Knitted Series

At school I often talk to students about artists who work in series. I discuss the benefits for artists to create a series: the repetitive nature offers an opportunity to improve a skill or experiment with a new media and the slight changes in every piece create interest and document your experimentation. Well, I thought I should experiment a bit with my work as well. A knitted hat series is the result. In September of 2008, I needed to make several baby hats for my friends. I am at that age where all my friends are getting married, are married, are having children, or have children already... you know, those early middle years where everyone is sleep deprived because so many things are changing in their lives and they just can't seem to keep up. And thus, the knitted hat series was born. One for Baby Sylvia, One for Baby Gabrielle, and One for the Little Boy yet to be born. Knitting a series is great. I made each hat a different size and color and I experimented with a new technique called jogless color change. My goal was to make the stripes exactly the same all the way around the hat- meaning no seam showing where the one color ends and the new color is picked up and knit.
In order to do this, work one round with the new color (B), remove the marker, lift the previous color (A) stitch below the first B color stitch onto the left-hand needle; knit 2 stitches together (lifted stitch of color A and first stitch of color B), replace the marker. Note: The beginning of the round will move 1 stitch to the left at each color change. This is important to notice when you begin decreasing for the crown. Be careful when you get near the marker and make sure to follow your decreases from previous rows so that they are consistent. The end result, no stripes with ugly jumps marking the beginning of each row where you change colors. Nice neat rows. Amazing huh?