A little red hat and mittens

My friend loves red (her favourite colour) and happens to like Scandinavian things, so when said friend requested a hat and mittens for her baby girl, I remembered this pattern. I've had the magazine for ages, and finally the perfect opportunity came up to try my hand at fair isle knitting. 

I started with the mittens, as a complete novice at fair isle. It took both mittens and the beginning of the hat to find a method of holding both yarns that was both comfortable and efficient, and maintained the tension in the knitting. I have a great book for all things knitting and crochet (The Knitting and Crochet Bible) and it showed me how to hold the yarn the English way (I'm a continental knitter, so I normally hold the yarn in my left hand). I never thought I'd be able to learn the English way, because I find it confusing, but now I've cracked it for fair isle. A whole new world has opened up to me, and I'm so excited about trying more fair isle designs. 

I'm happy to say that the hat fitted well, and has ample growing room. oh, and one very happy mum and super cute baby. 

As this blog is a journal for all things crafty, here are the details:

Pattern: Little Snowflake in Knit Now, issue 1, October 2011. I have the magazine, but here is the pattern on Ravelry.

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK, in Lipstick (1246) 100g (still have leftovers) and Stylecraft baby Stardust dk Wondersoft, in Snowdrift (1570) 50g (hardly touched it). The Snowdrift has a glittery strand running through it, which you can't see in the photo. It's a subtle effect, and I love it. 

Needles: I used my amazing Knitpro circular needles (knitting flat, not joining in the round). 3.5 mm for the brims, 4mm for the rest. 

Pattern amendments: I made this in the 6-12 months size, and having had troubles with previous patterns for beanie hats, I made this with a double brim, to fold up. I knitted 20 rows in k2p2 rib instead of the suggested 10. It worked, and now the hat has much more growth room. 

I normally knit hats and mittens in the round, but this pattern calls for knitting flat, which I'd never done before. I used mattress stitch to sew the seam, so I could match up the pattern on the right side. I'd be happy to use the seam method again, if a pattern calls for it, but I prefer knitting in the round. 

A fair isle success!