My Fair Isle Hat, which I've re-named my Fall Flowers Hat, is finished and has already been worn out in public several times. I wore it to the woods with Chris and Stella the other day to take FO shots, I wore it last night when I had to go out and I was having a really bad hair day... the hat is awesome for making unruly hair look just slightly disheveled and like you did it on purpose. It goes with the whole bohemian vibe that this hat has.
This pattern is from the Fall 2010 issue of Vogue knitting, designed by Sheila Joynes. I wrote about yarn choices and needle size here. The colours came together really well, and though that makes me happy it's not much of a shocker since I chose my colours to match the hat in the magazine. I really like the classic pairing of navy, burgundy and mossy green. For me, it's boho-chic, yet sophisticated.
Though I am very pleased with how this hat turned out, and I know I'll wear it a lot this fall, there are a couple of changes that I made and a few more that I would make were I to knit it again. First, the pattern calls for sport weight yarn, I knit mine in fingering weight yarn and am very glad that I did, it's light yet warm and I wouldn't have gotten gauge comfortably with thicker yarn. Second, I changed the pattern ever so slightly for the decrease crown section. The way it's written is a little bit messy, like a checker board that doesn't really line up, so I changed it to make sure to line up my check pattern properly.
I find this finished hat just a touch too big for me in every direction. A tad too long, a tad too loose around the brim... my next version will be smaller. And, oh, trust me, there will be a next version! I am so inspired by the possibilities that this shape of hat holds that I've already spent a fair amount of time scheming and swatching for my next slouchy fair isle hat.
I love accessories to experiment with colours and techniques. To knit a full sweater in this pattern would be a long and exhausting road, but this hat took only one weekend and was finished before I could get tired of it. It's almost even better than mittens because you don't have to knit a second one!
Now that I've knit this hat, what I'm thinking of as a prototype, and I've figure out all the things that I like and don't like about the pattern, I'm dreaming up my own version of the perfect fall flowers fair isle hat. This is what my dining room table looked like this morning at breakfast.
I love this part! Drawing and colouring with hi-lighters! It's all so fun and exciting. I've got a couple motifs worked up that I'm quite happy with and I have a colour palette in mind, now I've just got to do a little more colouring (yay!) and a bit more math (boo!) and I'll be ready to start!
Ravelry project page here.
