Meshed Hat Knit-A-Long Part 2 : a knit-a-long as I go-a-long

Part 1

Just checking in. I’ve been knitting on my new Meshed Hat. Its been with me wherever I go. Hats make for nice traveling projects.  But the photography suffers a bit! My spontaneous “candid” pictures never turn out quite as well as the staged ones.

I’m making another Meshed, my latest knit pattern. Its a color & cables hat and I quite like it. So did The Sated Sheep and they’ve asked for a sample to come and live in their lovely shop. How could I say no? So I’m making another, my third, in Gina and Malabrigo…

… and taking pictures are every critical trivial step. What can I say? Long color repeat yarns keep me endlessly fascinated. I’m always excited to “get to the next color!”. So the first time the Gina yarn changed colors I had to stop and get a picture of it. Of course I did.

And again when I finished the ribbing. Picture taking may take away from valuable knitting time but it looked like a burst of color! Had to stop.

Then there was the joining in of the second yarn. Does any one else feel like that is a big moment in a colorwork project? Does any one else secretly feel the need to stand up and announce “Hey I’m adding the new color now! Come check it out!” to everyone within earshot? Maybe its just me.

And then I was back at home with a cuppa and my in-progress hat. I do love those colorful cables. I’m so in love with this style of colorwork that I’m planning another design using this technique. But until then, you can get this pattern from ravelry (if you don’t have ready have it!) and join me in the knit-a-long.

If you are knitting along with me, here are two tips you might find helpful:

1. Once the second color is established, its just “like color on like color”. Stitches that were knit with the main color in the previous round are knit with that color in the next. Its the cabling that moves color around

2. Keep a loose tension. When you knit cables there is a tendency to pull tight but resist that. Cables tighten up all on their own. Plus this is colorwork and colorwork always looks best at a relaxed tension.

Maybe you’re making one with me or maybe you’re just enjoying the pictures. Either way, feel free to drop in on me and my in-progress Meshed.