"A Midwinter Night's Dream"

One midwinter night a strange group of people came walking from north through the woods...

I remeber how my mother told be about how my great grandmother knitted with one needle. I had never understood this, but have often thought about this when I've been knitting. In December 2007 I saw an Icelandic woman knitting a scarf in a way that I'd never seen before, and with only one needle - a long crochet needle with two hooks! This fascinated me, especially since the shawl looked like it was made in a cross between knitting and crocheting. The woman called the technique "Russian crochet", but later I have seen that it is called "Tunisian crochet" (or the equivalent) in many languages.

As soon as I started testing this technique, I felt very ispired. When using yarn in grey or other earth tones, Tunisian crochet tends to look a bit like ring mail, and in combination with Icelandic wool this somehow steered my inspiration into making a series of 18 different hats in a style that look seemingly old fashioned or even medieval. The hats were given names such as "Gnome", "Smith", "Horseman", "Wizard", "Hunter", "Archer", "Troll", "Goblin", "Elf", "Elven Queen", "Dwarf King"... and the whole series became "A Midwinter Night's Dream".

So far these the hat models in the collection are 1: Gnome, 2: Rider, 3: Wizard, 4: Smith, 5: Dwarfking, 6: Troll, 7: Archer, 8: Elf, 9: Elfqueen, 10: Goblin, 11: Hunter, 12: Gester, 13: Farmer, 14: Prince, 15: Viking, 16: Rooster, 17: Chieftain and 18: Emperor.

More information on Tunisian crochet

Tunisian crochet is easy, fun and gives rather quick results. In addition, the texture is really interesting. The front looks like a grid or woven ring mail. The back side looks like purled knitting (regular knitting with two needles). The technique is said to have been invented in the 19th century.

Do you want to learn more? Take a look at my books about Tunisian crochet:

These links will give all the information you need to test Tunisian crochet:

P.S. This page is also a clue for geocachers that want to find a hidden treasure...