If you are anything like me you will enjoy reading about how to make anything 'the quick and easy way'. Sometimes if I'm in a crafty mood I want to make something there and then with the end result being in the extremely near future. Living in England, almost all of the time, unless there is an unexpected heat wave, means even on the sunniest of days you need to wrap up with a hat, coat and scarf! Here at Calico Laine, in-store we stock a huge variety of different knitting wools that can be used for lots and lots of great craft projects! In todays blog, I will be walking you through how to make a simple knitted bobble hat, perfect for any bad weather you may be faced with! You will need: - Two balls of 100g wool (I would recommend our Swift Knit wool which is very chunky, as this will knit up a lot faster than any double knit would) - One packet of our Prym bodkins - A pair of scissors - A pair of knitting needles (I would suggest 12mm or 15mm to go with Swift Knit wool) Step 1 You will need to cast on to your knitting needles with your desired wool. If you have chosen to use the wool which was suggested, I would cast on 28 stitches, however this may vary slightly depending on how big or small your head may be. Step 2 Continue knitting so that you have about eight inches hanging from your needle, and then you will need to cast off, leaving a length of wool about 1.5 metres still attached. Once you have cast off you should have made a long rectangle of knitted up wool. Step 3 Now fold your rectangle in half so that the shorter sides meet and using your bodkin stitch up the side to the top and make a knot. After doing this you should be left with a tube, and you should still have a big length of wool left. Step 4 Using the wool that is still attached to the top of the tube, stitch across the top of the tube and once at the other side pull tightly so that it bunches up into the middle and tie a knot. This is where you should start seeing a resemblance to a hat. Step 5 After knitting the main part to the hat, the first ball of wool should have been used, so to make the bobble you will need to open up the second ball. Start wrapping the wool around 4 of your fingers until there is about an inch of wool above and below them. Then cut the wool and cut another small piece of wool about half a metre in length, thread this piece of wool between your middle finger and the finger next to your little finger, bringing it back up to meet the start and tie a knot. hold the two pieces of wool which have been tied into a knot and remove the wool from your fingers. Step 6 You will now need to use your scissors and cut the loops of wool so that they form a floppy bobble. If you wish to keep your bobble like this you can do, or you can trim the bobble down so it is more 'fluffy and circular'. Step 7 Keeping hold of the two wool strings, thread both through the top of the hat so that they appear on the inside and tie a double bow, fold up the bottom edges of the hat and you are good to go out and brace the English weather! [caption id="attachment_10930" align="alignleft" width="150"]Quick and easy bobble hat Quick and easy bobble hat[/caption] Here's one I made earlier, using different coloured wools.