Hats off to the Belknap Mill for August program focused on knitting hats

LACONIA — The Belknap Mill will offer a knitting workshop series on Tuesdays from 6 to 8 p.m., throughout August with a four-part program focused on knitting hats. The series will be held at the Belknap Mill in the Riverside Gallery.

Participants should have basic knitting skills: knit, purl, cast on and knitting in the round. Workshop participants can register for each individual program or the entire series at a discounted rate.

To register, visit belknapmill.org/textiles.

Participants will make a simple rounded top hat, a basic cap-style hat, which builds skills in decreasing and adjusting a pattern to fit a unique head size; a yulie hat, to learn skills for a double-edged hat with the look of a traditional Austrian style ski hat; a classic beret / tam, to create swirls of visual interest; and a headband or hat border, which offers a twist on the classic cable stitch. Previous experience with cables is not necessary. 

Beth James is a knitting instructor and resident fiber artist at the Belknap Mill. She started teaching fiber arts 30 years ago and demonstrated and taught a children's program for the Rochester Fair for eight years.

At Fryeburg Fair Fiber Arts Center, 20 years were dedicated to education and demonstrating. James teaches beginner and intermediate knitting at the Belknap Mill. She also hosts a weekly Spin-In for anyone with a spinning wheel and is available for knitting questions or instruction on Mondays from 1 to 4 p.m.

She is a member of the New Hampshire Spinner and Dyers Guild.

For more information or to register, visit belknapmill.org or call 603-524-8813.