Here I am wearing Beet Heid on it’s maiden voyage down the mountain and into town.  This tam makes me feel my Scottish roots right there in the wee beet roots.

I love this pattern, and have made two of these tams so far!!!  It just knit so intricately, yet the pattern was so well written it just made it seem somehow easy.  I was really blown away at how it came together ~~ I made that ???

Shown above is the one made with mostly Virtual Yarns Hebridean 2ply , and also Elemntal Affects Shetland.  The pattern suggests for a red rooted version, this colorway is called ‘Beet Heid’ as as the neeps are more deep maroon or crimson. The red color for beets = Elemental Affects Shetland “deep garnet”, background = Virtual Yarns Hebridean 2ply “mountain hare”, and the greens are Virtual Yarns “bog bean and calluna”.

Another below, made of scrap fingering weight yarns I had on hand, just to sketch out another colorway (it ended up more a child size with the very fine yarn and needles I used).  I am somewhat of a gardener, and in a family of obsessive gardeners, so I very much connect with this clever designer from Edinburgh, named Kate Davies.  Well, here is my second Neep Heid, folded in quarters to see the full profile of the motif:

Below it is shown blocking out on my ironing board.  Oh, what is that cheerful flowery thing to the right? That little pin cushion is the embroidery sampler my grandmother taught me when I was 10 years old.   I found it in a box recently, of bits from my childhood, and decided to actually use it, to hold blocking pins, and not having tossed it in the years of my disregarding youth.

~ Here is Kate’s pattern for her  Neep Heid Tam.