Andean Hats

I am taking a moment from my sick day at home to (finally) post about some knitting.
Concentrating on yummy color work sure does beat focusing on stomach cramps & even nastier symptoms of a stomach flu...

Here is a vision of knitting bliss: A basket full of neatly balled wool on the big red knitting chair... Sigh.

I usually NEVER fall for kits, but this kit from Knit Picks was too fabulous to resist!
These are the perfect gifts for my Colorado nephews…

Here is the one for the younger neph:



Here is the one for the older neph:

Well, it’s Llama Chullo II: Electric Boogaloo! The color work looks complex, but is really rather straightforward... In fact, this is an ideal project to combat Seasonal Affective Depression.

This time I’m added 16 sts to the circumference so it will fit my oldest Neph’s giant cranium.

I can’t wait to start changing the charts to have other motifs aside from the LLLLLLLLAMAS!

After this adaptation, I think I’m going to adapt the pattern to make it for old Atari system lovers… Can you say “Space Invaders Chullo”? I hope I won't run into copyright problems...

Pattern Notes:

To achieve gauge, I had to use size 4 needles. a 16' circular was fine for the body of the hat (especially on the 24" hat), but I had to switch to dpns for the crown decreases.

I ended up adding 32 sts to the crown cast on=192 sts.
My reasoning is this: the small pattern bands are based on an (8 to) 16 repeat, but the wave pattern I wanted to use instead of the alpaca motif is based on 10s. I just decreased 2 on the solid color rows before the wave motif & increased 2 again for the remaining small bands & crown decreases.
Yes, this does give you 12 instead of 10 decrease units, but the transition to 3 st. i-cord is much smoother.

So… voila! a 24” crown & an men’s large sizing!

note: If you use the large alpaca motif for your pattern (instead of the wave/ripples), you do not need to change any counts while knitting the crown.