Homage to Shackleton Tam.

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton led an expedition to Antarctica in the ship Endurance. It became trapped in the ice, then crushed, leaving the 29 men with no means of communication or of escape. Shackleton led them over the ice to uninhabited Elephant Island to set up camp and live on seal and penguin meat. He then embarked with 5 of his crew on a heroic voyage in the ship’s engineless 22’ lifeboat over 800 miles of Antarctic ocean to South Georgia to find help. All expedition members were rescued alive 5 months later, when Shackleton returned for them in a Chilean tugboat. This tam is in honour of Shackleton’s enterprise and courage in saving all his crew.

It is constructed in tradition Fair Isle method of circular knitting with a ribbed brim, 6- segmented crown, and no more than 2 colours in each round. There are no colour changes on decrease rounds, and only 1 colour change in any round. But the motifs are far from traditional, including icebergs floating in the sea, penguins, and in the crown, the sailing ship Endurance sinking into the ice-crusted ocean. You could make it in any 8 colours, but the colours I have chosen reflect those I have observed in Antarctica (see photo).

This is not a beginner’s project, because of the complexity of the design and the number of colours used. I have altered the chart slightly since completing the test knit, because the finished hat seemed a bit too big. The only change is to include only one set of icebergs rather than two, as in the photos.

Making the Hat
Skills needed:
Knit, Purl, Make 1, Centred Double Decrease (explained in this pattern), 2-handed knitting, knitting in round, weaving in strands at the back of the work, reading a chart.

Materials.

4-ply fingering (jumper weight) wool yarn in 8 colours, 25 gm balls with some left over.
I suggest you use pure Shetland wool, which has the right texture (lofty and slightly fuzzy) for Fair Isle colourwork.
My example was knitted in Jamiesons of Shetland Supreme Jumper weight in 5 dyed colours, and 3 natural colours handspun from my own Shetland flock.

Jamiesons:
165 Dusk (deep purple/green)
188 Sherbet (bright pink)
135 Surf (pale turquoise)
628 Parma (mid blue-purple)
861 Sandalwood (subtle orange/pink)

Natural Black
Natural White
Steel Grey (Jamiesons’ Sholmit)

Needles: 2.25mm and 3mm for fingering, either circular or DPNS. If you use the Magic Loop method, 100cm circular or longer: if you use a succession of circular needles, 40, 20 cm length.
6,7 or 8 stitch markers to mark pattern repeats (if wanted), including a distinctive one for the round end.
Sewing needle to weave in yarn ends.
Dinner plate for blocking, 10 inch, if traditional tam-shape is wanted.

I like to use a strip of highlighter tape to mark the round being worked on the chart. If you keep the chart in a plastic sleeve, you can move the tape up the chart as you go.

Gauge: Fingering: 24 st and 30 rows to 10cms approximately. Adjust your needle size to match this roughly, depending on your tension. (The sizing, followed by blocking, is pretty forgiving.)

If you buy the pattern, you’ll receive 2 separate files to download, a full-colour chart of the Fair Isle pattern and a file of detailed written knitting instructions.