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Monday 21 January 2013

Alpaca Hats

Before Christmas I was addicted to the John Lewis haberdashery department. 

Oh, who am I kidding, I'm still addicted to the John Lewis haberdashery department. But, before Christmas, they had this chunky, warm looking hat on display. I made the mistake of touching the hat, and now I'm hooked on chunky alpaca yarn. Which is not the cheapest of yarns to be hooked on.

So I decided I would quite like to make this hat for my friend Joe's girlfriend's Christmas present. Of course this meant practicing by making myself a hat first. Honest! Truly, my motives were pure! The display with the hat had the required book with the necessary pattern in it next to it. 


I picked up the required wool, Rowan Tumble, which is 90% Alpaca, 10% cotton and is deliciously soft. It comes in 6 different colours. I chose marshmallow for my hat. It required me to cable stitch, which I hadn't ever done before, but turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. It also required the most ridiculously large knitting needles: 12mm and 15mm. 

The chunkiness of the wool, added to the huge size of the knitting needles, meant in total it took me about 3 hours to knit. In one evening I'd made the hat, including sewing it up and putting a pom pom on top. It looked good, and so I decided to make a pink hat for the friends girlfriend. 


Kaylie's came out best, probably on account of me practicing and making myself one first. Sacrifices sometimes have to be made, you know. I prefer my one, though. I'm most proud of making Sonic, but I love my hat the best of all the things I made last year. It's been perfect to wear in the weather these past few weeks.

3 comments:

  1. You know I love these hats but I'll say it again
    THESE HATS ARE ACE! My adventures in crochet are going rather slowly, still practicing chain and double and getting things even but it is looking neater so I suppose it'll be worthwhile when I actually produce something 'real!'

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    Replies
    1. You're far more patient than I am! I skipped over the practicing bit and went straight into making stuff. I practiced for a little while, but got bored. At some point I promise to put some video tutorials on here. I keep meaning to, but then forget/don't have the time.

      P.S. I do love these hats too! And my friends girlfriend wore hers for the entire car journey home, so I'm hoping she loves hers too!

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  2. As a now proud owner of one of these, THEY ARE AMAZING! so soft, and warm, and keep you dry! and are wonderful! thank you!

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