A Super Versatile Design

It was so fun sharing my Twinkle version of Full Spectrum last week and I really appreciate all the love it’s been getting! With that extra popularity, I’ve also been getting some questions about it, so I wanted to do one more post to share more about the pattern. I’ve shared a lot of this before, but I thought it would be helpful to have it all in one place.

Cara is holding a knitted tube closed at both ends with a rainbow on one side and 3-D, transparent boxes on the other.

The Original

When I designed Full Spectrum originally it was for a collaboration called Angles and Light with Gauge Dye Works. See the sample of that project shown above and below this paragraph. Catherine at Gauge dyed yarn that had this very cool mellow rainbow on one side and a bit of extra contrasting yarn to do stranded colourwork 3-D boxes on the other. So the pattern includes the 3-D boxes chart.

Gauge Dye Works gets different colourways in their shop all the time, so this one isn’t currently available, but if you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll be the first to hear if it comes back. The pattern also includes instructions on how to substitute yarn, so you can definitely make it with different yarn.

Variegated Fun

Another version I’ve made was a simple variegated/solid version, shown below. I’m not showing a picture of the inside because it’s the same as the outside. I used Gauge Dye Works yarn for this one, which means that both the variegated and solid were included in the same skein, but if you’ve got a lovely variegated skein of sock yarn on hand an some leftovers of a well-coordinating solid, this would be a great option. I left out the colourwork on this version and just did the Stockinette stitch parts in one colour and the ribbed parts in another. This is another Gauge colourway that’s not currently around, Pumpkin Spice, but the variegated I see in their shop right now, All Together Now, would be so cute and cheerful! I think I’d just use a dark grey solid for the brim, which they also offer.

This could also be A+ in any Spincycle Dyed in the Wool colourway!

And P.S. the sweater is Seablush.

How To Make It

To knit this one, I cast on in the variegated yarn as directed, worked in Stockinette stitch to the Ribbed brim (with no rainbow since I was using a no-rainbow yarn), worked the Brim in the solid colour, and then switched back to the variegated for the remainder of the project. I just skipped over the colourwork instructions and worked as directed until it measured 4”/10 cm from the brim and finished it off with the Crown instructions.

Andrea looking down. She's wearing a toque in bold blocks of red, green and blue with a brown coat.

Twinkle Version!

And if you’ve been following along this past week, the very bright colour blocked Twinkle is probably the one you’ve been seeing. I’m including the video again below cause it’s fun to see that doubled, reversible situation in action!

No audio. Andrea is showing off a reversible colour blocked toque, pulling it apart and then putting it back together and putting both sides on her head of messy braid hair.

How To Make It

The One Way Trip Twinkle yarn includes five big blocks of colour. Here’s a blog post from Catherine at Gauge Dye Works with info about Twinkle. But our sample knitter started at the hot pink end and finished up before the grey arrived, so the hat has four colours. If you’re not so much of a hot pink fan, you could definitely start at the dark grey end, which would get you a different look entirely.

One More Idea

I adore a giant folded brim on a snug beanie, so I decided to use the pattern for a very different look. Instead of creating a reversible toque, I just worked an extra long ribbed brim and finished it off with a tubular bind-off. It’s especially cozy because I knit it with a strand of regular fingering weight wool held together with a strand of mohair/silk lace weight. Read my post with more details on how to make this version here. (The sweater in the next photo is Dissent Pullover.)