Winter Hat

On Sunday, I started knitting a stranded hat with some of the leftover Léttlopi yarn in my stash. I selected Bonnet l'hiver à Besançon by Gaëlle Mazéas, a free pattern on Ravelry.

The pattern is in French but between my grasp of the French language from study 40+ years ago and Google Translate, I was able to understand the pattern. (basically, I cut and pasted the French text into Google Translate). Some words translated literally unrelated to knitting but I figured out that: jersey = stockinette, 2m ens = K2tog, mailles (m) = stitches, mailles endroits = knit, mailles envers = purl, aug int = make 1 by lifting bar between the stitches and knitting into the back of it (I just did a kfb), diagramme du jacquard = chart.

I did the increases after the ribbing as indicated in the pattern and knit the rest of the hat. When I tried it on just before finishing the crown, the stranded part was TOO BIG - particularly since I have a small head.  I remembered watching a YouTube video by Arne and Carlos on knitting stranded hats and they recommend 96 sts (with worsted weight wool) for the entire hat. They call it the magic number as it is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 12. This is great for all kinds of knitting patterns. So I ripped the colourwork back to the ribbing and didn't do the increase round, knitting the rest of the hat on 96 sts. It fit!

I like how the snowflakes go all the way to the top. Some of the strands were 7 sts long but I didn't anchor them as I didn't want them to show through. The yarn is 'sticky' enough that eventually the strands will felt themselves in place. I made a two-colour pom pom

I really like the wintry scene with the little house and big trees with the gently falling snow.

I finished it last night. It was a fast and easy knit - once I figured out the right size.