Turkish patterned cap – New England's Narrow Road

Because my first Turkish Patterned Cap came out so pretty, not counting the trouble I had with the crown, I began knitting another one. Well, the second time’s a charm, but I felt cursed when I got to the crown.

I knew that my first attempt at knitting this hat was a fail when it came to the colorwork at the crown. I hadn’t even noticed that my troubles began not with the star, but way back at the first decrease row….! Now that I look closely at the blue hat, I see how off the patterning is at the top, before I got to the star.

Blue and brown versions of the hand-knit caps — Hat #1 and hat #2

hat knitting colorwork star at top of hat — Perfect “star” this time around

I began to make the same mistake once again, but caught myself on the second row of the crown. Originally, I thought the goof up was my fault, but it turned out to be the pattern. I had to painstakingly “tink” (knit backwards) or un-knit 1 1/2 rows and begin again. Do not simply follow the graph, or this will happen.…

Reading charts is not my specialty and I can’t do lace or cable charts well, but hat charts are usually easy. In this instance, a slip1, k2tog, psso decrease is located at the beginning of the row, BUT if you do it there, the whole row of colors is off – that is because it uses the last stitch of the previous row along with the first stitch in the graph. Another knitter mentioned this as well, so it’s the pattern, not me.

You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to figure out how to fix this!

Crown star on Turkish Patterned cap — Blue star is a mess, white one is knitted correctly

Ever Had Your Needle Break Mid-knit?

Then, just as I thought I knew what to do to alter the pattern, my 16 inch circular needle came apart…! The needle tip just snapped off the cord….. time to freak out, but I remained surprisingly calm. Stitches were dropping off as there was no longer a needle holding them. I carefully laid all the work down and ran to get a new needle. Fortunately I managed to pick up all the stitches without much problem, but it could have been a big disaster.

broken knitting needle white knitting — Broken needle in the middle of knitting the crown! Knitter’s Pride – not happy!

The needle that broke was Knitter’s Pride brand. I liked that brand for the matching colors of the DPN’s and other needles, but to have the needle snap off the cord in mid-knit – sorry, won’t buy this brand again. I couldn’t have had this needle for more than a couple of years.

How I Altered the Pattern to Knit the Crown Correctly

Row 23 – first decrease round – Ignore the first Sl1, k2tog, psso decrease stitch (which begins the repeat) and simply knit it normally along with 3 more stitches in the same color, which would be the Main Color.
Continue on and do the colorwork for that first section of row 23 to align with the previous row to the end of the section.
The missing stitches at the beginning and end of the sections are used to make the decrease, so now – beginning on the 2nd repeat – do the decreases as marked.
If stitch markers were used during the colorwork body part of the hat, they will need to be moved back one, or removed.
Then, the end of the Row 23 round, do the decrease which should have been done in the beginning (per the pattern) – even though it goes into the next row.
Knit the non-decrease rows as directed, but do the same as Row 23 for every decrease row up the crown.
As long as you watch the colors on the chart and make them line up and do all the decreases (with the very first one coming last), you should be fine.

While knitting this hat, the braid at the cuff will curl. Once it is washed the brim lays flat. Mine was knit in DK yarn, but the pattern calls for worsted. I personally would go down a size – to a Medium – if using worsted.

Turkish Patterned Cap number two — Fresh off the needles! Time for a wash

Needle Size and Yarn

Needle size: 4US – Yarn: Miss Babs Kunlun in color “Naked”, and Wound Up Fiber Arts handspun variegated brown and purple. I began with pink but changed because it was too pink.

I had purchased the white yarn on sale from Miss Babs and had no idea what I would use it for. I’ll tell you it is a wonderful yarn. It’s made up of wool, cashmere and silk and is therefore very soft.

Wound Up Fiber Arts does not often have their handspun yarn for sale, but if I can ever come across it in new colors, I would buy more. I feel fortunate that I own the four skeins I have. I began with the variegated pink, but it was too pink for my liking, so I alternated with the brown for a few rows and then went totally brown. But the brown is variegated with purple, and a golden color. It’s such an interesting yarn.

Although I used the same type of yarn for hat #2, for some reason the brown hat seems a bit larger, but I don’t know why. These are the softest hats I’ve made and they will both be gifts to some young women I love.

Both Turkish Patterned caps hand knit with handspun — Hat one in blue, and hat two in brown and pink

I need to get myself a head form to dry my hats. In this instance I am using a tall votive candle holder covered with bubble wrap – hence the odd shape!

The Turkish-Patterned Cap Review

Beginning the cap with a “Twined Herringbone” edge, or braid, was a first. I’ve done braids on mittens a couple times, but never a hat. I knew it wouldn’t stretch much, so I knit the size Large and hoped it would be large enough – it is. This hat will be a gift, and my daughter has a small head, so it should fit perfectly.

Turkish patterned cap stranded knitting — Size 4 circular needle using DK and fingering weight yarn, I knit size Large

I used the suggested needle size, but my yarn was not worsted weight. The circumference of the hat is spot on at 20″ around as the pattern says for a size large.

The hat was fun to make – until I reached the top decreases. I am not new to decreasing for a crown, nor am I new to colorwork at the crown. I knit two Katie’s Keps, and the Tettegouche hat without a problem. For some reason this pattern did not work for me at the crown. I did something wrong, and couldn’t figure out what. I had stitch markers for each section, but suddenly the colors were not matching up.

Please read the post about knitting my second hat like this one where I discovered the mistake in the pattern decrease area! I explain how to fix it- or how I fixed then problem.

All I could do was keep going and hope for the best. You can see that the “star” is not perfect, but oh well… . Because of this, and the fact that I am not crazy about the braided brim (for my own hat wearing), I won’t make this hat again. I think my daughter will love it! She does a lot of snowboarding and needs hats like this to wear beneath her helmet.

About the Yarn

I’ve been eyeing my hand-spun yarn stash and wishing I could knit something wonderful using those lovely skeins. They are labeled as “sock yarn” but I dislike knitting socks. Projects like this hat are perfect for this yarn. Stranded colorwork knitting is fun with this type of yarn.

Wound Up Fiber Arts sock yarn hand-spun — Beautiful hand-spun yarn

For the Turkish hat, I used my blue-green skein (fingering?) from Wound Up Fiber Arts (see the ball in my yarn photo). For my neutral color, I used off-white “Naked” Kunlun yarn from Miss Babs (DK) which I had bought on sale a while ago (it contains cashmere and silk). By the way, Wound Up Fiber Arts has limited amounts of yarn like this because it is hand-spun. I’ve considered myself fortunate to actually find yarn to buy on her site.

The Turkish cap pattern calls for two colors, and I thought this variegated yarn would make an interesting color gradient. While knitting, it’s fun to see the various shades emerge. Aren’t they pretty?

Turkish patterned cap knitting design — Gradient coloring due to the hand-spun yarn

Ever since I began knitting stranded colorwork mittens back in February, I can’t stop knitting items that require two yarn colors! It is such fun, and the end result is so nice. Those mittens could be knitted with this same yarn, which would make a pretty set.