Hats are some of my favourite things to knit. Quick and easy they are great projects to rapidly satisfy a specific ‘knitting crave’. In the mood for some Fair-Isle I was eyeing Marie Amelie Designs‘ Algae beanie and decided to give it a go using yarn from my stash. The WOOLganic Organic Merino; a lovely Australian merino 4ply with a soft and squishy handle.
Algea is a 4ply hat featuring a two-tones stranded motif and a wide folded brim. It took me a while to decide which of the two colours to use as my main and which to use as my contrast. The cream against the yellow in the original version really makes the algae motif pops out. In the end I decided to go for a similar combination using a bright orange as my background and an off-white as my main.
I am not too big on folded brims so I decided to reduce it by half its length and keep it unfolded. That was before I realised the brim is meant to be worn completely folded over the colour work and not folded over itself. Wearing the brim unfolded – even 2 inches shorter – increases the length of the beanie making it too slouchy for my liking. As I only came to that conclusion after binding off the hat I was left me with two options.
- Undo the cast on and knit the two inches missing out of the brim.
- Undo the cast on, unravel the brim all the way to the beginning of the colour work and re-knit the whole brim from there.
To avoid having stitches pointing in opposite direction half way trough the brim I’ve opted for solution no.2. It will provide the neatest result and be pretty much invisible by the time I am done with it.
The stranded motif was enjoyable to knit and easy to follow. It could even be a good project for someone wanting to tackle their first bit of Fair Isle. Three balls of Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumper are enough to complete this project but we’ve also spotted some really cool versions made in Onion Nettle Sock yarn.
All in all I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. The combination of white and orange gives it a nice 70’s vibe – not unlike some of Orla Kiely’s work – which I’ve always had a soft spot for. Now I just need to sort out the brim and it’ll be ready just in time for the tail end of the Winter.
Until Next Time… Happy Knitting!
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