Team Spirit: The Hat
It really is about the hat, although Jadzia, the feisty 4-lb Pomeranian would argue the point. The Team Spirit hat is the perfect project in so many ways. It is a stranded design comprising easy repeats. The fact that it is stranded means there's double the amount of fingering wool for added warmth without added bulk. Choose two highly-contrasting colors. The pattern was designed to feature your favorite sports team colors or your school colors. See my Team Spirit Convertible Mitts and Team Spirit Socks patterns, and knit them to match your hat. There's just somuchtocheer aboutwiththispattern! Size: Adult and Teen 21"- 23" head circumference Materials: 1 ball each of any two contrasting Knit Picks Palette colors: Cover hat used Serrano and Jay. (Choose your teamcolors) One 16" #3 circular needle, four #3 DPNs (or size needed to obtain gauge) Stitchmarker Tapestryneedle Gauge: 32 stitches and 30 rounds = 4" using #3 needles. Abbreviations: K2TOG = Knit two stitches together. SSK = Slip one stitch, then slip the next. Insert left needle into the front loops of the slipped stitches and knit them together from this position. M1: This is not "the" M1 stitch. It is the Bumpless m1. It is a modification of KFB. See my video tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syFeOy1B9ok HAT: With circular needle, CO 136 sts using the color you have chosen as your background color. (PLEASE READ INFO ON COLOR DOMINANCE BELOW). Join to work in round, placing stitch marker and being careful not to twist stitches. Knit 18 rounds 2x2 rib (see CHART A) in stripes as indicated. Knit increase round: Using background color, inc evenly to 168 sts: knit 4. (k1, bumpless m1\*, knit 1, purl 2) around to last 4 sts), k4. \* Bumpless m1 Increase (see tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syFeOy1B90k ) Follow CHART B (7 repeats per round) for 68 rounds, decreasing as indicated and switching to DPNs when necessary. It helps to place markers every 24 sts to make dec easier. (Each dec round has 2 decreases next to each other; k2tog for first dec at beginning of each wedge of dec round and ssk for second dec of each wedge of dec round.) After round 68, with 14 sts on the needles, k2tog around. 7 sts remain. Knit last seven sts for 5 rounds (as an i-cord); cut yarn leaving a tail several inches long. Move all sts from needles to tapestry needle, and pull tightly. Secure from the inside. Finishing: Tie and weave in or trim all color change ends. Wash and block to fit.
CHART A
● in stitch means to purl that stitch White indicates background color, and gray indicates design color
CHART B For a less slouchy hat, eliminate rounds42- 47, and start dec. rnd (48) immediately after working rnd41.
Copyright @ 2015 by Deborah Tomasello All rights reserved. This pattern or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher.
A Word About Color Dominance
In the above swatch, I knitted the same motif across the piece, and then I repeated it. The only difference I made was the position in which I held my yarns. In the bottom half, I held my yarns so that the blue was dominant, that is to say more obvious than the white, on the front of the work, and the white receded into the background. On the top half, I knitted the same stitches but I held my yarns so that the white dominated and the blue receded. You see a definite difference in the appearance of the motifs when comparing the top and bottom halves of my swatch.
Viewing my swatch from the back, you notice that the color that dominated on the front recedes on the back, and the color that was recessive on the front dominates on the back. A color cannot be dominant both on the front and the back at the same time. So, how do you control for this? How does a color become dominant? I have read many explanations of color dominance, and frankly, they all leave me scratching my head. Terms are used like "over" and "under," which are nonsensical to me. Over where? Under where? Also, each knitter has her own yarnholding method. We need an explanation that works no matter how we hold our yarns. First, it is important to point out that, whatever way you hold your yarns when stranding, you want to maintain the same position throughout the piece so that you catch your floats the same way, consistently. That said, here's how color dominance happens. (And it happens whether you like it or not!) The color that will dominate---or stand out—-on the front of your work is the color that consistently lies closer to your work as you go. In the above example, on the bottom half of the front of the piece, the blue is more prominent than it is on the top portion of the piece. This is because it lay closer to the piece as I was working the bottom half. How do we know this? Look at the back of the swatch. The bottom on the back shows more white relative to the top of the swatch. You see more white because the floating yarn, the white, is floating over, or around, the blue...it lies further from the piece, has farther to travel, than the blue. Because the white liescloser to you on the bottom half when viewing the back, it is more visible to you than is the blue. Because it is more visible—dominant—on the back, it cannot be, at the same time, the dominant color on thefront. No matter how you choose to hold your yarns, one in each hand, both in the right hand, or between your toes as I do, the above rules apply. Try a swatch as I did. Try knitting with the yarns in one position and then switching them. Take note of the color that has to travel to float around the color that lies closer to the work. The one that has to travel to float around the close color is not the color that will dominate on the front of your swatch, but it is the color that will be most evident on the back. Try knitting this chart with two, highly-contrasting colors and DPNs so that you are working in- theround. You will cut the swatch open when you complete it:
