Flywing was born from a happy confluence of two things. First, I am a technique junkie, and motivated by a friend who requested that I design some more accessible patterns, I started experimenting with slipped stitches.

While this pattern looks complicated, it is just stripes with a few slipped stitches creating the dramatic impact. Since you only work with one color at a time, it is an ideal introduction to colorwork. Twice in each repeat, the beginning of round shifts to hide the dreaded jog. While that makes the pattern tangy, most of the work is pretty mellow. The crown decreases in pattern to a little star at the top.

For the second influence, in October, I went on a field trip to Neighborhood Fiber Co. The owner, Karida Collins, gave us a preview of the new yarn company she was launching with Ann Weaver: Plied Yarn Co. I knew immediately that I wanted to design with some of their cheerful colors; who couldn’t use a little cheer right now?! So stitch patterns and inspiring new yarn came together in Flywing.

My daughter saw the first version and asked me how it would look with the colors reversed. Since the skeins have generous yardage, I decided to find out, and the result surprised me. The only differences between the two hats are the ribbing color and height. (The second hat probably could have been slouchy too, but I wasn’t in the mood for yarn chicken.) If you look carefully, the hexagons are identical, but switching the MC and CC changes how you see the pattern. This was a happy accident, but there may be more experimentation with color theory in my future.