Tuesday, November 25, 2014

the mad hatter strikes again

Erik is sporting a new handknit hat these days. It is going to fit his large head (ninety-fifth percentile!) for approximately five minutes, so I'm not waiting for Christmas for him to wear it.  Stranded colorwork is my knitting bĂȘte noire, so I'm glad to finally make some progress.
pattern: sheep may safely graze, by caoua coffee, adapted for a hat
yarn: patons classic wool merino, leaf green, 1/2 skein
knitpicks swish worsted, grey, 1/4 skein
needles: US 4 + US 7 circs + DPNs

notes:
I was inspired by blanchn's beautiful adaptation of a sock pattern. I love bighorn sheep! I folowed blanchn's notes and cast on 72 stitches, using US 4 needles for the 1x1 ribbing, then I switched to size 7 since I wanted a larger hat. The ribbing's a little tight -- I'd use US 5 next time. I followed her notes other than that, and it turned out super cute. I wish I had used cream yarn for the sheep for more contrast, but Erik hasn't complained.
 -----------------------------------

Lots of hats off the needles lately! I've already blogged about the Saint Anthony cable hats and the Milanese lace topper, but new to the collection are Barnwood, Magnolia, and Betsy.

Magnolia (above) and Betsy (below) are essentially the same stitch pattern -- a nice lace pattern that has an almost cabled look. Magnolia is a free pattern for worsted weight yarn, whereas you have to pay for Betsy, which is written for chunky yarn. The crown decreases are very different. I ran out of yarn on Magnolia and had to do some improvising on the decreases, so it's not quite as pretty as it could have been. The perils of stashbusting! The yarn is Malabrigo Worsted in Bobby Blue.

I had plenty of yarn for Betsy (more of the lovely Orange Flower Twist HW yarn that I also used for two Saint Anthony cable hats), so I followed the pattern as written. Barnwood still needs to be blocked, so full details another time.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm a hat knitter myself, so these are inspiring!!! :). And the hat for Erik is so cute.

Olive Knitting said...

great looking hats! I love the green one.

Gillian said...

So many lovely hats!! My brother and sister-in-law had Sheep May Safely Graze played at their wedding. It's very beautiful.

Caffeine Girl said...

Erik is growing so quickly! He is darling.
Beautiful hats!

Rue said...

That sheep hat is adorable! I think I need to try that for the girls.