Fair Isle Earflap Cap

What a fun cap this was to make! And it's a good fit, too. The pattern is from the Japanese book called "Vintage Knitting in Tradition" and the cap is actually a gauge swatch for the sweater, a pullover on which I'm already making pretty good progress. All but one color of the yarn is the awesome Jamieson & Smith jumper weight -- 7 colors, all in heathers. One other color, a really good red, is Rowan's Scottish Tweed 4 ply. The ear flaps were a little fussy to do (I really dislike working back and forth in fair isle but will do so when forced to) -- they are lined with plain stockinette, sewn together, what a pain that was! The front & back of the cap have that little rolled edge, and the pattern had a cool aspect - one purl ridge, to make it easy to see where to sew the roll to the hat. However, being that it's a Japanese pattern, I didn't get that concept by looking at the charts, so my purl ridge wound up in the wrong spot! Oh well, I learned. I'm actually getting proficient enough at the Japanese patterns to start putting together a presentation for my local guilds on the subject -- goodness knows, I have enough Japanese knitting & crochet books to pass around (not to mention tatting & bobbin lace ones as well)! Plus at least 3 nice finished projects, including a pretty big lace table cover. I'm expecting 2 more books in the mail any day now -- can't wait. Meanwhile, I'm getting close to being done with a lace shawl with the Jamieson & Smith lace weight (the angel shawl from Fiber Trends); am nowhere near completing the Cobweb weight shawl (Maltese in Victorian Lace Today) but I do get one repeat done each morning; and am currently obsessed with the cuff-to-cuff Arrowheads Sweater from Isager's Knitting out of Africa -- also in J&S jumper weight, this time 2 wild solids, turquoise and royal purple. A lot, I know, but they're all coming out really nice. I'll probably always think of this spring/summer as my "J&S period" haha.