Center Square

Center square is complete!

Sorry about the surly photo - it’s tough photographing your own head! Also, the colors are wonky here - the photo below is much more true to color.

Pattern: Center Square, from Knitty
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK (teal) and Plymouth Indiecita Alpaca (blue)

This is a great beginner fair-isle pattern. My hat is a bit different from the pattern - my yarns were lighter-weight (both dk-weight-ish), so I cast on 4 additional pattern repeats to make a 20″ hat. The pattern’s final measurements are a 15.5″ hat, and the hat is streeetched out to fit.

The hat isn’t blocked, nor have I woven in the ends. I doubt that I’ll do either - this was more of a fair isle practice project than something that I made to wear. The top is a bit poofy where the corners of the decreases are (you can see a better photo of the top here), I’m not sure if that’s an issue of my gauge or larger stitch count or if will go away if I block the hat.

I think that I’ve got a grasp of two-handed fair-isle now. However, knitting continental is definitely pretty slow for me, and my gauge in continental is still a bit looser than knitting english. I really love how knitting two-handed keeps your yarns neatly separated and non-tangly. I hate tangly balls of yarn! Am I ready for the Anemoi Mittens? Maybe.

9 Comments so far

  1. stacey - December 22nd, 2006 @3:00 pm

    yay! it looks great!! I like the smaller pattern….mine has a bit of “poof” to the top also - I think it’s the decreases….

  2. Lolly - December 22nd, 2006 @3:22 pm

    It looks super! I have seen some fun versions of this hat cropping up, and I want to give it a try. Yours turned out great ;) and I love your glasses - I have the same ones!

  3. Meredith - December 22nd, 2006 @6:40 pm

    You finished already? Wow! It looks great.

  4. Jet - December 23rd, 2006 @1:44 am

    That hat turned out great!

  5. s t a c i - December 23rd, 2006 @9:03 am

    Wow…you’re like the Master Hat Maker now!

    And congrats on the 2-handed fair isle. I tried and tried with that, and ended up making up my own method for fast fair isle. My left hand just isn’t very smart.

  6. Kirsten - December 23rd, 2006 @7:32 pm

    Nice hat!!!
    I got quite a giggle out of your tree.
    Merry Christmas.

  7. Julia - December 24th, 2006 @11:21 pm

    Hey, the hat turned out great! And I like the photo. Guess I will have to resolve to do some fair isle in the new year.

  8. Ashley - January 15th, 2007 @9:08 pm

    Gasp! Your glasses! I must have them! (Center Square looks pretty great too.)

  9. Not much going on « Mara’s Mind - November 19th, 2007 @8:18 pm

    [...] manly man but I’m not sure if this is a girly hat or not. He looks great in blue and I liked this colorway. [...]