About half of a hat- there is a way to make the color changes less obvious, but I haven't learned it yet.
I am cruising along on the girl’s two toned striped hat. I actually did a swatch, which I hate doing, but I really hate finishing a project and discovering it is too huge or too puny. So, I actually measured the girl’s head, made a little swatch, measured, counted and multiplied.
I cast on last night just before we put in Hot Tub Time Machine- and knit about 4 inches up the hat by the end of the night. HTTM is a good knitting movie-not a good movie…a good knitting movie is one where it is brightly lit and not mysterious. Everything in the movie was telegraphed- no inferences needed to be made. I was never wondering who the obnoxious guy might have to have sex with in order to ensure that Jacob would be born. I knew before the characters did which beverage needed to be spilled on the Hot Tub control panel. Anyway, this is devolving into a review of a bad movie, instead of a hat pattern.
I decided to make uneven stripes, in a fibonacci pattern, because I am pretty nerdy: a fibonacci sequence adds the 2 previous numbers to get the next one in the sequence. The first pale stripe has 1 row (which I forgot to do- oops) the next has 2 rows, the next, 3, the next 5, the next 8, and so on. Actually, I plan to stop at 8 and go back down. I think an uneven stripe is more visually interesting than even stripes, but I also likethere to be a pattern in the chaos.
By the way, I am writing this pattern in case anyone is looking to make a hat just like this- but I have to say I’m more of a believer in making up your own pattern design. Once you know how to do a basic hat, (and this one is about as basic as you can get), you can do anything you feel like. Also, this is not remotely a copyrighted pattern- I learned how to make a basic hat from “Stitch and Bitch”http://www.amazon.com/Stitch-N-Bitch-Knitters-Handbook/dp/0761128182/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294612345&sr=8-1, a long time ago. I made so many hats I memorized the pattern, changed it, added stripes, etc. Now, for the first time I am writing down how to do it, while I am doing it.
Stripey Hat pattern
Knitpicks bare fingering weight, dyed in 2 hues of the same color.
size 5 needles, 6 st. per inch for a 21″ hat. Main color- approx. 120 yds, contrasting color, approximately 80 yards
Cast on 108 stitches, work in 2×2 ribbing for 1 inch. Increase evenly around to 120 stitches and switch to cc. follow the fibonacci sequence for the light colors, but knit 4 rows for the dark stripes every time.
Continue knitting, following the fibonacci pattern, until 7 inches up from the cast on row, place markers every 12 stitches. On the next row, knit 10, then knit 2 together before the marker, then slip marker. Continue each row this way, switching to double pointed needles or 2 circulars, whichever you prefer. Once you get to the final 10 stitches, cut off the yarn, thread it onto a tapestry needle, and stitch through the remaining stitches.
Strawberry Fields for Breakfast 