What Karen Knits: Selbu

I’ve been wanting to try some colorwork so I decided that this hat might make a good first project. I picked some leftover sock yarn that I thought both looked decent together and also had enough yardage. It wasn’t until I started working on the hat that I realized that the colors are John Deere colors. Oh well, the hat is mostly for practice. Perhaps if it turns out okay then I’ll donate it somewhere.

August 20: The colorwork had been really slow going. I was trying out different ways of holding the yarn (even getting some continental knitting going) but nothing was really comfortable. I was at the point where I just decided to pick up each color as I needed it, which was extremely time consuming to drop the yarn, pick up the other, knit a stitch, drop the yarn, pick up the other, knit two stitches, etc.

I got one of the Knitting Yarn Guides. It’s a very small piece of plastic, but what a difference it makes! It’s a lifesaver!! I think I knit 9 rows last night faster than I had knit the rest of the hat up to that point (11 rows plus the ribbing). The yarn guide keeps my yarn untangled, I can easily grab the color I need without having to drop anything. And the tension stays almost just right.

In fact, it helped so much, that I flew through the knitting of the rest of the hat and it’s now finished! I’m quite happy with how the colorwork came out. Now, the shape of the hat is another story. It’s not quite as flopsy as it probably should be, but that’s okay.