Finished: Goats of Inversnaid hat

I'm a big fan of Kate Davies' patterns. Last year she released a number of patterns to coincide with the release of her new range of wool. While I haven't bought any of the wool, I was really taken with her Goats of Inversnaid Pattern for a hat and mitts.

Can you see the sweet kissing goats?

I used yarn leftover from 3 past projects - the red and blue are New Lanark yarns that coincidentally were both leftovers from making other Kate Davies patterns. The mustard is a West Yorkshire Spinners DK. I really love the New Lanark - it's not super soft at first but is a great hard wearing yarn and softens up really nice when blocked with wool wash.

I spent quite a while looking at my stash of odd balls of yarn before deciding on this colour combination - the blue and mustard work together well because the blue has small yellowy flecks within it.

Before knitting, I knew I would never be able to get Kate's gauge and I didn't make a gauge swatch because it's never the same knitting in the round as flat (and I was being lazy). I just started knitting and had to rip back a couple of times to make amendments but it was no big deal as it was a small project. Not quite the same as starting the body of a sweater or cardigan and not something I would normally do! To compensate for the gauge without using much smaller needles, I left out one pattern repeat and then left out one horizontal row of goats. This has resulted in a hat that fits really well.

I also made the hearts red to match the ribbing, and I love this amendment.

The hat was an enjoyable knit and a great scrap project. The floats of the yarn make it really warm, and the yarn has softened up beautifully with blocking in Eucalan.

My next project is a cardigan - an ever useful garment.

K x