Fair Isle February, Part 2!

Hello Everyone! Part 2 of Fair Isle February is on! I thoroughly enjoyed knitting our beginning and advanced hats and cowl kit. The cowl kit is a perfect project if you are new to colorwork. The pattern only has a four stitch change and uses only two colors. The chevron design is classic and trendy at the same time.  The Patons Chevron Cowl pattern is from Yarnspirations.com and has three versions for different weight yarns. I knitted Version C with chunky yarn, using Cascade Yarns Pacific Chunky and Tivoli. Since I live in New England, the chunky yarn version works well with the winter season. Of course, New England is known for its ever-changing weather, so I look forward to working up the other two versions with lighter weight yarns since we went from over three feet of snow to temps in the high 60s in a matter of a week’s time. The cowl kit is great for getting down the Scandinavian knitting technique. A great tutorial can be found at one of my favorite websites, knit purlhunter.com at Two Handed Two Color Knitting, http://knitpurlhunter.com/blog/?p=212. So now that you are using two yarns, how do you keep yarn so you don’t get a tangled mess? There are various ways to avoid tangles. You can separate the yarn on either side of the project or leave one skein/ball out with one in your knitting bag. Find what works for you and don’t get frustrated if there is a tangle or two. It does happen, even with the best of planning. I use the tried and true (for me) plastic food storage bags method. Linda’s Dad (my patient Husband) thinks I must have stock in Ziploc! The cowl kit gets you in the mindset for stranded knitting and prepares you for out beginning and advanced hat projects. And, as a bonus, the cowl kit knits up quickly so you can experiment with other yarn weights. Linda told me that one of our Knitters used a solid and a variegated yarn for her cowl. The versatility is endless!

Here is my warm and thick dark charcoal and red tweed cowl.

Onto the Quick Ombré Hat, pattern by Emily Dormier.

This is a fantastic project for advancing your colorwork skills. This hat can be from light to dark or dark to light. It’s really up to you. I chose to do light to dark. My colors are a beautiful camel with a grey tweed. Not only does this hat live up to its billing, it does knit up quickly, it also has the added benefit of teaching you how to position your yarn so one of the colors is dominant. I changed the positioning to have the dark color be dominant in the bottom lighter part of the hat and the lighter color dominant in the darker part of the hat. Again, knitpurlhunter .com has a very good video that explains how to position your yarn for the desired effect. Check out Stranded Knitting – Positioning the Yarns, http://knitpurlhunter.com/blog/?p=1675. One of my Sisters (I have four!) fell in love with my finished Ombré hat. So, of course, I gave it to her. And that’s another thing about knitting. It gives you a certain degree of satisfaction when someone, especially someone you love, appreciates your creation. Here’s my Quick Ombré Hat. I do love this color combination. I wonder if I can get it back from my Sister??? Did I tell you that this Sister is a Twin? Well, when my other Sister saw her Twin's hat, she had to have one. It had to be a the same, but different (a Twin thing, I'm told). So, I quickly knit a second hat using the original pattern with a definite yarn departure by using stash Noro and alpaca. 

Here they are!

And now, onto the advanced hat, the incredible Norwegian Snowflake Hat by JackFrost on Ravelry. This hat is based on traditional snowflake design, inspired by a holiday there. The hat is worked in the round, carrying unused yarn behind. There are not long floats, but you will have to catch your floats so your hat looks as break taking on the inside as it does on the outside. Although the pattern calls for double point needles, I always use my circular needles and Magic Loop. I knit with interchangeable circular needles and I change my cord to accommodate the decreases in the crown. It works very well for me and it may for you, too. There are multiple colors for this hat, four in all, dark grey for the body, white for the snowflake, and dark red and dark blue for the border. Your kit contains the four colors and you will have the opportunity to keep the yarns separated, position your yarns and carrying unused yarn up the side, and capturing floats. If you don't want to carry the border yarns up the side, you may cut the yarn and join again when you reach the crown of the hat. When I knit this hat, I broke out my stitch markers. Of course, any excuse to use my stitch markers is always welcomed. I also use a Post-It to keep track of what line of the chart I am on. In this pattern's case, I put a Post-It above and below the line I am working. I use this method after many mistakes when I first learned colorwork.  Use whatever works for you in keeping track of your rows. This is especially important when following a pattern with a motif. 

Carrying your yarn up the side of your hat can be tricky. There is another great video fro knitpurlhunter.com where you can see how to carry your yarn without tugging or bulk. It is suggested the carry is done every four rows.  

Carrying Yarn Up the Side http://knitpurlhunter.com/blog/?p=1306.

Another great tip on this website is how to carry floats. And yes, it depends on the direction of the yarn. I found this video particularly helpful and I hope you do as well.

Stranded Knitting – Catching Long Floats http://knitpurlhunter.com/blog/?p=1678.

I loved working on this hat and it felt like I was creating a piece of art. Explore other color work motif designs. You will find endless enjoyment to challenge your new advanced skills! 

Here is my Norwegian Snowflake Hat. 

Inside view

I hope you enjoyed Fair Isle February as much as I did. Please check our Facebook and Twitter Pages for our March projects. See you next month for our own version of March Madness!!

Knit on! Lisa