The cold weather must be working its magic on me, because I appear to be on a bit of a hat kick! I have been working on another hat design, this time using leftover yarn from my BlueSand Cardigan that I made a while back using Scheepjes Stone Washed.
Hello, recycled yarn arrival photo!
I loved the cardigan project so much and the leftover yarn was one of the few (too few!) bits of yarn I allowed myself to take with me to France this winter (more on tha later, I promise!). I just really wanted to make something to use up that yarn because I loved the colour combinations so much.
I decided that it was time I did a little fair isle again, and got to work with some stitch software to try to put together a pattern I liked. Sounds like “oh, I just threw it together”, right?
No.
I designed it, knitted it, tore it out, went back to the drawing board and repeated about sixty two times.
I wish I could somehow take the patience I have for knitting and apply it to other areas of my life. How I don’t pull my hair out along with the stitches, I don’t know, but for some strange reason it doesn’t bother me at all. I’m definitely more of a process than progress knitter, without a doubt. I don’t do nearly as many projects as other people I know, but I’m happy to tear out and start over 20 times, if that’s what it takes. I mourn a good project ending and in some cases am almost happy to have to start over, because it means the project won’t end as soon. I have Staci over at VeryPink to thank for that revelation, btw, after listening to her podcast about process vs progress knitters a while back. Which one are you?
Right, back on track… the hat!
This is just a sneak peek, don’t want to give it all away already… but I was really happy at this point to see that the colours played really nicely together. I was a little concerned that the greys would blend too much, but that turned out to be a non issue.
One thing I forgot to do was weigh each bit of yarn I started with before I knit the hat, so I have no idea how much of each I used! *Facepalm* I will figure it out, maybe by tearing it out to weigh each piece and then reknitting it? Maybe not, I’m not sure I’m quite that patient! I’m pretty certain that if you had three full balls of Stone Washed, you could probably get three hats out of it, depending on how you arrange the colours. Don’t quote me on that just yet, but I’m pretty sure.
If you’ve never tried fair isle before, this will be a good project to learn as I made sure that you don’t have to ever carry the yarn too long and there are no more than two colours in each row. If you are experienced in fair isle, this will be a quick and easy project to whip up for a loved one for Christmas!
Bonus dog photo. My old dog is so used to balls of yarn being flung here and there that he doesn’t even notice when they land on him anymore. I think he kind of likes them flipping around on top of him while I pull at them and knit. It’s like a light yarn massage!
Pattern coming soon!
You can find a list of retailers that sell the Scheepjes Stone Washed yarn here on the Scheepjes website. It is also available worldwide via Deramores, Wool Warehouse*
*Affiliate Link
Very nice! I don’t think the stone wash would have occurred to me for fair Isle but it looks really really good! Your dog is a sweet patient thing, I hope he doesn’t shed on the yarn!
If you started with full balls of yarn – maybe weigh the ball when you’re done and subtract from the 50g? Then you’ll at least have an estimate. I’m too chicken to make anything that requires a gauge so I stick to blankets, but I’m definitely a “progress” person. Great post! Love the hat and SW sounds like perfect yarn for a cozy cap!