Tiffany Eley's knitted hats have star power

It's probably safe to assume that every day at boutiques around town, shopgirls dish about the latest celebrity news and fashion trends. At Ballard's Olivine, a feminine emporium of fashion-forward labels, employee and Seattle native Tiffany Eley took a routine celeb gossip session one step further.

"One day the girls and I were talking at the shop about all the stars and people wearing these cute baggy hats and I said I would try and make one," Eley explains. The next day, she returned to the store with a knitted cap, and a new accessories designer was born.

Eley's knitted caps ($38) are now sold exclusively at Olivine. For spring, the designer is working on styles knitted with brightly colored lightweight yarn. (The adorable hats are more stylish than umbrellas or hoodies when it comes to sheltering heads from spring rain showers.)

For fall, she expects to make chunkier versions with ear flaps and bills, but that may require a little experimentation. "I still don't know how to read a pattern," admits Eley, who is also crafting clutches from yarn and wood that are inspired by a clutch of her mother's from the 1970s.

Copyright © The Seattle Times Company