Truth be told.. I have a hat phobia. I love hats on others, but on me. Well. I just feel so silly. I want to get better. I want to get over this. There are too many beautiful hat patterns out there, and too many cold drizzly days where hat wearing would be in order. So I'm starting here.
This hat was so fun to make. I haven't done stranded colorwork in a really long time, so it was fun to get reacquainted. I was oh so scared that with changing colors my tension would be all over the place, but it wasn't. It was fine. I just followed some really good colorwork tips that I've heard in the past, and that is what I credit to my success.
Helpful Tip #1: I put one one color in my left hand and the other color in my right. I never switched hands. The left hand always held the gold, and the right always held the brown.
When using this method, I knit all of the gold stitches in the continental knitting style and all of the brown stitches in the English style. I am a continental knitter usually so this took a little getting used to.
Helpful Tip#2: Slightly spread out your stitches that you have just knit on the right hand needle before adding another color. This helps the tension not be too tight, which can be a big issue with stranded knitting.
Helpful Tip #3: Keep one ball of yarn on your left side and the other ball on your right. If they are together in your lap there is much more chance of annoying tangledge and twisting of your strands. Not a good thing.
For this pattern I used 1 ball of
Jameson's Shetland Spindrift in
Grouse and 2 balls of
Scotch Broom. I almost got the entire hat out of only 2 balls, but on the last few rounds I had to break into that second ball of Scotch Broom. Dang. I hate that.
I also went up one needle size than the pattern recommended, and I am really happy with the ending hat size.
I am all around very happy with how the Selbu Modern turned out and who knows.. Maybe I'll become a hat girl after all?
Despite the fact that today started out at 17 degrees, there were definitely some hints of Spring earlier in the week: the pussy willow buds are just starting to show a little peek of white fuzziness, the days seem suddenly longer as it is still light out at dinnertime,
...and I go no where outdoors without my muck boots...
And, I've resumed my afternoon nature walks with a new purpose...helping to collect sap from our maples...
as tomorrow we will try our hand at making maple syrup for the first time.
...and I go no where outdoors without my muck boots...
And, I've resumed my afternoon nature walks with a new purpose...helping to collect sap from our maples...
as tomorrow we will try our hand at making maple syrup for the first time.
