Snow It All by Mary Annarella

Snow It All

Knitting
January 2017
Worsted (9 wpi) ?
24 stitches and 24 rows = 4 inches
in stranded colorwork in stst
US 6 - 4.0 mm
145 - 170 yards (133 - 155 m)
small(medium)
Flag of English English
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Long floats? No worries. This cute snowflake hat pattern shows you a different way to handle them.

Instructions are included for 2 sizes, along with a detailed photo tutorial for securing the long floats with a hooking/unhooking technique.

A few notes about this method:

  • I’ve seen the technique referred to as a “Jacquard” method, as laddering, and as hooking/unhooking.
  • It requires that you play with it a bit.  Some testers carried the floats too loosely at first, some too tightly, and it’s a very subjective thing to know when it’s just right.  Like many things in crafting, it takes a bit of practice.  
  • If you prefer, you can always skip the technique, and just twist the long floats with the working yarn--if you go this route, I recommend that you make the hat to have a bit of positive ease on the wear-ers head to avoid having bits of the twisted CC show through as it stretches.
  • Either way, it’s a cute hat & quick project that’s fun to wear, and you can try out a new technique that you may find very useful in your stranded colorwork.

The pattern also includes a guide for how to play with gauge to get just the perfect-sized hat. The snowflake pattern is charted, and the instructions also include details for success in colorwork in general.