Gauge Dissent Toque

Andrea sitting cross-legged on the floor braiding her hair. She’s wearing a blue and gold toque, a rich earthy green sweater, vibrant autumn gold pants, and blue socks.

After knitting up a bunch of socks with Gauge Dye Works’ Sun and Moon colourways, I really wanted to try out that fade on a Dissent Toque. It took two tries to get the fade to look right, so I’m going to tell you what I did. (If you’re curious about the Sun and Moon Socks, those are them in the photo above, using the Moon colourway. I used the Sun colourway for my hat. You can see the Sun & Moon sock pattern here.)

A skein of Gauge Dye Works CLASSIC Self-striping Merino Twist yarn in the Sun colourway.

Three balls of yarn — one yellow and two blue fading.

A ball of yarn that fades from dark blue on the outside to light blue on the inside.

Yarn Preparation

First, I split up my yarn just as I would for making the Sun & Moon Socks. The skein is symmetrical, with a blue fade section on either side of a yellow section. So while I was winding, when I got to the yellow, I cut the yarn for my first blue fade ball, then wound the yellow, and then cut the yarn and wound the second blue fade ball. For this toque, I only need one of the blue fade sections, the other one can be saved for another project — maybe mitts or short socks? I knit my hat with the ball that had the dark blue section on the outside since I prefer working from the outside-in. If you like a centre-pull ball, you could work from the centre of the other ball.

The dark blue section is pretty long and I wanted the toque to fade to pale blue at the crown. The first time I tried knitting this just from the blue fade ball as it was, I finished the hat pretty much before the colour changed in any significant way. So I wound off some of that dark blue from the end of the ball. As I went, I weighed the remaining ball of yarn. When it weighed 30g, I cut the yarn and set aside the extra dark blue.

Knitting

I cast on for the fingering weight size 21.25”/54 cm size because it was the biggest size I thought I had enough yellow yarn for. I was right. I had just a few yards of yellow left over when I was done with the colour work. So you’re cutting it close if you try this at home! It would be great for any of the smaller sizes, but I think it’s a little yarn chicken at the 21.25”/54 cm and an almost definite no-go for the biggest size.

After I knit the ribbed brim in yellow, I started working with my 30g ball, beginning with the dark blue end.

Everything else was the same as the pattern for the beanie shape. I would have had enough yarn for the slouchy version too, I think.

Yarn & Patterns

As of this writing, the yarn is available from Gauge Dye Works, but I’m pretty sure pre-orders are closing soon, so you should get on that if you want it! Get the Dissent Toque here, or if you’d rather go with the pattern the yarn was designed for, here’s the Sun & Moon Sock pattern from the SKY collection.

Happy knitting!