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 yds/199m per 100g skein); color: Travertine; 1 skein

-- Sample 2 (shown on bottom): Bluebonnet Hills Alpaca Ranch 100% Alpaca - Natural Color with Angelina (99% alpaca, 1% other; 190 yds/174m per skein); color: Fawn Twist; 1 skein

• 16-inch/40cm US #6/4mm circular needle, or size needed to obtain gauge
• 1 set US #6 / 4mm double-pointed needles (or needles required to work crown using magic-loop or two-circulars method)
• 1 stitch marker
• cable needle (optional)
• yarn needle

Stitch pattern is both charted and written. Instructions included for working twisted stitches both with and without a cable needle.