I love the stranded mittens I made from SELBUVOTTER: Biography of a Knitting Tradition with my koolaid dyed yarn. The problem is that these mittens don't really go with any of my hats. I wanted to make a hat to "match" (in color if not pattern.) When I came across the picot hem snowflake hat pattern I thought it was stunning and couldn't wait to cast on.
I knit this hat on size 1 (2.5 mm) knitting needles with KnitPicks Palette yarn. The hat consumed 25 g of the black yarn, and 17 g of my hand dyed yarn. You cannot really tell from this picture, but my stranded knitting was MUCH tighter when I first knit those mittens. (I used the same size needles for both projects.) I'm not sure which I like better, but I will need to pay attention when I begin my first fair isle sweater.
There are two versions of the chart for this hat. The longer version is for 8 rows/inch, but my gauge is closer to 7/7.5 rows per inch. I would rather the hat be too long than too short, but I knew I was going to have to keep a close eye on the length as I went along. When I got to the crown decreases, I followed the revised longer chart until the hat was an appropriate size for my head. I then sped up the decreases (decreasing every round, alternating from the separation pattern and main pattern sections.)
I only made one minor modification to the revised chart (besides the alternate decreases.) I liked the 4 stitch stars on either side of the snowflake from the original chart, so I included those in my hat.
I basted the picot hem under before stitching it to the hat. I wanted to make sure things lined up correctly.
I am in love with this hat. It is a good hat to wear when I don't want to end up with a crease in my hair (and for when I want to coordinate with my favorite mittens!)
