Sander’s hat

I started knitting this hat on th 30th of April 2017 when I and my husband flew to Vienna to celebrate our anniversary. For me, it is really uncomfortable to travel without knitting in my bag, although I rarely knit while in the destination. I do knit while flying though.

As I like my travelling knitting projects to be portable and small, I started a hat for my son. At that time, Deep Woods Toque pattern was not available as Ravelry download, so I took this pattern as an inspiration. My biggest sources of inspiration were bliinks and MeijeAugust FOs.

So I dived into my stash and game back with Rowan Felted Tweed in Grey Mist 164 and Rowan Fine Tweed in Leyburn 383. I used 3 mm needles.

I casted on 120 stitches using tubular cast-on (my video here). I did twisted stitch rib which I wouldn’t probably do next time for hat as it is not stretch enouh. After ribbing I increased the stitch count to 132 and started knitting the pattern. I did the decreases on the last “tree row” so that it didn’t interrupt the tree motif. Sander made the pompom himself with a little bit of help by me.

I tried knitting this hat using the combination of continental and English style but it didn’t work for me. I am sure that with practice it would get better but I don’t mind my default knitting style.

What I did learn (finally!) is holding the dominent yarn properly (taking it always under tha main colour). This Paper Tiger YT video helped a lot! First half of the hat is knitted not paying attention to the yarn dominance, second half is knitted holding the yellow yarn correctly. I think it is visible that the upper trees are more prominent.

I am not a big stranded colourwork knitter or fan but I really enjoyed knitting this hat (althouh it took me 10 months to complete!). As i have a plenty of Rowan Felted Tweed at home (one of my favourite yarns at all times) I am already dreamknitting my next stranded colourwork projects 🙂

Ravelry project page.