Psychedelic swirl

The Smithson hat.  I really like it!

I got some of this crazy colorway on my latest vacation.  It's called Stone Temple, by Hanalei Strings in Kauai. I totally see why it's named that. The ruins of old stone temples tend to be dark black and grey, splashed with bright yellow-green moss.  I love how nature always wins over time.

Anyway, MoxieMan saw someone else knitting with it and said he thought it'd be great on a hat.  Off to Ravelry I went. So many choices.  Kinda stressful.  "Yeah, that's good."  "Yeah, that's pretty cool."  I couldn't get the reaction I wanted from MoxieMan, one that would make me sure it'd be a worthwhile endeavor.  But wait, there's this cool hat. It has cables, and other interesting textures.  Let's look at that. Oh wait, look! By the same designer, there's this spiraly one.

"That's it."

Finally.

My first glance at the instructions made me fret a little because it included stitches I wasn’t familiar with (namely, lifted increases). The abbreviations with their repeated letters intimidated me.

Once I got started, though, I found out the pattern is really fun. You know how some people enjoy making knit stitches more than purl stitches? I enjoy lifted increases more than other increases.

At one point the work got too big for my set of four double pointed needles, so I switched to magic loop-- and hated it. I quickly switched back to using a circular needle as a 5th double pointed needle. It doesn’t make those big holes where the gauge gets uneven from the “magic”.

Looks like I’m the first Raveler who did this in a variegated yarn. While I totally agree that a more solid color would show off the pattern better, Moxieman wanted this yarn and this pattern. It still looks really cool.  I can't wait to finish!