Even more doubles

A repeated theme on this blog is knitting doubles. I get a kick out of working up the same pattern in different yarns or by reversing colorways. This first doubles is Justyna Lorkowska’s freebie Scrappy Ski Hat. Lorkowska designed this hat to use up worsted weight oddments. And it is beautifully suited to that. But I knit mine in Mirasol Umina, a 50% merino 50% alpaca worsted that is wonderfully soft.

Check out how nicely the crown decreases work out.

If you like this next hat (I do), you’ll have to work a bit harder than merely clicking over to Ravelry to buy a copy of the pattern. This is Carol A. Anderson’s Anna Hat. You’ll find it in her company’s (Cottage Creations’) “Caps (and more) for the Gals” booklet, #R32, copyright 2010. The pattern is on page 16 and is labeled “A Very Warm Textured Cap and Mitten Set for Rialey and Anna.” The booklet can be ordered here. There are a number of excellent patterns included.

I’d purchased two deeply discounted skeins of Cascade Pacific, a 60% acrylic 40% merino blend, figuring I’d find a use for them. The variegated colorway was a little overwhelming but this pattern stitch worked really well to tame it.

Without those stitches slipped with the yarn in front, which creates that bar of yarn, this colorway would have been hard to take.

I’m now liking this wild colorway and cool hat quite a bit. Here’s the same Anna Hat in a quieter variegated in the same yarn.

Kelbourne Woolens released a free hat pattern every month in 2019. This is a pair of June Hats, designed by Meghan Kelly. I like many of Kelbourne’s Year of Hats and knit quite a few of them. In fact, I’ve knit June before. I think that easy slip stitch chain in the main color is just the cat’s meow.

And my pompoms aren’t too shabby either. These hats are knit in Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted.

It’s yarn leftover from one of my favorite Rambling Rows ever.

“And now, for her next trick…” a triple. A triple Boon Island, by Aimee Alexander. First in Ella Rae Classic Solids, Heathers & Marls, but this is marl:

And the next two Boons are in Plymouth Yarns Encore, a 75% acrylic 25% wool workhorse.

 

Boon Island is very versatile. I much like the rough pebbly non-public side, which makes for a good brim for those who favor brim over slouch.

The crown decreases are handsome and well-behaved.

“Tha…tha…that’s all folks!” If you’d enjoy some more doubles, check out here and here and here.

2-color slip stitch hats

Kelbourne Woolens is releasing a free hat pattern each month in 2019 as part of their Year of Hats series. They’ve gathered a good group of designers. Each hat is designed for worsted weight Germantown. Good old  Germantown. I used to buy it at my local “dime” store. I’m pleased that Kelbourne rescued that workhorse. Month-by-month, these freebies are available on Ravelry. A number of the patterns are standouts, this one included.

This is the June Hat, designed by Meghan Kelly.

You have to be willing to purl in the round, but that never troubles me. The basic technique is that you switch the yarn color each round, and the lines of raised stitches are created by slipping a stitch of the contrast color (at controlled intervals) in one round and knitting that stitch in the next round. Very clever.

The pattern doesn’t mention it, but it will be known by any except an absolute newbie, that you have to move the yarn to the nonpublic side of the work before and after slipping the stitch.

The pinwheel crown decreases are totally clever!

My June Hat is knit in a new-to-me yarn: Denim by Nako. Denim is 60% cotton, 40% acrylic. It reminds me some of Berroco Comfort, both in its feel and its handling. It’s very soft and would make excellent hats for the itch adverse or for chemo caps. I worked with my lacepoint needles because, like Comfort, for me the yarn was a bit splitty. Your mileage may vary, of course.

I was quite taken with the yarn, and with the slip stitch technique, so I looked for another pattern using slip stitches.  I’ve had Marina Hayes’s “Prepared for Vancouver?” hat in my queue since sometime around the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Some may have purchased the pattern through Knit Picks, where it went by the name Blue Ridge Hat. Vancouver uses stockinette as the slip stitch basis.

Here’s another view.

Vancouver alternates colors every 2 rounds. The raised lines of slipped stitches are formed by slipping a stitch in the first round and knitting that same stitch in the second round. Honestly, I find the result quite remarkable. It doesn’t seem like such a technique would end up looking like this.

And, again, the crown decreases work out well.

A new yarn and, for me, a hat-building technique I’ve not used much before. Great fun!