Ready for Winter

Thorpe hat

Earlier this year, one of my husband’s students brought me some llama yarn from Peru. I had asked for llama yarn anticipating a presentation on llama fiber that I made at the annual Boise lace knitting retreat. He did a good job for a rookie yarn buyer.

The yarn is sort of chunky weight. It still has some guard hair, which is not unusual for llama yarn, but overall, it is not too scratchy and definitely wearable on a head.

Because of the weight, it is not great for lace knitting, but it is excellent for warm winter hats. One hat was Thorpe, a free pattern available on Ravelry. The other is Jared Flood’s Quincy, one of my all-time favorites, available for purchase on Ravelry. I used size US8 (5mm) needles both both, going to US7 needles for the top of Quincy.

Quincy hat

One thing about llama fiber is that it is warm. Very, very warm. And these hats are no exception. We get exceptionally cold weather (for us) about once a year, and these hats will get good use.

In my llama research, I came across this poem by Ogden Nash:

The Lama

The one-l lama,
He’s a priest;
The two-l llama,

He’s a beast.
And I will bet a silk pajama
There isn’t any
Three-l lllama.

Then Sheri introduced me to the llama song. I will not post it here; you can search for “llama song” and find several videos. Listen at your peril; it will become an earworm in no time! Llama llama duck!