It’s time to have a glance at another Lion Brand yarn – this time Hue + Me. Throughout this series, I’ve been talking about a different Lion Brand yarn in each post. Here’s a recap:
Post 1: Mandala Baby, a 100% double-knitting weight yarn
Post 2: Feels Like Butta, a soft, 100% polyester i-cord yarn, also a DK weight
Post 3: Wool Ease, an Aran weight classic blended from 80% acrylic and 20% wool
In this post, I’m working with Hue + Me, a “designer” yarn that has been color-curated for the “pigmentally challenged.” Every color of this yarn has been designed to complement every other color in the Hue + Me line. So, if choosing colors isn’t your strong suit, this could be the yarn for you!
Lion Brand Hue + Me yarn is a yarn in which every color of this yarn has been designed to complement every other color in the Hue + Me line
Hue + Me is an 80% acrylic, 20% wool yarn that comes in 4.4oz [125g] balls. It is bulky weight, with a gauge of 14 sts over 4″ [10cm] on size 10.5 [6.5mm] needles. Worked on size 10 [6mm] needles, you can probably achieve or at least approximate a chunky tension (16 sts to 4″ [10cm]).
I found the most delightful pattern for this hat: the Trio Toboggan. This pattern was written for Hue + Me, and ingeniously takes 3 balls of yarn and makes 3 hats, just by changing up the colors for each. Oh, sure, you could make one hat from one ball, but this would be a great way to make “friendship hats” for your best buds or your kids’ best buds!
Trio Toboggan pattern perfectly designed for Hue + Me yarn.
This photo shows what the trio looks like when you follow the instructions. I, however, can be a bit of a rebel when it comes to knitting, so my hats turned out a little differently. Here’s what happened:
Trio Toboggan pattern perfectly designed for Hue + Me yarn in green colorway
I followed the pattern for the first hat, except I didn’t have the right size needles. So, I knew this hat was going to be smaller. As expected, it barely covered my ears, but it fit a friend of mine (whose hat size is one or two smaller than mine) just fine. In fact, he preferred it to the second hat and, as was expected, neither the peach yarn nor the pompom was a hit with him!
Trio Toboggan pattern perfectly designed for Hue + Me yarn in gray colorway
I personally decided that the top edge of the diamond pattern was not symmetrical enough for me, so when I made the next hat, I fixed that by adding a row or two of pattern between the diamond and the “fleur-de-lys” at the top. Besides, as I said, the hat wasn’t quite deep enough for me, so doing this added a little height to the hat – as did the extra two rows of ribbing and the round of gray above it! Here’s where I encourage any knitter to break out of the “pattern mold” and get creative in your own right.
Trio Toboggan pattern perfectly designed for Hue + Me yarn in peach colorway
On my third attempt, I will just ‘fess up, and say I wasn’t paying attention. I botched the Fair Isle pattern and decided to improvise. I think it worked out well in the end: the diamonds are perfectly symmetrical, and the pattern is a little lower – closer to the ribbing, but that doesn’t seem to affect the overall appearance of the hat. It’s possible that if I gave these hats to three friends, it would be a long time before any of them noticed, especially if they’re not knitters!
All of the photos in this post show how there is no “wrong way” to combine the colors in the Lion Brand Hue + Me line. So, if you’re one of those knitters who always knits a pattern in the colors shown in the photo, I encourage you to try this yarn!
This pattern is like a popular brand of snacks: bet you can’t make just one! (I couldn’t.) This whole concept of breaking up the elements of the pattern and switching them out to get more mileage out of the yarn is brilliant in my mind, and I’ll be borrowing that for other hats, too. Imagine the fun you could have with Mandala Baby yarn I talked about in Monday’s post?
For the last post in this series, I’m going to be knitting another extra-chunky hat using Wool-Ease Thick & Quick. I just may have saved the best ‘til last!
PS: because I knit 3 hats for this post, I probably should have named this series 7 hats in 5 days!