Pattern: Portsmouth

****The Collection Giveaway winner is comment number 8, Heather! Congratulations! 

I'll be sending you a copy of the collection on Ravelry later today.
Thank you to everyone who entered!****

Today is my birthday: I am officially a quarter-century old. I love my birthday. It's one of my favorite days of the year. I get a special birthday latte, go to a special birthday lunch, make a special birthday carrot cake, and eat delicious birthday enchiladas for dinner. But before I get started with all that, I have one more hat pattern from my collection to share with you all.

The final pattern in my collection is Portsmouth. I knew pretty early on that I wanted to design a hat inspired by Portsmouth, but it took a while to figure out what exactly it would look like. In fact, this was the only hat in the collection that changed drastically from conception-I had three different sketches before I settled on one, and then two swatches before I settled on one, and then I changed my mind again as I was knitting the sample! It all worked out though-I'm so happy with how the final design turned out, and it has the exact feel I was going for.

Portsmouth is another New England coastal town, and one of the things I remember most about it is all of the bricks. There were only a few brick houses in my hometown, so I was always excited to go see the gorgeous brick buildings and sidewalks. As a young child, Portsmouth seemed to have a sort of timeless magic, and as I continued to visit summer after summer I never stopped being charmed by the place. In that spirit, I wanted a charming hat-one that would stand up to time, like the town that inspired it, and the textured body of the hat is reminiscent of the brickwork that made such an impression on me as a child.

***Remember that today is the final day of my Birthday Sale! 

Use coupon code "HB25!" to get 20% off everything in my Ravelry Store-but remember, 

the code is only good through midnight US Central time tonight!***