SailingKnitter

I found a cone of lovely heathered beige fingering weight wool (Jagger Spun 3/8 54's Sagebrush color) while stash-diving the other day and immediately went to work on knitting a simple beanie. Which, of course, turned into knitting several beanies with variations. All for the orphanage in Kazakhstan.

It all started with a simple ribbed single layer hat worked with 2 strands of yarn, the heathered beige plus leftover self-patterning sock yarns in oranges and grays. Too much fun. But, what if I added a deep hem to the bottom for extra warmth around the ears?

So, I did that. This hat uses sock yarn in shades of red & blue for the portion that would flip inside, and greens for the outside this is the hat. The hem is about 4" deep and I sewed it in place with a stitch that simulates grafting to keep the stretchiness of the hat intact. Actually, one could wear this hat inside out too as long as the knitter darns in the yarn tails neatly.





Well, why not go one step farther and make a completely doubled hat? That would give the wearer the option of choosing what colors to display in addition to being super warm. First I knit a simple beanier, then I picked up the stitches from the cast on and knit another beanie the other way. Sure, I could have used a provisional cast on method but then the columns of the ribbing would be 1/2 a stitch off. So I chose to pick up stitches. Knitter's choice you know!


This hat was worked in reds/blues/black/white for one hat and browns for the other side. The heathered beige yarn helps to "tone-down" the bright colors of the sock yarn which I hope will make these hats more acceptable for teenagers.

But what about girly colors? I had a skein of pink wool and yet another version is being knit at this moment with THRUMS! I also happened to have some pink unspun roving so why not? My plan is to turn up a 4" hem to seal in the thrums which are just around the ears.

So, that's what I've been knitting lately. Yep, thick wool hats in the islands of Bocas del Toro, Panama.