Fiber Fool

As I mentioned in the teaser earlier this week, I have a new pattern and it is now ready for the general public! Meet Sur la Tête which I knit back in October if memory serves correctly. It was one of those ideas that hit me one night as I was starting to drift off to sleep. It got me so excited I had to get up and sketch it and start pulling together some of the pieces so I could actually sleep. It then took another several months before I settled on the perfect yarn and sunk my teeth into the actual design process.

If you look closer at the crown you can see a slight spiral. The hat is knit from side to side and uses short-rows to form the fully fashioned crown. I chose to knit this side to side so I could use a fun little scalloped edging to automatically create the buttonholes. It also allowed me to use a really great edging motif that you knit as you knit the body! The edging is so great that while I was finalizing test knitting and editing on the pattern two great shawlettes were released that would coordinate quite nicely with this hat — Cedar Leaf and Saroyan.

I had a lot of great help in finalizing Sur la Tête. Amanda not only kindly modeled the hats for me, but she bravely took the first run (the red one pictured) through the pattern before I handed it off to Ann, Anne, Chris and Mia to try out. They provided me with some fantastic feedback and were lightning quick knitters. Unfortunately the weather was a bit against us in getting the final pictures taken which delayed release by a couple weeks. But we managed finally and had great conditions - lots of fresh white fluffy stuff to brighten the gray day while more white fluffy stuff fell from the sky for ambiance.

In testing the pattern it became evident that the amazing drape of Blue Sky Alpaca’s Alpaca Silk yarn allowed two hat styles in one pattern depending upon the fit you chose. If you knit the pattern to have the standard 10% negative ease you get a beanie-style fit (see red hat above), but if you choose to knit one size larger than your head circumference you get a cloche-style fit. The difference isn’t quite as pronounced in the photos as in real life. I decided I liked the larger better so I hope to knit the largest size for myself when time allows. I think Amanda is planning on doing the same and that we are both looking at more spring-like colors.

The fine gauge of 25 sts and 35 rows per 4″ of stockinette stitch combined with the hollow fibers of alpaca and the hat is nearly weightless and a great hat for transitioning into spring! It also does not create hat head! I highly recommend knitting it in an alpaca silk blend or at least a camelid (camel, llama and vicuñas) and engineered fiber (rayon, tencel, bamboo, soy, seacell etc.) blend yarn. If that is out of your reach (or stash) a wool blend will work. I recommend one that contains at least 30% silk or engineered fiber and is not plied hard (yarns that are plied hard don’t really compress and are kind of sproingy along their length, because they don’t compress the short rows would be highly pronounced and the fabric would likely not have the drape intended for this design). Because the hat is knit from side to side row gauge is of the utmost importance for proper fit. Please do not skip swatching, and for the best outcome wash and dry the swatch as you intend to handle the finished hat.

Both Amanda and I chose to make coordinating pearl buttons for our hats from Swarovski Elements Crystal Pearls and headpins. I’ve included written instructions in the PDF on how to do the same and I hope to have a photo tutorial up here at the blog in the next week or so. But you can certainly use 6-8mm vintage or contemporary commercial buttons as well. If you wish to make your own I highly recommend FusionBeads.com as you get free shipping no matter the size of the order so you can order just 1 of several different colors and even sizes or types of beads to get a good match and then place your full order.

What is really exciting about this release is that my designer page at Ravelry is now open to the public - no Ravelry membership required to view or buy my patterns! So just visit the Sur la Tête pattern page. All monetary transactions take place through PayPal, Ravelry is just the delivery vehicle for the 4-page PDF file and does not have access to your credit card or banking information.

So what color and yarn are you going to knit yours in?