Elemental Hat - Azula

I am still working my way through the Silky Wool in my stash. I have two colors: Blackcurrant, a beautiful purple I bought to make this sweater in 2014, and Verdigris, a chalky teal that Caitlin passed to me from her stash about a year ago (not long before pandemic lockdown began). She happily parted with it to reduce her stash and allow me to try making this waffle weave scarf... which I made not once, but twice!

I've already used these two yarns together on the Korra hat from Woolly Wormhead's Elemental collection. This design represents the element "balance," which I suppose is not technically an element. It's just the 5th design after water, air, earth, and fire:

I used these two yarns again, but with the colors reversed, on Azula:

This design represents the element of fire, and if you know that, you can definitely see the verdigris flames licking the blackcurrant crown. The design might be more effective if I had used literal fiery colors?

Now that I've worked 3 of the 5 designs in the collection, I'm getting a more clear understanding of how the designs are similar and how they differ. In this one, the short rows are used in an asymmetrical way to create more movement in the motifs. In the other hats, the short row elements look like stems and leaves - you might "see" leaves in this hat, but definitely no stems... and the leaves are quite different from each other. 

This more disordered and asymmetrical approach is mirrored on the wrong side of the fabric. The "flames" are close enough to carry the yarn across the back as a float in some areas (the red arrows) but not others (the yellow arrow). I just had to weave in more ends than with the previous hat, which actually had NO extraneous ends at all.

Here is what one repeat of the pattern looks like - it takes 8 to make this hat:

I'm definitely still grooving on Woolly Wormhead's sideways hat vibe, so I've cast on for Katara, which represents the element of water. And I'm NOT using the purple and teal Silky Wool leftovers (though I have more) - so stay tuned for a similar hat in a different yarn!