Knitting a symbol in the round

[hypermice]

Hi, I made my own pattern for a ΧΦ (Chi Phi) hat for my boyfriend. (That is his fraternity) The hat is black with a red stripe in the middle going all the way around and ΧΦ in blue on the stripe.

The part of the hat that I am having issues with is the letters. What I did was use 5 separate pieces of blue yarn for the letters, because I was knitting in the round and I did not want my hat to have a ton of long floats on the inside. So I have one each for
> < ( I ) Is there an easier way to do this?

Then the other issue I had was that the blue letters were not connected at all to the red background in some areas (especially the I part, and unfortunately I cant post pictures yet...) Halfway through the symbol I noticed this, and I started twisting the two yarns together before changing colors each time, which seemed to work. Did I do this right or is there a better way to do it next time?

[hyperactive]

for this I would have used the seperate strands, too. You could also incorporate other design-parts in blue around the hat and you could weave in. (if you are a continental knitter, check my blog for video-instrcution on constant weaving)
But if you only want the letters in blue: Seperate strands are the way to go.

The thing you have been working is called "intarsia". Check the video-tab up top for instructions on that. Your trick was right: twist the yarn around the other color in every change to make a connection. Otherways you will only have attachment on top and bottom of the "I". It worked better for the > < beause they step over bit by bit and therefore have more bottom and top connection.

So: you are on the right way. Keep it up!

[Jan in CA]

You might be better off using duplicate stitch for those symbols. Intarsia is usually done flat. I know there is a way to do it, but for just two symbols... ?

[hypermice]

Well, I have never done double knitting, but I just like the idea of the symbol being part of the hat instead of on top of it. Like when you stretch it as far as it will go, you will not see the red stitches with blue yarn on top, but will just see blue stitches. Its not that bad really, its only for a small part of 13 rows total. I attached the pictures this time =)