colorwork – New England's Narrow Road

Modeling Photos of the Doublemassa Hat

The Doublemassa massive hat knitting project is done. I have to model it for the full effect, so here goes.

Don’t get excited, no gorgeous models here. But the Doublemassa deserves to be photographed while worn. I’m the only one around to do it, so here goes.

I’m a little late posting this because life got busy! But I do need to share the final photos of this knitting project.

Tips For Finishing the Hat

First a note on finishing up this knitting project. One key thing I want to mention is to be sure and weave in your ends BEFORE you make decreases at the crown. I spit spliced my wool, and only had two ends to weave, but I had to pull that section up through the crown opening.

I ended up pulling the whole hat out just to check for ends. Maybe next time weave as I go, or at least keep track of how many ends there are. Wool makes yarn splicing easy, and this means fewer ends hanging.

two ends to weave in — Only 2 ends to weave

Doublemassa hat inside out. — Only 2 ends to weave

As I began the crown decreases, the hat was finally long enough to fold the brim and try on. This hat is seriously cool! It fits like a charm too. I’m knitting it for my daughter and she has a small head. I hope she likes the fit. The Rauma wool is quite soft, so no itchy problem there. I highly recommend Rauma.

Photo below: At this point all I have left to knit is the crown decreases. I’ve swapped out the 16″ circular for DPNs. Once that is finished I need to make a fun tassel for the top.

Making the Tassel

Tassel directions are included in the Hat’s On book. However, the directions are not great. I found a good video to follow, but the tassel must be attached to a hat without an inside access. I wrote a blog post about making and attaching the tassel.

Washed and Blocked

Fontana immediately claimed the hat as her newest cat bed!

Doublemassa colorwork snowflake hat knitting is complete — Unwashed

Thick brim in colorwork snowflake design of Doublemassa hat — Unwashed

Modeling the Hat

I hate to show too much of myself, but in this case the Doublemassa deserves to be shown on a head. My head was it, so here goes.

All my knitting photos are selfies. I prop the camera somewhere and use the 3, or 10 second delay. Usually I go outside, unless it’s too hot. Then I do a lot of cropping and fixing, … oh and deleting too!

These photos would look a lot better with a snowy background and me wearing a puffy winter coat. Instead it was a hot, cloudy morning.

The Doublemassa really is an impressive pattern. I used colors I already had, but this would be pretty in many combinations. The pattern is available in the Hat’s On book (paid link) by Charlene Schurch.

If, as a knitter, you get a request for a hat that is warm over the ears – this is it! I don’t know how you get much warmer than a 4-layer fold.

Knitting Stories continued…

Year-Round Camping in Florida; Enjoying Nature While I Knit

12/16/2025

Knitting Project Review: Magnolia Chunky Cardigan

11/12/202511/28/2025

Camel Yarn Weekend Hat Project

11/04/2025

Pattern Review: Beginning the Magnolia Chunky Cardigan

10/16/202510/29/2025

Three Knitting Projects On My Needles in September

09/17/202510/04/2025

First Attempt at Knitting Clotilde

09/06/2025

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My Solvi Sweater is Finished and This is My Review

I have finished knitting Jennifer Steingass’s Solvi sweater pattern and here is my review.

Jennifer Steingass is the designer of the Solvi sweater which is a pullover. I began knitting this pattern on October first. Now it is mid-April and I have finished the project.

The delay in finishing was due to many things, but mostly because I doubted a good outcome. Do you ever start knitting a pattern with much excitement only to loose that excitement somewhere along the way? If you have done enough knitting, I suspect you will say “yes”.

I love the yarn. I chose “Peacock” blue in Harrisville Design’s Shetland. What a beautiful fingering weight yarn, and in a great color. For the long colorwork yoke, I dug into my stash of fingering weight wool. I tried to keep a more muted color scheme going with colors that flowed into each other. I’m happy with the colors.

What caused me to pause this knitting project (many times) was the large look of the yoke. It seemed very wide, and the depth was an inch over the schematic size. I considered ripping it all out, but what a pain in the neck! So I put it aside and worked on other things.

Finally, I picked it up and got to knitting. I would finish and see how it was.

I was right. It ended up large.

The Solvi sweater knitting pattern shown on me.

I like an oversized sweater, but this one is too much. I could easily have knit one size smaller and been happy with the fit! (I knit size D – or the 4th size.)

The sweater has a very wide neckline that flows into a wide, colorwork yoke. I like the pattern of feathers that comes down the front, but the whole thing is just too wide. This is my fault for choosing the larger size. There is nothing wrong with the pattern. Just be aware of the width of this sweater. My gauge was good, but I was between sizes and chose larger. It was my mistake.

I used the same size main needle for all the colorwork as well. I was considering going up a needle size because colorwork tends to be a little tighter. I’m so glad I did not do that!

Mods I Made

Because the yoke was getting too long I had to leave out a bit of the feathers pattern. This project has been put aside quite a bit, so I can’t remember exactly what I changed.

If I knit a larger size sweater, I often go down a size for the sleeves. I did that for this one. I followed size 3 (C) stitch counts so the sleeves would be more narrow. I also knit them longer. For the cuffs, I did not do the last row of tightening up, and instead did a tubular bind-off with a sewing needle.

