Folkvang Tam

Folkvang is a classic tam with a couple of twists

Folkvang tam, here shown in indigo blue with accents from velvet pax and reed flowers.

Color knitting makes a wonderfully warm fabric, but the yarns that behave the very best in stranded knitting are not very wonderful right against the skin.

I think I’ve solved that problem with the design for the Folkvang tam. The first twist is that it begins with a turned hem, lined with laceweight silk-merino, Bestla (600 m / 100 g, or 656 yards / 3.53 oz). Then, the rest of the hem and hat is knit in Fenris, my pure wool 2-ply fingering (450 m / 100 g, or 492 yards / 3.53 oz).

So you have the warmth and strength of Fenris, but only the soft Bestla touches your forehead.

Inside the hem, there’s lovely soft Bestla silk-merino.

The other twist is the color knitting. I’ve admired Bohus knitting for a very long time, and this design draws its inspiration from the Bohus tradition.

Bohus designs are often asymmetric in the direction of knitting, so motifs don’t have a center that they repeat around. During swatching, I did away with that, settling on a simple square pattern with repeated rounds. The important thing that I kept from traditional Bohus is purl stitches in the colorwork. That is what really makes the design, and I am a bit in love with the way that purling makes the background colors mix together:

The blue Folkvang tam on the left, on the right, a version dyed only with mushrooms: the grey-green is from velvet pax, the pinks from Cortinarius species.

To celebrate the release of the pattern, is is 50% off until Sunday November 26th at my Ravelry store.

And, the first 25 to comment below get a free copy of the pattern.

Looking for Folkvang knitting kits? They’re at my Etsy store!

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23 thoughts on “Folkvang Tam

  1. Love this Tam…looking forward to the knitting…fine yarn with small gauge needles…my happy place!

  2. I love your new Folkvang Tam pattern!

  3. Interesting design!

  4. Love the design and am wondering how the slouchy hat would look on my head. I usually knit hats to fit size 20” head because I like hats snug around my face but then slouchy.

    Think I will order the kit but it’s hard to choose which colors since I like them all!

    Beautiful and creative- love it!!

  5. so pretty and this looks like a great way to use some leftovers from previous projects. total win-win

  6. Lovely design! This would be my first time knitting a Bohus pattern, and also first time knitting a tam. Maybe it’s time I tried something new!

  7. Beautiful colors and a lovely design. I think I’m in love 🙂

  8. Very pretty design 🙂

  9. Very very pretty

  10. I love this pattern – great stuff!

  11. Gorgeous!

  12. This is such a beautiful design. I have never seen anything like it before. I must cast on!!!

  13. Beautiful design, I would like to try it.

  14. Beautiful design!

  15. This is gorgeous! I love the modern take on colourwork!

  16. It’s really an interesting pattern, almost vintage looking

  17. Interesting pattern… The hat looks super cool 🙂

  18. I was just looking to try a color-work tam and this fits the bill! Thanks for the design

  19. What a beautiful pattern, I love it!

  20. This is so beautiful and unique! Love it!

  21. lovely pattern, modern and has a nice visual rhythm

  22. So unique! Love it.

  23. Oh, I’m sorry to have missed this beauty. Will try to catch up. 🙂

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