Stormtrooper :)

by Katherine
(Akron, Ohio, US)

Hi, My name is Katherine, and my question is this:

I want to make a hat that's got a stormtrooper helmet on the front.

However, I am not so sure the best way to go about this. I already have a design and everything. The hat is going to be all black and on the front is gonna be a big front of a stormtrooper's helmet. the design is 30 stitches wide and 32 rows tall.

I am using worsted weight yarn with size 7 US needles (if all this info helps)

Here is my 'dilemma' there are only two ways I can think of doing it.

I am thinking that I want to do it fair-isle way, you know using two colors and doing the trick that holds yarn when you go over many stitches before you switch again (I forget what its called). My design, however, is only for the front of the hat. would it make sense to carry the yarn all the way around before I am using it to start the pattern? I feel like that's wasting yarn, and stretching that all the way around, would it reduce some of the plushness of it and make it tighter?

The only other option I can think of is to cut the yarn after every round and start new, but that seems silly to have to weave all those ends in the end.

Is this even possible doing in the round, or do I gotta do it on straights?

Thanks!!

YOUR ANSWER

Hi Katherine, sorry it took so long for me to respond to this question.

I have done a bit of research for you and it appears that you are correct. Circular knitting is not a great method for Intarsia knitting because of the issue with carrying the yarn all the way around the 'round' or cutting the yarn at the end of each section of the pattern.

It seems that the best advice out there is to knit the piece on straight needles. But there is one other alternative and that is to knit the hat in the round all in black and then embroider the pattern on afterwards.

To do this you use a knitter's sewing needle and follow the yarn that forms the stitches that are supposed to be in another colour. It can be a bit fiddly but if you really want to knit using circular needles, it may be preferable to either carrying the coloured yarn around the hat or cutting it and rejoining on every round.

P.S for those of you who dod not know what Intarsia knitting is:

Intarsia involves larger blocks of colour on a solid background rather than an all-over pattern most often seen with Fair Isle knitting.