For this pattern, I finished the body first. I used a new skein of yarn for each sleeve. I had three little balls of yarn leftover, which you can see in my first photo above.

I will absolutely be wearing this sweater next winter. It will work best as a layer over a turtleneck on the coldest days.

I usually have good luck knitting Jennifer Steingass patterns. Her Ravelry pattern page is Knit.Love.Wool. and the link goes there. The previous sweaters of hers, that I have knit, have fit me pretty well. Her patterns are well-written and easy to follow. Most are colorwork patterns with stranded work done on yokes and sometimes sleeves.

Meadow Moon sweater Jennifer Steingass pattern — Meadow Moon

Goldenfern sweater pattern — Meadow Moon

Now, I am moving away from colorwork yokes. Stranded knitting is my favorite thing, but an all-over Fair Isle is a lot more fun.

Keep reading

02/08/202502/13/2025

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Getting There on the Doublemassa Knitting Project

An update on my latest hat knitting project. This one is a very long hat called the Doublemassa.

The dark blue yarn skein is just about finished up. This morning was quite chilly for a March morning in Florida. I was bundled up in my newest Warm Up sweater, hat and mitts while I checked on the garden and filled the bird feeders. I decided to show my progress on the Doublemassa hat.

Fair Isle tube hat knitting in navy blue and off-white.

As you can see this is a very long hat! It looks huge, and I am hoping it will fit properly.

The colorwork designs are pretty cool, and I just finished up the birds rows. When looking at this hat finished, on Ravelry, the brim will fold up to either the birds or the hearts (which I have not even begun yet)!

Here is how the hat will fold: From the top of those snowflakes down, everything is tucked up inside. Then the snowflake brim part will be folded out and up. The snowflakes will cover most of those two colorwork sections above the snowflakes. This creates 4 layers of fabric at the brim. I’m not good at visualizing this and can’t wait to actually do it.

Even though this hat is already quite long, I have many rows of colorwork left to knit. It’s been a very fun pattern, as I love doing Fair Isle. The Rauma yarn is quite awesome as well.

As I knit more, I will be attaching a new skein of blue, and will probably need more of the natural color eventually.

Keep reading

04/27/202005/09/2020

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Doublemassa is The Hat of My Dreams

Beginning the lined, Doublemassa hat pattern. It is a stocking cap done using two different yarn colors.

The hat pattern book “Hats On!” has provided loads of fun hats to knit. I have already knit quite a few, and a few more than once. My favorite of all the hats has always been the pink one featured on the front of this book. It is named the Doublemassa.

Way back when I purchased Hats On! I was a beginner knitter. Many of the patterns in the book seemed too difficult and involved reading a chart. I hadn’t mastered that yet, so I stuck to knitting the simpler beanies. It has taken many years to work my way up to attempting the Doublemassa.

Doublemassa Difficulty Rating

There is a lot to this hat pattern. I don’t recommend it for beginners.

This colorwork hat is knit using a chart. A long chart. The anatomy of the Doublemassa is this. It is a short-ish stocking cap. It has a fold up wide brim that is 4 layers thick. Two yarn colors are used for the colorwork and there is a lining. The pattern begins with the lining being knit from the top-down. Once the lining is complete, the colorwork begins. A tassel is added at the end.

This hat book is full of various types of hats, but honestly, the directions are not in depth. For example, in the case of the Doublemassa pattern, we begin by knitting the lining as a top-down hat. We cast on only 12 stitches and knit in the round while expanding (4 each round) with yarn-overs.

I used the Disappearing Loop cast on, by rewatching this video by Always Knitting. This is the same cast on I used for the Musselburgh Hat. It allows for knitting in the round from a very small circumference outward. It also involves Magic Loop. This type of cast on is fiddly no matter how you do it! I used a tiny crochet hook to help.

Doublemassa hat knitting — Disappearing Loop

The pattern simply says to expand by 4 stitches using yarn overs. Since it’s a lining, and won’t be seen, I was not very careful about spacing my beginning increases evenly. Those yarn-overs need to be knit through the back loop, or else a hole is created. This is something the writer assumes we know.

As I read on, the colorwork part has various rows where decreases are made. All the row says is “decrease – with the number”. So let’s say there are 130 stitches and I need to evenly decrease by 6 stitches. I’m going to use the Knitulator to space my decreases. (Or, divide by 6 to estimate.) Most decreases are 2 or 4 which are easy to figure.

Blue colorwork on Doublemassa hat — Did colorwork wrong

Ripping back colorwork to begin again — Did colorwork wrong

Yarn

I’m using three skeins of Rauma Finull, which is a fingering weight, rustic wool. I dug into my stash and had enough of the natural beige heather to be the main color and lining. I’m using a dark blue as the contrast color.

Needle size is 4, but I’m not sure if I will go up a size when it comes to the colorwork. (I did not change the needle size.) My daughter’s head is small, so I may stick with the size 4. She has been asking for another hat with a brim for ear warmth. Doublemassa should work nicely.

The folding of the hat is hard to figure out, by looking at the photos. I guess it will be obvious when it’s done. I have quite a few patterns in the works now, so it may be a while before this one is finished.