whatifknits

Stripes and Strands Hat Pattern (and One More Hat to Look At)

Behold my “Stripes and Strands” hat, knit from two skeins of sock yarn, one solid, one self-striping. This hat was inspired by my first foray into stranded knitting, the Semi-Norwegian Oak Leaf Hat (see below). I wanted to try a) mixing stranded and plain knitting and b) using a self-striping yarn as both “background” and “featured yarn” in the same project. The hat has a solid navy background with two bands of stranded work and a central band of the self-striping yarn in a simple knit stitch.

I’m including the pattern here, along with some of my thoughts about possible variations. I’d love to hear from you and to see the results if you try this pattern.

Stripes and Strands Hat

Yarn: One skein each of a solid and a self-striping sock yarn (a single-sock sized skein in each color will be more than sufficient). I used KnitPicks Essential in navy for the solid and Plymoth Sockotta in color 507 (45% cotton, 40% wool, 15% nylon) for the stripes. You can also, of course, use two solid color yarns—or, heck, two self-striping yarns if you really want to live dangerously.
Needles: 16″ circulars and double points in U.S. size 2.
Other Necessities: stitch marker, yarn needle.
(Note that I’ve used a paragraph break at each spot where you will be changing yarns.)

Using the solid color yarn, cast on 128 stitches, place marker, and close circle.
Work 6 rounds of K1, P1 rib.
Work one round K.

Switch to self-striping yarn and K one round.

Switch to solid yarn and K two rounds.

Switch to self-striping yarn and K one round.

Using Chart A, work eight repeats of pattern stitch in stranded knitting, being careful to always pass yarn changes under the previous yarn and to stretch the work as you knit to keep tension loose.

Switch to self-striping yarn and K one round.

Switch to solid yarn and K two rounds.

Switch to self-striping yarn and K until piece measures 4.75 inches.

Switch to solid yarn and K two rounds.

Switch to self-striping yarn and K one round.

Using Chart B, work sixteen repeats of pattern stitch in stranded knitting, being careful to always pass yarn changes under the previous yarn and to stretch the work as you knit to keep tension loose.

Switch to self-striping yarn and K one round.

Switch to solid yarn and K two rounds.

Switch to self-striping yarn and K one round.

Switch to solid yarn and K one round.
Work decreases as follows, continuing to use solid yarn and switching to double-points when necessary.
Round 1: K14, K2tog around.
All even numbered rounds:K around.
Round 3: K13, K2tog around.
Round 5: K12, K2tog around.
Continue working decreases in this way until
Round 27: K1, K2tog around.
Round 28: K2tog around.

Using yarn needle, run working thread through remaining stitches and remove these from needles. Weave ends in on wrong side of hat.

Thoughts and Variations
I was a bit disappointed that my stranded knitting design didn’t “pop” as much as I would have liked it to. It does show up, but it’s subtle—something a knitter would appreciate, but that others might not notice. To emphasize the design, choose a solid-colored yarn in a dark/rich color that does not appear in your self-striping yarn: for example, black with pastels would be ideal or you might choose a deep blue with an orange and yellow self-striping yarn. If your self striping yarn comes in deep colors and does not include white, then white or cream would also work well for the solid-colored yarn. Or, skip the self-striping yarn altogether and use two solids.

You might also enjoy playing with the two charts, substituting different designs or even words. As long as you keep the same number of columns and rows, the hat proportions will remain the same. Just remember that with stranded knitting you don’t want long runs of a single color.

This is the hat that started it all, my “Semi-Norwegian” Oak Leaf Hat.

I’m still playing with both this pattern and the idea of Norwegian hats in general. My current mini-binge of washcloths is actually helping with this process because it’s giving me lots of opportunities to play with different combinations of variegated and solid yarns.

And then there are slip stitches and mosaic knitting. And socks—I musn’t forget about socks. The possibilities are deliciously endless!

March 08 2007 | FOs and Patterns and Semi-Norwegian Hat and Stripes and Strands Hat and Stripes and Strands Hat | 5 Comments »

Word-Hats (Picture-Hats to Follow)

Let me tell you about hats. I can’t show you hats (because they’re in Santa Cruz and the camera is with Melissa in Oakland), but I will eventually post photos.

I finally finished my semi-Norwegian hat. I’d gotten quite comfortable with the whole stranded knitting thing and was zooming along, needing to pause less and less often to untangle my yarn—then the decreases hit, and I found myself switching from circulars to double-points. Ack!

At the same time that I began with the double-points on Friday night at Melissa’s, her cat Damian began a game of “Cannot-Touch-Floor-Evil-Floor-Must-Jump-Climb-Flop” and things went something like this—

Whunk! All 18 pounds of Damian came flying from the floor to my chest, obliviously landing on my work, to which I clung desperately hoping to prevent a needle-dropping, involuntary-frogging catastrophe.

Bamp! Bamp! He whacked his forehead against mine in greeting, giving me a nice rub with his wet nose (wet nose? isn’t that a dog thing?) in the process. Then he pirouetted a time or two, balancing himself on my knees, my shoulders, purring the whole while.

And finally—Oof! He bounced off me onto Melissa or whatever unfortunate person/object lay in his trajectory.

Now, reread the previous three paragraphs several times because Damian never settles for doing something once when he can do it repeatedly. I believe I got exactly one round done before giving up and hiding my work at the back of the closet.

On Sunday in Santa Cruz, I did get those last rounds done. I found it particularly helpful to distribute the stitches among my double points so that the first stripe of the three-stipe divisions between panels ended the stitches on one needle and the remaining two stripes began the stitches on the following needle. This strategy prevented any long bits of yarn jumping the break between needles, allowing me to maintain my tension more easily.

While the hat isn’t perfect (I did the SSKs wrong on the first 2/3 of the rounds, and my two yarns don’t stand out as distinctly from each other as I might like), I’m quite pleased with it as a first attenpt. And, having finished, I came up with a whole new set of “what if?” questions.

1. What if I use the variegated yarn for backgound instead of for the pattern elements?

2. What if I limit the double-stranding to the body of the hat and switch to a single yarn before beginning the decreases?

3. What if I alternate bands of double-stranded knitting with plain knitting?

After digging through my stash to find some appropriate yarns for answering these questions (a skein of navy wool-nylon Knit Picks Essential and a skein of denim-colored self-striping sock yarn in a cotton-wool-nylon blend), I got to work. So far the hat goes like this: navy ribbing; alternating rounds of the two yarns; an eleven-round band of stranded work; more alternating rounds; a nice wide stretch of just the self-striping yarn; more alternating rounds; and a five-round band of double-stranded work. I’m planning to finish up with a few more alternating rounds and will then end the hat using only the solid navy yarn. If you can’t picture this, don’t fret. Like I said, photos are coming.

February 28 2007 | Cats and Damian and FOs and Semi-Norwegian Hat | No Comments »