This cap tells a story. Reading from bottom to top, the design motifs trace a potential route for stranded colorwork knitting to have traveled from its Middle East origins to the Shetland Islands. With brim flipped up, the first motif is a traditional pattern from Turkey. Above that is a design from the Baltic region, an area linked by trade routes through Russia to the Byzantine Empire more than a thousand years ago. Next is a star pattern typical of both Scandinavian and Fair Isle designs, bounded by a traditional Fair Isle peerie motif. With brim flipped down, a motif copied from a 900-year-old Egyptian sock becomes visible; and above that, another traditional Turkish motif. The overall construction is a modification of a traditional Fair Isle kep, a style of cap similar to those found in some parts of Scandinavia. I selected the colors to evoke interactions between cultures of the icy blue North and Baltic Seas and those of the hot sandy deserts of the eastern Mediterranean.

Fifteen colors of yarn are used to construct the cap’s two color gradients, with some yarns requiring as little as 3 yards and others as much as 65 yards.