worsted wool – New England's Narrow Road

After knitting the Skiff beanie pattern, I decided to knit the same pattern in the Watchcap style. I asked my daughter if she liked the style, since it would be for her, I wanted color input. She then was happy to give me some color ideas which ranged from “speckled white” to “gray blue”. She wouldn’t mind hand washing the hat, so I could go with beautiful and soft wool of some kind.

If you are a knitter, you may well know that many places are simply out of yarn. As we “shelter in place” due to Covid, lots of yarn suppliers are not supplying yarn. Colors can be hard to come by within our favorite brands.

In this case, I was searching for yarn by color, but also by good reviews. I have rarely knit with worsted weight yarn in the past. Quince & Co. had good reviews, and the colors I needed. This is my first experience using this yarn.

Each skein is 134 yards and I used all of the gray and most of the natural to make this hat. I had to finish the very top in the light color (see my last photo). There is not enough yarn leftover to make a nice, two-color pompom, which I think is needed. Also, I am a fairly tight knitter, so you may run out of yarn sooner.

Quince & Co. American wool yarn in "Lark" colors Storm and Audouin — Quince & Co. yarn in gray (Storm) and heather natural (Audouin)

Gray and natural double brim snowflake hat — Ribbing to make the roll brim

When I began the Skiff Watch Cap pattern, I used a needle that was too small, with the solid gray yarn. That Skiff cable pattern gives you a nice hat, but the pattern directions are difficult to follow. The long brim is the toughest part to figure out because so many size needles are mentioned. I had to tear out the first brim I knit, which was turning out to be too small, and I admit that I wasn’t really crazy about the yarn. In fact, I was thinking of returning the unused skeins. I have never returned yarn before. Neither color is really what I am looking for to knit the cable Skiff hat.

As I began the hat a second time, I used the natural color instead of the gray, which is listed as “heather”. I like the color better than the gray, but I thought it was too “dirty” looking for an entire hat.

These yarn colors just didn’t suit me for a solid color hat. This is when I decided to use up the two skeins – one gray and one natural – to make a different hat altogether. I needed a colorwork pattern that would work for 2 colors for the hat top section.

My snowflake chart — Following the chart

I’ve had this curly snowflake on my mind for some time and have planned to make a hat using it. Well, now is as good a time as any! I found the star in a section of a hat pattern in my “Hat’s On” book which is part of the Doublemassa Cap. (I am working my way up to knitting that big project.) Anyway, it’s exactly the type of Norwegian “star” I wanted for my hat.

So I copied the star part only into my knitting notebook (by hand, and made a couple mistakes) so it would be easier to read. Also, I could save it for other projects.

Rolled brim hat stitch stoppers — Beginning the snowflake pattern

To use up the yarn evenly, I made the second part of the brim gray. For the top, the gray would be the background color with the natural color used for the snowflake.

Norwegian snowflake hat in gray and heather off-white — Working my way to the crown

I like the Lark yarn much better when mixed. It seems to be excellent for colorwork knitting. And I do like the two colors together.

beginning the snowflake pattern — The snowflake pattern

How I Made This Hat

Size 6, 16 inch needle, Cast On 120 stitches (Old Norwegian / German Twisted) and join.
Knit 2, purl 2 around, in off-white for 2 3/4 inches, then gray for same length. Do more rows of white than gray, and there might be enough gray left to finish the top.
Change to size 8 needles and knit 3-4 rows around in gray.
Begin snowflake chart. Many books have snowflake charts of all kinds that are very pretty. Your pattern must fit the number of stitches. I had to add 3 rows of solid color between my snowflakes to make the stitches come out even.
Knit in gray for 2 rounds and place markers as below
Decreasing the crown: Divide into 20 sections of 10 stitches – PM at count of 10
Decrease round 1: K2tog, k6, SSK, SM, around (This is how I did the top, with knit rows between the decrease rows. The last row was a k2tog around leaving 4 stitches on each of 3 DPNs to tie off. Next time I would do the decreases differently for a smoother crown.)
The “star” is a bit big for this type of cap. In the Doublemassa, the star is used in the brim, and the hat is knit in fingering yarn.

Crown finishing with darning needle picking up stitches

Finishing off the Top

The way I did the decreases left the top of the hat puffy and lumpy looking. This hat needs a big shaggy pompom, but I have used up all the gray yarn, unless I dig into a new skein. There is not much of the natural color left either.

I have to decide if I will keep the rest of this yarn or return it.

Snowflake hat finished — Used all yarn except for small ball of natural color

Top finished image of snowflake hat with bumps and white yarn used — Very top of snowflake hat is white because I ran out of gray yarn.

This hat really needed a big pompom, so I wound a new skein of gray yarn and created a gray and white pompom. Guess I will keep this yarn. I would like to use it to make another colorwork hat. This type of hat works well in winter winds, with double brim over ears and good thickness on top.

Snowflake hat slouch pompom — With extra on top, the hat can be pulled down to look slouchy

Once we want to take up the knitting craft, there are basics to know about buying yarn by fiber type. It matters because if you want to knit a warm hat or pair of mittens, you will want to use a soft, yet cosy, yarn for the project. Also fibers have varying thickness, or weights.

Worsted wool is great for knitting hats, scarves and mittens. Worsted wool is what I began knitting with. Wool is of course good for keeping warm, but often it is scratchy. Merino wool is very popular, and so is alpaca. Or choose combinations of wool with other fibers like cashmere or silk for extra softness.

Most of the really nice wool is hand-wash only. But there is washable wool also, like Mrs. Crosby’s Steamer Trunk washable wool yarn, and the Hat Box yarn line (shown below) which is “machine wash cold”. Delicate knits should be washed carefully, even if the yarn says machine wash. Hand washing is my preference, but keep this in mind when knitting for someone who may not like that idea! Baby items should be easy to care for.

Mrs. Crosby hat box African gray yarn — Mrs. Crosby’s Hat Box yarn in color “African Grey” is part wool, silk and cashmere

There are too many yarn types to really mention, but basically there is synthetic (man-made) cheap types that can be purchased at Walmart, and the real deal which came from an animal. This is called natural fiber yarn and includes alpaca, sheep, cashmere (goats) and rabbits (angora yarn). There are also blended yarns which combine various types together. See this page at Knitting 101 for a more inclusive list of yarn fibers and their pros and cons. Also, where you can, read reviews left by knitters who have worked with the yarn. The Webs yarn site often has reviews listed at the bottom of the page.

Beginners may want to buy cheap synthetics to start with, but honestly I would use something better like cotton. Some great beginner projects are facecloths and dishcloths. They are small and will accommodate mistakes well. They are also perfect for trying out various stitches. My dishcloths don’t follow any pattern. They are made up of whatever stitches I feel like trying. Buy washable yarn such as Purl Soho’s Cotton Pure, which will provide enough yarn for a few projects, or Lily’s Sugar and Cream which is available in many colors, and can be purchased at Amazon.

knit dishcloths — Practice new stitches and patterns on little dishcloths

In closing, I would like to say that in my knitting experience I have found that if I plan to put a lot of work (and time) into a special project, I want to use a nice, natural fiber, hand-dyed yarn. I like to think I am supporting a farm somewhere in the process.