Nov 4:
Making this in the yarn and colors the pattern is written for with some major adjustments in size…I might end up with some big sheep on my heid!

I cast on for this on a US size 0, went up to a US size 1 and knit up through the ewes, only to find that it was relatively gigantic. I am a loose knitter, I know this, but this was a bit of a conundrum, since I was already on a fairly small needle for this weight of yarn, and the circumfrence of my hat was at least 5 inches too big. No joke.

I ended up starting over, on a US 0, not increasing needles size and not adding the extra 58 stitches. I modified the pattern so I have only 9 ewes and I’ll eventually have only 5 rams. I just made it through the ewes and it appears to fit, though snug like a skullcap more so than a tam. It’s an experiment, if it’s too small I will give it to a child and start again, but it looks great, so I hope it fits.

And I have to echo Kate Davies that Jamieson & Smith’s Shetland Supreme yarn is wonderful to knit 2 color knitting with. It really does “stick” to itself and make a lovely fabric. I can’t wait to play with more of this yarn…I’m happy I have a healthy stash to work from.

Will post pics soon.

Nov 5

Made it up to the decreases and snapped this quick photo, you can see the yarn still attached at the top and the crown hasn’t been worked yet..but it appears to be fitting, yeah! My colorwork is not super even, little tugs here and there, I hope blocking it will smooth things out. If I could only stay up another hour or two I think I could finish…must wait until tomorrow. Super fun design, can’t wait to see how the rams look!

Nov 6

only got an hour in..ugh, so could have been done tonight, if I just didn’t need sleep…but maybe tomorrow, I’m almost done with the Rams…I’m very interested to see how the fit is and how it looks blocked.

Nov 7

There is no home stretch on this hat, color changes every couple rows on the crown make it slow going, even when there are so few stitches to work with. Kate is brilliant though with this pattern and decreases, some well thought out design elements with the symmetry on the top.

But these ends are going to kill me, so much weaving in ahead, I think I am very optimistic to move my completion bar up to 95%….I’m 100% done knitting but feeling only about 50% of the way towards finishing this project.

Nov 8

Soaking , ready to block. Got all the ends woven in, that was quite the effort.

My gauge turned out to be 6.5 spi rather than the 7.5 spi called for in the pattern, hence my need to radically alter the number of stitches to get it to fit for me. It’s also much more of a ski-hat vs tam fit. I look forward to wearing this baby out.