Navasota Hat

You've felt them before: those lavishly soft skeins of alpaca yarn, their fiber lovingly grown on small farms. You cannot resist taking one home. The obvious next question is what to do with it. Alpaca drapes luxuriantly and warms abundantly, qualities that are both a blessing and a curse. The fiber simply doesn’t behave like merino and other sheep wools, and since most hat patterns are written for the latter, knitting a hat with alpaca can be a challenge.

This hat is designed to make the most of those special alpaca yarns. The simple lace-and-cable pattern lightens up what could be an overly toasty fabric, while also using texture to highlight the yarn’s natural beauty. Meanwhile, the slouchy hat construction plays nicely with alpaca’s drape, instead of trying to fight it.

Materials

• About 170 yds/155m of 100% alpaca yarn in a DK weight (ball band should recommend 22 sts = 4"/10cm)

-- Sample 1 (shown at top): Juniper Moon Farms Herriot (100% baby alpaca; 218