Hat-a-week, day 21

Ahh, a long weekend. The perfect chance to knock out another hat! The idea for this design came from a friend of my hubby's. Here is an in-progress shot:

Look familiar? If you recognize it, you must be a fan of pro wrestling. For the record, I am not, but Jason and his friends are. Big-time. 

The "nWo" design was created by stranding the white and black yarn together, a technique that is also referred to as Fair Isle. I'll explain more about that in another post. The two little rings you see in the picture above are stitch markers, which I used to make sure the design was in the right spot.

Here is the finished hat!

I added the white rectangle after the hat was finished, using the embroidery backstitch with white yarn. It came out a little crooked, but it actually kinda works that way. Here's a chart for any other knitters interested in making a wrestling hat:

Quick note on the design: even though the design itself is worked using Fair Isle, you'll still need to work it back and forth in rows. Fair Isle in the round only works if the design goes all the way around the circumference. I realized this about one round before I was going to start knitting the design. I was able to find a way to cheat and work it in the round using a technique from Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting. The SnB books are some of my favorite knitting guides. I love the way Debbie Stoller explains things.

I already have my next hat in mind, featuring one of my favorite retro video game characters: Pac-Man! Stay tuned.