knit auburn helmet

using the pilot cap pattern i purchased from little turtle knits i
made a little auburn helmet for "dolphin".
it just seems so little! chris was quick to remind me that "babies
are little".

the way i have found to do patterned colorwork in a knit piece is to
grid it out.
first i do a swatch- just a 20x20 stitch piece in stockinette stitch.
then i measure how many stitches can fit into an inch square area.
there are always more stitches fitting into the height of the inch
square(because stitches are shorter than they are wide).
so after i measure(i think for this particular yarn and needle combo i
came up with 4stitches wide by 6 stitches tall) then i grid it out
using the stitch dimensions.
so on a piece of paper i draw a grid using a straight edge. it ended
up looking a little squashed- remember how stitches are shorter than
they are wide?
so after i drew the grid and established my perimeter(the height and
width I ended up wanting the "AU" to be) i colored in the boxes i
wanted to knit dark blue.



finally, when it came to knitting, I just followed the grid, knitting
blue when i needed to.
after the knitting was done i went back and stitched the edges in
orange to give it more of a finished look.
i have done a dallas cowboys helmet for my nephew- so i think it could
work for any simple patterned football helmet.