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Hattitude… Ditching a Cable Needle

May 15, 2013

Have you knit anything from the Royal Petite collection yet? This collection includes seven petite patterns and the Royal Petite palette includes fourteen colors. You can read more about the three mitt designs by Colleen Powley here. Maybe, though, you’re more of a hat person like me. No problem! The Royal Petite collection includes two hats.

Buckingham Hat

The Buckingham Hat is the perfect, uncomplicated gateway to indulging in this decadent fiber.


The Details

Pattern: Buckingham Hat
Designer: Bobbi IntVeld
Size: Circumference: 18″, unstretched
• Height: 7½”
Needles: Size 2 (2.75mm) 16″ circular needle, or size needed to obtain gauge
• Size 2 (2.75mm) double pointed needles, or size needed to obtain gauge
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Royal Petites, shown in Antique Black #1705
Pocket Pattern available at Blue Sky Alpacas Stockists
Digital Pattern available in the Blue Sky Alpacas Pattern Store

Westminster Hat

The Westminster Hat, with its sophisticated, all-over texture, is one of my favorites! With this hat, you can learn to cable without a cable needle, like I did.


The Details

Pattern: Westminster Hat
Designer: Bobbi IntVeld
Size: Circumference: 18″, unstretched
• Height: 7″
Needles: Size 3 (3.25mm) 16″ circular needle, or size needed to obtain gauge
• Size 3 (3.25mm) double pointed needles, or size needed to obtain gauge
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Royal Petites, shown in Cameo #1704
Pocket Pattern available at Blue Sky Alpacas Stockists
Digital Pattern available in the Blue Sky Alpacas Pattern Store

Two cable rounds.

I’ve cabled before, but never so repetitively. Usually, it seems that there is one large cable in the front of a sweater, and one cable doesn’t really make for good practicing of this technique… it’s not a good way to retain the skill of cabling without a cable needle. However, the Westminster Hat features two distinct cable rounds. One round with right twist cables and the other round with left twist cables. To achieve the all-over texture, the cables are worked across the entire round for the entire hat, making this a great project to master cabling without a cable needle. And boy… do my cable projects fly off the needles now!

Slouchy-Style Westminster

This is the tutorial I used to learn to cable without the cable needle. I liked it so much I just kept knitting my Westminster for many additional rounds to get a slouch-factor. (That’s really the only thing you have to do to make a hat slouch, just keep knitting.) How do you prefer to knit cables? Do you like a beanie-style hat or do you prefer hats with slouch?

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