Hooray, it’s getting to be time for another Fringe Hatalong! I’m teasing you today, of course, but this time I’m being a little more revealing than before — by showing you my Actual Swatch in advance of the pattern reveal. (If you recognize it, please keep it under your, uh, hat!) I will say that a swatch does not do justice to the finished hat — it is a truly gorgeous hat — but I wanted to give you a heads-up that it’s lace this time! My kind of lace, though, nothing frilly or fancy. Just a nice, tasty Shetland stitch that’s infinitely simpler than it looks. And it’s also charted — but it is a tiny, very simple chart, and I am going to walk you through it. It’s only 8 stitches wide and with just three different non-complicated stitch combinations, and you will see that it is totally doable even for advanced beginners. (If you’ve knitted lace before, you’ll be able to do this one in your sleep.)
All lace means is fabric with strategically placed holes in it, and all you do to make a hole is a yarnover — just wrap the yarn around the needle. If you’re a newer knitter, chances are you’ve done that lots of times unintentionally! This time we’ll do it intentionally, according to the aforementioned chart. So this will be a wing-stretcher for some of you, but how better to learn charts and lace than with a really simple project in the company of lots of helpful friends? Go ahead, dip that toe in the water!
I’ll post the pattern and kick things off next Thursday, June 18th! So be ready.
Recommended yarn: The pattern is written for Brooklyn Tweed’s worsted-weight Shelter. I will tell you that the sample is knitted in Sweatshirt, that perfect grey, and a lot of you are going to want yours to be exactly like the sample. It is so good. Shelter is available at all of these lovely stores as well as directly from BT’s website. You will need 1 skein if you don’t intend to swatch. If you do want to swatch (and I recommend you do), pick up a second skein. The hat uses 45 of the skein’s 50 grams (126 of the 140 yards in a skein). Shelter will be an especially good choice for anyone who’s nervous about this — it’s a “sticky” yarn which means if you do have any trouble and need to do a little ripping or repairing, you can feel good about the stitches staying put even when you slide them off your needle.
Suggested substitutions: If for whatever reason you won’t be using Shelter, some good tweedy worsted alternatives would be Quince and Co Owl, Harrisville Highland and Cascade 220 Heathers. For a non-tweed in a solid or semi-solid color try Quince and Co Lark, or Sincere Sheep Bannock (or her new Cormo Worsted!), or any of the hundreds of great worsted-weight yarns out there with good stitch definition (i.e. a nice multi-ply yarn). Again, you need approximately 126 yards for the hat, so if you want to swatch, make sure you’re buying enough to cover that. Many worsteds come in 220-ish yard skeins, so you’ll have plenty to work with in that case.
(If you plan to donate your hat to any of the chemo patient charities, remember to use a really, really soft yarn.)
Are you excited? I seriously can hardly wait to get started on this one. Big reveal right here next Thursday.
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PREVIOUSLY in the Fringe Hatalong Series: No. 1 – Audrey and No. 2 – L’Arbre
