You've got a pink kink in your think

Jo's Fair Isle Hat
Originally uploaded by tjstein

It all started with a skein of aubergine Brown Sheep at Amber's shop. And then it collected some friends before it went home.

I did it top down, starting with an invisible cast-on, so while it is, sadly, pointy on the top, it's also extremely smooth. I tried not to jack up the speckles at the increase points, but in retrospect I could have planned better. The fair isle band is from an Alice Starmore book I borrowed from the guild library. I picked it because it fit the stitch count I had when the crown was done. Usually, when I do colorwork, the floats are too tight and I have something that looks like it survived a hailstorm, so I tried to compensate. Well... I overcompensated, and ended up with a really big hat. I frogged the ribbing but didn't want to frog the fair isle, so I borrowed some advice from The Late Great Elizabeth Zimmermann (we need to come up with a gesture to make or a chime sound every time her name is invoked). She says if your sweater turns out too big, you re-knit the ribbing at the bottom, sleeves, and ribbing at a tighter gauge, and then you will be much happier. So I decreased, hiding the decreases in the ribbing, and then I went down to a size 3 (yes, on worsted-weight yarn), switched colors, did another inch of ribbing, hid some more decreases in the ribbing, and did a sewn bind-off. Now the hat is still big but it stays securely on my head.

The Other Jo thinks it needs a pom pom to hide the point. Amber likes the point. I got a couple of other votes at UFO Wednesday for tassles. I have an uptight coworker who would go absolutely ballistic if the tassle included a jingle bell. What's everybody else's opinion?