Pretty Thing has come in the house and will be on the finishing list for this weekend. It has been a car project for two weeks or more now and I need to finish it to see what it will look like after it is blocked and how it will fit.It is a very nice knit and I think I want to make a couple for gifts this year. Better get this one done and off the needles.
The other knit I have been working on this week is the Fair Isle Hat that I started with my student last week. I have discovered that I tend to knit tighter as I get more comfortable with the two-handed method. So I will be trying the next hat on one size up on needles to see what size hat that will get me.
One downside of Fair Isle knitting that I find is that to determine your gauge you have to knit a sample in the round, so the hat I am finishing right now is really my gauge swatch. That is a lot of knitting to find out that I am knitting tighter than I usually do. The upside is, there is always someone who needs a hat to wear.The two-handed method that I mention is from the Philosopher's Wool DVD and mentioned in their book that is pictured with the hat. I taught myself the method over another hat project that I blogged about in February 2007.
I really like the technique and find that it makes a lovely fabric where woven dominates the scene in this stranded knitting technique. The floats are found in the two-color ribbing and, because they are consistent through the ribbing, look planned versus you missed weaving them.
My favorite part of the hat is the two-color long tail cast on. It is the one thing I had to practice over and over again to really get the hang of it, but the result is worth it. My next Fair Isle project is going to be the We Call Them Pirates Hat from Hello Yarn. It was the pattern that got me interested in learning Fair Isle.I hope everyone is making progress on their best-loved projects. Happy Friday!
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