To 'paca or not to 'paca

If you are not a knitter, the following post will bore (and confuse) you to death.

Finished another Selbu Modern hat (free pattern!) for DF Mary P. She wanted it in the same colors as the first one I made in Shetland - which went to the daughter of DF Evanne. Here's the first one.

I thought the Shetland would be a bit scratchy for Miss Mary - who likes the groovier end of the fiber spectrum, so I decided to make it in Alpaca. Now it makes sense to me (again) why Fair Isle is done in Shetland - it's a nice grabby fiber that makes it easy to tension - even on Addi needles, which are the only ones I will use. 'Paca got no grab I can tell you - tho it sure spit-splices well. Slippery stuff, and you have to keep re-tentioning the yarn every couple stitches. I was really worried that it would remain pucker-city even after blocking. Since Mary and I both have bigger than average heads (23.5" and 22.5" respectively) I cast on 144 stitches (instead of the 128 the pattern called for) on US size 2's and did about 2.5" of corrugated rib. I increased to the correct number for the pattern after the ribbing (192) by doing K2, then knit into the front and back of the third stitch - repeat all around - and it comes out perfectly to 192. Changed to size US 3 needles for 4 rows, then to US 4 for 4 rows, then to US 5 for the rest of the pattern. Since I was using Honey Farms Alpaca, it was more like a sport or DK weight, so US 5s made the tam part of the hat bigger - but the gauge was still appropriate for the yarn. I made sure to keep the dominant color (red) in my left hand, but all the red stitches seemed to suck in and disappear. Tried to analyze why, and what I was doing wrong, but never figured it out. I was sure blocking would not help - and it certainly didn't come out as even as the Shetland version, but it was miles better after blocking - isn't it always the way? Had to get creative with two pie plates and an XL yogurt tub to block.

No - the oven is not on - I spun it out in the washer after soaking, and then put it on a cooling rack so the air could circulate. Had a space heater on facing it about 4 feet away.

Not sure how much heat the dog contributed. I was still really worried it would just be too big and awkward tho it felt wonderfully soft and warm.

Thankfully, it fit her well. After the relief of the fitting session, I started in on January's (mostly red) Koigu scarf on US 2s in a simple Moss Stitch pattern for the Red Scarf Project. It may leak over into February....but no worries. I'm finally ahead of the game this year!