Collusion (plus giveaway)

It all started so simply.  I wanted to play with two yarns but not to do the hard parts of colorwork (using two yarns in the same row scares me every time).  And I wanted to play with slipped stitches.  Before I knew it, there were three new hats in the world!  The third, Collusion, is out today.

It continues the theme started with Entrapment and Misprision.  You only ever use one yarn per row, and you make all the fancy bits happen by slipping stitches.  It really is sort of amazing what you do within those constraints!  And there’s something deeply satisfying about making something that looks so intricate out of just slipping stitches (which is about the most basic knitting technique you can imagine).

And yes…yes this hat is a victim of my recent pompom addiction.  But don’t worry, the pompom is optional.  I officially give you permission to blatantly ignore it if it’s not your style.  It’s still awfully cute without the extra adornment…just look what the top does!  Then again, I’ve noticed at serious increase in compliments from strangers on the street when my hats have pompoms, so maybe you should give it a try!

And I promise, this really is just a tube of stockinette…if you can knit stockinette in the round and count to three, you can do this!  The only hard part is picking out which yarn you want to show off.  I used Tosh Vintage for the background of all three of the hats in the series, and Tosh Merino Light as the accent yarn.  My contrast yarn is solid, but this would be a beautiful way to use a variegated yarn that might be tricky to use by itself.  Just pair it with a mellow background and watch it shine!

I’ve got a spare skein of each of the yarns I used to send off to someone.  If you think it should be you, just leave a comment telling me how you feel about using two yarns at once.  Never tried it? A little scared? Only under duress? Two is too easy, you like three or four?  There’s no right or wrong answer, I just like hearing how you guys feel about things!

And for everyone I can’t send yarn to (I’m just not cool enough to get yarn to everyone, sorry!), I’ve got a coupon for this pattern.  You can use the code SLIP to get 10% off the hat between now and Friday.  Just put Collusion in your ravelry cart, click on the ‘use a coupon code’ button, and type in the code SLIP.  You’ll see the change in price reflected right away.