This picture is a lie. I took it over the weekend.  The hat is actually much taller now. I, however, am lazy (or possibly just busy) and haven’t had a chance to take another picture. Imagine something much like this, but a good bit taller.

The yarn is from McFarland’s Llama Farm, and I got it at the Black Swamp Spinners Guild Market Day.  It took a bit of experimenting to find a stitch pattern that played nicely with the yarn.  It turns out that simpler is better.  Lace or cables or even textured stitch patterns sort of got lost in the lovely fluffy halo of the yarn.  This isn’t the yarn’s fault, it’s just the yarn’s nature.  All yarns have some things they do well and some things they don’t do quite so well.  Finding the sweet spot for any given yarn is half the battle.  This one completely hides intricate stitch work, but looks beautiful when worked in ribbing or stockinette.  Once I stripped it down to something simple enough, it all worked much better.

The hat is going to be tall (well, as tall as the amount of yarn will allow) and sort of crumpled on top.  Not poufy like a beret, just kind of slouchy and a wee bit floppy.  All of which sounds terribly unappealing while I’m describing it, but I think it will look cute when it’s done.