Hat #2 of 4

The next hat:

Pattern: Turn a Square

Designer: Jared Flood

Yarn: Cascade 220 wool and Silk Garden, color 274

Needles: size 6 16" circ and DPNs, size 4 16" circ

Number of stitches cast on: 82/then increased 8 to total of 90 stitches for body of hat

Raglan decreases started: at 5 1/2" from cast on edge

Another quick, satisfying knit. I love working with the Silk Garden: every row is a surprise. And the color changes are so subtle that you'll be knitting away on green and then slowly, the yarn turns a completely different but perfect color shift. No wonder this stuff sells out immediately when it goes on sale on the Web.

My discoveries on this version: my theory about postponing the decreases to 5 1/2" instead of 5" from the cast on edge was erroneous. Better for the look of this closely-fitted hat to have a more shallow crown rather than something leaning toward mushroom-shaped.

And what you see on the exterior of the Silk Garden skein is very different than what happens when you start knitting from the free end coming from the inside of the skein. At the yarn shop, I carefully matched color 274 to my skein of blue Cascade. It looked like I was dead on with a good match to the blue as well as bits of greys and other shades of blue to fulfill the recipient's request for a blue or grey hat. Knitting was another story. Pulling the yarn from the interior of the Noro-wound skein, I had teals, greens, and plenty more green, and then finally, at the crown, some green into purple. The greys and blues never made it into the hat. From now on, I'll be rewinding the skein into my own ball of yarn so that I can pick out the colors that I need, and save the rest for another hat. Or maybe a beautiful vest of all of the leftovers?

And this is now #2 of 4 because I forgot about the pink Malabrigo Foliage that I wanted to knit for one of my teachers. Need to finish that one before I go away so that I can leave the hat in Chicago for her to pick up when she comes later in the month to run a training weekend.