Finishing out the year by finishing something

And being a knitter- promptly show you the inside.



What? You want to see the public side?

Bet you didn't guess whales from the inside. It's the Whale Watching beret from New England Knits. And I would highly recommend this as a beginners stranded project.
It’s roughly 65 rows total + rib, and the whales are a shape that you can “read” easily as you work. “Sky-forehead-sky-tail, sky-foreh.ea.d, crap, go back, forehead-sky-tail” Whereas sometimes it can be difficult on XOXs to see where you’re off if you are new to stranding.

I consider this my WEBS souvenir hat. I got to go to WEBS, and met some Rav friends IRL. That calls for a souvenir knit. The yarn was The Fingering Company Canopy. Except for the green, I chose not to use their Fern colour; As lovely as the store sample was, at $13 a skein I couldn’t justify the extra money to myself. Decided that it definitely needed the green tone, so I used my Loopy Solid Series in Celery- Smashing! And since it took roughly 26 yards of the green...still have plenty for a pair of socks.

I was Not stoked to wind up the yarn and find knots. At that pricepoint I don’t think knots in a 200yd skein is acceptable. Further review on the yarn, I understand that it’s elaborately dyed to be multitoned- but it’s also multihued. Even on the stranded work it’s obvious that some of the whales are green and others are blue. It also crocked all over the place, and bled copiously during washing. I would think that anything knit solid in it would demonstrate a wildly erratic colour changing pattern-perhaps an advantage if you want something with movement of color.
On the plus side…the bamboo gave it a lovely sheen, and the hand is delightful. The stranding will make a cozy topper in spring and autumn- winter as well, in a more temperate climate.

This would be nice for those left over dabs of sock yarn. If you aren’t sure if you have enough of a colour- take a large dinner plate and wrap it 3 times for every round you need the colour in (only 65 rounds + rib in the beret) adding one extra set of 3 wraps for wiggle room = enough.