Light Purple: 14” unstretched, 20-24” stretched
Dark Purple: 18” unstretched, 22-26” stretched

I needed a cool way to use these two gorgeous purple yarns, and was struck by the striping in the Turn A Square hat. The yardage works, the idea of learning how to do jogless stripes, which I’ve read about, is intriguing, and being able to use up some yarn sounds great!

To make it look less like my head is one large purple mass I’m using this lovely brown Jojoland to break of the color. I cast on 96 stitches in the brown, as per the pattern, and after three rows discovered that I had messed up the 2x2 ribbing in a couple of places. Guess what? I don’t care. It’s a design feature!

I will have enough yarn to make myself a gazillion hats. I’m going to alternate colors every three stripes so that each hat is unique and I can tell them apart.

The first hat was knit mostly on size 8 needles. It was a little loose for me (Miss 24” Head) so it’ll probably fit a large guy’s head better. Luckily, I used two stripes of the dark Kid Classic so it will also look more like a guy’s hat!

I’m knitting the next hat on size 6 and 7 US needles, which I think will make a tighter, nicer hat for me. By the way, each hat is taking about two days to finish. Nice time!

The inspiration photo is of a type of Phalaenopsis orchid, which was discovered in 1825 by botanist Carl Ludwig Blume. Ironically, he was born at the height of the “frilly” age of fashion, when men were still prancing around in wigs, high heels and makeup, and died at the height of the “Victorian” era, the last time Gothic was mainstream. I think he might have been amused by the way the colorway names blend so well with this subject.