Yesterday we talked about stitch definition, it’s only fitting then, to talk about color-work. The Snow Speckled Hat pattern by Red Heart is made to look like there are snowflakes on the hat, this is achieved by good selective color-work. With a brim of a different color and the top of the hat a solid color like a cloud, it’s sure to help stave off the snow coming this winter and make us really appreciate this summer-time heat.
The product photo from the Red Heart pattern
The Snow Speckled Hat pattern is pegged at an intermediate pattern, but I wouldn’t call it intermediate. If you’ve done any Fair Isle knitting before this is a great pattern to work on. It’s nice and easy. Don’t let the pattern rating scare you away if you haven’t done Fair Isle before but have knit in the round, this is a great place to start color-work. I think knitting in the round is much easier than knitting back and forth, so I’m already predisposed to color-work hats and mittens.
I knit this hat at a tighter tension than I normally would have. The fabric is quite stiff, as you can see, it stands up on its own.
I knitted the Snow Speckled Hat in different colors so you could see what it looks like. I tried to invert the colors as much as I could, but I think it still looks like snow! The yarn called for in this pattern is Super Saver, but you can definitely knit this hat with Soft Essentials.
The yarn weight is a little different, Soft Essentials is heavier than Super Saver, but this can be easily mitigated by going down a needle size. The recommended needle size for Soft Essentials is a 10US [6mm] bringing the needle size down to an 8US [5mm] would make a world of difference.
As I said in this week’s first article, it’s okay to knit this hat a little firm because the yarn relaxes so much when you block it. The garment might feel too firm when you first finish knitting it, but will be worth it in the end.
This is the same hat after blocking. The yarn has completely relaxed, so if you’ve knit something that is much too stiff. Think about giving it a block.
When I was knitting the Snow Speckled hat pattern I thought the hat looked a little bit small and was worried about it actually fitting. I contemplated going down too many needle sizes, and have irrevocably messed up the pattern. Once I blocked it everything was fine though. The hat relaxed quite a bit and there were no issues with the hat fitting. In fact, I’d be worried about it being too large if I had knit it and it didn’t look small.
The hat itself, in my color variation, post blocking.
The Snow Speckled Hat is the perfect easy color-work knit pattern, with a size that’s easily adjustable.
This is part 4 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 3: The definition of using stitch definition when knitting
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