Whodunnknit Hello Halloween Beanie

Shove some individuality into your Basic Blank Beanie and boldly knit a hat that no one has ever knit before. You’ll be doing it for a very worthy cause. Use his powers for good by helping the homeless.

Click here to go and download Deadly Knitshade’s Basic Black Beanie

Once you’ve conjured up your nifty little knit you can head to instagram (tagging @stmungos and giving @deadlyknitshade a wave) to share picture. And you can tweet us your progress to @woollyhatday and @deadlyknitshade too. Over on Ravelry you can see other’s BBB’s over on the pattern page.

Then when you’re all done sharing the stitchy love you can send your hat along to St Mungo’s. All details of where to send are over here.

And stand by for announcement of a big event happening on Woolly Hat Day October 26th too!

Now go forth and knit yourself silly! I cannot wait to see what you create with your crafty superpowers.