The word ombré means “having colors or tones that shade into each other —used especially of fabrics in which the color is graduated from light to dark” It is derived from the French verb ombrer (to shade). I think that this aptly describes the following hat, where a simple colorwork pattern causes one color to shade into the next.

Up to 9 colors of worsted weight wool (between 1-11 g of each color; 67 g total). I used KnitPicks Wool of the Andes scraps in Evergreen (A - 11 g), Avocado (B - 7 g), Grass (C - 8 g), Spruce (D - 9 g), Wonderland Heather (E - 8g), Cloud (F - 8 g), Lake Ice Heather (G - 6 g), Blue Ink (H - 3 g), and Cobblestone Heather (I - 1 g). For the 2 color version you will need 34 g of one color, 33 g of the second color.

I used my generic skullcap design as the template for this fun and simple colorwork hat. Charts for the 9 color and 2 color versions of this hat are provided.

As of September 2012, there is now a set of matching mittens (Ombré Mittens) that can use up to 13 different colors.