I tried my hand at another fairisle hat a few weeks ago, but didn’t get photos until this weekend.
This is the Janine Bajus Raven Hat, and like my previous Cascade Hat (blogged here), is designed by Janine Bajus. She apparently used this design as a teaching tool in her workshops in fairisle knitting and it is easy to see why. It is a very simple pattern to work and to memorise. It was easier to make than the Cascade Hat, and I think only part of that is due to my increasing ease with this technique.
I knitted it in the colours suggested on the pattern page, using Jamieson’s of Shetland Spindrift, which is a really lovely yarn for working fairisle. I thought that the hat would be too long as written and wanted to shorten it; I did this by leaving off the first 6 rows of the pattern (starting the fairisle section at Row 7) instead of trying to re-calculate the decreases on the crown. I think this worked out well and it keeps the crown pattern intact:
I do feel as if the top of the hat is a little bit pointy. Blocking certainly helped flatten out the crown, but I think that perhaps I didn’t do the best blocking job. I may try to block it again.
This hat has very nice colourwork. I especially like the way the teal and the tiny bit of copper livens up the purples. I am happy with how it turned out. This guy, however, seems to think otherwise:
You can’t please everyone.
