I was hoping to get this post up last week, but it’s been so busy with the semester start I’m only just getting it up!

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know I love the Fringe Hatalong series Karen is running this year, so when she got in touch with me to design pattern #4, I was thrilled! Let me introduce you to Laurus:

Laurus is a free pattern available as a PDF download from the Fringe website right here. Most of the pertinent info is included in the Fringe blog post, including some info about swatching, knitting from a colorwork chart, and our featured charity for this pattern, Hats and More for War-Torn Syria. I don’t want to overlap too much with Karen’s post, but I did want to share some more about this pattern and how we arrived at it.

The recommended yarn is Quince & Co. Lark, one of my very favorites. I love the Quince & Co. concept, since their wools (and their new cotton yarn, Willet) are all grown and produced domestically in the United States, with an emphasis on sustainable practices. Lark is a worsted weight 100% wool yarn available in 55 different colors (at current count). I chose Lark for the pattern not just because I love it (though I do), but also because I find the built in “compare” tool on the Quince website particularly useful when choosing yarns for a colorwork project. On any of the yarn pages on the Quince site if you click “compare colors” underneath the large photo at left, you’re able to view up to five colorways side by side. Genius!

One of the things I strive to do as a designer and a teacher is to emphasize the creative possibilities of modifications and the differences our creative decisions can make for our finished object. Since many folks knitting this hat for the hatalong may be doing colorwork for the first time (or have limited experience with colorwork), I suggested to Karen that we work up the hat in two different versions – but both versions would use the same two colorways, and simply swap the main color and contrasting color. I think this completely changes the feel of the hat, even though both samples use the same two colors.

I wanted to illustrate that color placement within a project makes a huge difference – and that’s something you may not be able to visualize when looking at two skeins of yarn side by side. Swatching is a great way to work out what two colors might look like for your chosen pattern, but colored pencils and graph paper can also be a useful visualization tool.

We released the pattern last Thursday, but several speedy knitters have already worked up their hats! I’ve seen a version that omits the stripes and I’ve also seen a version that takes the Laurus chart and uses it on a Moon Sprites hat instead – both clever and creative, two things I enjoy the most when browsing FOs! I love watching the projects progress, and you can share (or just browse) Fringe hatalong projects everywhere with the tag #fringehatalong.

I encourage you to give this hat a try even if you’ve never done colorwork – this pattern’s a great starting point with only 7 rounds of colorwork and it’s a simpler and more repetitive motif than it appears to be at first glance. I’ll be on hand to answer any questions I see popping up as well. I can’t wait to see your hats!

All photos by Kathy Cadigan.