The Wellfleet Hat pattern is now available, both on Ravelry and on Loveknitting! I also call it the Wellfleet Reversible Hat, because the "wrong" side (below) is almost as nice as the "right" side (above)-- in fact, some may prefer it.
This design is one of a pair* that I decided to work up almost the moment I opened Norah Gaughan's new Knitted Cable Sourcebook. Norah is a master cable knitter and creator, and this book contains so many new, unusual and wonderful cables...luckily, I also decided that I wanted to design a couple of hats that work up quickly in bulky (3-3.75 stitches per inch) or super bulky (1.75-2.75 stitches per inch) yarn. This helped me limit my cable choices to a few of the more small and simple ones-- cables that would fit on a hat if worked in a heavy yarn.
The cable I chose for this hat is simple enough that I didn't even include a chart in the pattern! And I love charts for how they give a visual representation of knitted fabric, simplify directions for complex stitch patterns, and allow the knitter to see the progression of pattern rows...but in this case a chart just wasn't needed. The cable looks more complex than it really is, a function of the ingenious and elegant cable cross, which crosses one four-stitch group of K1, p2, k1 over another.
And this cable cross is the reason that the "wrong" side (above) looks so good.
I did add my own innovation in the form of the crown decreases (above), which are worked similar to a three-needle bind-off (without actually binding off any stitches), and preserve the cable architecture into the final rounds of the hat.
The yarn I chose is a new line from Cascade Yarns, Baby Llama Chunky; it's available in undyed and dyed colors, and is very soft compared to most wools. It knits up at the same gauge as their Baby Alpaca Chunky (which came out awhile ago, is also very soft, AND happens to be on sale on one or two websites at the moment).
As for the name Wellfleet, the rippling cables and gray-lavender-blue of the yarn reminded me of a wintry sea, so I decided to give a shoutout to my home, Cape Cod. Wellfleet is one of the more remote towns on the Outer Cape-- lovely in summer, it's a very different (but still lovely) place in the winter (photo below copyright Dapixara.com).
*Next week: the second of the pair, the Truro Hat
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