Friday, September 7, 2007

Freebie Friday- Fair Isle Tam



Please note- added 10/17/07: this pattern comes out pretty large. I felted the original by hand and that took care of the size issues (the original was long gone by the time I wrote the pattern page up). You might want to drop down a needle size (or even two) to knit this tam. I ammended the pattern page with this information.


I'm not sure I'll have an original free pattern ready to post every Friday,




but when I do, I will. Here is the first one- a Fair Isle tam. The pattern isn't exactly *written*- it's just notes on the chart page, but I think most moderately experienced knitters will be able to figure out what to do with the info on the page. The tam is long gone (given away), but I seem to remember that it was fairly roomy. You


might want to drop down a needle size, or felt it a little bit after finishing (unless you want a large tam). Sorry it's not more precise- I'll try to do better next week. If you knit this, shoot me a pic and I'll post it.




11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Kathleen Taylor said...

Thank you- I really enjoyed designing and knitting it.

Christine said...

Very cool. My one question: do you have a recommended tension? I get funky tension when I'm doing stranded work, so I might get a tight enough tension or tighter with 4.5 mm needles instead of going down a size.

Kathleen Taylor said...

Magpie, I wish I could help you with this question. Unfortunately, the tam itself has been given away, and for some reason I didn't write down the gauge in my notes. I'm really sorry. If your stranded gauge is tight, you can probably get by with the pattern as written because my tension is a bit looser. When I get a chance (i'm not at home right now), I'll knit a swatch and ammend the pattern. Thanks for your patience.

Christine said...

Actually, it occurs to me that the use of a tapemeasure would solve a lot of the problems, because then I can figure out what tension I want, even if it's for a completely different sized hat. I'm going to guess that I wasn't quite awake... had a very late night.

Angelika said...

I just found your tam on ravelry. Imagine that, you design for knit picks and I test knit for them. Maybe we'll get paired up sometime.

Miranne said...

I did a Ravelry search for berets, and stubled upon this beautiful tam. Thank you for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kathleen- the tam is just breathtaking. The colors are so soft and rich. I'm afraid it is beyond my capabilities as it is written, but I recently purchased your Fearless Fairisle Knitting so maybe I'll work up to it. :-) I am saving the photo for the color combination though- just beautiful. Thank you!

Tamra said...

May I please have the free pattern for this? Thank you.

Kathleen Taylor said...

Tamra- the pattern is in this blog post. Click on the image to enlarge it, and then download it to your computer and print it out.

YvonneM70 said...

I agree. I would knit a gauge swatch and get a measurement of my head. Armed with that info, I believe I can make a customed, fitted beret