Whitney's Almighty Alpaca Hat
In the spirit of Zimmermania Whitney knit this gorgeous hat for her husband Adam out of Blue Sky Alpaca's wonderful 100% Sport Weight Alpaca.
Here is what she has to say about it:
I dipped my fingers into a few different sources to come up with this super cozy hat. I took a little from Linda Ligon's Homespun Handknit and a little from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Opinionated Knitter and added a couple of my own minor innovations.
Homespun Handknit is a great book of feel-good, kind of old fashioned winter accesories. 
I liked the stripe of fair isle at the base of the Cross Country Ski Hat, although I would encourage anyone to just make up a simple pattern according to his/her fancy. It's a great way to practice fair isle without getting overwhelmed by a huge complicated project.
I liked Elizabeth Zimmermann's shaping for her Very Warm Hat, so followed her decreasing instructions. But, instead of lining the entire hat the way EZ does, I stopped a third of the way up my hat - (an entire two layers of alpaca sounded a little steamy to me). Also, I added 13 stitiches to EZ's cast on - which worked for my husband's head, but I can't vouch for anyone else's.
I had always resisted using alpaca after several experiences with some limp, dead feeling stuff. Joelle convinced me to give Blue Sky's sportweight alpaca a shot. I'm really glad she did. It's so spongy and toasty and beautiful to knit. They also have a lot of new colors this season, including a line of "Melanges" which are really interesting heathers. The best thing about this hat is that, because of the ear lining, you don't need to worry about the density of the knit. So, using a size 6 needle, Blue Sky's alpaca is as lofty and soft as it wants to be! --Whitney
Thanks Whitney for sharing your lovely hat!
Wednesday, October 11, 2006 | Email Share Print | Fiber, Knitting, Patterns, Books + Magazines | 2 Comments
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t h a n k - y o u.