Nouvelle

Another knitting pattern (can you guess what I do all day?) is finished and ready for the masses.

It started at the local yarn store, where I fell in love with a Berrocco baby alpaca blend called Flicker. It's first impression is as a luxury yarn. Camel/Caramel colored and incredibly soft, it has just the right amount of gold sparkle. I had to get it, even though I'm not a gold and tan person. It looked like the type of thing a fashionable lady of the past would have loved and was therefore irresistible.

I went home and took a look through the family photos. My great aunt was a very fashionable woman, she was a buyer for Saks, and always wore great clothes. There was a picture of my great aunts and my great-great grandmother walking on the boardwalk. It would be a much more interesting world if people still wore hats every day.

So I took the yarn and made a hybrid of two vintage styles: the cloche and the turban. They're not in the picture, but they were popular in the first half of the 20th century and would have looked fitting with these coats and furs.

This is Nouvelle with the gathering on the sides. Unfortunately in these pictures it is hard to see the gold filament shining, but the yarn looks great knit up. I made versatile sizing a priority, the pattern covers a range from 14" - 22" head measurements. The smallest size is really cute, and knit in two tones of pink, the style can be really cute and playful for a little girl.

Specifications for proper color division are in the pattern. The yarn used for this 14" baby hat is cascade 220 on a size 8 needle.

And this is the hat turned 90 degrees so that the gathering is in the front and back. Someday I will have friends and will thus get someone else to model for me. You can see how this is halfway between the categories of turban and cloche when the gathering is in the front. It pleases me that you can get two different looks out of this hat if you want.

The pattern page can be found on ravelry,

or you can buy it here.