The Alphabet, Runed

I'm knitting hats for Christmas. My older son has gone off to Uni in Ontario, where it's a lot colder than here, and I'm pretty sure his Vancouver-style hat is not warm enough, if he even remembered to pack it!

So, since we're all kind of geeky at my house, I thought I'd knit him up something with his name on in, but in Viking Runes.

So, here I give to you: a Futhark chart. For true geeks - I'm not sure if this is the Elder or Younger Futhark, or which particular variant (they appear to vary by geographic region a bit as well). It's just the one I could find with a pronunciation guide!

[Futhark alphabet in chart form, click to enbiggen]

And, note that the pronunciation guide is rough - this alphabet was used to write down the languages spoken around 400-1000AD in northern Europe - not modern English, yo!

I've included a couple of "spacer" motifs in case you need 'em. Tip: to make the result a little more readable (ha! as if!), I usually put a single dot of colour (or a spacer motif) between the words. Pictures of rune carvings I've seen just run all the words together, so for an authentic look you could do that also.

I've used this successfully on a few hats now - looks good in DK weight and I'm sure you can come up with a nice phrase that fits into 100-110 stitches, which will go all 'round the brim. 

Could work around the leg of a sock, too!

**new** here's a pattern for a hat which uses this alphabet, see photo. Free in time for the holidays!

 [Futhark chart in action and free hat pattern!]