This beautiful slouchy Fairisle hat is inspired by Wild Heather designed by Amanda Jones and published in Irresistible Christmas Gifts to Knit a free pattern booklet that came with a magazine.
As usual, I made changes as I am pretty much incapable of knitting a pattern without tweaking it.
Colour Inspiration
Choosing the shetland wool colours for a Fair isle hat is one of the big knitting pleasures in life. It is always made easier if you choose a photograph either one you have taken, or one torn from a magazine, as your colour inspiration. You are choosing colours that look truly beautiful together and that appeal to you. That is partly why using an image as inspiration really helps. It helps if you keep a colour folder of pictures where the colours really appeal to you.
I used a combination of Jamieson’s Spindrift, Virtual Yarns 2ply Hebridean and Jamieson & Smith 2-ply Jumper Yarn, all of which knit to a 4-ply weight. I don’t know the exact shades I used as the labels are lost. I chose colours that I thought looked lovely together. The pattern asked for 4 colours. I started by choosing dark purple for the rib brim and motifs, blue, sea green and dark peach.
In the pattern the background colours were worked in a repeating stripe pattern:
- 2 rounds of blue
- 2 rounds of sea green
- 2 rounds of dark peach
What drew me to this pattern? I’d wanted a new slouchy Fairisle hat for a while but knew that I would make some changes to this one. I loved the shape and style of the hat but wasn’t so keen on the colour choice.
After working on the first chart, I realised that I couldn’t bring myself to create asymmetric repeating stripes. I like my Fairisle to be more traditional with symmetrical repeating stripes of background colour behind the motifs
After working on the first two charts I decided that the colour scheme needed some oomph… so while working on chart C, I added two additional colours:
- light pink
- pale blush pink which was used for the centre round.
One of the joys of knitting fair isle motifs is watching the pattern develop and seeing how the colours are interacting with each other. If the effect isn’t how you imagine it, always add additional colours to add a little more spark. When working on Chart B for the second time, I used light pink instead of dark peach.
I worked the rib and all the chart motifs in dark purple (an effect that I loved in my inspirational photograph) and then did the first three rounds of stripes and found myself stopping and looking at the hat. Then I looked at the 3 chart patterns. I decided I wanted to reorder the chart patterns. So I worked:
- Chart A (6 stitch pattern over 5 rows), then
- Chart B (10 stitch pattern over 7 rows), then
- Chart C (19 stitch pattern over 17 rows), then
- Chart B, then
- Chart A before the shaping of the crown began.
For the crown, I returned to the knitting pattern instructions to work repeating rounds of blue, sea green, dark peach, and light pink. The final change came when I decided I didn’t like the little toggle and gathered the end tightly.
The day we were at the beach for photographing this lovely hat the tide was so far out, it allowed for wonderful views, and access to the barnacle-covered rocks. I had never seen such a low tide before so it was an awesome experience.
The pattern is well-written and easy to follow. This is one of my very favourite hats, wearable, warm yet light as a feather. Although if I was knitting it again, I think I would cast on fewer stitches for the ribbing and then increase for the fair isle elements. I think the ribbing is a little too loose.
I’ve looked at every single Fair Isle cap pattern on the internet and this one is BY FAR the most beautiful. Your choice of color is exquisite. Do you have any suggestions where I can get this pattern? I’m assuming that since it’s so old I’m going to be out of luck (and I’ve tried). The slouch looks fabulous on you!
The Slouchy Fair Isle Hat is based on Wild Heather by Amanda Jones. It was in the Irresistible Christmas Gifts to Knit handout that came with Simply Knitting 72 October 2010. I’d suggest doing a search on Ebay. I often find out of date magazines etc there.
I did tweak the pattern and changed the order of the fair isle patterns. I also added in a couple of extra colours.
Sorry! I didn’t make it clear with my last email that I want the Slouchy FairIsle Hat Pattern please
Hi Jane, This isn’t my pattern design. It is called Wild Heather and was designed by Amanda Jones. It came free in the Irresistible Christmas Gifts to Knit pamphlet with Issue 72 of Simply Knitting Magazine. It was published in October 2010. You could try contacting Simply Knitting Magazine. Sorry I can’t be of any further help. Nicolette
Hi
Where do I get the actual pattern for this slouch hat? Please could you advise me? I have all the kit ready to start and I’m itching to get started. This pattern really fits the frame for me. I look forward to your reply.