Oblique Hat

Note:
1. More Free Patterns can be seen along the sidebar (on right side),
or you can use the Free Patterns label to view all posts.
2. Free Pseudo-Patterns or Pattern Outlines can be found using the Free Pseudo-Patterns label.

I wanted to try a new technique of knitting with 2 colors. Some will say, "but you already did a 2-color hat with your Striped Slip Stitch Hat." Yes, that is true. However these two hats are different. The Striped Slip Stitch Hat uses the slip stitch technique which only requires you to knit with one color on each round. This Oblique Hat requires knitting with both colors on each round. I've designed this hat based on a combination of VS3.10xBW1.10.

I'm sorry, the hat pictured above doesn't really show off the diagonal pattern of this hat very well. I used a blue/white variegated with a white solid. It was a poor choice to pair together because you "lose" the pattern when the white in the variegated yarn is adjacent to the white solid yarn. This hat would look lovely in two solid contrasting colors. To "see" the pattern in the photo above, first look for the diagonal white line, then you'll see the stripe created with the variegated blue yarn.

You can see a better photo of the stripe created by this pattern in this other Oblique Hat here:
http://smariek.blogspot.com/2007/03/oopsie-short-on-yarn.html

It looks something like this:

Knitting this hat was a bit awkward at first when I had to switch yarns on my right hand every 2 stitches. I had to be careful not to get the balls tangled up! Then I eventually figured out that I could hold the Main Color with my right hand and the Contrasting Color with my left hand (kinda like how you would knit Continental style) ... slow going and differently awkward for me. I guess it just takes getting used to. I think I had a tendency to knit a little tighter because of the newness of knitting with both hands this way. As a result, this hat is a snug ladies small. I continued the pattern in the decrease. Other than the awkwardness of holding 2 yarns, this hat is pretty mindless knitting once you get the hang of the pattern. After you have made this hat once, you can make it again without referring to the pattern. It's great for knitting in the car or while watching TV.

Yay, after finishing this hat, my big blue ball of yarn is now garlic sized. It's the 5th hat made from the big ball you see in that post. This Oblique Hat is my 15th hat for Cap Karma this year. That's more than I made last year, so I must be doing a lot more knitting this year. :-) I'm hoping the knitting will get better as little M gets older...

Stitches used in this hat include;
Blue Bias, VS3 pg 10
Stockinette Stitch, BW1 pg 10

Please email me if you would like your photo and a link to your blog (if you have one) to appear in My Readers' Gallery.


Oblique Hat pattern can be downloaded from:
Oblique Hat Pattern from box.com.


.