Who would have thought? Thanks to the clever folks at CraftBits, you can now knit a viking baby hat to go with the adorable baby viking jumper we featured in issue 42 of Simply Knitting. (It's in the shops now, if you haven't got yours yet!)

Tension is so important, but have you ever wondered what to do if your knit and purl rows are coming out at different tensions? Well, you could knit with a pair of different sized needles – one 4mm and one 4.5mm, for example, or you could take a leaf out of the book of innovative blogger Sarah, from Bella Knitting and teach yourself to knit backwards.

If you don't like turning your work at the end of every row when knitting narrow pieces of stocking stitch – for example, entrelac – then this is a great technique to learn, although it does take a bit of puzzling out.

As an added bonus, have a look at the links on the right hand side of the page for some great free patterns.

The June issue of Simply
Knitting hits the shops today packed with loads of great
knits to keep your needles busy all summer long. As the great British
summer is notoriously changeable, we've got a hot pink halter neck to
show off your tanned shoulders – and two lacy cardigans for when it's not
quite so warm, one knit with fun cables, the other crocheted lace in trendy citrus shades!

Click for a larger
image.

When we heard that Brandon Mably was teaching a course at West Dean College in Sussex, and decided to find out a bit more about what's on offer – and there's a lot!

Brandon's one-day workshop on 24 June is entitled Colour in Design, and will draw on his own marvellous sense of colour and design, as well as all those useful hints he's picked up from working with Kaffe Fassett for so many years.

West Dean is also offering a broad range of short courses from spinning to felt making through beginners knitting, colour work and texture and jewellry. They also offer longer textile courses, right up to MA level and courses in a range of other disciplines. The only downside is that it's a bit far to commute from Bath, but there's always the summer schools – perhaps a bit of blacksmithing would liven up the office?