This is the second Christmas that my brother has asked me for a toque. Last Christmas, he just asked for a toque. This year, however, he was pretty specific. “Can I have the same one as last year, just new?” No problem. Jared Flood’s Turn-a-Square is a great pattern and it knits up quickly. Because my brother has a small head, both years I downsized the pattern by using a full needle size smaller. The ribbing is on a 3.00mm 16” circular and the toque itself is knit on 4.00mm 16” circular. I think next year I won’t actually do the increases after the ribbing – my brother’s head is just not big enough to need them. The cast-on number of stitches are perfect for the size needed for him – I’ll try that next year.
The Noro Silk Garden is the same ball as last year but that’s the beauty of Noro – because the first row of colour picks up right where the other one left off, the colour changed right away (you can see the first row of blue in this toque) and – LO! – I ended up a green toque. Very green. Thankfully, my brother loves green. The solid colour is Cascade 220 wool in navy blue. It’s a very dark colour of navy and almost looks black, but it’s not. I really like it and the toque that I knit for my father-in-law is out of the rest of the skein (I got both toques out of the one skein).
Mistakenly, I didn’t do 3 rows of solid and 2 rows of Noro until the crown. I totally forgot. So it ended up being quite green being 2:2 rows of solid:noro – and bright. But I still like it. When dear husband and I were out on our walk yesterday and I was photographing, the colours look great. For blocking, I pinned the 4 corner crowns to my blocking mats and let it dry. It worked well because the square is quite nicely defined compared to the one I knit for my brother last year.
Did I mention that I was photographing yesterday? December 16th. Yup – Vancouver is still bright green and although the trees are naked (except the evergreens in the background), it looks like Fall. Hope the weather where you are is treating you nicely too!
-r.
