yellow | Alive & Knitting

Here’s another UFO found in that stash – an unfinished chullo hat.

chullo hat knit by Deborah Cooke in Knitpicks Palette

This hat is knit of Knitpicks Palette and was a kit. Here’s the Rav page for the Andean Chullo Hat pattern, which is still available. Here it is at Knitpicks. The kit, which isn’t available any longer, came with several balls of Palette – I’m thinking maybe 8 colours. Palette is a fingering weight wool, which comes in a lot of colours.

I remember the pattern being a bit of fun, as there were numerous motifs that you could place on any of the sections and knit in any combination of the colours to make your hat your own. Have a peek at the projects on Rav to see the many variations. Of course, I had to march the llamas around the hat, though they might have shown up better if I’d knit them in the white in the kit. It’s also possible I mucked up the decreases at the crown because the circumference does diminish very quickly. (?)

This hat stalled without the tassels, partly because of the chullo hat shown below. I didn’t knit this one – I bought it at the Mountain Equipment Co-op a billion years ago (give or take). (In the 90s there were a lot of South American knits available for sale.)

South American chullo hat from the Mountain Equipment Coop

It’s knit of a yarn that seems a lot like Lopi Alafoss – but its special magic is that it’s lined with polar fleece. The mister grabs this hat whenever it’s really cold.

inside of South American chullo hat bought at the Mountain Equipment Coop

I meant to do the same with my chullo hat, but was stymied as to what shape to cut the pieces for the crown. Now I realize that the creator of this hat avoided that challenge by only lining the main part of the hat and the flaps. I’ll do that with mine.

We also have a couple of chullo hats from one of the mister’s trips to South America. He hiked the Inca Trail back in the day (to end up at Machu Picchu at dawn) and it was so cold that he bought two hats from the local knitters. Both are chullos. He wore this navy one.

He bought this second hat just because, and I’m glad he did. It’s so beautiful.

The wool is so fine, it’s almost thread. Look at the detail.

Someone had a very fine set of needles! I love that the colour placement is apparently random. It’s such a lovely piece of work – and very inspiring.

And here, finally, is my own lined and finished chullo.

There’s not a pot of gold at the end of the Kauni rainbow – just some northern lights.

As mentioned yesterday, I used the EQ or Rainbow colourway of Kauni in Mr. C’s Elrond sweater. I paired it with the EF colourway, which is navy, purple and blue, so some of the rainbow didn’t have enough contrast. I broke out the purple, turquoise and green bits of the rainbow and set those parts aside. When his sweater was done, there was a ziplock full of purple, turquoise and green.

I thought of making something for myself, maybe another shawl.

This pattern is called Revontuli, which apparently is the Finnish word for the northern lights. (That’s a Ravelry link.) It just so happens that every time I’ve seen the northern lights, they’ve been lime green or turquoise, so this worked out perfectly. There’s a smidge of yellow at the centre cast on and at the outer hem.

I washed this by hand once, giving it a good soak, but it still didn’t soften as much as Mr. C.’s sweater. So, into the pillowcase and into the washing machine it went. Here’s the finished piece – I love it!

The colours are not quite as vivid as the flash makes it appear – it shades from gold at the centre into lime, then a softer turquoise than this, then purple. I turn back at red-purple. This looks quite primary, but the real thing is more like petroleum on water. I like that palette!

It shrank quite a bit in the washer, because it was knit at a looser gauge (on 4.5mm needles). It blocked 33″ from the middle to each point when I washed it by hand – after the washer, it blocked at 28″. It’s not felted, though – you can still see the stitches – but it is closer to being felted than Mr. C.’s sweater. Once again, the Kauni really softened. This is like having a soft blanket tucked around the shoulders. I think I’ll wear it a lot because it is so snuggly.

Alive & Knitting

Knitting and other tangled webs we weave

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Chullo Hats

Revontuli