Pattern: My own! Garter Ridge Hat
Yarn: My own handspun Wensleydale in Christopher Robin colorway, from fiber from Sheepish Creations; scraps of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in colorway 43
Needles: US 3 Addi circulars
Began: January 24, 2010 ; Completed: January 29, 2010 (Raveled here.)
Notes: I bought this fiber a few months ago with J in mind; I love the richness of the yellow and the way it makes the other browns, blues, creams, and purples pop. I spun it up the last week of break into a DK weight two-ply, and I like it even more as yarn. Then, I made J a Botanic Hat, and it was a mess. The pattern is wonderful, but my yarn just didn’t work well: the color runs are too long to show up well, and the bumpiness that makes handspun so charming looked terrible when alternated with a more evenly spun, commercial yarn. I’ll definitely knit that pattern again, but in two commercial yarns. So that’s waiting to be frogged, and I set about to find the perfect pattern for my yarn.
The problem is that I couldn’t find any. I wanted something with garter stitch, because garter stitch + handspun = wonderful, but everything I found ended up looking bulky. I looked and looked to no avail, and then it hit me: just make something up! So one night I sketched a basic pattern, one that would have garter bumps every few rows and have a knitted hem to keep J’s ears warm without bulk and to protect him from the itchiness of Wensleydale. This hat is what I got.
I’m so happy with this hat and think that the pattern would work well in a variety of yarns: it would be easy to customize the size and/or change the gauge, the hem would be great for scraps of soft yarn, and the bumps really show off the color changes in handspun and self-striping commercial yarns. So, I’m thinking I’m going to write this up and publish it here, for free. What do you think, folks? I’ve never done this before, so I’m really nervous that I’ll screw up. Those of you who’ve done this, do you have any words of advice?



















