I'm very proud of this project. It's my first experiment with the Fair Isle technique, and I love the way the colorwork has turned out. Fair Isle is a name given to a technique of knitting with two or more colors on the same row. I had so much fun working on this project, because I could play with the colorwork and see it take form into a pretty pattern. And I love love love the way the yellow contrasts with the green and the blue. I was actually sad when I was binding off the final stitches...I didn't want this project to end!
It's a challenge getting the colors conjured up in your mind come just right on the project, mainly because I order my yarn online. When you're ordering online you just get to see a tiny picture, which is mostly an approximation, of the actual color of the yarn. Moreover, the yarn can look very different on a hank, from when its actually knitted out (don't ask me why, but it's true). Hopefully some day I will be able to have the bandwidth to actually go to a yarn store and select out my yarn, so it matches exactly what I intend it to be.
Considering all the constraints, though, I must say..either miraculously or by my experience now in ordering yarn online...the hat has turned out to be exactly what I had in mind (in terms of the colorwork), or even better.
I used a 100% wool for this hat. Wool is such a charm to knit with! This hat will have to be handwashed and dried flat...which means more work for me than just tossing it in the washer-dryer, but even then, I'm not complaining. This is one of those pieces that have the potential to become an heir-loom for the family. Maybe Aarav's son/daughter will wear it someday too!
(Couldn't get a good enough shot of Aarav with the hat, he just wouldn't stay still. Look at him playing with my knitting needles like they are his toy drumsticks! Grr...These days whenever he sees me knitting, he wants to knit too. So I give him his own pair of needles and some long string of yarn...he keeps busy for about 10 minutes...at the end of it the yarn is in a thousand knots and he has had just about enough to move on to something else :) )
