March of 2019, my husband and I decided to attend the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. My husband’s family were 19th Century Scottish immigrants, so we wanted to discover where they lived and loved. While we were visiting Lockerbie and his namesake Parish of Dryfesdale, we decided to explore a nearby castle. It was a rainy afternoon in March when we discovered Caerlaverock Castle. It’s a castle ruin, surrounded by a moat. It’s pink walls, a moss covered rock and fireplaces made our imaginations run wild. We read about the Maxwell family how they defended the castle in the lowlands of Scotland.
A few days later, we were looking on my husband’s Family Tree App, and found a line he had never seen before. He was related to Lady Catherine (Kate) Maxwell of Caerlaverock Castle, and the 10 generations of Maxwells who built and lived (and rebuilt and defended) Caerlaverock Castle. We just had to design a hat in their honor. This hat has a luckenbooth motif, a Celtic knot, thistles, and a nod to the Scottish flag.
The Lady Catherine Hat is knit in the round. Generally, the hat is knit with two colors at once but there are a few rounds with three colors knit at the same time.
Size One size fits average head (22 inches). Hat size can be altered by changing gauge and knitting with smaller or larger needles as needed. Yarn Jamieson Spindrift 100% real Shetland Approx 105 m per 25 g ball or equivalent fingering weight yarn. Main Color 104 Natural White 1 x 25 g ball Contrasting Colors Yarn A 567 Damask 1 x 25 g ball Yarn B 147 Moss 1 x 25 g ball Yarn C 170 Fjord 1 x 25 g ball Yarn D 141 Camel 1 x 25 g ball Yarn E 246 Wren 1 x 25 g ball Yarn F 230 Yellow Ochre 1x 25 g ball Yarn G 1190 Burnt Umber 1 x 25 g ball Needles Size 2.75 mm (US 2) and 3.25 mm (US 3) double-pointed, 16-inch circular or Flexiflips. If using a circular needle you will need to use double-pointed needles or Flexiflips to finish the crown Gauge and Swatch 28 stitches and 33 rows = 4 inches in stranded colowork Skills Used Long-tail cast on backward loop increase Knit Purl knit with one color and purling with another for corrugated ribbing knitting with 2 colors knitting with 3 colors (for only a few rows here and there). K2 psso decrease
If you are new to Jamieson Spindrift, it gets softer and dreamer with each wash and wear. It’s completely worthy of an heirloom knit.
