Spice Hat is a beanie shaped hat with a beautiful geometric fair isle pattern overlaid over blocks of color.

It comes in two sizes: S/M is for a child or smaller adult head (20in /50cm). I made a red and a green model for this. For a slightly larger hat I had to modify the fair isle pattern. You might see a subtle difference in the blue hat pattern. This hat works for 22in /56cm.

The row-to-row transition of the fair isle is hidden in the pattern accomplished by a slight change in color sequence at the last repeat of a round. This makes for a very polished garment.

The pattern is written and the fair isle is charted. I took great care to explain knitting fair isle in the round so if you are knew to these types of patterns you can still give this a try. There are also detailed instructions on how to best size this hat for a longer or shorter version.

I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport for this hat. It has a nice amount of elasticity which gives the finished hat an appreciable amount of stretch despite the stranded knitting. This yarn is wool which provides warmth even when wet. The stranded knitting results in a double layer making the hat lightweight yet warm and very versatile. I use my set for cross country skiing unless one of my kids wants to switch mittens with me and then I regret not having made more mittens yet.

I made the red and orange hat first and it reminded me of a good spicy curry. Hence the name: Spice Hat. I then made an “herb” version for my second daughter in the colors of sage, rosemary and thyme. My oldest wanted a not so spicy mix of blues. But I can imagine this hat in any mix of colors: browns, purples or maybe greys.