Despite my plans to keep the number of WiPs small and finish my Tea Leaves Cardigan I couldn’t resist Tantallon. It’s another of Kate Davies’ Fair Isle hats and the pleasingly simple graphic peerie combination looked very appealing. Last year I ordered a pile of Alice Starmore’s Hebridean 2ply and had just the right colours for this pattern.
I swatched with the recommended colour selection but found the red a bit to loud for my taste. I used purple instead (Erica) and since I had ordered the wrong shade of green I substituted some leftover J&S 2 ply Jumper Weight.
According to the pattern I should have cast on 125 stitches for the brim but I suspected this would turn out a bit too wide for my head I started out with only 110 stitches instead. To avoid doing any math to the pattern repeats I the increased 90 stitches up to the regular 200 needed for the full chart (all ravelled here).
Knitting this hat was a real pleasure and I managed to memorize the pattern fairly quickly. I learned something new as well: The pattern calls for a lining on the brim and I found a nifty provisional cast on on YouTube (and directions on how to unravel it in the end :-)). I used some pink leftover merino lace-weight for the brim lining and this makes all the difference when its windy outside! My ears stay extra warm.
Since I live on my own I had to ask my colleague to take a picture of me wearing the hat and he really got into it. He even climbed up onto the table in our office – must have been a sight for the people on the other side of the yard 🙂
We’ve had over two weeks of freezing temperatures here and so far Tantallon and the Sheep Heid got lots of wear.
I’m still knitting the Tea Leaves Cardigan – I’m on the second sleeve – but it is slow going and I find myself a bit unwilling to work on it…
Now, back to the spinning wheel – I’ve nearly finished clearing off some Polwarth abandoned there last October… I really need to make a dent in my fibre stash!