Blue Heron Farm Striped Wool Hat

Lovely subtle striping!

Completed: 2013
Finished Size: 17" diameter

I bought the yarn for this hat at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival in 2013. The wool is from sheep raised on the Blue Heron Farm in Grand Isle, VT, and was spun by the Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney.

I think the wool is blue-faced Leicester; I know it is all 100% certified organic, and it comes in beautiful hand-dyed colors.

I got two skeins: one in oatmeal, which is made from a mixture of the wool from their natural white and natural dark brown sheep, and one in aubergine, which is the same oatmeal yarn dyed a light purple.

It is roughly a worsted weight yarn, so I used #7 double-pointed needles. I cast on 72 stitches and worked in k2, p2 rib for about 2 ½". I decreased 6 stitches evenly around once, and then switched to stockinette stitch until the hat was about 8" from the edge. Then I decreased six stitches evenly around in each round until I had 12 stitches left on my needles, and pulled the yarn through the remaining stitches.

At the same time, I incorporated a sort of an hombre color patterning into the hat, which my intended recipient had designed. The entire rib and the first 2" of the stockinette stitch was done in the oatmeal color. From then on, I alternated the oatmeal with the aubergine, like this:

The finished product in use

1 row aubergine
5 rows oatmeal
2 rows aubergine
4 rows oatmeal
3 rows aubergine
3 rows oatmeal
4 rows aubergine
2 rows oatmeal
5 rows aubergine
1 rows oatmeal
All the rest of the top of the hat in aubergine