Christmas Again: Pumpkin Koolhaas Redux

My sister sent pictures of the Koolhaas I made her for Christmas! She's been making wonderful gifts for everyone else for years — even when there's not really an occasion other than that she loves us. Back in December, when we talked about the Koolhaas hat and she mentioned how much she wanted one, I decided to make it for her for Christmas.


Pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood
Started: December 14, 2007
Completed: December 17, 2007
Materials: Peace Fleece Worsted in Glastnost Gold
Needles: US 6 / 4.0 mm; US 8 / 5.0 mm

B adores all the colors of fall, so I knew the yarn would be in the autumn color range. I looked forward to an opportunity to work with colors outside my normal color scheme. I had just finished the J's Pumpkin Koolhaas, so I figured I'd keep B's out of the orange colorway. I knew from my conversation with her, though, that she was interested in something tweedy like I'd done for J. Peace Fleece had been on my mind since the planning stages of J's Urban Aran. I knew it would be great for this hat.

So off I went to my LYS, all but flinging myself towards the Peace Fleece. Fortunately, I had cell phone in-hand. As I perused the stacks and contemplated the options — and found myself holding tweeds in lovely reds and greens (colors I do usually work with) — I realized I needed to get B on the phone and talk through the fiber selection with her. Just hearing her voice got me right back on track with my thinking: "This is a gift for my sister. Her favorite color in the world is orange. Of course her hat should be orange."

Peace Fleece is quite dense in this pattern. (Read: Will get you through the deepest freeze.) I like the way the cabling nestles in to the fabric rather than popping way out on top. It’s a very different look that I find really beautiful – and the hat looks better on people (like me) who have fuller faces and, therefore, can’t pull off skullies in lighter weights.


It’s a little hard to tell from the online screed res, but this is a beautiful, subtle tweed, with red, yellow, and teal/green in the little nubbins.

I got better gauge with this than the Tahki Donegal I used on J’s. It didn't turn out as long as his. No need to roll the brim.

Note that I had quite a bit of yarn left over. I purchased one skein and still have about 50g left!

In the end, I'm so glad I went with the orange! My fears that two orange projects in a row would get boring were unfounded. The Peace Fleece and the Tahki Donegal used on J's hat are so different that I found myself fascinated with the nuances of difference between the two and was actually glad to have done one right after the other.

Best of all, B says she loves it and, occasionally, even has opportunity to wear this woolly wonder in New Orleans.

I enjoyed working with the orange so much that I went and got myself a skein of orange sock yarn and look forward to knitting it up!