This hat was an impulse cast on. I was browsing Ravelry on the same day I unpacked our new Hjertegarn Silk Kid Mohair and I immediately felt compelled to knit a pretty hat.
Idylls of Winter Tam is a beret style hat. You can buy the pattern on Ravelry or as a digital pattern in the Pittenweem shop.
The pattern is designed by Virginia Sattler-Reimer. She has a range of beret style hats with both lace and stranded colourwork.
There's also matching Idylls mitts and cowl.
The hat is knitted using two yarns held together. I used Wee County Yarn's Kinross 4ply and Hjertegarn Silk Mohair.
The Kinross 4ply is in Scots Pine and The Silk Mohair is Emerald.
It's knitted in the round. You start with a short rib before increasing the number of stitches. The lace pattern is charted only and is a 20 stitch repeat.
Tin Can Knits have a good guide on how to read charts.
There is a missing symbol on the chart legend (slip 2, K1, pass 2 stitches over) but it is explained in the abbreviations.
This is the first time I've done lace holding 2 strands of yarn together and you do need to make sure you work with the two yarns and don't mistakenly 'drop' one. And obviously put both yarns back on the needle if you've had to unpick a stitch.
Also, using mohair can make everything stickier, so it's a bit trickier to rip back any mistakes.
Having said that I found the hat straightforward as the lace pattern follows a logical design - I could tell what was coming next.
Although watch out for a change in the rhythm.
Most of the time in lace knitting you work your Yarn Overs (YO) and decreases on one row then you work a 'plain' row (either knit or purl). There are a couple of places in the Idylls of Winter Tam where you are working YOs and decreases on consecutive rounds. To make sure you don't miss it mark these areas on your chart. I knitted across these stitches, not realising it wasn't a normal 'plain' round until I was half way round.
Unblocked beret
An important part of lace knitting (and berets) is the blocking.
For lace knitting you want to open up the YOs and straighten out any distortions from the decreasing.
For berets you want to get some fullness around the brim for the classic beret slouch.
To do this I soaked my beret in Eucalan wool wash, squished out excess water then put it over an upside own pasta bowl.
My bowl measures 23cm across.
I then sat that bowl on a short vase.
I then left it to dry.
Because I used a pasta bowl I don't think I stretched my ribbed brim. In the past I have blocked hats over dinner plates which are flatter and can stretch out your rib.
If you want to make sure you don't stretch it it's worth doing a running stitch just above the rib with a cotton yarn and then cinching it in whilst blocking. When the hat is dry you can take out the cotton yarn and your rib should remain ribby.
To recap:
You can by the pattern Idylls of Winter tam on Ravelry or as a digital pattern in the Pittenweem shop.
I used one hank of Kinross 4ply and 1 ball of Hjertegarn Silk Mohair for my hat (you won't use it all).
You can use another 4ply or laceweight mohair or alpaca.
