Quark
A slip-stitch colorwork beanie pattern by Corrado Lark

The Needs:

Needles:

• US 7 (4.5 mm) 16” circular needle or DPNs.
• US 9 (5.5 mm) 16” circular needle or DPNs.
• US 9 (5.5 mm) 32-40” circular needles for magic loop or DPNs.

Yarn:

• Myak Medium, 100% Baby Yak (125yds/50g per skein)
  • Color A: The “Burgundy” colorway.
  • Color B: The “Ochre” colorway

Notions:

• One beginning of round stitch marker.
• 5 (6, 7) (8, 9, 10) stitch markers to make notating your repeats easier.
• A tapestry needle.

Gauge:

• Using larger needles, 19 stitches and 19 rounds per 4” of blocked, slip-stitch stockinette.

Sizing:

• Youth (XS, S) (M, L, XL)
• Actual body of hat circumference in inches: 12.5 (15, 17.5) (20, 22.5, 25)”.
• Actual body of hat circumference in centimeters: 31.5 (38, 44.5) (50.5, 57, 63.5) cm.

The Notes:

The pattern uses twisted corrugated ribbing and then slip stitch colorwork, but any colorwork technique can feasibly work (stranded, etc.), and you could always go for a regular twisted rib, regular corrugated rib, or even ditch the twist and corrugation altogether and just go for a standard 1x1 ribbing. It’s up to you, just make sure you have a little extra yardage in whatever color you choose if you go the one-color ribbing route.

The Backstory:

After finishing the “After Effect” hat, I jumped straight into expanding the concept to other weights of yarn. The lovely Myak medium was perfect for the “larger scale pattern” I wanted in a worsted beanie.

At the same time, I was watching a documentary on quarks. A quark by definition is any of a number of subatomic particles carrying a fractional electric charge, postulated as building blocks of the hadrons. Quarks have not been directly observed but theoretical predictions based on their existence have been confirmed experimentally.

Experimentation, subatomic particles, and theories? Is it any surprise I’m fascinated by the subject? So I decided they deserved a knitting pattern inspired by them.

Who knows, when we discover what a quark is observed to be, maybe it’ll be in a pattern like my hat?!

Note: The yarn and pom pom depicted can be found at The Knitting Place!