Adventures in Fair Isle Knitting

So a couple of weeks ago...namely at the beginning of the year, I decided that I needed to expand my knitting horizons and learn a new technique...fair isle or stranded knitting. The match was struck when I saw Jess' fab Norwegian stockings and blog jumped to discover the Norwegian KAL. It was going to be quite sometime until by Folk Socks book came in and I was able to travel to my LYS to pick out yarn for the stockings...SO MJ plugged me into Bea Ellis and her fabulous kits. I ordered the Traditional Norwegian Hat and it arrived lickety split! Then of course was the simultaneous quest for the yarn guide, which proved crucial to the success of this project.
I was so eager to start and finish the hat for my nephew's birthday that I ended up starting and frogging this project twice before the third time was the charm. First, I miscounted and cast on too many...FROG #1. Then I twisted the join and somehow in my own little fog world didn't realize it until I was about to start the chart...FROG #2.
But thankfully, all the planets were in alignment and I was able to go on my merry way.
I started the hat for the third and final time on January 14, 2006 and finished on January 21, 2006. The kit came complete with the yarn for the lining...in a navy and then E and I chose from Bea's website the Dale Heilo colors for contrast #6031 and then main was #5774, which we matched up to my nephew's winter coat. The yarn guide made my life SOOOOO easy! No frustration whatsoever in stranding...although I didn't relax enough for the long strands and the hat did pucker a bit before blocking.
Speaking of blocking...thanks Amanda for your hints as afterall this was only my second trip down the blocking land.
I soaked for 10 minutes with a 1/3 cap of Woolite, rinsed, and placed on a towel on the floor, folded said towel over, stepped around a bit, and then placed on a medicine ball to shape and block.
Hopefully my sister will take some pics of my nephew modeling his new hat so all of the shots will not be next to lifeless objects.
So next up will be the stranded fun of the Finnish Socks from Folk Socks, flipping the predominate main to red and the contrast to off white in Dale Baby Ull. Wish me luck!

A Flickr badge has the evolution of this project captured underneath the profile and now for a static pic of the finished hat!