File under: Crazy

I have a bit of thing for leopard prints.

A couple of weeks ago the lovely Sue brought this pattern to my attention: Stray. It's a stranded colourwork hat, in leopard print. 

I bought the pattern that day, and immediately went stash diving for yarn.

Well, naturally, I didn't have much of a selection of yarn in that gauge, but I did manage to find three skeins of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, a yarn I love very much. It's warm, and blocks beautifully, and it has a great little halo I thought would be nice for this design, to suggest a bit of 'furriness'.

The problem, however, was that I didn't have anything like appropriate colours. Oh sure, I had a nice medium brown - but the contrast colour choice was limited. I had a couple of shades of orange. (This should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me.)

So I did what any sensible knitter would do: I cast on anyway.

So herewith, an orange leopard print hat.

I've been working on it as I've been riding Go Transit this week, and it's been an ideal travel project. It needs a lot of attention, but it's not a big project.

The colours, however, aren't the craziest thing about this project.

It's that it's THREE COLOUR stranded colourwork.  Yes, three colours per round.

It is one of the most fun projects I've ever knitted, but it is a hair, shall we say... 'toothy'...

If you're looking for a challenging and engaging colourwork project... if you're feeling emboldened by my presentation last Tuesday... or if you just need something to do to frighten your other knitter friends... Stray is it!

(P.S. Fab project bag is from Pip N Milly Creations - I adore this design for colourwork as the yarnballs sit neatly side-by-side in the flat bottom, and the clear front means I can more easily keep track of potential tangles.)