DIY: Turquoise Tête-Bêche Toddler’s Hat

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The Turquoise Tête-Bêche is my first project using slip stitch. I love the beauty of multi-stranded knitting, except I don’t enjoy handling two strands at once – they always seem to get tangled. Slip stitch is the solution to this.

This hat is from Pom Pom Quarterly’s Spring 2018 issue. Its theme is stamps, and a particular stamp inspired each of its projects. A Parisian stamp with the Eiffel Tower inspired the Turquoise Tête-Bêche. The little triangles on the hat look like mini towers.

The wool for this hat is Ístex Kambgarn, which I purchased on my and Meinhilde’s trip to Iceland last year. We purchased it in a grocery store! Yes, the grocery stores in Iceland (and the airport) sell wool! The main reason we travelled there was the rich wool culture. Read about our trip here.

Verena Cohrs designed the Tête-Bêche. The slip stitch pattern was an enjoyable colourwork project. The use of knits and purls create a raised texture, almost like a woven piece of fabric. It almost looks like the hat has a warp and weft. I am excited to explore more of this technique in future projects.

For this project, the needles sized 2.0 and 2.5 mm (US 0 and 1.5) and made a size 2. I intended this to be for me but the size is a little snug for an adult. I used a size 1 mm smaller than intended, which Meinhilde and I always do for our projects. We have a loose gauge and size down our needles to adjust for it. Perhaps this time I should have checked my gauge before sizing down. It is not a problem though, and I will gift it to someone with a smaller head than mine!

Another feature of this hat design I admire is the provisional cast on brim that folds over and joins before the hat’s body starts. This creates a neat double layered brim that is twice as warm – my must-have in a winter hat since my ears are always super cold.

Since the hat is smaller than expected, I didn’t block it on our regular adult hat block. Instead, two large bowls on top of one another (rim to rim) was the appropriate size and shape for the hat.