Yar, Matey!

oooh! look! Colorwork!

And Colorwork Guts!

I think I'm addicted to fair isle knitting. The ability to knit both continental and english style certainly sped thing along nicely.

Pattern: We Call them Pirates from hello yarn

Yarn: Dale of Norway Baby Ull*

Needles: US3 & US1

Comments: * before we get too far, yes, I realize that Baby Ull was *not* the yarn called for - and it is considerably smaller in gauge than Hauk, the recommended yarn. In any case, the hat came out lovely, if too small for an adult. Measured flat, it looks like it'll fit someone with a head 17-18 inches in circumference. As I mention above, it seems I adapted to stranded knitting just fine - I didn't seem to have any issues with the floats being drawn too tightly, and the fabric has wonderful stretch. If anything, the hat lining being tacked to the outer fabric might limit the stretch of the hat a little. I used a crochet provisional cast on (much better than the other provisional I've used in the past - the looping provisional, if you're curious), and knit the whole thing on a long circular needle - the same way I would do socks via the "magic loop" method (dpns and I do not get along - they are constantly insisting on sliding out of my knitting and leaving me with loops flapping in the wind - and all knitters know that uncontrolled flapping loops are not a good thing).

New Skills learned: fair isle knitting, crochet provisional cast on.

And now for the cool part: I am offering this hat up for a swap - since I have no children of my own, and it does not fit myself nor my husband (and I don't think my cats would like it if I tried to make *them* wear it), it can be pom-pom'd for extra cuteness, though I think that might clash with the Pirate motif ;) Contact me or leave me a comment if you're interested. (This is being x-posted so I'll be getting back to all interested parties if there are more than one. If you leave a comment be certain to provide your email address so I can contact you!)