Béret généreux

The Béret généreux by Isabelle Allard is a free download from Ravelry. I stumbled upon it while we were visiting my parents. I needed a tam with a flower-like pattern on top for worsted yarn I had just purchased. If I couldn't find a pattern I would have designed my own, but having everything laid out for you certainly makes things quicker and easier. Somehow between waiting for planes, a flight, more waiting, another flight, and resting at home that evening I managed to get this done. Practically in one day! (cast on the brim the night before, and redid the brim a few days later)

The details:
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Worsted Merino Superwash Solids in Light Moss (13) and Butter (20) 1 skein each. (I actually used just under half a skein of each)
Needles:US 3 - 3.25mm & US 6 - 4.0 mm

Changes:
I didn't have a good mental image of what the colorwork brim was supposed to look like, and I had trouble understanding the instructions. I blame it on a loud TV, a very cold house, and being fairly tired that evening. I opted to switch the brim to a K2P2 ribbing since the math would work out perfectly. I switched to a US 4 - 3.5mm needle instead of the US 5 - 3.75mm the pattern called for. I wanted a stretchy brim!

After blocking I realized that the brim was still too large. I cut the yarn just above the increase row and pulled out all the stitches attaching the brim to the body of the hat. I then picked up stitches on  a US 3 - 3.25mm and worked backwards.

Here's how I did it - in all the gory detail (for those of you who actually wish to know)
(and there's even a little explanation to you non-knitters at the end of the post!)

The pattern calls for: 108 stitches CO, increase at the rate of K3, M1. Which gives you 144 stitches.
Reverse equals 144 stitches on the needles, Decrease with K2, K2tog, which gives you 108 stitches.

I took a gauge of my ribbing and discovered that my brim was 24 inches! Wowza. I wanted a brim that was around 22 inches instead. Here's where math comes in. 108 (cast on) / 24 (inches) = 4.5.  Take that 4.5 x 22 (wanted inches) = 99. Rounding down, because it is ribbing after all, the nearest number divisible by 4 (for the K2P2 ribbing) is 96. Voila! A perfect match. And it was perfect because of one little detail: I was able to decrease evenly across the hat instead of at an odd rate.

To break it down even further, here's what I found. 108 (orig CO) / 3 (orig K sts between M1s) = 36. Multiply 36 x 4 (K sts + the M1) = 144. I wanted 96 sts....96 (new CO) / 2 (guessed new qty of K stitches between M1s) = 48. Multiply 48 x 3 (K stitches + the M1) = 144. The only thing that changed was the CO number, and the quantity of stitches K between the M1s, hence my considering it as 'perfect'.

What I did: started with 144 stitchees, decreased with K1, K2tog, which gave me 96 stitches.
Reverse equals 96 stitches for the CO, increase at a rate of K2, M1. Which gives you 144 stitches.

(CO = Cast On - K = Knit - M1 = Make one stitch)

I'm still not the best stranded knitter, but my work is certainly improving. I think having this thicker yarn certainly helped. I had just knit the Beaumont Tam (posting about that one soon) and I was fairly loose in my gauge. I easily tightened up and kept consistent with this hat and yarn. I couldn't be happier!

And for those of you who like to see the inside of color-work, here ya go...

For you non-knitters 'stranded knitting' means knitting with 2 different strands of yarn simultaneously. While you are knitting with one color the 2nd color 'floats' along the back of the work until it is needed again. At that point the yarns swap places and the first color 'floats' along the back. Above you will see horizontal lines 'floating' along the hat. These are exactly that - Floats. The longer the float, which means the longer you knit with the other strand, the more of a chance one of those floats will get caught on something. You don't worry about it so much in hats, but it's vertainly a concern in mittens. Which is why a lot of mittens that are knit in multiple colors with patterns will be lined. It's not so that your hands keep warmer (which is a bonus though!); it's so that your fingers or rings don't get caught on the floats and get stuck or damage the yarn, or even the pattern.

There, you are now a more informed consumer.