Friday, 4 May 2012

Norwegian Star Hat...

While browsing the patterns for fairisle hats on Ravelry.com I came across this set of hats, knitted in stranded knitting with multicolour Kauni effect yarn.  The pattern is designed by Ruth Sorensen and this pattern is from the Knit a Hat ebooklet.   I would definitely recommend this pattern.


I do have a couple of balls of Kauni yarn in my stash but there wasn't enough contrast between the colours for them to work well together so I chose to use one of my Noro Silk Garden sock yarns in shades of plum, mauve and olive green for the Norwegian stars contrasted with a dark plum/purple Trekking sock yarn for the dark main colour.


The pattern asked for 3mm and 3.25mm needles but I used 3.75mm needles instead as I have a tendency of knitting quite tightly when doing stranded colourwork in the round.  

Next time I think I would knit a narrower ribbed edging probably using the tubular cast on method for a neat edge.  I loved knitting this pattern and found the shaping for the crown to be rather cleverly worked within the stars.  But I find when I am wearing the hat that the crown goes to a slightly too "pixie" pointy finish for me.  I prefer my hats to be slightly more rounded at the crown.    I have only worn the hat a couple of times so far.  But DH thinks it looks nice on me.


I have some of this lovely yarn combination left over and I am trying to decide whether to design a cowl or fingerless mittens that would look lovely with the hat.  I think I will probaby opt for the mittens.